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Fivemarks posted:I'm working on like, a more rules in depth mecha thing, but I feel like it isn't worth it. I'm making it because I love giant robots and RPGs, but It feels a bit like I'm just a shitgoblin stabbing the ankles of giants. It doesn't matter how much effort i put into making the rules good and making it fun to play- It'll just end up being compared to Lancer, and Lancer will always win that comparison because it has an actual artist making it, and players these days care more about Art than anything else. Why are you doing this? Is it for them, or for you? Personally, I make games mostly out of spite. I think that qualifies as "for me." I don't need acclaim or acknowledgement (though they're nice, I suppose). It's very likely I'll pseudonymize because the point is just to put something great into existence. No point in comparing it to anything else. Money'd be nice, too, but I doubt anyone gets rich here. haha.
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Apr 21, 2020 01:04
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UnCO3 posted:Also, get on this list Who? Ettin, publish as Weird Age Games Where? itch.io, DriveThruRPG (some products), Twitter, Patreon What do I do? Tabletop RPGs with weird settings and a narrative focus. My last major projects were Breakfast Cult and Retrocausality, and you might also know Oh, Dang! Bigfoot Stole My Car With My Friend's Birthday Present Inside. What am I working on? Currently working on Hard Wired Island. Ettin fucked around with this message at 15:00 on Apr 21, 2020 |
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Apr 21, 2020 13:58
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Would I be allowed to toss out a couple ideas I've had for games and get some feedback? I mostly want to know if they're even practical to produce in the long run, but I don't have any experience actually producing games.
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Apr 25, 2020 00:54
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Elblanco posted:Would I be allowed to toss out a couple ideas I've had for games and get some feedback? I mostly want to know if they're even practical to produce in the long run, but I don't have any experience actually producing games. I think that's probably fine. There is also a board game design thread if they fall more under that. I work in tabletop games so I can probably provide some insights either way.
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Apr 25, 2020 02:24
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I just posted a financial postmortem for the Bleak Spirit KS which explains where all the money went, in case people are interested. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/179941520/bleak-spirit/posts/2820467
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Apr 25, 2020 23:59
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Elblanco posted:Would I be allowed to toss out a couple ideas I've had for games and get some feedback? I mostly want to know if they're even practical to produce in the long run, but I don't have any experience actually producing games. potatocubed posted:I just posted a financial postmortem for the Bleak Spirit KS which explains where all the money went, in case people are interested.
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Apr 26, 2020 18:02
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At the time 10c/word was a decent going rate, so I worked out that a scenario was somewhere in the ballpark of 800 words, hit up some contributors and said 'Hey, here's roughly what I want, I'll pay you a flat $100. Interested?' I've just opened the files to check and Kienna's piece came out at 653 words, Takuma's at 781 words, and Alastor's at 682. The five I wrote average out at 756.6 words each, so it's all in roughly the same bracket.
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Apr 26, 2020 19:08
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Thanks—I'm considering asking for paid contributions on some future projects, so it's good to know. Current state of the list as I slowly work my way through the thread:
code:UnCO3 fucked around with this message at 09:17 on Apr 27, 2020 |
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Apr 26, 2020 19:46
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Thanks guys! I'll probably copy all this into the other thread too. So I have an idea for a Robot fighting game that I'm currently calling Mecha Melee. It would mainly be 1v1 gameplay with each player building a robot model out of pre-magnitized parts. They would also have a small board with cards also showing the abilities and stats, as well as being used to represent when weapons and abilities have been used. This board I'm calling the control panel. The game is played on a 3 foot by 3 foot play space with movement being measure with a ruler or measuring tape. Overall I'm trying to make a game with customization robot model that fight, kind of a tabletop interpretation of the Custom Robo series of video games. In theory I want them to be 6 or so inches tall, and be able to swap parts so you have your own robot to play. My big concern is that if I ever get to a point where I can produce the game, would this even be possible? I feel like it would require sacrificing detail of the parts, or size or material quality. I know it probably sounds weird that I'm nowhere near printing anything, but I would at least like to invest a ton of time and energy into making a game that can feasibly be printed one day.
