Designers Log
February 9th, 2026 - A note about Artifical Intelligence
I know it has only been a few days since the last update, but I've been thinking more and more about Artificial Intelligence and the role it has to play in the future of gaming.
This came to mind particularly today as I was trying to come up with a bit of temporary cover art for Bungling Beavers. As anyone can tell you, I am no artist. My art is in words and that is where I hope to occasionally excel. I use my words to tell stories and, when working with artists and other contractors, provide a clear vision of what is in my mind. The clearer I can present that vision, the easier it has always been for these collaborators to execute the ideas and make them a reality.
That same descriptive text is also the key to utilizing AI successfully. My son, Gregg, and I have had numerous discussions, sometimes arguments about the use of AI. He finds very few constructive uses for it that maintain the integrity of being creative. He falls solidly in the "purity of the art" camp. I, on the other hand, find AI useful as a tool to compensate for skills I do not possess. It is only a tool.
Do not misunderstand. I do not use AI for Mythic Portal Games work in a purely generative way and we will never use it for brainstorming or baseline product development from a blank slate. I'll never ask AI to spontaneously create ideas for product from "nothing". However, we may use it for those silly Kickstarter updates like I used last year as Alien Agendas progressed or as placeholders for future "real artist" art.
Here is an example of temporary art that allows me to get my vision out of my head and more clearly present it to an artist for a final production version in the future.
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​This image clearly illustrates the feel of the game far better than any sketch my feeble skills could generate. The beavers have charming expressions, one is excited and the other terrified. It is exactly the feel I wanted for this very temporary art for the game. It was made with AI. I added the text and the logo, but it came from the AI collective.
It is fully my intention to hire an artist to make the final cover art. No doubt it will be similar to this image, but it will have the artists unique spin on it.
You and my son may disagree, but I feel this limited use of AI does not disrespect the artists that work hard everyday in this industry. It simply enables creators like me to capture our ideas clearly and get them out of our overly crowded brains.
I commit to you publicly, that as long as I draw breath, Mythic Portal Games will never publish a product that is purely churned out of the AI mill. The act of creating is far too personal, intimate and important to me to let machines do it all for me. But just as I'll likely use a cane when I need it in old age, I'll use this tool to get on down the lane to a published game sooner rather than never.​​
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-Gary
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February 5th, 2026 - Those "dam" beavers
Hey Folks. It's been a hot minute since we gave you an update on what's happenin' at Mythic Portal Games. In short, the last couple weeks have been busy. From networking with experts at Kickstarter and other designers in New Hampshire to pitching a Maine based book retailer and booking conventions it never ends when you are an indy game publisher.
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But I wanted to talk a little bit about a game that is in very early development on our slate; Bungling Beavers. We are so early in the development that a prototype has not been completed. But we are working on it. Our ace 3D sculptor has made a first pass of a cool randomizer tower that will eventually look like a dead tree(think like in a swamp) that will dominate the center of the board and also has designed little logs to build dams. I'm investigating potential artists to commission box art and will be working on the board design myself soon, leveraging existing Virtual Tabletop art to make a board environment that Kermit the Frog would be proud to play his banjo in.
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There are cards to design and print and I'm still waiting on my order of blue marbles. They will represent flowing water in the final game. There is a lot to do. Even a simple game for small kids has a lot of pieces. Hopefully, by the time we return to Snow Con next January we'll have a working prototype to share. In the meantime, here is a log. It may not be exciting to look at, but it is one step closer to have Bungling Beavers on your tabletop.
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I'll be on the road this week to get more stores onboard our flying saucer and stocking Alien Agendas. If you want to catch up and talk game design or get your own copy of Alien Agendas or one of the limited number of remaining Goon & Doubloons (1st ed.) copies our next stop is Mainely Meeple Con February 27-March 1st at the Hollywood Casino and Hotel in Bangor, Maine. For more information about this brand new gaming convention you can also check out their event on Facebook.
I hope to see you there.
January 19th, 2026 - Getting Out and About
Convention season has started and it is our ambition at Mythic Portal Games to get out and meet the folks that play or want to play our games. Our first stop of 2026 is what we affectionately call of "home con" which happens each year on the weekend preceding Martin Luther King day and it is called Snow Con.
