DwD Studios

MegaCorp(TM) is a science fiction board game of interstellar corporate influence, development, and control. It is playable by 2-4 players of ages 12 and up. It takes approximately 90 minutes to play.

Background

The frontier is young, but industry and merchants abound. Star systems trade with one another and ferry people from place to place, while merchants trade goods among the stars. This game takes place in a particularly dense sector of space, where twenty five star systems are settled and thriving. Among these many worlds are corporations, each trying to get ahead (often at the expense of the others).

One of the key concepts to this board game is the lack of randomness to gameplay. All randomness is front-loaded in game setup. This is to promote a strategic and diplomatic mode of play where players engage one another on an intellectual level.

Objective

Players take on the role of a CEO of a large interstellar corporation and maneuver for influence over the scattered resources in the frontier. The first player to construct 3 corporate headquarters and hold them until the end of a game turn wins the title of MegaCorp and is the most influential corporation in the frontier!

What's in the box

The game consists of a gameboard showing 25 star systems, along with trade routes connecting them. These trade routes represent interstellar commerce (passenger liners, cargo haulers, various delivery systems and shuttles) and are initially all the players can use to ship resources among their controlled star systems.

Additionally, players will influence control over various resources spread randomly throughout the frontier (1" square tiles). These resources are produced right on the board (as 8mm cubes color-coded to match the resource production sites), and must be shipped around (or traded with another player) in order to assemble them where you need them. Once assembled, you can use these resources to develop armaments, spaceships, and headquarters (all represented by tokens).

There are no dice or cards to this game. It's all about what you can and can't do, what you can convince others you can or can't (or won't) do, and how well you can out-think your opponents.

Resource Production Sites

Each resource production location on the board generates one cube of the appropriate color. Most of those cubes go to the board and represent container/crates of shippable goods.

Energy Production Sites - These are locations that refine various renewable consumables and generate raw energy which can be stored in energy cubes. Any number of blue cubes can exist on a system. Energy resources can be used to build armaments, spaceships, and headquarters.

Raw Materials Production Sites - These are mining, recycling, or stripping sites that gather, produce, refine, prepare and store raw materials (metals, crystals, oils, plastics, etc.). Any number of brown cubes can exist on a system. Raw materials are used to create spaceships and headquarters.

Tech Production Sites - These are factories and other industries which create technology for use in the frontier (anything from computers and robots to communications and stellar navigation gear). Any number of red cubes can exist on a system. Tech resources can be used to create armaments, spaceships, and headquarters.

Wealth Production Sites - These are financial institutions or sales distribution sites. Instead of adding one green cube to that system, simply give one green cube to the controlling player. Wealth resources are not shipped around on the board. It is an interstellar economy, and wealth can be transferred. Wealth is a special type of resource, and can be used in a very versatile manner. Easily the most important resource producer in the game, make sure you gain control of one (or more!) star system containing wealth production.

Personnel Production Sites - These differ from all other resource production sites. No system can ever have more than one yellow cube on it. A personnel production site is a recruitment and training location of sympathetic and loyal employees or agents. Personnel production sites differ in that the resource they produce spread outward from the site to star systems controlled by the same player. In this way, influence is spread. Personnel production can be crucial early in the game.

Player Control Markers

As you spread your influence over the frontier, you'll have to indicate your control of the resources that system produces. You'll do that with player control tokens. There are three colored tokens in the game (not to be confused with the colors used in resource production or management). They have nifty corporate logos:

Developments

If they wish to win, players will have to use their resources to develop certain types of technology. The game has only three types of things which may be developed: Armaments (what's more influential than pointing a gun at someone?), Spaceships (useful for shipping things around the frontier, but can also be used to block trade routes to help reshape logistics in your favor), and Headquarters (locate these carefully since they increase the production capabilities of those systems nearest them). All developments help players increase their control over the frontier and lead them down a path to becoming a MegaCorp!

Nobody told me play-testing was hard work...

In order to make a game with this much complexity, the game has been tested in many ways, and statistical analysis of odds and probabilities has been done. There are key things to the game which seem crucial: initial control placement, ownership and protection of wealth resource production, and maintaining a small stockpile of wealth. These are all intentional and carefully balanced over countless play sessions.

Prototype Game Box

Okay - when you spend so much time with something, you tend to think of it as your "baby" - and I've spent a lot of time with MegaCorp. I spent some time working with my brother in law on the construction of a prototype for the game box itself. I had to take into account all the varied components which come with the game (colored chits of all sorts) and also the game board itself, which will quad-fold down into a 10" x 10" stack. Although I don't have the game board back from the manufacturer yet, I had to estimate on its thickness. All in all, I decided to make the prototype out of Bass Wood and some very thin plywood for the top and bottom. Add paint and some pretty labels printed out from my cheap inkjet printer and viola! A game box.

This isn't a cost-effective solution, however. The final box likely won't be made out of wood. But seeing how this is my "baby" and I want to have a really pretty prototype - there it is!