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