Cutting costs

For this contest (The Game Crafter's Steampunk Design Challenge), the cost of the components has to be under $20.  This caused me to rethink my playing surface with the cost of an 18x18 gameboard sending me over the limit. I transferred the map to a 10x10 mat.  The construction sites for each player are now on seperate 4x4 mats.  This has a nice feel and the layout comes in around $19.50!

Under construction

The factories now have their corresponding construction spaces in each players border.  You will be able to build 2 factories for 10 Industrial points and 2 others for 15 points each.  You can build each construction value factory at any time a space is available, but you may only have 4 in inventory at a time.

The main factor(y) of the game

The Tesla Towers may be the most iconic symbol from Towers of London, but the placement of Electrical Factories are how you win the game.  Your score will be based on the values for the locations your factories are place on.  Above is an old illustration of what a factory from this era would look like.

Players will place factories of their color on the map as they claim a location on the board.  These wooden buildings are a nice representation that The Game Crafter had available in several colors.  Due to Tesla's dream of the wireless transmission of energy becoming a reality in this alternate universe, these will be factories powered by electricity.

Building a tower

The area for the construction of Tesla Towers has been created.  There will be 2 spaces where towers can be built for 7 Industrial points and 3 spaces that cost 12.  A player may only have 5 towers in inventory at a time. The escalating cost makes spending points on inventory a tougher decision.

We have a loose cog

I have changed the number 1 face of the die to be a loose cog.  My current design has 3 dice being rolled.  They will be called "cubes of industry" or something like that.  You will add the total of the dice for three rolls to gain "Industrial points".  If a loose cog is rolled, that dice is removed for the remainder of your rolls and counts as zero on that roll.  The "Industrial points" will be used to build Tesla Towers and Electrical Factories and to buy the locations to place them.

To Die for

The white background of the custom dice faces clashed with the vintage look of the board map.  I grabbed some of the texture from the map and used it in the background of the dice. I really liked how this turned out, especially with the black border that will be present with the indented black die that the custom sticker faces go on.

Just a little board

The contest rules have the cost set for the prototype to be under $20.  Some people unfamiliar withe The Game Crafter may think it's crazy to get a prototype of your board game for less than $500!  I needed to design my board to fit on a 10"x10" mat to keep the cost down for the contest.  I cropped the map and went with a black, double lined border for a clean edge.  I also left an outside border area for Tesla Tower placement to begin the game.  These spaces will have values that will set the cost to build a tower to be used.  The right side of the border will have the same type spaces for power supply plants.  I started some spaces on the map that will have values for buying a land plot to place a tower and power supply plants.  The dotted lines will connect Tesla Towers that transmit power to one another.

Stop yappin' and Start mappin'

The Tesla Towers needed somewhere to be placed that would benefit from all that power.  What's one of the most Victorian setting's in the world? London!  I found cool old map from around 1890 to use as the location for the board.  It looks it's age and brings lot's of character to the theme.

Tower of Power

I wanted my game to incorporate Tesla's theory of wireless transmission of energy.  The Wardenclyffe Tower is the iconic symbol of this dream.

The Game Crafter had just the right pawn to translate that to a board game. These will be used to connect wireless energy transfer lines.  I'm calling them Tesla Towers.

Gearing Up

I wanted to keep this design fairly clean and simple, but I needed to add another recognizable element from the steampunk age: gears.  I didn't want it perfectly symmetric, but I needed to keep it balanced.

Let's give it a roll

I began with a custom design for the faces of the dice.  I wanted them to be a center point of the game, since they would be used as the primary mechanic.  I tried to give them a Victorian flourish and vintage numbers to start.

A Victorian Beginning...

Towers of London is a game that is being developed as an entry for The Game Crafter's steampunk dice game contest.  I like a lot of the elements in a steampunk age theme and thought I would give it a shot.