Sand Castle is a tile laying storytelling game, of building a whimsical castle piece by piece. Each card in the game represents a different part of the castle, from a Parapet to a Dragon's Abode to a Broom Closet. Every card has a prompt on it, encouraging you detail just how the tile fits into the larger space. 

A while ago I played a game of Carcassonne where me and a friend ignored the rules and just built the most beautiful map we could.

As time went on, I started to burn out heavily on board games. I was more interested in the meaning and thematic implications of play than the competitive efficiency so many titles wanted me to focus on.

I tried a couple of prototypes where all you did was place cards with different titles next to each other and think about the implications. They were soulless and boring as hell.

Eventually I got heavily into the indie ttrpg space, and found games all about the meaning of play. I tossed around the idea of revisiting a tile laying story telling game but never quite had a concept for one.

Revisiting some sand box video games I'd played, and seeing how much For the Queen could accomplish with a deck of prompts, things finally clicked.

I attempted to return to my faster, scrappier dev cycle for this project - and was taught why I pushed away from it. A well of anxiety stopped me from releasing this game, and I had trouble being happy with it or wanting to work on it. This was shared with my last title, A Painted Self. 

I posted that game in a text chat, asking if it was anything and seeing if maybe I could salvage it. Only to have a friend really like it and support me in getting over my worries about it. Afterwards I dove into rewriting the deck for this game, to make it something I felt confident in.

So, honestly, this game is representative of a lot of progress I've made as a designer.

I hope you enjoy it,

Tetra