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Apr 26, 2020 20:32
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Elblanco posted:Thanks guys! I'll probably copy all this into the other thread too. It should be, I can't remember it's name but I know there was a similar game at some point because I picked up a core box at Origins back in 07 or 08. I'll see if i can dig up a name? edit: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/4024/ronin-duels I never played it so i can't tell you anything about it beyond there were robots and you stuck different parts on them to get different things
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Apr 26, 2020 20:36
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UnCO3 posted:Thanks—I'm considering asking for paid contributions on some future projects, so it's good to know. Increasingly I'm in favour of working out an approximate word count, rounding up, and offering that as a flat fee. Especially for small things like that. Makes it easier to budget for Kickstarters and the like too.
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Apr 26, 2020 21:05
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Elblanco posted:Thanks guys! I'll probably copy all this into the other thread too. I can answer this, as I’m technically on the miniature creation side of things by taking the time to try and become an actual miniature-making professional. So, you’re looking at three separate expenses right now: design, tooling and moldmaking, and production. Design-wise, I’m more familiar with traditional sculpting, where my understanding of the industry standard for full reproduction rights and the original greens is generally $5-10/mm (150 - 300 for your average 28mm-scale mini), depending on artist. Digital rates are a field I’m unfamiliar with, but you can probably ballpark that for your models for each complete robot (legs, torso, arms, head). This is for the design stuff, and working with any artist, understand what you’re asking for, timelines, revisions, etc. The rates are also assuming you’re working with someone that has miniature design experience, which I would definitely recommend. I would say digital is pretty essential for this kind of project, especially if you want any kind of distribution. Tooling and moldmaking is how you put this in production. As you sound like you want to do injection molding for your parts, know that this is really expensive. If you’re fine with higher per-unit costs, you can work with traditional casting companies and do it in resin or metal more cheaply, but that’s harder for the consumer. I love the idea of this, but it would be hilariously expensive to get a physical run built out with decent detail and enough variation to justify the part-swapping elements. Thankfully, we have 3d printing coming up now, and that turns this from “requires Hasbro-cash to match your vision” to “possible with a good demo and initial rollout”. So, what you’d need there is files designed for printing them, plus instructions on how to add magnets to them so that parts are legitimately easy to swap out. This makes material distribution much easier, although you’re now vulnerable to  if you’re charging for model packs. Look at some of the stuff Gaslands led to in the 3d printing realm for game parts for an idea of where this can go. As far as design - is this more of a boardgame or wargame/miniature game? The expected detail and hobbyist time changes depending on that answer. Oh yeah - as a final point, would indicating my work in miniature design be cool in this thread? I’m available for freelance miniature sculpture and design, and while it’s a bit more physical than other elements in here, it kinda fits?
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Apr 26, 2020 21:21
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Elblanco posted:Thanks guys! I'll probably copy all this into the other thread too. Moving into production on this, it depends how you foresee it. If you want it to be 3D Printable with players putting in the magnets on their own, that's easy enough, but confines your player base to a VERY niche set of individuals. If you wanted to actually have a factory create this, with the magnets and pieces already assembled together, that's going to be expensive. Magnets aren't cheap, and the labor to place the magnets into all of the minis on the assembly line will really increase the cost over a 1-4 piece assembled miniature. I think you'd probably have to sell it direct-to-consumer, so that you can keep your price point manageable and still have a margin. Kickstarter would love a good gimmick like this though if you put in the work ahead of time, but I'm not sure something this outside-the-box and of this magnitude is a great idea as a first crowdfunding campaign.
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Apr 27, 2020 06:18
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I finished by first adventure as a project lead. It's a part point-crawl, part dungeon crawl. It's dense, easy to get into and easy to build on. If you're interested here's the link: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse.php?discount=99758cca4a
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Apr 27, 2020 23:22
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Thank you guys for the insight! I think I'll work on other projects for now, try and get those published before I tackle something so big.
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Apr 29, 2020 01:35
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Just filed my tax return for 2019/2020 and ouch. That number. My tiny business seems to pendulum back and forth between 'kickstarter year, huge tax bill' and 'non-kickstarter year, tax rebate'.
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May 7, 2020 15:09
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'Making enough to pay taxes'? What's that?
