We’re right in the heart of June. Thunderstorms and heat waves abound, and yet the creative works continue to flow. My Cosmic section officially has 51 aliens, so now I’m in the process of confirming the terms and rules for my Cosmic. I need to make sure there’s nothing glaring that I’m overlooking, as well as do a fair amount of playtesting to figure out what’s fun and what’s not.

The negotiation system is one thing I’ve been analyzing under the microscope. While I’ve always appreciated the freedom that negotiation offers, I don’t like how it cuts off the supporters from the action, and I’ve never seen anyone happy to see a game end with a negotiation victory. Negotiations also have the same issue as alien powers, where the only thing that can stop them is a single rare card that could be in the hands of someone involved in the deal. And if someone plays that card, the only way to protect your deal is to have another single rare card that someone else could be holding. Negotiations themselves can be forced via emotion control, which makes it difficult to remove the ability for negotiators to quash their own deal, as a forced negotiation can result in a guaranteed win. I’ll have to think about it some more to work out a better system, as I still want negotiations to be fairly quick, to avoid dragging out playtime.

Still making progress on Wakeup Call. I’d say I’m close to 1/3 of the way done. That might seem like I’m behind if my plan is to finish by the 30th, but I spent a good chunk of the beginning of the month doing the storyboarding, in addition to making the panels. If I stay on the current course, I should be done by the 28th. Wish me luck!

Still striving to improve my skill at Monster Train. Only made a little more progress on Mario Odyssey, but with all these new deckbuilder roguelikes coming out soon, I need to hurry up and finish Odyssey so I can have that game slot opened up.

That’s about everything I’ve got to share for now. I want to find new ways to eat healthy, as I don’t think I’m quite there yet. There’s definitely a lot for me to learn in that area, but I’ll let you know if I find anything useful. Make the most!