So, the results of the judging of this years Game Chef have now been posted and are available in this thread.

First off I'd like to congratulate the winners and say that I had a really, really good time participating. I think that the use of art as a direct inspiration to game design was inspired and worked extremely well and that it produced a lot of cool art sets and very neat games.

And what of The Three Clans? Well, amazingly, it won an honourary award! I know, no one was more shocked than me. You can see the award here and I've copied the text of what Andy K wrote below:

Best Game That Uses All Those Hippie Mechanical things like Set Structured Scenes, Endgames, Interpretive Card Mechanics and the Like The Three Clans by Geoff Hall.

Although individually a lot of writers were trying new styles, exploring new grounds, and experimenting with design, when I stepped back and looked at the entries in aggregate, it was like a field full of Structured Scenes; Playing cards or something in a certain way then interpreting the results and narrating, stuff like that. And you can't swing a dead cat without hitting an Endgame mechanic. However, this game really ties them all together in a pretty epic way. You're telling the story of a clan war (and if the focus wasn't such on barbarians, I could see it working for a Romance/Tale of the Three Kingdoms style story) between three clans.

The setting is rich and expansive, complete with backstory of the world and events. I almost lament the tightness of the structure at times, it feels a little too constrained even as it focuses the story on clear barbarian leaders, hunters and priests. However, because of the scale, the story, and all the heart that went into it, this is one that I'd love to try sometime (though I'd still probably want looser story/adventure scenes, to have a little more freedom in playing the role and the resulting events). Solid example texts, too.



So thank you to Andy; I really appreciate the award as I felt that TTC had become lost in the sea of GC games and, due to my obscurity and lack of marketing nous, was destined to be buried forever. And what now post-GC? Well I fully intend to carry on with development of TTC. The text needs tightening up in general and the resolution mechanic used within the scenes needs a real overhaul. There's a lack of choices and options in the game at the moment and I want to open it up somewhat and make it a little less restricted. I also need to try and contact Kevin Allen Jr. about use of his art set as, right now, I have no rights to use it with the competition finished. If anyone has any ideas as to how I would go about contacting him then please speak up as I'm clueless!

Tags: game chef, three clans
Current Mood: ecstatic

Well, I just uploaded my Game Chef entry to the official submissions thread:

My entry

I'm pretty certain that most of Chapter 6. is rubbish but that's okay. It's done, it's up there and I can proudly say that I finished a good 7 hours before the deadline. Now I need to sleep!

What I will note, before heading bedwards, is that I've had a lot of fun with Game Chef in my first time entering. It's amazing just how much you can manage to get done when you have a deadline to work to, even with kids, work and other Real Life™ things getting in the way. The Three Clans is a little longer than I'd like at just shy of 13k words but that's okay. Carrying on after Game Chef is over will allow me time to do some serious editing, something that the game currently lacks. It will also give me a chance to actually playtest the thing. I'd hoped to do that on Saturday but the reality was that I wasn't far enough along to get a playtest in. It's a shame as I think the game would really have benefited but there's no point beating myself up over it. In the end I've achieved what I set out to do and I'm happy with the final result.

Feel free to check it out (bearing in mind that the format of GC this year required the submitting of games in plain .txt format, hence the rather basic nature of the submission.)

Tags: game chef, three clans
Current Mood: accomplished

So I've been hanging fire a little on Anarchy recently as I've had a fair amount to do outside of game design, although I've tweaked it since I posted up chapters 2, 3 and 4 here. I'm not too bothered though as it was always going on the back-burner sometime around now because Game Chef 2008 is kicking off. In fact it has kicked off, a few hours earlier than expected.

Thus far I've blitzed through all of the art submissions and have been impressed by many of the entries, not least of those being the steampunk set submitted by ginasketch. My initial reaction, though, is to go for a sci-fi theme and base my game around the victoriana/sci-fi bugs of Bjamesyoung. That's just after a first pass though, I've got a few art sets to look at again before I make my final choice.

Whatever the case I'm psyched to be participating this year, even if I have no idea what kind of gae I'm going to make!

Tags: anarchy, game chef

...possibly.