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The Mythic Portal booth at Snow Con and yes, that is our inflatable saucer on the right.​
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Hundreds of gamers show up in Orono, Maine, in the snow. Yes, it always snows at Snow Con. The Con itself is 18 years young, but this was the "Sweet 16" year due to two lost years amid the pandemic. We had a great time showing Alien Agendas to anyone that would listen. Connecting with friends both old and new and even sold a few games.
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Snowcon participants were also
able to purchase a new item to the MPG catalog Goons & Doubloons. This rules lite piracy RPG was written and published by Gregg Hauger in 2023 and with the acquisition of True Norse Publishing, it is now under the Mythic Portal umbrella.
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A limited number of copies of the first edition will be available at our future convention appearances.
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Next stop is Mainely Meeple Con February 27-March 1st at the Hollywood Casino and Hotel in Bangor, Maine. For more information about this brand new gaming convention you can also check out their event on Facebook.
I hope to see you there.
January 13th, 2026 - RIP Erich Von Daniken
Hello Dear Readers.
Today's Designer log is very different that others to date in that today we take a moment to reflect on the impact Erich Von Daniken has had on the world and Mythic Portal Games.
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Erich passed on January 10th, 2026 at a hospital in Switzerland. Born in 1935, Erich was the child of a clothing maker in the Swiss town of Schaffhausen he came to be best known as the "godfather of the Ancient Astronaut Hypothesis" due to his book Chariots of the Gods, originally released in 1968.
For those of you that are unfamiliar with this hypothesis; in general terms it posits the question of Why do so many cultures worldwide share so much common mythology, iconography, and art in ancient times? The answer proposed by the hypothesis is that in antiquity there was a common inspiration for these images and legends - visiting Extraterrestrials.
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Throughout his life, von Daniken was often criticized for his unscientific methods of inquiry and intuitive leaps employed is arguments. But as Erich himself said on many occasions, his proposals where always poised as questions and not definitive statements. Consistently he insisted that he never said he "had an answer or answers" but rather that this path of inquiry should be pursued so that answers could be found.
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It is from luminaries such as Erich von Daniken and Zecharia Sitchin that we have stories of the Annunaki and others. Today more and more people are seriously investigating commonalities between ancient cultures from around the world. It is also due to the ideas championed by von Daniken and others that we have television shows like The X-Files and Ancient Aliens and games like Alien Agendas to enjoy.
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Rest in Peace Erich. May you finally have the answers you have long sought.
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​As of today, I will be mailing out all of the updated cards and rulebooks for Alien Agendas Kickstarter backers and direct purchasers. There are a few stragglers that I need updated addresses for, but they have been informed to provide that info and then their copies will also be going out.
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As we have said from the beginning, Mythic Portal Games is about making quality a priority. Providing games and assets to enhance the play experience. Following up with customers to "fix" their games is just a part of that. That said, if you purchased a copy of Alien Agendas at a retailer, simply drop and email to us at mythicportalgames@gmail.com with the name of the store and your mailing address and we'll get replacements to you as soon as possible.
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Thank You all for your patience with this process and Happy Gaming!
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-Gary
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January 2nd, 2026 - Promises Kept
Hello All and Happy New Year!
2025 was a great year of growth for Mythic Portal Games with a new website, the acquisition of True Norse Publishing and the addition of Gregg Hauger to the MPG Team to spearhead marketing.
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2025 also saw the publishing of our first physical game, Alien Agendas had a successful, if small, Kickstarter over the summer and has since found a home in sixteen stores with more to come. However, our first game had some issues.
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Pictured: An issue of the Weekly World News with an intriguing Alien Story and a pile of updated rulebooks and cards headed for the mail.​
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​As of today, I will be mailing out all of the updated cards and rulebooks for Alien Agendas Kickstarter backers and direct purchasers. There are a few stragglers that I need updated addresses for, but they have been informed to provide that info and then their copies will also be going out.
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As we have said from the beginning, Mythic Portal Games is about making quality a priority. Providing games and assets to enhance the play experience. Following up with customers to "fix" their games is just a part of that. That said, if you purchased a copy of Alien Agendas at a retailer, simply drop and email to us at mythicportalgames@gmail.com with the name of the store and your mailing address and we'll get replacements to you as soon as possible.
