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KISS Tour

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Project Owner & Manager:
   

- Systems Design

- Content Design

- Writing Rules

- Testing Management

- Working with Licences

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Project Description:

Travel across the United States with the rock band KISS! Drive the open road, earn money, and play concerts in all 8 major cities to win!

Development:

In 2021, I was brought on to join NMR Aquarius as their specialized board game designer. Being a company that primarily focused on licensed products, my first task was to create a board game on the band KISS.

In addition to the theme, I was also given a number of features that they wanted to be included:

  • Include a board with branching pathways

  • Have players draw event cards when they land on certain spaces

  • Players need to play concerts to win

  • Design it so it can be reskinned with other music bands

 Since my primary specialty at this point was “Card Games”, this was a new experience for me. So, I researched a plethora of other games that matched the vibe my new employers wanted: Monopoly, Life, etc. I then took what I liked from those games, and added some “Quality of Life” improvements so it would be more appealing to all ages.

Making the Game:

I settled early on having players needing to reach specific city spaces to collect different Guitar Picks to win. From this key point, I added other mechanics to expand on this. 

I made it so players need to pay money to draw a Concert Card. That card would then reward the player with the Guitar Pick and/or an additional effect. This way the game became more than the luckiest roll wins. I then scattered the cities and varied their prices so players would place a bit more thought into which paths to take.

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From there, it was mainly adding other features to liven up gameplay between cities, and improve “Quality of Life”.

  • I made it so that returning to a city you’ve already got the Guitar Pick from, rewards you with money. This way, the board doesn’t become increasingly dead space as the game progresses.

  • I added airport spaces so players could pay money to instantly visit cities instead of constantly missing their destination with dice rolls.

  • I added Pit Stops to the board so players can earn money outside of chance cards.

  • I included “Hold Cards” to the chance cards, so players have more elements of choice on their turn.

The Release & Future:

KISS Tour launched in 2022,

and you can now buy it in various retail stores and online!

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oVER
sOLD
2500

On Reflection:

With KISS Tour being my first ever published board game, I learned a ton of details that college just never could.

- Always be ready to redo a ton of elements due to unknowable changes

- A professional proof-reader and writer is always worth the investment

- Design the game with multiple licenses as early as possible

The Team:

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Me: Jared Ciano
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Game Designer
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Mike Fromstein
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Art & Component Design
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Aquarius & NMR
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Testing
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