Okay, the final chapter (thus far) in my playtest doc is Chapter 4: System and Scenes which talks about the structure of an Anarchy session, the mechanics of conflict resolution and the consequences thereof. Behind the cut:

( Chapter 4: System & Scenes )

Tags: anarchy

...and I know how to get it.

Edit: I think (other than examples) that I've finished this chapter now. The extra bots are now included in the cut.

All right, the next chapter is Cell Creation. This one is still a work in progress and has yet to be finished but I'll put up what I've currently got anyway. I should also note that I haven't yet designed either a Character Sheet or a Cell Sheet. ONce again behind a cut to preserve peoples sanity:

( Chapter 3: Cell Creation )

Tags: anarchy

...and I am an Anarchist!

Ahem.

So after my last post I decided to take my own advice and try working on my system chapter for Anarchy. I've found myself with a bit of time available over the past few days and have therefore been getting on with it at a reasonable pace. Not wonderful but reasonable. As such I'm about to make a series of posts, hidden behind LJ cuts due to their length, that encompass most of what I've done on Anarchy thus far. This isn't everything but it is a lot of it. I'll start off with:

( Chapter 2: Character Creation )

Tags: anarchy

Two things in this (admittedly belated) entry:

1) Anarchy;
2) Game Chef 2008 – Artists First!

First Anarchy; I admit that I’ve found myself stalled out on it again. My post-Conceptions motivation has waned and I’ve been struggling with re-writing the Character Creation chapter to my satisfaction after garnering some useful feedback from the Collective Endeavour on my Five Questions. Not to mention the fact that I’m drawing a real blank on Cell Creation. I think that I might need to re-read Covenant and break out the copy of Conspiracy of Shadows that I got for Christmas for a bit of inspiration in that area.

So Anarchy is on hold again until I can get my head around what I need to do with it. What I might try is to begin writing the System chapter as I know what I’m doing there, at least to begin with, and it will allow me to get something useful down on paper. I need that to try and regain some momentum and to make sure that the system-stuff in my head doesn’t become corrupted through neglect. If I have it written down I don’t need to try and remember the details!

Secondly we have Game Chef 2008. I contemplated last year but it wasn’t a good time (I think we’d just moved house and I’d just started working for Steph) and I ended up not entering. I still kinda regret it although I know, intellectually, that it was the right decision at the time. This year, however, I fully intend to take a shot at it for the first time. I don’t know a whole lot about what’s going on with it yet but I’ve registered my interest and am on the official GC forums as Geoff.

I really like the idea that they’re running with this year for Artists First! Getting a whole bunch of art for the first half of the contest and then having designers design game around that art is a pretty awesome (sorry Graham) idea. I don’t know how well it will work mind you but I love the concept in principle. I even know a very good artist (ginasketch) that I might ask to participate. I don’t know whether she’ll go for it or not but I figure it’s worth a try.

Anyway, I’m actually really looking forward to trying my hand at Game Chef this year and I’m hoping that the manic, motivated energy that it engenders will feed into Anarchy when GC itself is over with. Whether or not that happens I’m sure it will be a bit of a crazy ride so what can I say except “bring it on!”

Tags: anarchy, game chef

Cross-posted on the Collective Endeavour forums:

I've pretty much got the whole character creation chapter down now but wanted to focus on the first section of it and throw it out to anyone who happens to read this for some opinions and feedback. From reading a number of indie rpgs and taking on board some of Malcom's experience with Cold City I decided that a good way to begin would be to ask some focussed questions that should help define a players character and set them neatly within the game world with some ready made hooks and potential conflict points. What follows is these questions with my elaborations and pointers as written up in my current playtest document.

What I'm looking for is some feedback on these questions. Do they seem to focus on the correct areas (especially given the background info posted in my previous entry)? Do you think that they will produce useful information that can be brought into later conflicts? Have I worded them in an excessively shite manner or are they reasonably clear and understandable? That sort of thing.

Cheers.

