Welcome!
Hello and welcome to the first blog post of Moon Crab Games. You can expect to see these every Wednesday at noon, covering a range of subjects from development diaries, narrative design in tabletop gaming, industry musings, and the occasional guest post from other board game professionals.
First, for a little background: Moon Crab Games is a self-funded startup created by three tabletop industry veterans with nearly a decade’s experience each. We are Minnesota-based, formerly of Fantasy Flight Games, and we became free agents after the Z-Man Games turnover last year. We’ve had a hand in a fair number of game projects, like Imperial Assault, Pandemic Legacy: Season 0, Wrath of the Lich King (Pandemic), and many more.
We’re proud to present our first project Leviathan Wilds, a cooperative game about climbing massive creatures. You can learn about the game on the main page of our site, you can read the rules, and/or you can go play it now.
Making the Best Game We Can
Today I want to share our approach to development on Leviathan Wilds (which is still in early development), and how that intersects with community building.
The game you see and can play today is months away from completion and will undergo hundreds of hours of playtesting. The exact componentry, the player and scenario content, core game rules, and the narrative may all change a little, or a lot, over the next few months.
For us, this process of intense, selfless iteration is how an exciting idea turns into a high-quality, polished game. That said, we think the traditional method of developing behind closed doors can miss out on some of that real, hands-on feedback from the core audience.
It can become easy for developers to know so deeply what we want the game to be that we can lose sight of what it actually is, or what it should become to serve its audience. Before we apply all those layers of polish, we want to make sure we are making the best version of Leviathan Wilds, the one that you want on your shelf.
The Community
This process of open iteration also provides a second opportunity: project-focused community building. We hope that the promise of a tactical game of climbing giant creatures is as exciting to you as it is to us, but we plan to venture deeper than the promise. Over the next several months, we ask you to join us not just in the hope of quality, but in the process of ensuring it.
To that end, we want to hear what you think! Tell us about your thoughts on gameplay, functional graphic design, art, narrative (what little there is so far): anything and everything. While we can’t guarantee every bit will be replied to or implemented, it all receives serious consideration. We’ll answer questions as best we can about the process and/or future plans, and in general we’ll just keep improving our game bit by bit until we’re confident it’s worthy of your backing.
Would You Like to Know More?
If you want to get involved or see more stuff, sign up for the newsletter on the main page, join the Discord community, or follow us on social media. If you want to help us refine the not-yet-public content, you can fill out a post-game survey to give your thoughts, and you can also join the playtest groups (again, through Discord).
Regardless, please check back from time to time. We’ll be adding new game content to the Tabletop Simulator preview on a regular basis leading up to the crowdfunding launch. This will include additional leviathans, new climber cards, actual graphic design, new illustrations, and so on.
We truly hope that you enjoy Leviathan Wilds. Thank you for your time, and hope to see you next week when Justin talks a bit more about the discussion topics to expect from this blog going forward.
—Justin, Todd, and Sam
