Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Game Chef

Heya,

I've been quiet lately because I've been participating in The Game Chef competition. It's consuming all the time not dedicated to my job, eating, or sleeping. So it may be a while before I update anything. You can read about my game HERE if you like. Any feedback will be welcome :)

Peace,

-Troy

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Taking Notes

Heya,

Okay, I'm a little crazy. I'm coming out with 4 games this year and 4 games next year. Now, I want to say first off that these games are not polished super-gems along the lines of games like Dogs in the Vineyard, Polaris, The Mountain Witch, or Agon. They're not. In fact, I would look very closely at what Paul Czege is doing with his Ashcan Front. But that doesn't mean I don't take pride in them and work hard to get them as good as I can before they are released.

All that said, I'm still crazy. That's 8 complete and playable games in 2 years. So how do I do that? Well, I am never without a notebook of some kind. I carry it with me wherever I go. While I teach, while I ride in the car, while I work at home, while I play video games, I have a notebook with me. Any time I get an idea, I sketch it down. You'd be surprised (or may be you wouldn't, heh) when and where you get an idea. I make sure I don't lose any.

As a result, I've got dozen of concepts lying around. Sometimes, one will really strike my interest and I'll put it through my system design checklist. If I can do that, I'll work with it some more. Eventually, it might get to the stage where I may be able to draft a game out of it. If so, I work on it some more. But it all starts with taking notes and making sure I always have something to write with.

Hm. Maybe I oughtta develop the idea some more and make a Socratic Design post about this :)

Peace,

-Troy

Monday, March 12, 2007

Dark Sands- 2nd Playtest

Heya,

Got to test the system for Dark Sands again over the weekend. Things went really well. I'll post an AP thread about on the Forge when I get the energy. As for tonight, it's off to gradschool :(

Peace,

-Troy

Friday, March 9, 2007

The Importance of a Method

Heya,

One of my "things" as an RPG designer is to create tools that help me designer better and more complete games. If you ever read my other blog (Socratic Design) you're probably familiar with some of these that I've created:

The Power 19
Troy's 12 Step Process
The System Design Checklist
The Setting Design Jumpstart
Outlines for Design

I create these to make my job easier. Case and point: I was getting one of my games ready for an outside playtest. I had all kinds of notes on it and things that needed to be changed. I started editing the the thing and realized that my organization was awful! I contradicted myself in a few places. I repeated things. It was miserable. I remember back to when I origonally wrote the game and realized that I thought I could forsake using the tools I created and just free-hand it. Well, I can't. I learned my lesson. I'm the type of designer who needs these sorts of help devices to make sure the game I write is coherant, organized, and complete. And that's just to get it into a playtestable form! For me to not use these tools would be stupid.

Peace,

-Troy

Thursday, March 8, 2007

Dark Sands: 1st Playtest

Heya,

You can read my first playtest of Dark Sands on The Forge. I'm pretty happy with the way it went. Expect another next week some time. Feedback is welcome!

Peace,

-Troy

Wednesday, March 7, 2007

My Current Projects:

Heya,

So let me just describe what I'm working on at the moment. First, I'm finishing up the layout on The Holmes and Watson Committee. It will be out in September of this year. It will also conclude the first series for DL-Quarterly. In December, I'll be releasing the first game for DL-Quarterly Series #2. At the moment, I've got five games I'm working on:

Saviours- A superhero fighty game of temptation and esteem
Ballin'- A game about professional basketball players set in the future
No Greater Love- A game of antiheroes and what's important to them
Dark Sands- A raw fantasy game set on a desert planet
The Hunt- A game of Humans vs. The Terrors of the Night

One of these five won't make the cut. I'll take the four best and turn them into issues for DL-Quarterly, the fifth I'll put on my sight for free. I'll talk more about each of them as my time permits. Until next time!

Peace,

-Troy

Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Opening A New Space

Heya,

A wise man named Paul said that we should get back to designing in public. The forums at The Forge and Gamecraft are nice, but they don't allow me the freedom and tools I can get with a blog. So I'm opening up a second blog to discuss my actual designs. My first blog, Socratic Design, is meant solely as a place to post and discuss design tools and theory. This is my personal space where I work and talk about my projects. I'll be starting soon, so keep watching :)

Peace,

-Troy
  • Divine Legacy
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