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Thank You all for your patience with this process and Happy Gaming!
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-Gary
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December 25th, 2025 - Holiday Break
Hello Folks. Just taking a brief break from holiday festivities to wish everyone a wondrous and safe holiday seasons. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in the day to day that we don't take time to take stock of what we have.
From friends and family far and near to traditions and memories we hold dear. I have some much to be thankful for this year.
Thanks to everyone that backed the Alien Agendas Kickstarter, all the store owners that have taken a chance on our first of many games and anyone that gave us encouragement along the way.
We'll be back to talk more about the production and operations process of our tiny game company in the new year.
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Until then...
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All the best from Mythic Portal Games!​​​​​​
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December 15th, 2025 - The Pipeline
The creative juices never stop flowing. Some times that is a good thing and some times not so much. For example, waking at 3AM with an image in your head for a game with Cthulu monsters and Steampunk robots.
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Original Concept Art for Steam-Powered Sentinels​
At this point, I am 52 years old and I likely have enough ideas that I have already percolated in my brain to keep me busy until I draw my last breath, but you can't just turn off the idea spigot. Ideas will keep coming and you'll hear about them here.
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The following concepts are at various stages in the MPG Pipeline:
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Alien Agendas (2025) - Updated/Corrected copies to be printed and distributed
Bungling Beavers - For young players building beaver dams - 3D prototyping in progress
Cryptid Confidential - For 1-6 players -Early game play planning in progress
Galactic Gambit - Expansion prototyping in progress
Goons & Doubloons (2nd Edition) - Initial discussions
Monster Maul - War style card and dice game - In turnaround/re-development
Pall of Eternal Twilight - 5E D&D compatible campaign - Initial Adventure in development
Steam-Powered Sentinels - Tabletop skirmish game - 3D prototyping in progress
Terra Omega - Post Modern fantasy/sci-fi RPG - Initial concept design
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As you can see, our interests at Mythic Portal are broad and varied. We'll keep you posted as each game passes its various hurdles or milestones. Hopefully, you'll be playing these games sooner rather than later.
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More next week!
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-Gary
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December 7th, 2025 - Meeting "Your Tribe"
I love gaming conventions and I love game nights at your Friendly Local Game Store because you get to meet so many like minded folks. Basically, it is an opportunity to "hang with your tribe".
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And a what a many varied tribe there is in gaming. There are gamers of every stripe. From casual gamers that play classics like Monopoly, Clue or Sorry and if they feel adventurous they break out Catan of Ticket to Ride.
There are those that are fixated with building the perfect army, painting it meticulously and getting it to the table is a distant second thought.
There are folks that are at game cons with a truckload of cards. They can be pro players that make a living off tournament winnings or dabblers like me.
Some eschew boards, cards and miniatures entirely and simply play a game with their imagination and maybe a reference book for their chosen RPG. Still other set even the books aside and dress as their character and live the experience in a LARP. To everyone of you, I call you brother and sister in this crazy hobby we share and I hope someday to meet you across the table or at either yours or my booth at one of these magical places called Game Cons.
For years the "home con" for Mythic Portal Games has been Snow Con, Maine that occurs each January in the Bangor/Orono area of Maine. Yes, it is in January and there is almost always snow. Steam-Powered Sentinels was introduced publicly there, Galactic Gambit was play tested there and in another month Alien Agendas will be on sale there. So Snow Con is my first con of 2026, but I will be doing more and I hope to see you at some point, somewhere along the way.
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It is my intention to be at the following cons in the coming year:
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Snow Con - Maine: January 17th-18th - Orono, Maine.
Total Con: February 20th-22nd - Marlborough, Massachusetts
Ides of March: March 13th-15th - Rockland, Maine
Rising Phoenix Con: April 24th-26th - Milford, Massachusetts
Katahdin Con: October 24th-25th - Portland, Maine
I am investigating a few other cons. But I do have a day job that I need to show up for to keep the lights on at least for now.
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See ya on the road!
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-Gary
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December 1st, 2025 - Maximizing your Markets
Sorry for the delay in the log. Turkey hangover.
