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Mikan posted:I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing - you need a break from projects so you can look at them with a critical eye or to recharge after dealing with them for a while, and at least it keeps you working on something - but it can be a pain.
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Nov 6, 2013 18:01
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You can worry about originality after you finish some games. Original is the absolute last thing you should be worrying about. I know that makes me sound like a hypocrite (because I am!) but focus on making a good version of whatever you're writing for now. The goal is to finish games, not second guess games.
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Nov 6, 2013 18:14
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What Mikan said. Your first goal should be something complete, then you can come back and fine-tune the gently caress out of it later. Personally, what keeps me focused on one thing at a time is consistency and willpower. I work on my main project every day, even if it's just 10 minutes scribbling out a map or an NPC or something. And when I get the urge to change track, I write down my great idea with maybe a little expansion - perhaps a project list - save it, then get back to work on the main one.
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Nov 6, 2013 19:15
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I'm just going to keep spamming this thread with updates and changelogs, is that okay? More updates to Power of the Elements today. Changelog • Added the Whirlwind move for the Champion of Air. • Redid Champions of Metal. They now get the ability to store liquid metal reserves in their body to make things with, but suffer a CHA penalty as they • Added the Strange Scents move to the Champion of Nature. • Changed the Beasttongue move a bit. • Added Wavestrider to the Champion of Water. To Do • Write up the magic items. Ideally I'd like two items per element, but that may not be practical. • Come up with the last Champion of Earth move. • Come up with a better Champion of Air move than Fresh Air. • Come up with a non-healing Champion of Water move.
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Nov 6, 2013 21:42
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Evil Mastermind posted:I'm just going to keep spamming this thread with updates and changelogs, is that okay? Post like crazy. I find I'm a lot more motivated to keep working when I feel accountable to a group of other writers/when I've got that support. I wrote Last Stand with Rulebook Heavily, Drakkar, Dagon, Lemon Curdistan, Flaky Biscuit, and Mors Rattus peering over my shoulder (via IRC) and we yell at each other to write new Dungeon World stuff. Well, we did before everyone started working on other projects. Now we yell about those. It's not a case of feeling pressured to write; it's more a sense of community. Writing is lonely as hell and it's nice to know other people are either paying attention or suffering alongside you with their own work.
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Nov 6, 2013 23:53
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potatocubed posted:What Mikan said. Your first goal should be something complete, then you can come back and fine-tune the gently caress out of it later. So I'm in a different position, then. I've finished two projects and put them out for the world to see, but I'm not totally happy with either so I'm going back and revising. The goal is now to finish revising and adding to the smaller one, The Tantalizing Sub-World. I put out that free version for GameChef, where I couldn't put in everything I wanted because of the contest's length restriction. Then I will lay it out, get a cover and put it out as a pdf to start charging some money for it, hopefully get some interest and some people playing it. Basically the main rules content as they are now will be free, with the additional content hopefully inspiring people to pay a bit of money for a pdf. In this way I hope to get the benefits of 'free = more exposure' and 'paid = more likely to actually play'. Smart idea or stupid? Any general tips on what to do for this phase? Should I be promoting now by showing around the GameChef version and posting on various forums or should I wait until I'm getting closer to having all the additional content done? Edit: I should say that my goal with this project is mainly exposure, so people will play and enjoy my game and maybe recognize my name on my future games. Later I hope to actually make some money with SBBQ - enough to pay for art and printing physical books, anyway. Jimbozig fucked around with this message at 00:24 on Nov 7, 2013 |
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Nov 7, 2013 00:20
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Jimbozig posted:Should I be promoting now by showing around the GameChef version and posting on various forums or should I wait until I'm getting closer to having all the additional content done? I'd wait until you're closer to finished. You want the free version to be fresh in the public's mind around the time you release the paid version; otherwise, you're wasting hype. If there's an appreciable span of time between releasing the free and paid versions, people are going to get excited about your initial product and then have nowhere to direct their hype. Then it's going to fade and you'll have to do it all over again when the paid version comes out. You want your initial release to be as hype as possible for a chance at building a fanbase. There are a lot of RPGs and a lot of promises to get excited over. Your project will quickly be forgotten in favor of something else if you make people wait. This is especially important for you (you, in this case, being anyone who hasn't released a game) because you don't have a track record yet. A slow burn can work with an existing fanbase, if they've got prior examples of your work to direct people to, but this will be your first real release. You need to come out strong.
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Nov 7, 2013 00:26
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Three more Icons up for the Sepulcher! -The Rebellion, the racist leader of the humans. -The Revenant, the good "free undead" leader. -The Tarnished Hope, a champion of good who has fallen and now champions a much darker cause. Tumblr link again. Just one left, the Vagrant, and then I can start working on some other pieces. I guess races is next.