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May 14, 2020 20:29
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It's because I have a day job which pays ~£30K, so about 25% of everything I get from a KS goes off to the taxman.
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May 14, 2020 21:47
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UnCO3 posted:This thread is also not for promotion of corporate products. It's pretty unlikely that anyone here is responsible for marketing at a major tabletop games company, but this also applies to freelancers doing work for those businesses – advertise your work that you were contracted to provide them, not their product that you contributed only part of. This doesn’t apply to worker co-ops like the San Jenaro Co-op or to looser alignments like the UK Indie RPG League. I've been inspired to try to create some original setting content for a SRD/Creative Commons/open licensed based rules system by a small (but arguably prestigious) publisher. Recently that publisher further made resources available to self publish via DTRPG's Community Content program. Thus I started looking for SA threads about this development, without much luck, but did came across this somewhat related thread. I'd like to discuss more but also want to respect the OPs wishes. May I continue or is it better I start a new thread? This has been a very informative topic by the way, the work you've (and others) put into it is greatly appreciated.  Thanks!
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May 14, 2020 23:31
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potatocubed posted:Just filed my tax return for 2019/2020 and ouch. That number. The trick for me has been to over estimate the tax burden, keep it locked away, then you get a kinda-sorta-rebate when the time comes. But yeah I filed and did big cartoon dog eyes this year too also hey friends its me Nems I run Sandy Pug games [*]Nemesis Of Moles / Sandy Pug Games : Indie TTRPGs, card games, I make co-ops kinda?; past projects include Orc Stabr, Americana, Disposable Heroes; find me on itch.io, DriveThruRPG, Twitter. Nemesis Of Moles fucked around with this message at 23:52 on May 14, 2020 |
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May 14, 2020 23:47
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This might be of interest to people here, both experienced and new: the Wretched & Alone Game Jam (nothing to do with me). It's a game jam for games using the 'Wretched & Alone' SRD (free here), a 1-player Jenga tower/dice/card system for stories of inevitable, yet seemingly-avoidable decline and demise. The two games written before the jam are:
If you don't have a Jenga tower then here's a substitute mechanic I posted on twitter and on the jam's itch forum—for this one you only need access to an online dice roller like orokos or a discord dicebot. The system is simple but looks solid and can be easily ported to different settings and stories as-is, and the layout and style of the existing games is pretty simple too; black text on a white background with full-page cover images almost would fit right in. The only things you really need to do are:
I've got a few ideas myself, but I've also got 2 more game jams to publish for, so I may not be able to get around to any of the 3 ideas I have for WA. Pale Peril posted:I've been inspired to try to create some original setting content for a SRD/Creative Commons/open licensed based rules system by a small (but arguably prestigious) publisher.
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May 16, 2020 18:29
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I'm chatting with some people about a project they want to run. It's the next book in a growing universe of games they're building, and they're thinking of offering older games in the series as a pledge level on the Kickstarter. I was just wondering if anyone here had any experience with that and how they went about it. My gut says it's a solid incentive for the base pledge level, but the group at large seems to want to make it a higher pledge tier, and I see the value there too.
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May 19, 2020 22:37
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misterbobperson posted:I finished by first adventure as a project lead. It's a part point-crawl, part dungeon crawl. It's dense, easy to get into and easy to build on. If you're interested here's the link: That name sounds great, although the link just adds the product to my cart without letting me read about it.
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May 20, 2020 01:41
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Nemesis Of Moles posted:I'm chatting with some people about a project they want to run. It's the next book in a growing universe of games they're building, and they're thinking of offering older games in the series as a pledge level on the Kickstarter. I was just wondering if anyone here had any experience with that and how they went about it. My gut says it's a solid incentive for the base pledge level, but the group at large seems to want to make it a higher pledge tier, and I see the value there too. IMO the base pledge should just be the game people are backing for, and higher tiers can get you the extras at a discount. It keeps things simple for the folks who just want the game you're KSing and it's a solid incentive for people to up their pledge.
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May 20, 2020 08:10
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Didn't the 7th Sea 2e. kickstarter kinda screw themselves over by giving out all their previous products for free to pretty much anyone who pledged?