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For the first several years of its existence, Mythic Portal Games, LLC was strictly a publisher of on-line assets for Virtual Tabletop play. This all started 9 years ago with our Building Essentials assets to build very basic dungeons and castles on Roll20. That initial pack was born out of frustration when we tried to make a map on a VTT and found that there were no spiral staircase assets. So we made some and much more. Fast forward to today and we offer 165 packs of assets, tokens(in various styles), fully furnished maps from entire continents down to individual inn rooms and for not just Fantasy, but also Sci fi, Cthulu, Cyberpunk and Superhero milieus. There are more of these assets in the pipeline and many are also available on Fantasy Grounds.
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During this same time, Mythic Portal Games entered into a strategic Partnership with an up and coming VTT called Astral Tabletop, later Power VTT which was eventually acquired by One Book Shelf and discontinued. However, during this time we also commissioned dozens of fantastic audio tracks for the same genres we created assets for on VTTs. Mythic Portal Games was the house artist on the Astral platform for its limited run and all subscribers received our basic assets as part of their free tier and all the rest at a premium tier. Astral also had an integrated jukebox and our music and ambient tracks we a perfect fit to set a tone for your game on the virtual platform. That way everyone, even if they were a continent away, could experience the same sense of dread when you heard the dripping water and the distant dragon roar from the cavern ambience track. Or relax as you take a long rest with our crackling fire, woodland or tavern soundtracks.
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We also have anthems, themed for classes and occasions. The triumphant march of the conquering hero, the desultory dirge for the fallen king or the haunting theme for the lone ranger of the deep woods. We have made all of these and many more. Many have been published on DriveThruRPG with more to come as time allows me to get them published.
These audio files are available in both personal use and commercial use versions if you wish to use them in published VTT, video games, pod cast or live streams for profit.
You can find our Audio Offerings here on DriveThruRpg.com
and our Token, Map and Asset offerings on Roll20 here.
So go ahead and level up your RPG experience or incorporate our high quality assets in your products.
Commercial licensing for Tokens and Assets will be coming late 2026.
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See ya Next time!
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-Gary
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November 23rd, 2025 - That's a "Dam" Fine Idea
As previously noted, the creative wheels at Mythic Portal Games never stop spinning as evidenced by our most recent game in development. This is a story of how inspiration can come from out of thin air or even water.
I'll explain.
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A couple years ago I had the privilege to play a depressing but incredibly well designed game at SnowCon Maine from Smirk & Dagger called The Spill.
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The game pits the players against the ever increasing damage caused by an oil spill. The odds are certainly stacked against you, but the play was interesting. What most fascinated me was the tower at the center that randomized the distribution of the oil cubes/dice so you never knew when your quadrant of sea life would be in jeopardy. Definitely check out the game. There is a link above.
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Fast forward a year and I'm driving to visit my mother with my wife and son in the car and on the side of the road is a stream leading off a pond and the most magnificent beaver lodge I'd ever seen. It was huge. As far as I know, it is still there. And then the idea struck me. What if the players are all beavers trying to build a dam to prevent water from flowing off the playboard?
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It was at that moment that the "B" entry in the Mythic Portal development catalogue was born. What will eventually become Bungling Beavers came from that simple bit of input from the natural world. But where does "The Spill" come in to play. Well, the water(represented by blue marbles) will need to flow randomly into all four quadrants of the game board. The Spill is obviously a much more complicated concept and geared toward tweens and up. Bungling Beavers will see tots and up building their own dams and hoping that they build a strong enough structure to prevent the water(marbles) from flowing off the board.
The prototype of the randomizer tower, which in our case will be modeled on a dead tree like you would find in any swamp, is in progress. Here we have a prototype sculpt of the logs, too.
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​Obviously, there is a lot of work to be done. Lots of refinement. Cards to be made to indicate adding a log or two to your structure​​​​ or removing some logs from your opponents dams and of course dumping the marbles into the randomizer. However, this is where the process starts. Inspiration can come from anywhere. Hopefully, this answers the questions I get asked most often about "How do you get your ideas?" or "Where did this one come from?". Sometimes it comes from really cool games from other designers and sometimes from the world around you. Keep your eyes open and you'll find inspiration everywhere.
