Hallux Rigidus Saga concept

This is the story and market of the Hallux Rigidus Saga:

Hallux was Born in the year 2008. It was shelved as "done enough". In 2013 it was pulled from the shelf, finished and published by The Game Crafter. This publication is a paid per print site with no contract; we maintain all rights to our games.

Upon gaining publication at TGC it was noticed that there was many thousand games available just on this site. After reviewing the world community and realizing the scope of competition and after attending a few conventions and witnessing the standard marketing ploys, it was determined necessary to market in a different way in order to get attention.

The revised Hallux was then changed to Hallux Rigidus and the marketing concept gave birth to the Hallux Rigidus Saga.

The theory seen by most publishers is that of publishing one game and pouring barrels of funding into getting it known and thereby making as large a bottom line as possible. Then another game is released and the process continues; wash-rinse-repeat. It's easy to maintain such a pattern because it's something we get used to; it feels comfortable, we know the process because we have done it so many times before, we can even claim it's more effective because we made it a turn key system and don't forget. We are literally using our own tools to sell the process to our minds and this is dangerous to progress. 

Oy... I'm ranting; done now, back to the topic.

So the Saga comes from a marketing concept to have the previous games aid in marketing for the new game and in turn the new game re-markets for the previous games.

The first part was to create a feasible time line for Hallux Rigidus and so the process began in the dead of winter (from my car - home at the time). First I designed the game board to include spaces with construction sites. Normally these spaces were to represent the sidewalks and other such open spaces within the town. This gives the impression of growth; of something planned for the future. It's also described in the rules what they represent. While playing Hallux Rigidus you are anticipating another version of the game soon.

Next was to design the follow-up game. This one is titled Hallux City. Hallux Rigidus has expanded into a city size town and shed the old town title for city in which they are very proud, hence the title "City" and not just Hallux Rigidus (the city). This game is a stand alone however it can include the characters and all cards from Hallux Rigidus. (Hallux Rigidus has 12 characters, 18 of each Abomination, Possession and Phobia cards. Hallux City has the same but all unique to itself and yet they can all be combined and played on either board.) 

Although everyone who has played Hallux Rigidus has loved it, there is an issue of time. in general it's about a 2 hour game. I've played as short as 45 minutes and as long as 3 hours but if playing with veterans even a six player game is generally about 2 hours. To assuage some of my simpler fans I designed the next game as New Hallux. Hallux City was devastated by the latest event and was reduced to a tiny town. Most of the larger "young skyscrapers" are abandoned and empty and a large portion of the city fled, disappeared or lost their minds; the latter mostly.

New Hallux is smaller and there are much less citizens and so the gathering of evidence is shortened and I tweaked the character growth so they level faster. It hasn't been tested much but just from the tiny amount I can expect the game to be half the time. Once again it's stand alone with the same number of cards and characters and yes, they can all be included into one of the games. Don't forget, the idea to to get people to want to own them all because they are part of a story.

New Hallux stays a tiny town for 3 decades until ultimately in the year 2030 we are forced to abandon the earth to the abomination and look for a new home. At some point in time (the story is partially developed here including how we left but that is for the rpg) we find a new home. 

It's an entire solar system that was terraformed by other races (3 alien races). Unfortunately they wiped themselves out from constant wars. 

When we arrived we discovered billions of corpses floating in space from millions of crafts destroyed over and over until only one alien was left... he was with us for a short time before succumbing to old age. (apparently he has been here alone for almost a century)

While cleaning the system of debris it's discovered how to animate a corpse so it can perform menial tasks and therefor aide in our desire to "clean space". So is born the Frankenstein Initiative. It's the last game in the time line and nothing like the first three.

Also I have redeveloped the old Hallux. It's design is a little different from the later 3 but it should be released later after the Frankenstein Initiative. Mostly for fans to see and play the game in it's original form.

We can't have a full fledged saga without telling the story of the surrounding areas and individual stories in town. Many games now finished and many to come are based from locations surrounding or inside Hallux and it's future.

After Hallux was devastated there was residual energy and many abomination remained even after the gate was destroyed. This creates opportunities for many games to spring from the location of the old Hallux. Later after Hallux Rigidus is established more games in relation to it 

pop up and then again during the Hallux City era and more during the sad years of New Hallux and even more into the end of human life on this planet.

So then in all reality it's best not to conclude the saga but to keep adding games to it. Of course to aid in that concept I am play testing an rpg which will allow players to immerse themselves into the story. Each game will have a module of it's own... now people become true fans because they can actually visit and participate in the story... and if we want our imaginations to keep going (which we do) then I can see input from players who cause the creation of new games... now they are truly part of Hallux.

...on a quick note: although I hope Hallux Rigidus Saga never stops growing I do have two other sagas I'm working on. My plan is to take a break from Hallux Rigidus Saga to work on one of the others and return to Hallux later.

I also have some associates who design games and we discussed the idea of their game being included in one of my saga's. I have enough games of my own to create a very large saga and other saga's but it will create a great marketing tool for other designers under the right agreements... right?