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May 20, 2020 11:57
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UnCO3 posted:Didn't the 7th Sea 2e. kickstarter kinda screw themselves over by giving out all their previous products for free to pretty much anyone who pledged? No. The fatal mistake of John Wick Productions was offering *future* products as free pdfs for pledges over $40 on the corebook kickstarter; turned out anyone who wanted to buy 7th Sea backed it, so they steadily lost money on every book in the line until they couldn't continue. (EDIT: There were also high-roller pledge reward giving *physical* copies of all the future books as well, but I believe it was the "pdfs for all!" that did for them.) (EDIT EDIT: They did also offer an odd on to get all of 1st edition as pdfs for extremely cheap, but lots of games do that - if you're making a new edition, the old edition's sales are naturally going to plummet, so it helps bring some interest in while you're working to fulfil. Just never ever *ever* do the same thing to your planned future catalog.) Dave Brookshaw fucked around with this message at 17:52 on May 20, 2020 |
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May 20, 2020 12:43
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Thanks for the clarification.  The publisher I was referring to is Pelgrane Press and their Gumshoe rules system. Here's some info that might help others who are considering doing something similar... They have had a Creative Commons (CC BY 3.0) based SRD (System Reference Document) version of the Gumshoe rules base for independent / third party developers to use in their own works for quite a while now. They did a recent update and revised the document to include One-2-One (single game master with single player) and QuickShock (alternative card-like system for managing injury and bonus/malus conditions.) rules. The SRD versions of the rules was released as reward level tiers in various Kickstarters. The current as-of-this-writing SRD document can be found here: https://site.pelgranepress.com/index.php/the-gumshoe-system-reference-document/ Some weeks ago, a partnership of DTRPG and Pelgrane (re)launched a page to help folks make Gumshoe Community based content for some of their original settings: - Original Announcement: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/cc/31/GUMSHOE-Community (Originally GC was just for one of Pelgrane's settings.) - Updated Details Adding More Content to Utilize: https://support.drivethrurpg.com/hc/en-us/articles/360038227712 Curiously the Gumshoe Community guideline actually doesn't mention anything about the SRD and the GC guideline is a bit more restrictive than that the CC based SRD. (For instance, such works using content from the GC can only published at DTRPG.  )I made an inquiry about use of the SRD with GC specifically because the investigative scenario content I'm interested in writing / developing involves using One-2-One and QuickShock, of which none of the authorized settings of the GC content has (yet). And the response I received indicated that using SRD content wouldn't be an issue. This leads me to infer that as long as I didn't include the IP specific content allowed from the GC, I could possibly publish that version only using SRD content at itch.io while also doing an extended/compatible with the GC settings version at DTRPG. (Possibly posting both at DTRPG as long as I am not chintzy about it, like the one version being just a stripped down version of the other or not being clear about how closely related they are to each other.) Perhaps I may create a separate new Gumshoe thread to discuss setting specific details, since the last couple of Gumshoe threads are now archived. And would allow me to be more in depth about the Gumshoe settings in relation to the content I'd like to do.
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May 21, 2020 04:01
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Cross-posting from the general chat thread:UnCO3 posted:
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May 24, 2020 15:18
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To occupy my time while I wait for art and crowdfunding assets for Monster Care Squad I started working on an ironsworn hack called JUSTICE SWORN that's kinda emulating the sort of Streets of Rage beat-em-up genre, and, predictably, it went from a quick and easy hack to a bigger, deeper game that I'm kinda wild wild about right now. Ironsworn and pbta's combat flow works so well for doing combos I'm kinda shocked its not more widespread, and directly emulating a video game structure, complete with Continues and Extra Lives is a blast. I'll share the doc in a bit when its a lil closer to done, but dang i love makin' games
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May 27, 2020 17:22
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Nemesis Of Moles posted:To occupy my time while I wait for art and crowdfunding assets for Monster Care Squad I started working on an ironsworn hack called JUSTICE SWORN that's kinda emulating the sort of Streets of Rage beat-em-up genre, and, predictably, it went from a quick and easy hack to a bigger, deeper game that I'm kinda wild wild about right now. Ironsworn and pbta's combat flow works so well for doing combos I'm kinda shocked its not more widespread, and directly emulating a video game structure, complete with Continues and Extra Lives is a blast. I'll share the doc in a bit when its a lil closer to done, but dang i love makin' games I've been playing Streets of Rage 4 recently, and I'm totally excited to see this!
