A few days ago I was doing some organizing and came across the very first version of the game board for Three Days on Callisto. It wasn’t dated but must have been made some time in the summer of 2014. It was like coming across an infant photo of your six-year-old kid. The game has changed a lot in that time, but it’s interesting to recognize some of its current features in a simpler form.
The board consisted mainly of 19 circles of four colors. Players took turns placing cubes on them until everyone was out of cubes. Each circle held up to three cubes, and at the end of the placement phase if at least one of the cubes in a circle was yours you got to do a corresponding action. The color of the circle determined the type of action. If all three of the cubes in a circle were yours (i.e. you “dominated” the circle) you got to do a powered up version of that action.
Green “Resource” circles gave you another cube for next round’s placement.
Red “Military” circles allowed you to attack an opponent’s cube in an adjacent circle.
Blue “Tech” circles moved you up one of the three technology tracks.
And the orange “Victory” circles simply granted you points.
So essentially it was a worker placement game with four fairly basic worker placement actions, but with the added dimension that workers in adjacent spaces could interact through attack and defense. This combative aspect of the game didn't last long, but while it did it led to various other changes, some of which survive in the current version of the game.
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