False Starts
Two train trips this week meant two false starts on a new project.
I start things to keep my mind active, because grinding down on existing projects is often monotonous, and frustrating. The problem here is that I realise, once I get a bit into the "new" project that it isn't really new at all. Quite often I'm just retreading the same ground, or fusing together elements of two old projects.
It's like taking a massive journey, walking a few hundred metres from home, going back to the house and then starting another journey the next day. Even if you set out in different directions every day, you don't really get anywherr, but you do develop intimate knowledge of the local area around your house.
I feel like I've developed that intimate knowledge in a specific field of game design, but it doesn't feel like an area that many other people want to play in. It's adjacent to a few different more popular areas, and occasionally another designer will lead their players across my patch, bit their always using it as a stepping stone to somewhere else.
This week's starts looked at a simple miniatures exploration game using the modular dungeon fragments. But once I looked at them, I realised I'd already explored these ideas from various angles. One attempt started looking like a variant clone of Catacomb Quest, another attempt started looking like BYOM, a third version was looking like The Law.
I started to wonder why I was even bothering with rewriting stuff I'd done previously.
So, instead of rewriting something that is very similar to unfinished projects I've already got on tne backburner, I'm going to add to an existing project and try to get it into a state that I'm happy showing to people. That means nailing down the BYOM rules, creating some sample starter characters and a few scenarios, then bundling together a playtest kit. Ra
I start things to keep my mind active, because grinding down on existing projects is often monotonous, and frustrating. The problem here is that I realise, once I get a bit into the "new" project that it isn't really new at all. Quite often I'm just retreading the same ground, or fusing together elements of two old projects.
It's like taking a massive journey, walking a few hundred metres from home, going back to the house and then starting another journey the next day. Even if you set out in different directions every day, you don't really get anywherr, but you do develop intimate knowledge of the local area around your house.
I feel like I've developed that intimate knowledge in a specific field of game design, but it doesn't feel like an area that many other people want to play in. It's adjacent to a few different more popular areas, and occasionally another designer will lead their players across my patch, bit their always using it as a stepping stone to somewhere else.
This week's starts looked at a simple miniatures exploration game using the modular dungeon fragments. But once I looked at them, I realised I'd already explored these ideas from various angles. One attempt started looking like a variant clone of Catacomb Quest, another attempt started looking like BYOM, a third version was looking like The Law.
I started to wonder why I was even bothering with rewriting stuff I'd done previously.
So, instead of rewriting something that is very similar to unfinished projects I've already got on tne backburner, I'm going to add to an existing project and try to get it into a state that I'm happy showing to people. That means nailing down the BYOM rules, creating some sample starter characters and a few scenarios, then bundling together a playtest kit. Ra
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