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-Gary​
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November 17th, 2025 - Nobody is Perfect
Firstly, let's start off this Designers Log with an apology. A heartfelt one from me to everyone currently in possession of a copy of Alien Agendas. Yup, I'm sorry. Your copy of the game has errors. I went through all the game files at least a half a dozen times before they went to the printer for production over the summer. But I missed a few things.
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Firstly, the card count in the rulebook is incorrect. The game has 71 Component cards, not 69. This error happened because I added one of each type of Homo Sapien (Male & Female) at the last minute to the game to help with some balance issues. Humans are the most common component in the agendas, obviously, since the agendas most often affect us.
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I also made the mistake of using a company to generate the QR code in the rulebook and on the Mythic Portal promotional card in the game that only provides temporary QR code redirects. So if you try to scan either the code in the rulebook or the promotional card they go nowhere. Whoops! This obviously does not affect gameplay, but if you want to catch up with Mythic Portal on our various socials it doesn't accomplish what I had hoped. Promote our brand. Here is an updated QR that
leads to the right place.
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​There are also two cards that had errors. The first one is the most serious.
The Agenda card "Infiltration" has the incorrect type of card icon next to the Calibrated Camouflage component.
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​​This error in the icon has caused consternation for players that search in vain for a Calibrated Camouflage card with that Science/Brain icon and it simply does not exist.
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The second error does not impact play of the game, but it just made sense to correct it. Again, an agenda card, "Extinction Event" is affected. The word other is misspelled as ohter. While this does not affect whether or not an Agenda can be completed effectively, the perfectionist in me needed to get it fixed.
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Since I am having new rulebooks and replacement cards printed, I also took the opportunity to implement some feedback provided by the very wise guys at Apis Gaming and added a card count for each of the components in the deck (for any cards that have more than one copy). This should aid in play by allowing shrewd players to realize that they should abandon certain agendas once the needed components become so rare as to make agenda completion highly unlikely. Again, you could play the game successfully without this information, but for the more hardcore players it is essential to their enjoyment.
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So what does this mean to you? It means that if we shipped you a copy of the game either through the Kickstarter or a direct purchase you will receive an updated rulebook and cards for each copy you purchased in the mail soon after I get them in from the manufacturer.
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If you purchased your copy through one of our fantastic retailers just drop an email to mythicportalgames@gmail.com and I'll get the replacements out to you as well.
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If you are one of those fantastic retailers, I'll be in touch to swap out any remaining inventory with updated copies with the corrections.
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Thank you all so much for your patience with these issues with our first game. Hopefully, we'll do better on the next one.​​
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-Gary​
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Original Card Updated Card
November 10th, 2025 - Steam-Powered Sentinels Tabletop
At least half a dozen years ago, I came up with a concept for a card game. It was set on Earth in the future (Baltimore, Maryland specifically). A grim future where unchecked underwater oil exploration awakened ancient terrors from their slumber in the deep. This concept eventually became the Steam-Powered Sentinels living card game.
The game was fun, it played well in all the playtests and was well received publicly at a couple of gaming conventions. The only problem was that it required over 400 cards, 100 glass aquarium stones divide amongst five colors, and a dozen metal cog tokens; which made it quite expensive to produce. Too expensive for such a young company like Mythic Portal Games at the time.
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We're still not a big enough company to launch a game with this sort of design all in one box. We toyed with the idea of launching it in sort of a Pokemon or Magic style CCG/TCG style with a premade decks and booster pack configuration, with cardboard chits instead of glass and metal, but that still was out of reach. Also the warehousing of thousands of copies of four different decks and cases and cases of random boosters would be a nightmare.
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Fast forward to now and we're going to prototype a new take on this property with a skirmish style tabletop miniatures game at 28 mm to pitch to larger publishers that specialize in miniature games or 3D print it like the folks at Trenchcoat Minis do.
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Let me introduce Robbie, the first of the animated robots. Powered by a coal powerplant, built by the mechanic, Ernest Hensley and brought to life by his fiancée, the magician Nicolette Giovanni.
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Here is a look at the original card art and the 3D model by Olivier Rheault-Hébert, a brilliant young 3D sculptor from Canada.
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This is only one game in the pipeline at Mythic Portal. We'll share more as we keep juggling all of these ideas and moving them forward one step at a time.
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-Gary
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