Right now my creative energy is taken up by a card game that I'm working on. There's a bit of writing involved, but not a great deal. But it is a similar kind of energy, so I feel as though I'm getting something accomplished.

The good news is that I have someone on the hook to publish it, so this is real if it turns out to be good enough. I've had one play-test session thus far, and it want really well.

The game is called Heir Apparent and each player represents a Prince in the Kingdom, trying to be appointed the Heir to the throne. Each player has a small cast of characters who have devoted themselves to your Prince's cause, and you use them to try and influence political decisions to gain the King's favor.

The game flows well, and plays relatively quickly. The first playtest session took about 2 hours, and it was 2 people playing 2 players apiece. We were playing fairly slow because the game had never been played before, and I had to explain the rules. And fix things as I went along. The game also went to the end of the Event deck, which forces the game to end there. I think experienced players would get through games in under an hour, probably, but perhaps not. The politicking could push it out. But I'm confident it won't go much beyond 2 hours.

I hope this all goes well. Things are looking good on it so far.