USCSSS Nostromo - Alien - The Board Game

Started by Corporal Hicks, Apr 15, 2018, 02:13:30 PM

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USCSSS Nostromo - Alien - The Board Game (Read 37,428 times)

Corporal Hicks



Looks like it announced at the start of April but I only just noticed it Friday.

https://twitter.com/ALIEN_BoardGame

QuoteMarch 2016
After 1-year of negociation Wonderdice gets the Alien License from the 20th century FOX. Wonderdice now has The Global License on Alien's Extended Universe including the 4 movies in the saga.

QuoteAugust 2016
We chose for our first game to return to the saga's origin by adapting the universe of the 1st movie "Alien" (1979), marking the birth of our boardgame "ALIEN USCSS NOSTROMO".



Goes up for pre-sale on the 17th.


Kailem

The more Alien board games the merrier! I'll definitely keep an eye on that. The board looks cool, so hopefully the gameplay is too. I can certainly see myself getting that if the reviews are good.

skhellter

skhellter

#2
i'll wait for reviews.

But i see no miniatures there so my interest is diminished... (You have one of the best monster licenses ever created. Not even interested in creating 1 miniature of it for your board game? errr...)

Also... "4 films in the saga"?

Cover art is terrible. :laugh:

SM

Initial excitement gives way to dubiousness at the inaccurate layout.  Must be the mechanics of the game that explain the differences in A Deck layout and the need to include the other decks.  I hope.

SiL

A single board layout is easier to design and cheaper to produce than getting something super accurate. And really, probably easier to play on. I tried designing an Alien-inspired game with three decks and it was a bitch getting the movement to work out properly.

Xenomrph

Quote from: SiL on Apr 16, 2018, 12:31:59 AM
A single board layout is easier to design and cheaper to produce than getting something super accurate. And really, probably easier to play on. I tried designing an Alien-inspired game with three decks and it was a bitch getting the movement to work out properly.

What sort of movement system were you using? Like, tiles on the board, measuring it out with a tape measure, proprietary movement rulers, etc?

SM

SM

#6
Quote from: SiL on Apr 16, 2018, 12:31:59 AM
A single board layout is easier to design and cheaper to produce than getting something super accurate. And really, probably easier to play on. I tried designing an Alien-inspired game with three decks and it was a bitch getting the movement to work out properly.

I figured it was easier.  That said, I loved playing this as a kid...


Love to see what they're going to do with the other flicks.

SiL

Quote from: Xenomrph on Apr 16, 2018, 12:39:36 AM
What sort of movement system were you using? Like, tiles on the board, measuring it out with a tape measure, proprietary movement rulers, etc?
We tested a few things. Rather than break the board into tiles we simply broke it down by rooms and corridors separated by doors and bulkheads. Moving through a door or bulkhead was one movement. I think most characters only had 1 move per turn, the Space Bee (similar to, but legally distinct from, an Alien) could move 2-3.

It became difficult to corral the Bee into one of the airlocks to blow it into space. Technically possible, but a lot of trial and error in limits for both sides, and we found more often than not we either gave the Bee too many, or too few, options even with slight changes.

Would totally work. Just a lot more time in development than a single, stripped down ship like this one looks like.

Xenomrph

Quote from: SiL on Apr 16, 2018, 04:47:58 AM
Quote from: Xenomrph on Apr 16, 2018, 12:39:36 AM
What sort of movement system were you using? Like, tiles on the board, measuring it out with a tape measure, proprietary movement rulers, etc?
We tested a few things. Rather than break the board into tiles we simply broke it down by rooms and corridors separated by doors and bulkheads. Moving through a door or bulkhead was one movement. I think most characters only had 1 move per turn, the Space Bee (similar to, but legally distinct from, an Alien) could move 2-3.

It became difficult to corral the Bee into one of the airlocks to blow it into space. Technically possible, but a lot of trial and error in limits for both sides, and we found more often than not we either gave the Bee too many, or too few, options even with slight changes.

Would totally work. Just a lot more time in development than a single, stripped down ship like this one looks like.
That's really interesting, thanks :)
It sounds like your system was a bit like Space Hulk, or the Doom boardgame. It's a little like moving across tiles, but the tiles constitute whole rooms or sections of corridors.

I don't know the ins and outs of Space Hulk, but then again that sort of game kind of favors letting the humans shoot the everloving shit out of the enemies rather than a single enemy being an overwhelming, unkillable threat that needs to be avoided at all costs.

I'm not sure that a ruler-based system would really help unless there was a way for the humans to effectively repel or eveade the Alien or impede its progress, otherwise the Alien would be on top of them all the time.

I've got a friend who plays a shitload of different boardgames, I'll ask him if he can think of any system where it's 1 overwhelmingly strong player vs a bunch of weaker players, and how it gets balanced (or if it even is).

SiL

Quote from: Xenomrph on Apr 16, 2018, 05:22:32 AM
It sounds like your system was a bit like Space Hulk, or the Doom boardgame. It's a little like moving across tiles, but the tiles constitute whole rooms or sections of corridors.
Those were both the inspiration, actually.

QuoteI've got a friend who plays a shitload of different boardgames, I'll ask him if he can think of any system where it's 1 overwhelmingly strong player vs a bunch of weaker players, and how it gets balanced (or if it even is).
I've also got a couple friends with ... obscene board game collections, and weirdly we've never come across such a setup, which is why there was so much need for play-testing. There are lots of 1vMany games, but they typically revolve around the 1 running away and the game being over if they're caught, rather than it being a play between both sides needing to interact but not wanting to because it doesn't end well for either side.

skhellter

Is there a downloadable rules set, Sil? :)

SiL

If I could find all the assets I'd made I would've been selling it as an on-demand game by now :P

Kailem

Quote from: skhellter on Apr 15, 2018, 04:02:01 PMCover art is terrible. :laugh:

It looks fine until you get to the bottom jaw and then.....yeah.

Still, the board looks nicely detailed, so as long as the artwork of the game itself is good then it's really not a big deal.

skhellter

skhellter

#13
Quote from: SiL on Apr 16, 2018, 05:55:26 AM
If I could find all the assets I'd made I would've been selling it as an on-demand game by now :P

Shame.
The game sounds interesting and is probably much different from this Nostromo thing. :)

Try rebuilding it, some time.


I'm doing my own little Alien themed board game but it sounds much different from yours. Mine is "stealth" oriented. Inspired by Alien Isolation. With a campaign system, item crafting and an A.I. deck that controls the movements/attacks of the Alien miniature. Use flamethrower to keep the Ayyys away, craft items to serve as distractions, defense etc...

Corporal Hicks

https://www.alientheboardgame.com/

The game is now up for pre-sale.

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