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Nov 7, 2013 07:40
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Mikan posted:You can worry about originality after you finish some games. Original is the absolute last thing you should be worrying about. Speaking of which, I've been working on this:  A writeup of World War Hulk as a full-fledged event for Marvel Heroic. I was stuck on my more original RPG concept, so I'm taking a break from that and working on something delightfully derivative. I figured if I can put as much work "adapting" something like this as I "adapt" books to FATAL & Friends, I can definitely get it together. (My review of Pathfinder was novel-length.) I'm most of the way through the sourcebook portion at this point, and hopefully writing up the three acts will go a bit faster. Mikan posted:I know that makes me sound like a hypocrite (because I am!) but focus on making a good version of whatever you're writing for now. As a wise man once said, "I don't practice what I preach, because I'm not the kind of person I'm preachin' to."
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Nov 7, 2013 14:59
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Wrote three icons: a force of inevitable self-destruction, the puppetmaster defense personified, and a FYGM dragon. We'll see if this goes anywhere.
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Nov 8, 2013 00:35
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FYGM?
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Nov 8, 2013 02:53
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Evil Mastermind posted:FYGM? gently caress You, Got Mine
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Nov 8, 2013 02:57
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Or, in most cases, FYGMFY. gently caress You, Got Mine From You.
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Nov 8, 2013 02:59
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Evil Mastermind posted:FYGM? For Your Game Master?  (It's "gently caress you got mine" and encapsulates greed)
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Nov 8, 2013 02:59
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Ah. I'm used to seeing it the other way around ("got mine, gently caress you").
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Nov 8, 2013 03:20
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My advice to you, my friend, is to find some gold--not my gold!--and sit on it.
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Nov 8, 2013 03:33
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New entries for the Sepulcher! This time I wrote up the final Icon, the Vagrant, an elf who leads a group of non-human nomads called the Wanderers. I also wrote about the new races I'm introducing, of which there are five: Quiet Demons, who have traded the ferocity and strength of a typical demon for free will, and four kinds of free undead. They are vampires, ghouls, wraiths, and devourers. The idea behind them is they are in line with other races, but can be stronger if they regularly indulge in their particular needs from living beings: blood for vampires, flesh for ghouls, will/souls for wraiths, and thoughts and memories for devourers. I currently have a racial ability for the demons (Demonic Rage), but still need to think about the undead. Tumblr link, and comments always welcome.
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Nov 8, 2013 07:35
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I've added a bit more fluff to the ants (not uploaded), so this weekend its time to do the map and mechanics.
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Nov 8, 2013 08:53
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My actual paying job does a good job of killing a great deal of my day-end game-making ambition, but I have been trying to cover at least a tiny bit of ground each day. Still mostly plugging away at the Arcadia-like FF game, trying to come up with a design for the job class cards I'm happy with. Because space is a limited commodity, I'm resigned to use various icons representing the job abilities people have access to. But by breaking every job's abilities down onto individual cards, it does provide more options in terms of offering new abilities and letting players pick and choose what they want. Which is kind of appealing in an original FF four-spells-to-choose-from-but-only-room-to-learn-three sort of way. I was kind of fretting that this might lead to players having to manage a large number of cards, but the more I think on it, the more I suspect it's probably not even as bad as 4e power cards. I've got 7 races and 9 classes at the moment, and making pretty cards for them has taken a fair bit of thought. When each class is going to have something to the tune of 15 abilities, that's still another 135 cards. Then there are also the various iconic item cards, probably another 40 or so of those to start. And these are just the character-building cards. I'm not even dealing with the world-building tile-cards or anything yet. For a simple, even casual project, this thing sure has a way of requiring a significant investment of time. Especially when my time would be better spent making things that could actually be marketed. Ah well.
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Nov 8, 2013 09:07
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bahamut posted:My actual paying job does a good job of killing a great deal of my day-end game-making ambition, but I have been trying to cover at least a tiny bit of ground each day. Still mostly plugging away at the Arcadia-like FF game, trying to come up with a design for the job class cards I'm happy with. Because space is a limited commodity, I'm resigned to use various icons representing the job abilities people have access to. Honestly, with an idea like that, I don't think it'd be hard to reskin it into something you can market. I really like the idea of using physical cards to represent abilities and equipment.
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Nov 8, 2013 09:11
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Spincut posted:Honestly, with an idea like that, I don't think it'd be hard to reskin it into something you can market. I really like the idea of using physical cards to represent abilities and equipment.
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Nov 8, 2013 10:22
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So, I took this thread's advice, downloaded Scribus and paid for a bunch of usable artwork, and got my game Legacy into a publishable state. I'm happy to announce it's now published and online at DriveThruRPG. While the game's in this second round of playtesting I'm selling it at a reduced price and promising a free upgrade to the full copy to everyone who submits feedback. No idea if this is a dumb idea or not, but with the sales I've got already this is starting to turn a profit! Thanks to everyone who encouraged me to push this far.
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Nov 8, 2013 13:44
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That looks awesome. Gonna advertise it a little bit to some folks who are interested in generational gameplay. Folks if you finish your game (and it's not terrible) I will make sure people hear about it. Get your games out there and I will help you sell them. I finished a game yesterday and I have thoughts about some other posts but I'm exhausted and need to get some sleep first.
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Nov 8, 2013 13:52
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Legacy is also the thread's first official success story. Congrats! Into the OP it goes.
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Nov 8, 2013 13:56
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I will get mine out there too 
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Nov 8, 2013 14:22
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I finished a game too, add me to the wall of cool people.
