Well, I've been gigantically busy lately (and not just the normal end of the school year kind of busy stuff...I'm talking about the kind of freaking busy where the last thing on your mind is posting stuff on some blog). Too many problems. Not enough time. Not enough for my virtual life anyways. So, that's why I've been out of the loop these past few weeks / months. It happens. I'm not complaining, just explaining. I've been doing some drawings for some new games coming down the pipe. I'd tell you about it, but then my benefactor(s) would have to kill me. Corperate spies are everywhere and things must be very hush - hush...You understand.
For instance, I'd love to go on and on about the new game I'm brewing up here in the lab, but if I blab on about it, I'll never finish it. I'll figure, hey, I told you about it, so why bother with all the headaches of printing and distributing it? Why not just type out all the cool ideas here on the blog and be done with it? If anyone wants it, it could be downloaded as easy as pie. Everything is done on-line now-a-days. So true. Why this ridiculous need to draw it up and send it out, in a vain attempt to sell it? Didn't anyone tell me printing is officially dead (Dude, it like, died back in 2003, when all the newspapers went out of business). Plus, do we need another fanzine?
Well, the simple answer, (depending on the kind of day I'm having) is I'm a andraline freak for rejection, or I'm a lazy perfectionist. I want it to be an enjoyable game to play and a fun game to read. That's a tall order, since the first rule to game design is: Be clear and consise, and keep it impersonal and uncluttered. So, already, I'm starting behind the 8 ball. But I can't help it. Pushing, bending, and mashing up the rules (as I've in said in earlier posts) is one of the things I enjoy about the game. I also want this game to work as a opening salvo to an over-ambitious project to produce a series of like-minded games. Hopefully, I'll have three mini books coming out, but at this point, I'll settle for one. The other reason...
Well, I come from an Underground Artist kind of background, and the pull to publish (or be published) is a strong and undeniably competitive drive for us types. Maybe it's motivated by the fact that we couldn't afford art school, or maybe having to slave away for hours at a drawing table for other people's product line, or maybe it's just they way we were put together. I dunno, but it's sometimes confused for insanity. God knows, it can drive some people insane.
I won't lie. This is partly an exercise in ego stroking. I like having a series of books with my name and work in them on my shelves at home. It gives me a self-satisfying tingle. If nothing else, the work is real. It's here, in my greedy little hands and it's something that may actually out live me. Not in the long reach of history kind of way (I'm not that arrogant, or self-deluded). I'm thinking more in the...my son's sons or daughters may one day flip through these books and think, "What kind of weirdo was grandpa back in the early twenty-first century" sort of way.
Plus, when the sun spits out the big solar flare that knocks out all of the earth's computers (and my virtual history), I'll still have my little shelf of books to go back to... as Google, Yahoo, Facebook and all the rest explain that the world will just have to re-re-re-boot and start all over again.
But yes, I should say something about the game I so boldly claimed was coming just around corner (30 some weeks ago). Thing is, I don't really want to show any of the artwork or designs just yet. Playtesting has been fun and frustrating. I'll say this: The game is an attempt to combine some of the best facets of role playing games under one roof, while presenting an entertaining. and striking, adventure. Hopefully...
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