Hex Gambit: Respawned is complete on my end, being translated and certified for console/PC/Mac release. The release date will be announced here as soon as we have it!

That process can take a while, so it was with zero closure or certainty that I went back to work on my Food Truck prototype this month. It’s extremely weird to finish a two year project and be sitting here with no idea how it went over, starting another one.

This new Food Truck game is looking like a strong candidate for the next project, though!

The base gameplay is similar to SFT, but built for one player this time around, meaning just one deck to manage. I’m also excited about the idea of “scenarios”, like multiple levels to play with different menu types and arrival/shop decks. The replacement I have in mind for the old SFT crisis system is also very cool, excited to show that off later.

Hearing progress on the Hex Gambit: Respawned front, some online builds are being tested, but no release date yet. Keep an eye on this channel for updates. Eventually I’ll dive back in to polish up the online multiplayer menus, then my HGR work is truly done.

This month has been dedicated to the Food Truck prototype! I’m liking it as a project because it’s pretty scalable, meaning I could go crazy with all kinds of scenarios and maps, or aim for a single procedural map like Space Food Truck. Or both!

Currently I’ve got cooking working, which is pretty different already from SFT. You can work on all of your recipes at the same time, and I’ve been putting together combinations of ingredients that make more sense. With dairy and grain, you make a bagel with cream cheese. Two meats = meatcakes. I’m also thinking you’ll earn money for completed recipes, and be able to cook and deliver several “#1’s” to build up a highscore.

Traveling around the map as Captain is just about ready. Next I think I’ll make a tutorial scenario with just the Chef and Captain cooking up some simple recipes. Then I’ll add complexity from there.

While thinking about digital tabletop games along the lines of Space Food Truck, I arrived at something interesting.

SFT was designed for coop, but I found a lot of people were playing it as a single player game anyway. It’s a complicated way to play, having four different decks to build and keep track of, but people still enjoyed it. That got me wondering, what would Space Food Truck look like if it were actually built for single player?

In sketching out the rules for that, I hit one of those juicy idea geysers. “I could tweak this, ditch that, skin it like this…” And before long I had a doable, interesting game idea in the wildly popular deckbuilding food truck simulator genre.

So I’m prototyping that right now! Here’s some of the key differences I’m from SFT that I’m aiming for:

• New theme, not a direct SFT sequel.
• More focus on recipe crafting. Removing the limit on how many you can cook and deliver in a session.
• Recipes that feel more real. Meat plus bun equals burger, for example.
• Less turns where you can’t do anything, and more flexibility in which crew member’s job can be done when.
• Experimenting with removing movement, doors, and crises altogether. I want to swap those for a different challenge that’s less frustrating.

So that’s where I’m at! Will this be my next project? Too soon to say, but it does feel like a strong candidate. Check back next month to see how it’s going!