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Nov 8, 2013 14:48
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Flavivirus posted:So, I took this thread's advice, downloaded Scribus and paid for a bunch of usable artwork, and got my game Legacy into a publishable state. I'm happy to announce it's now published and online at DriveThruRPG. Now I have to finish and publish to not look bad 
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Nov 8, 2013 14:49
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Mikan posted:I finished a game too, add me to the wall of cool people. Man you didn't need help to do it. (Okay fine)
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Nov 8, 2013 14:51
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Rulebook Heavily posted:Man you didn't need help to do it. You, more than anyone, should know how long it takes me to release new things! Maybe I'll have to whine more on IRC about how difficult publishing is 
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Nov 8, 2013 14:52
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Mikan posted:You, more than anyone, should know how long it takes me to release new things! Maybe I'll have to whine more on IRC about how difficult publishing is Okay Fine 
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Nov 8, 2013 14:59
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I have finished, fully functional Brazilian Portuguese versions of the player's moves, GM moves and playbooks of Monsterhearts, Monster of the Week, Inverse World and like 90% of Dungeon World (an older version, before the print book came out). I guess that counts as a finished project...? I don't distribute them, but use in my own games. They're kinda not very useful without the full books, so it makes no sense to distribute them when there are no translations of the books around. Project involve translating Apocalypse World's playbooks, and setting up FATE to run Unknown Armies.
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Nov 8, 2013 15:08
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Some more Ant fluff: Other ways to encounter Ants Flying ants These are males on a nuptial flight with a winged queen ant. They will not attack unless attacked themselves, and will only swarm if the queen is attacked. Floating ants Some ants are able to survive floods or cross water by linking themselves into a floating platform. This platform is nigh unsinkable, and may, depending on the number and size of the ants involved be able to support at least a small humanoid. The ants are likely to object unless the passenger has some way to calm them or disguise themselves. An ant-originated monster for an appendix: Tinker Ants - A colony of mining ants that started making new ants out of the metal they mined; the original ants are long dead, but the colony continues to function, building new members or repairing themselves as required. Would use the stats for Gold, Silver or Iron ants plus the Construct template, or any clockwork ants that already exist in the setting. Ant nest so far  Going to detail the rest of the chambers digitally, and probably move the layout around a bit more.
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Nov 10, 2013 22:46
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My big dilemma is, and always has been, my friends/family never want to play the games I want to play/make. Like, right nowadays I've been trying to talk my 4e group into playing a completely stripped down version of the game, and I swear I can hear their sphincters clenching and they get this  or  look on their faces.Also, I don't have an originality bone in my body.
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Nov 11, 2013 06:18
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P.d0t posted:Also, I don't have an originality bone in my body. Originality is highly overrated. The old saying is "Good artists copy, great artists steal" and it's one hundred percent true, nothing is completely original, everything you love is based on something that came before it. There is no crime in taking ideas from your predecessors and putting your own spin on them. We wouldn't have The Lord of the Rings if Tolkien was afraid of ripping off European folklore, we wouldn't have Star Wars if Lucas was afraid of ripping off Buck Rogers and Akira Kurosawa and we wouldn't have Pulp Fiction if Tarantino was afraid to rip off just about everyone who came before him. Go out and find the things you like, mash them together and fearlessly create something new out of them. Just remember that the sign of a professional over an amateur is the ability to hide your sources.
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Nov 11, 2013 06:39
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Well yeah, but that's really the secondary issue.
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Nov 11, 2013 06:44
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P.d0t posted:My big dilemma is, and always has been, my friends/family never want to play the games I want to play/make. Do you have enough material so you could get a GM and a buncha goons on IRC to playtest your product?
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Nov 11, 2013 06:46
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Mystic Mongol posted:Do you have enough material so you could get a GM and a buncha goons on IRC to playtest your product? The short answer is yes. Basically I had an overly-complex idea for a game, got stuck in a rut, and then decided to do a ground-up rebuild/rewrite; Jimbozig has been helping me with maths, and so it's in a state where I'd say it's more or less mechanically playable, but it would be effectively alpha testing/magical tea party/fiat-heavy stuff and probably not super thematically interesting. But since I began with a complex idea, at least I know what I'd be building towards.
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Nov 11, 2013 06:56
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P.d0t posted:The short answer is yes. Then getting a playtest group together isn't hard at all. Just, you know. Do it. Name a time, you'll get playtesters and trainwreck gawkers alike.
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Nov 11, 2013 06:57
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P.d0t posted:Also, I don't have an originality bone in my body.
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Nov 11, 2013 06:58
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Evil Mastermind posted:Dude, did you see my list of projects? Everything there is based on something else. Yeah, I had a phase where I was big into making scenarios for Axis&Allies. And by that I mean swapping territory ownership and throwing on some house rules; I never got around to, like, changing the starting unit setup  I also had the idea of doing an A&A-style game with units inspired by Team Fortress classes. I guess the missing context is that the game I'm working on is Yet Another d20 rehash and i have yet to do anything that really sets it apart from that festering dumpster fire.
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Nov 11, 2013 07:05
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