The genesis of Steel & Steam came from numerous playings of the Avalon Hill classic, Rail Baron. Rail Baron was a favorite of my son and his mother and we enjoyed playing many games together. However, over time, it became apparent that the game experience was not as rich as it could have been. Under…

Some algorithms are more difficult than others.  The brute force (obvious) method might work, but it also might take more time than you’re willing to spend, both in development and in the actual running of it. I finally figured out the fast method and the data was indeed well worth the effort. As an alternate…

The design and development of Steel & Steam is extremely data-centric.  All the stops and spaces have names and latitude and longitude coordinates.  All the payoff amounts are based on shortest-path algorithms that take into account the cumulation of track mileage between the lat/long coordinate positions. All the property values are based on their ability…

As I’ve written before, I’m sorta stuck on the game’s victory conditions.  Saturday’s play test session drove the point home, albeit indirectly. If the victory conditions are solely based on net worth, if cash on hand is equal in importance to property values, why buy properties?  This conundrum came up as four newbies started the…