As I continue my unscheduled freefall through the oxygen-poor skies of unemployment, I’ve decided to start development on big boy board game #2. This one is called Amino Station, and is a game that tasks its players with building a mining rig from spare parts and using it to mine asteroids to generate wealth. The most successful player will earn their way off the space station and back to Earth.

Let me elaborate on the lore here a little bit. A company called Amino Partners, LTD has just gone out of business. Prior to shuttering, they had built a space station and shipped people and equipment out there who are now stuck. A shuttle is on the way, but they’re auctioning off the limited space to the highest bidder. A few people on the station have decided to start digging through unopened shipping containers full of equipment in order to build some mining rigs and extract value from nearby asteroids, to raise the capital they need to pay for a ride back home. Each of the six playable characters is affiliated with a different corporation, and players select both a character and a ‘skeleton’ for them to pilot which can be equipped with mining rig parts to increase its stats in order to more effectively mine asteroids.

Here’s a little bit of info about each of the six characters:

NekoYaro is a cyborg cat. Prior to getting stranded on Amino Station, she was an office worker. She’s not super jazzed about having to engage in manual labor to get back to her office on Earth.

Karen Blythe is an older lady who used to be a welder. She lived on a lunar colony and worked on manufacturing lines for LunaBilt before heading to Amino Station. She’s a packrat and a recluse but treats her drones like her grandchildren.

Designed and programmed by ExFil Industries, the FiL-6Ton automated bartender is a fully synthetic mechanical being. It is surprisingly well adapted to transition to asteroid mining, and doesn’t mind serving its competitors a drink or two.

彼女ケン (Ken Hanojo) is a former merchant, trader, and interplanetary freight hauler for KLR SERIES. He doesn’t talk much.

Thresh is a sentient vine-person and bodyguard for high-value Outland Express deliveries. Nobody knows what it’s capable of and pretty much everyone would like to keep it that way.

Pleek belongs to a short-lived exospecies that suffers from a disease similar to leprosy, so they spend their lives wrapping their frail bodies in a layer of bandages and using discarded packages and metals for armor. This abundant, and according to some corporations, dispensable, alien race is endlessly helpful and has no concept of money, so they don’t require wages to employ. They have no qualms about poor working conditions or hours, which made them perfect ’employees’ for Amino Partners, LTD.

And here’s a little bit about the related companies:

ElGato: Precise & Accurate

A newer company focused on delicate but precise and accurate robotics. If you need surgery, you’d rather have one of theirs than one of KLR’s.

At ElGato, we strive to equip our operators with the best tools for their needs. Our engineers consider real-world challenges when designing our products. As part of our company, you are a highly valuable resource that can see the impact of your contributions.

On Time And Under Budget

LunaBilt is an old-school mining company from the old days when Earth’s moon was still being colonized. Reliable and reasonably priced.

The most important thing is doing the job right the first time. The second most important thing is to do it without wasting budget. Our people are experienced, and we have the know-how to do the job. Now clock in, daylight’s wastin’!

“We make the stars taste like home”

ExFil is known mostly for its consumable products, packaged and preserved for long-distance travel.

Food ties our customers to where they came from. So no matter where they’re going, they deserve to have that piece of home with them. Our people make that dream a reality by preparing large quantity meals, packaging them to last, and packing them to ship, but also by serving those meals and drinks at a variety of starside locations.

Wherever you are, whatever you need – Outland Express

Outland Express is a renowned interplanetary shipping company specializing in products and materials from alien planets.

Our team members can earn competitive wages up to [insert local minimum wage]! Start work today, get paid tomorrow! We are always hiring good, hard workers. Bathroom breaks offered after first year of service.

No Compromise. Just Performance.

Kratos Logistics Relay Series. These parts can both give and take a beating.

Do what needs done, and don’t do it halfway. If that sounds like you, grab a helmet and get to work.

From here to the next frontier!

Out of business as they cut too many corners. Former owners of Amino Station.

[this training video has been deleted. welcome to Amino Partners!]

Here’s what a character card will look like!

Characters have two bonuses and a drawback listed on their cards, as well as 4 stats that pertain to their playstyle. We haven’t designed the ‘skeleton’ cards yet but they’ll have a larger stat list with sliders to track your stat totals, which change as you attach better and more expensive parts to your rig.

The whole game comes in a box that looks like a shipping container, kind of like this:

The goal will be for this box to open up and lay flat, with the art for the space station on the inside that serves as the game board.

I’ll probably write a short story that takes place on Amino Station that involves at least some of these characters, and if it gets written I’ll post it here. Then, once it’s complete, I’ll do a final writeup. For now though, that’s all I’ve got!