-So, I ended up going with a steampunk-themed game featuring airships and floating buildings, as I thought (and still hope!) that this theme would appeal to an audience that not many games reach—a twist on the traditional space-themed 4X game, at least thematically.

I also deliberately chose not to introduce a lot of new mechanics in Sky Empire. Instead, I aimed to take the best elements from games I already knew, refine them, and make them my own. The action token/initiative token system, inspired by TI4, became the backbone of the game. Additionally, I replaced the Strategy Card system with a more streamlined mechanic called the Council Board. On top of that, I wanted to introduce more diversity to military units (airships) and place greater emphasis on production, trade, and different types of buildings to enhance the grand empire-building experience.

Of course, the game has evolved significantly since its inception. However, building on the foundations of well-tested systems helped ensure that the game functioned fairly well from the very first playtest. It may not have been groundbreaking, but it was solid, tested, and had its own unique twist! This was the plan for Sky Empire—a plan that will certainly look different in my next game.

Still, over 100 playtests have led to a lot of tweaking. For example, at one point, the Leviathans carried doomsday devices that could destroy almost anything within a three-hex range. But if you rolled a 1, the ship would self-destruct!

Also, for quite some time, companions played a role in equipping the airships. I received a lot of feedback from Ivan and the team at Player Lair, and one of the few positive things he mentioned in the early stages was that he liked games with companions! It stung a little when I decided to remove them, but I ultimately found the mechanic too fiddly and unnecessarily complex, especially since the ships were already distinct enough.

Another feature that was removed was the absence of resources on the tiles—all resources originally came from exploration. While it was a cool idea, the outcome was too unpredictable and random, making it not always fun.

Additionally, balancing the Dopplers has been quite an extensive process, and I expect even more fine-tuning if the game is successfully crowdfunded and I can create an expansion with lots of new content! That said, I do like that some Dopplers are more challenging to play than others, as this can be a great way to balance the game based on player skill levels.

Here are some of the game components and how they have evolved, I hope before and after side is obvious! ;):