Among various notebook drawings from high school, I came across a few cardboard games I made back in the day
(I used to make lots of toys and boardgames using arts and crafts supplies when I was a kid. Yeah, I was one of those weirdo creative types.)
So, I came across a Dragon Ball Z card game and a Metal Gear Solid board game.
During high school, I was way into Dragon Ball. Way into it. My friends and I watch and talk and theorize all the time. I remember finding a website that had information on the show that came from the episodes that hadn't made it to the US yet. It was such a big deal to us. Finding this secret knowledge felt like uncovering some sort of treasure trove.
So, in addition to the other ways I obsessed over it, I used to do a lot of drawing. Not really of the main characters, but more often of my own characters set in that world.
For those of you who don't know me, this is going to be a running theme. Keep it in mind - there will be a test.
Anywho, I began working on this card game while visiting my grandparents one weekend with the family. Don't know why - it was probably a combination of boredom and curiosity (that is to say, I was curious about how the mechanics of the game could work).
The card game revolved around two players trying to take down each other's team of super-powered martial artists by playing characters, powering them up with items and special abilities, and using the titular Dragon Balls to generally muck up their opponent's day.
Dyl and I played once or twice, and from what I can remember, it was kind of fun. Of course, I had a ton of fun drawing little pictures on each card and coming up with the game mechanics. (I made a third deck using my original characters a little later, but I didn't see it last night when I was cleaning. I'm hoping it didn't get thrown out.)
Finding this little project (literally little - for some reason I made each card about 1 inch by two inches) was a nice reminder. I'd thought about these cards before during the years since I created them and I think in the back of my head I always remembered where they were.
The Metal Gear Solid board game though? Wow - I didn't remember this thing existed until I started flipping through the rules and the game pieces.
This was a Christmas present (I think?) for Bryan (I think?) back in 2004. I'm sure about the year, as one of the few memories I have of this game was working on it while at my part-time job answering phones at the church.
Players choose one of four characters (Solid Snake, Meryl, Cyborg Ninja, and Otacon) and move around Shadow Moses island collecting items and battle guards, gun turrets, and bosses. The goal of the game was to accumulate enough weapons, key cards, or kills to take down Metal Gear Rex. In a unusual turn for my homemade games, I actually didn't draw all of the art for this game. Most of it was made up of (what else?) tiny pencil drawings on tiny pieces of paper, however the main character cards and the boss cards all used official MGS character art or screenshots. I'm actually really happy with that decision - it makes the presentation slightly more enticing than the usual "only my family would humor me by playing this" look that the games usually have.
In an even more unusual turn for my games, I actually wrote down the rules for this one. See, here's the thing - I never really considered that I would be finding these games years later and as a result, didn't want to go through the boring process of documenting how to play these games. I ran these games mostly by memory! Sure, it sounds absurd now, but Dyl and I played plenty of homemade tabletop/board games with undefined rules, and we still had fun! (This is also the reason why I still can't figure out how to play the aforementioned DBZ card game.)
But yeah, the MGS board game has a rules sheet! And looking through it, it actually sounds like it could be a fun game! I imagine there are some balancing issues, but it actually has some pretty neat ideas! The weirdest thing is that it reminds me of some of the more complex board games I've had a passing interest in in recent years - except I came up with this game back in high school. Clearly I'm some sort of time-traveling idiot-savant or something.
It's just so satisfying (and thrilling and sometimes moving) finding lost relics of your past. It's even more satisfying when your find is something you created - you get to experience it anew and at the same time relive your memories with this miniature time capsule. I sometimes hate how much of a pack rat I am, but whenever I make one of these discoveries I can't help but feel that it's all worth it.
(Plus - maybe this is a sign I should get back into designing board games, huh?)
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