Orbit: June Update

Posted by Oli Hart on 3rd July 2018

After a brilliant UK Games Expo, Orbit is taking the next step towards being released. We are hoping to do regular updates on what’s happening with the game, so you can follow it all the way to release.

Manufacturing

Among the various tasks that are now underway, the main thing we have been looking at is how to manufacture the game. We want to ensure all the different parts fit together and work well, for each and every game produced. This means taking into account both quality and price of components to make sure we get a great product that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. We intend to write a blog on everything we have discovered (so far) on manufacturing soon.

Publicity

Another key part is obviously getting the funding to officially launch Orbit. We need to publicise Orbit effectively to reach the right audience. The UK Games Expo was great publicity giving us the chance to showcase Orbit to the wider world of gamers. We took orbit to the official play test area at the expo where we met Greg at 3D Total Games. Greg has written an excellent and very comprehensive review of Orbit over on his blog, so you should go and check it out. We’re also doing a bit of work on the website so people can comment on blogs. Finally we’re going to add individual pages for Orbit and Defenders of Dragonfell, so you can find out more about each game.

Playtesting

Greg talks about something else we’re working on at the moment, around balancing the game for different strategies. We are testing subtle variations in initial conditions, such as the starting stats for the players, and changing the weighting of different aspects of the game, such as the amount of points scored for different missions. All this testing should produce a game where there are a variety of equally effective strategies available to the players at the beginning of the game. We will be looking to playtest the game with a wider group of people over the coming months, so if you are interested, get in touch by emailing us or message us on Facebook. This is an exciting time for Juniper Games, hopefully you can get on board with us, no pun intended.

Orbit Photoshoot

By the way we’ve also had a little photo shoot with the game, hence the updated imagery. We had some fun arranging the components and getting close-ups of the rockets in mid-orbit! Hope you like the new look.

Orbit Aerial Table setup