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Star Flickers started life as an alt-artwork tile set for Heroes of the Aturi Cluster (HotAC), which is an awesome co-operative mod for X-Wing created by Josh Derksen. I realized early on that I’d need to tie a simple game to it in order to get Game Crafter to enable crowd sales and such. And that simple game took on a life of its own and has captured my imagination for the past few months of design.

Well, we’re definitely at the end of the development cycle now: I sold my first copy of Star Flickers! I’m not sure how exactly since I haven’t advertized its publication much.

I have been pretty active in the community revolving around HotAC, but I haven’t provided any links or anything. Someone must have sought it out on the Game Crafter website and went ahead and ordered it. Sneaky consumer. The reason I haven’t pushed it much is because I was hoping to get a Crowd Sale approved on the Game Crafter, effectively reducing the price for everyone.

Well to Mr. Mystery Orlando, Florida Guy Who’s Getting A Sneaky Advance Copy – cheers to you and I hope you love it. I’ve certainly put a lot of sleepless nights into it!

Getting ready to release. I figured I’d show the basics of how a Starflicker is operated. Yes, it’s that simple to move, but can you end up exactly where you want? That’s where you’ll need a little finesse and luck.

More information at www.thegamecrafter.com/games/star-flickers

First playtest of Starflickers this past week. It was an absolute blast. My brother-in-law Dan and I played the Capture the Flag variant with three ships apiece. It was a narrowly won victory for Dan; I had the flag just a few inches from my hangar, but he blasted it apart with a guided rocket. So close.

All the weaponry and movement mechanics worked great! Such a relief! When you plan something in your head for months before actually playtesting it, you never really know how it will play. But man, I’m so pumped it turned out well. Hopefully this weekend I can play another game and try out some of the minor tweaks Dan and I discussed.

I’ve been working on a new game called Star Flickers and it should appeal to anyone who likes mini-golf (who doesn’t?) and science-fiction. Actually, liking science fiction is optional. Anyway, the game involves little ships called Star Flickers with designs inspired half by the Millenium Falcon, half by the Defiant, and maybe half random lego sets I grew up with. Yes, that makes them 150% inspired.

More of a tabletop game than a true board game, Star Flickers is played by taking turns flicking your ship around the table. To what end? Well, the game will have a number of different play modes: racing through an obstacle course (with random power-ups and weapons a la Mario Kart), a mini-golf-like checkpoint game where the least number of flicks will determine the victor, team Capture the Flag (with gun turrets!), and probably others.

This game will all take place in the same universe as my Forsaken Worlds brand, so those who purchase the game will get a little taste of my writing. Fun!

Shown here is an SVG-25 Star Flicker. You’ll note the middle has a little laser blast thing. This is punched out and a quarter (or half-euro for my European friends) is placed in the center to give the ship some extra heft. The laser cutout is then used as one of the weapons to attack fellow players. Nifty, huh? More details to come!

Thanks for checking out my webpage! Currently it’s under construction, so not all the menus work, some content may be missing, and occasionally a link might take you to a rift in the space time continuum. Sorry! Your patience is appreciated!

Forsaken Worlds is an exciting new universe of Christian Science Fiction. Those familiar with Joss Whedon’s masterpiece, Firefly, will feel at home in the gritty, almost low-tech space drama. The suspense unfolds with changing character viewpoints akin to George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire, and every chapter ends in a cliffhanger worthy of a 24 episode. Read the synopsis for the first book in the planned series here.