(Note, actual section hidden behind LJ Cut to preserve your friends page)

( The Five Questions )

So, I'm progressing on my self-set target of getting a playtest document for Anarcgy written up by the end of February. I've now managed to get the introduction sorted out and have been working on the system, which I think is looking much better than it was before I lost my notebook! The draft intro is shown behind the below cut, to avoid cluttering up your Friends Page:

( Introduction )

Tags: anarchy

Inspiration and motivation are funny things. I set up Dread Fuzzy Designs Ltd for a number of reasons; primarily (from a personal perspective) as a games design company, specifically roleplaying games. And yet the secondary and tertiary uses of working for Steph and returning to my old job for contracting purposes have become the main focus of the business. Why is that? Why has game design fallen by the wayside for me?

It’s because I lack the motivation to do it. Why do I lack that motivation? Because I haven’t been inspired by roleplaying for some time now. And why have I not been bitten by the bug of inspiration? Because I no longer do it. For something to inspire and motivate me I have to be partaking in the activity itself and with roleplaying I’m not. Our online game has fizzled out and, to be honest, I’d stopped engaging in it and enjoying it some time ago anyway. My regular group is still mostly unsuitable to roleplaying as none of us are interested in taking the GM/facilitator role because we simply don’t get any enjoyment from it. Finally, I have neither the free time nor the finances to organise/join another gaming group that is more amenable to roleplaying (and contains at least one GM!)

Now please don’t misunderstand me, I’m not trying to bitch and make an ‘oh woe is me’ post. My life and circumstance is what it is and I enjoy my Friday/Saturday evenings of board and card games a lot, although I do miss face-to-face roleplaying. The thing is this was all brought to a head by my recent trip to Conceptions 2008, a yearly roleplaying con held in the Hoburne Naish holiday village near Christchurch on the south coast of England in early February.

Conceptions is fun; pure, unadulterated fun. It’s one of the best cons in the UK and probably the top con for just gaming. The trade presence is shite and seems to get worse every year (indeed, there was literally nothing that I was interested in buying this year) but there are 3 gaming slots a day with a whole raft of games running in each slot and the chalets that make up the accommodation make for excellent gaming opportunities right through the night should one be so inclined.

This year my standard crew combined with a number of Collective Endeavour members to take up two, adjacent chalets. This was a brilliant move and lead to 11 or 12 people squeezed into one of the chalets each night drinking and chatting and generally having a good time. A lot of gaming was done by pretty much everyone and I played a whole bunch of board/card games when I wasn’t roleplaying too. All in all it was a damn good time. This is not, however, a con report; it is a roundabout and long winded look at the way inspiration works for me.

Now, I didn’t even talk about any of my nascent games this year (I ran a playtest of Anarchy last year) and I was playing in Scott’s SotC game whilst the one playtesting slot run by the CE guys was happening so I’ve had no real exposure to games design this con. There wasn’t even much game design talk in the evening, despite about half of the participants being designers and almost everyone being avid roleplayers. What I have had exposure to is roleplaying, one of my favourite pass times and one which I realise I have missed a lot in its absence. And just the simple act of playing has me fired up again. Well, that and trying to sort out the tax implications of DFD Ltd and how best to pay myself, etc. I figure if I’m claiming it as a game design company I ought to have some game designs to show for it, even if I have yet to create an actual product!

So now I’m interested again but my horizons and my scope have broadened some what. I am looking at Anarchy with fresh eyes (something which would have been easier had I not left my sodding notebook with Anarchy notes at the con, argh!!!) but I’m also contemplating other avenues. I’m thinking that Finger on the Button might work best as a card game which, with some prototype pasting-up and some serious playtesting could be submitted to a publisher or, if I feel up to it, self-published; although such things are harder than roleplaying books simply due to cost. I’m also just thinking more of new ideas instead of plugging away at games that have ceased to interest me, or interest me only periodically.

Not, mind you, that any of this will necessarily last. Still, my group are going to try and get some more roleplaying done. It will probably be mostly Contenders variants due to the simplicity of running them GM-less with pro-active players who are afraid to improvise and elaborate but maybe we’ll get a bit more ambitious and run something requiring a GM., you never know ;o) . Either way I’m hoping that a steady injection of actual roleplaying can keep me at least partially focussed on my goals. I would like to get a document written for Anarchy and playtesting started by the end of February. Lets see how I do shall we?

EDIT: Seeing as the spam bots seem to have locked onto this entry I'm locking it to any more comments.

Tags: anarchy, conceptions, roleplaying