The Galaxy Corporate

Here's how it is: Earth got used up, so we terraformed a whole new galaxy of Earths, some rich and flush with the new technologies, some not so much. Central Planets, them was formed the Alliance, wager war --

Oops, sorry. Wrong awesome sci-fi franchise...

The private sector was the first to colonize the moons. Man was ready, but their governing bodies weren't. Tourists paved the way for the discoveries that would provoke the great exodus with civilian-funded science. The space travel lines didn't care why you went or how long you stayed out there, as long as you could pay.

It was mining at first. Terraforming didn't come until later, and that was when Earth knew traditional government was done. The asteroid belt and moons of Saturn and Jupiter turned into feudal states with private companies providing food and shelter for its workers. On the whole, it was much like the gold rush or railroad race in the old United States, only over a much greater distance. Earth needed what elements and compounds it could get and was still working on international law, let alone interplanetary law, so it looked the other way for a time. By the time its gaze did swing to the space rocks, it was too late.

The corporate colonies went and declared their independence from any national rule. The irony is the first Corporate War was what unified the planet, right before it destroyed all traditional forms of government.

The corporations won their freedoms and the galaxy became an unchecked wilderness where money ruled the day. As harsh as life became, science and industry of all kind blossomed. Whole planets were terraformed for farming. The asteroid belt became an infamous birthplace for mercenaries and private armies. All this before discovering faster-than-light travel.

Things calmed down, then. The galaxy opened up and there was less fighting over more space. Suddenly there was plenty for everyone, but people always wanted more. Space may be infinite, but so is greed.

Such is life in the Galaxy Corporate.

---

I'm not going to go into too much detail, but the Galaxy Corporate is something I've been working on for a while. I think it's ready. Or ready-ish, anyway. Like all the offerings at Woodbine Street Games, it tells a story with its games. Right now I've got three games planned for the setting. Galaxy Corporate itself is a game in three parts: The first part is the core board game called Star Traders. It will eventually have two expansions, Hostile Takeover and Capital Investments. I'd been considering developing everything and then releasing it as one big game, but the price point would be too high for an initial product offering. With my limited resources and exposure, I think it would be better to do the base-set-and-two-expansions route. Star Traders is tentatively done, and I'm currently working on Hostile Takeover.

The other two games, Siege and Battles, are two-player strategy games that will also be expanded to share the systems with the fantasy setting I'm working on. I'll go more into those later, but I'm really excited about Siege.

The current plan is a free print-and-play version that I'm actually calling the "print and playtest" version. I don't get out much, you see, so I've only really playtested the heck out of Star Traders with friends and family. They love the game, but they're biased. I guess you could think of this as its beta period while I put the funds together for better components and a print run. During this time, I'll be leveraging Go Fund Me, which is like Kickstarter but with no time limit and looser rules. I admit I'm a little skeptical about it, but I'm looking into it. I'll let you guys know when we get going. Hopefully I'll have the pdfs ready in a week or so. I'm doing a no-frills save-your-toner black and white version and a full color version that will resemble in part the finished product.

So there it is, the initial plan. Still terrified, but it's going away as I take action. The goal is to have a bit of word of mouth by March so I have a better footing on which to meet the retailers. I have a big idea for an April Kickstarter campaign, and I'd like the retailers to be a big part of it. More on that later.

I've got work to do.