Design Notes III

Days of Twilight

It has now been almost 6 months since TI3 shipped, and although this has been a busy time for me, the game has never left my mind. Its success has been very rewarding, and the level of positive reviews has been both astounding and gratifying. FFG is ecstatic about the game too, of course. TI3 is our bestselling item of the year (so far), and – hold on to your hats – we have now shipped more TI3 games (in 6 months) than we did of all TI1 and TI2, both editions and all print-runs combined.

As TI3 was being designed last year, there were many things from TI’s past that I wanted to include in the game. You can look back at my first TI3 “design notes” column and see my itemized “wish list” for what I wanted in the game. Although most of these things did become a reality in TI3, there were a number of things that just could not be made reality – as we simply did not have any resources left in our budget to include them.

So, with the success of TI3, and my vision only 95% fulfilled, FFG has concluded that we should design and publish a TI3 expansion to be released sometime in the late summer of 2006. My original wish was always to fit everything into the one original product, and that I could then (as a designer) leave TI behind for good. Yet, Mathom Iq Seerva, the Winnaran keeper of the custodian chronicle, now stands behind me – taunting me to return to TI.

Truly, I am really inspired to add some more elements to TI3 experience, elements that TI3 players hopefully would find exciting and appreciate.

So, what would I put into a TI3 expansion? Well, nothing is certain at this point (so don’t hold me to the list below), but here is the list of things that inspire me, and that I currently plan to include:

1. Enough additional systems to create a 4th ring round Mecatol Rex.
2. Two additional colors of plastic units, and rules for an 8 player game (using the 4th ring).
3. Two additional (never seen before) races for the TI universe.
4. A variant set of Strategy Cards.
5. A variant set of Objective Cards (to go with the SC above).
6. Classic TI game options, such as Mines, Assassins, Capital Planets, etc. All revised and updated to TI3, of course.

Sound exciting? I certainly hope so! I would love your feedback on this TI3 expansion. Please share your comments, thoughts and ideas here on the TI message board, here.

As this moves along, hopefully I can create another “designer notes” update with more expansion details!

Thanks for your enthusiasm and support!

Pax Magnifica!

Christian T. Petersen
FFG