The original Trade Empires, resplendent with plastic beads and garish graphics

The original board; orange lines are nullspace routes

If there were two ways to do something, I tried all three.

Trade Empires 2.0: Looks nicer, but circular icons for square pieces were a terrible idea

Trade Empires 2.2: Streamlined system for combat, and clearer iconography

Two different solutions to City Worlds before I introduced card flipping

"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." – Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Quote: Pegasid planet — A "hot jupiter"; a gas giant

close to its star and inflated from the heat.



Cthonian planet — The solid core of a gas giant

after its atmosphere has been stripped off

due to being too close to its star.

Trade Empires 3.1: Cthonian — species tiles have been replaced with a set of cards

Quote: In the middle of Cthonian, I accidentally designed an RPG in the

"Trade Empires"/Sidereal Confluence setting. I used it to flesh out

the culture of each of the species, which was good for naming

and illustrating the cards. On the other hand, it meant that I am

now overly-attached to the game's setting — never a good thing.

Quote: The game has always been balanced for three players. The box says

4-9 because the three-player game is extremely cutthroat.

The seven species and the resources they consume; I printed this 7x7 arrangement in the background of the

Unity copy of Clinical Immortality since it also has the property of having a Hamming distance of four

Trade Empires 4.1: Seven resource types

Quote:

By this point, I had been working on the game full time for months.

I took a week long break to create a two-player wargame in the

"what-if" scenario where the Faderan don't start the Confluence and

the Kt'Zr'Kt'Rtl and Kjasjavikalimm fight over dominance of the

galaxy. This is where the fleet art for the Im'dril came from. By this point, I had been working on the game full time for months.I took a week long break to create a two-player wargame in the"what-if" scenario where the Faderan don't start the Confluence andthe Kt'Zr'Kt'Rtl and Kjasjavikalimm fight over dominance of thegalaxy. This is where the fleet art for the Im'dril came from.

Trade Empires 4.3.6: The final version before publication

Sidereal Confluence in all its glory