Recent content on Jordan Wallwork
I’ve recently begun building a new board game design web app. It started as a bit of an experiment with AI development. As an experienced software engineer with extremely limited spare time, I was hopeful that I could use AI tooling to enable me to build something that I just didn’t have the time to do manually, and I’m about a month in and so far I’m absolutely thrilled.…
I’ve been interested in board game and game design for years, being an active consumer of design podcasts, reading voraciously on the topic, and spending much of my free time thinking about ideas. Unfortunately, being a dad of four who works full time, does all the household cooking, does my best to do my fair share of the housework, and tries hard not to neglect his equally busy and equally…
The Idea As a kid, I always loved playing “tycoon” type PC games - Rollercoaster Tycoon, Zoo Tycoon, Theme Hospital etc. I used to think that a tycoon game where you manage a camp site would be really fun: desiging your camp site with plots for tents and caravans; placing amenities such as water / electric points; facilities like toilet/shower blocks; maybe even a “club…
When asked whether game designers like to work theme-first or mechanic-first, many answer experience-first. It’s about having an idea for a particular feeling or moment that you want to inspire in people playing your game. An experience-first idea that I had came to mind when watching a film with the kids where there was a big red button that a character was not allowed to push, and how all…
While enjoying a cuppa and a couple of biscuits at the weekend, it occurred to me that biscuit dunking is a effectively real-world push-your-luck game that could potentially make a fun, quick little game. The Idea Players have (the same?) selection of biscuits, each with a max dunk seconds. Players start with a certain number of tokens, used for bidding/scoring. Objective is to end the game with…
I’ve been thinking about some variants of a mechanic based on Action Drafting, using action cards. ACT-02: Players select from an assortment of Actions in a shared pool. The available Actions are limited in quantity, and once a player has chosen an Action it may not be chosen again. ― Geoffrey Engelstein and Isaac Shalev, Building Blocks of Tabletop Game Design The Idea The idea is that…
Idea Simple card game based around trampolining. Play cards representing elements of a trampoline trick to score points. Short play time (maybe 15-30 mins), easy for younger kids to grasp. Rummy-ish. Hand size increases according to bounce height, allowing bigger trick combos. Cards have type and colour. Play a set of a single colour to increase bounce height. Types: Front/back flip. Played in…
Hi there! I’m Jordan—welcome to my blog! I’m a software developer living in Devon, UK, with a wonderful wife and four amazing kids. I have a habit of diving deep into hobbies, and over the years, I’ve explored everything from music (I play mediocre guitar and piano, have drummed in various local bands, and dabble in electronic music production) to programming, web development, and…