Observations of the Fox

Spider's Dance Here's a little something I've been working on as a solo game project for the Solo Game Design Challenge. I'm trying to leave it pretty self explanatory. Tell me what you think...

I had fun doing my “Game Mechanism of the Week” series in 2009, so I’ve decided that I’ll do it again. It’s not that I’ve instantly thought of 52 more mechanisms to look at, but rather that I could do the series better. Maybe do things in a more focused manner; then combine what I’ve developed in Vector Theory in the hope that both concepts will be stronger for it. Where possible I’ll be trying to pull in some new game mechanisms, but I’ll be drawing on some of the previous mechanisms for a more detailed analysis. It’s the kind of things that I was hoping to do the first time around, but this time I have a better perspective, grounding in my own game design theories, and hopefully a better way to explain things. The concept of the “Game Mechanism of the Week” is important to me for a few reasons. It’s my way of understanding the elements that make up games, and the way those elements combine into unique play experiences. Finally, the way I see it, the analysis of game mechanisms ta...

New Year...new ideas. No, actually its going to be year of revisiting old ideas. Getting them finished...Getting them right. I've been plugging away at my Quincunx Graphic Novel over the past few weeks. The first 28 page issue (of 6) is getting its final touches, and I have about 75% of the CGI renderings, photographs and ink paintings to complete the remaining issues. The last few days have been all about compiling the stuff I've got rather than fussing over details and avoiding the task of actually compiling the end product. Hopefully that labour of love will be done soon. This year I've also committed to releasing a few new variants/expansions for my Hold Em Scene Generator , a product released late last year on RPGNow. It's already started selling and might actually turn out to be a decent earner if the current numbers keep up. One release per month would be nice easy target (as long as things don't get too chaotic elsewhere in my life). I also have to get the ...

Two quick things in this post... First a link to a post on someone else's blog. I read it and instantly thought it might be useful for those people who come here looking for design advice. I agree with the sentiments in this post, I've had game ideas in the first stage that have been sunk through option paralysis when other contributors have had great ideas to contribute, but haven't offered a decent way to integrate them into what has already been defined...and I've had just as many projects sink when other people who claimed early interest simple disappeared when the call for playtesting or constructive feedback was announced. The most important thing when designing a game is to give it your enthusiasm and don't let others demoralise you. My second part to this post... When did Storygames come back online? I've been looking at it once or twice a week for over a month now and have always been getting a page indicating that Storygames is suffering database diffi...

This may be my last post for 2010, it's been a pretty wild ride. Loss of a job that I thought was going well, moving house, declaring bankruptcy, meeting new friends, getting disillusioned by old friends. My thoughts on Vector Theory have been refined somewhat through the posts I've made. The games I've written throughout the year have started receiving some positive attention, and that's always good. My comic is getting ever closer to completion. It's generally been a year where unfinished projects have been worked on and exploration in the left field has proven useful. I had hoped to get a few more projects completed this year, but that just didn't prove to be. Sometimes life just gets in the way...and if you worry about this too much, you forget to live life and just enjoy it while you've got it. Let's see what happens next year.

I've been thinking about the idea of hit points in games. They appear in computer "RPG" games, and they've been a staple in tabletop games since the beginning of the hobby. I've discussed them a few times in old posts, and ways that they might be looked at. Alternate suggestions in other games have included a standardised range of "health levels", or penalty levels incurred for different degrees of damage. But what I'm more interested in today are the alternatives for damage. In a social game you might look at political penalties that make it harder for you to accomplish social activities, or a pool of reputation points that absorb the insults and treachery of your opponents. In a digital "Tron"-style setting, you might have a pool of energy points that fulfill the dual purpose of absorbing incoming effects while being used to fuel attacks of your own (a precedent for this might be blood points in Vampire: the Masquerade/Requiem). I'm t...

Just a quick post to see if any readers out there might be interested in joining a design collective. A group of designers who are interested in cross promoting their games and game ideas, who will help each other out with industry ideas and game design advice. This group will probably also work on a few communal projects, as well as getting the support they need to get their own games going. There are a few core members, and the finer details are being worked out. I just thought I'd share this news to see if anyone else was interested. Reply to this or send me an email if you'd like more information.