I made my second board game. The first Desperate Gods board game was made by Wolfire Games (not me), and actually inspired the popular Tabletop Simulator on Steam. I loved it, and played it a lot. Eventually the servers went down, but fittingly someone created a Desperate Gods Remastered mod for Tabletop Simulator that preserves the feel of the original.

I liked the original a lot, but it had problems, so I always wanted to make my own version. When AI image generation technology started to become popular a couple years ago (2022), I made a fan sequel: Desperate Gods 2: Aether Gods. In this version, players had to gather the Aether Key before they could go to the highest level area: The Aether. The game was more balanced than the original, which had two cards (Unflinching Sword and Thirsty Sword) that were extremely strong and basically guaranteed victory.

The second game played mostly like the first, but with different content. With the huge upgrade to image generation that ChatGPT recently got, I decided to give it another go, and I made Desperate Gods 3: NULL Gods. Compared to the first two games, it’s a bit of a departure in design. The theme is eldritch with digital/tech elements. And there is a new mechanic: Corruption. If you get too much Corruption, you die. I added some status effects as well.

One thing from the original (and Aether Gods) that was a problem was the victory point system. It was often clear who was going to win halfway through the game, because their defeated monsters pile was twice the height of everyone else’s. In the new game, you have to be the first player to defeat two bosses (NULL Gods). So there’s always tension. Anyone could win at any time.

The original Desperate Gods was only made in a week. I probably made the second game in around a week too, and same with the third. To be fair, Wolfire Games had to actually program a board game engine and design a game and make all the art, whereas I only had to design the game and fight with ChatGPT to make all the art for me. (I did playtest and update both #2 and #3, which Wolfire Games didn’t have the chance to do.) Either way, none of the games are someone’s life’s work, but I recommend you try them all if you have Tabletop Simulator. They’re all good fun for a couple hours each.

P.S. I wouldn’t use AI on a commercial project, but this isn’t so who cares.

Secret Rich Text Copyer for Substack