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When we first began planning Desert Pioneers in April of 2021, all we knew is we wanted a board game. We decided that there would be four types of tiles: Blank, Resource, Chance, and Service. The majority of the board was made up of blank tiles, as seen to the right. Players would gain "credits" every turn, which can be traded on Service tiles to buy generators. Generators produced Energy every turn which could also be traded on Service tiles to benefit the player or hinder others. To win, we decided players must complete an individual goal, while keeping it secret, but guessing their opponents' goal.
We quickly realized that the amount of blank tiles would be very boring, so we redezigned the game board, shown again to the right. By now, we came up with the Desert theme, and decided on upgradable buildings which could be placed on predetermined resource tiles. These blueprints could be purchased on Service tiles along with other useful advantages. Green chance cards remained the same, while red chance cards became "Game Events," which would change the course of the game for all players.
We eventually removed service tiles completely, allowing them to be purchased anywhere on the board. Additionally, we removed the need to keep your own goal secret, leaving it only up to who could complete theirs the fastest. Game Events were removed, and the board was redezigned again to be more random and allow for more choice of movement. Some chance cards were changed, some services were added, and some were removed, which led us to a final game which was fun to play and easy to learn!