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May 27, 2020 19:56
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Me too. 'A combat system which emulates fighting games while being simpler than fighting games' has kind of been on my to-do list for a while, but instead I'm making yet another fantasy tactical combat game.
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May 27, 2020 23:28
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Nemesis Of Moles posted:To occupy my time while I wait for art and crowdfunding assets for Monster Care Squad I started working on an ironsworn hack called JUSTICE SWORN that's kinda emulating the sort of Streets of Rage beat-em-up genre, and, predictably, it went from a quick and easy hack to a bigger, deeper game that I'm kinda wild wild about right now. Ironsworn and pbta's combat flow works so well for doing combos I'm kinda shocked its not more widespread, and directly emulating a video game structure, complete with Continues and Extra Lives is a blast. I'll share the doc in a bit when its a lil closer to done, but dang i love makin' games Well, that sounds amazing! I'd love to see it, and now I know I need to read Ironsworn as well.
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May 28, 2020 00:49
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potatocubed posted:Me too. 'A combat system which emulates fighting games while being simpler than fighting games' has kind of been on my to-do list for a while, but instead I'm making yet another fantasy tactical combat game. I'm making a fantasy tactical combat game with a meter that fills up when you roll dice and you can spend meter on using Ults or on gaining free Reactions
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May 28, 2020 00:53
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Here's the current draft! https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dAXEGHsRcZc-8BNhvp9MPvsS2LvHoU93bRpbpgCEgnw/edit?usp=sharing It's rough, but pretty serviceable for now, most of the content is from the SRD, but the conflict moves are where the fun combo system is. I think it has a really nice flow to it. Meter Moves need a little work probably but I'm gonna wrap this up and publish it soon cause trying to promote a little side project right before a Kickstarter sounds like a bad idea to me. Justice Sworn posted:Opener - When you have control, and you move in for a… I commissioned a friend to do the cover art, and I'll be using some tasty neon-poisoned cityscape shots for the artwork inside. Here some of the sketches he sent me, I'm thinking something very close to the old Streets of Rage box art Nemesis Of Moles fucked around with this message at 01:53 on May 28, 2020 |
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May 28, 2020 01:49
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My CATS-inspired game has a one-shot Actual Play! https://twitter.com/PartyOfOnePod/status/1265830139235106817
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May 28, 2020 03:47
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Nemesis Of Moles posted:Here's the current draft! This is so rad!
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May 28, 2020 19:48
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Nemesis Of Moles posted:Here's the current draft! Nice, thanks for sharing! Meinberg posted:My CATS-inspired game has a one-shot Actual Play! Congratulations! Have you listened to it yet?
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May 29, 2020 00:19
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Also congrats to Potatocubed for getting a four episode campaign of Pigsmoke played by some folks on RPPR's Tabletop Tales AP site. http://tabletoptales.roleplayingpublicradio.com/tag/pigsmoke/ Listened to all of it, went pretty well, really liked how the GM structured the flow of play.
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May 29, 2020 00:27
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Hostile V posted:Also congrats to Potatocubed for getting a four episode campaign of Pigsmoke played by some folks on RPPR's Tabletop Tales AP site. http://tabletoptales.roleplayingpublicradio.com/tag/pigsmoke/ Meinberg posted:My CATS-inspired game has a one-shot Actual Play! Nemesis Of Moles posted:Here's the current draft!
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May 30, 2020 10:48
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I haven't actually listened to the RPPR run of Pigsmoke because now I'm homeschooling my kid, my podcast-listening time has gone way down. (I used to do it at work.) But yeah, it's always nice to hear your work played by people. There's at least two other Pigsmoke AP podcasts kicking around -- Big Gay Nerds and PnP Bullshit both did some -- and Beholder's Eye actually managed to play some Milkshake, which I secretly suspected might not be playable. (I heartily recommend the Big Gay Nerds podcast by the way. They're probably my favourite crew, and not just because they play my stuff.)
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May 30, 2020 13:58
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