Are you saying the Developer, System Designer, Writer and Artist need to be different people?

Ie, we need teams of 4+?

WhOz HaEtInG oN tEh SuCk?!

Hey Jared,

Posted By: Jared A. Sorensen...publish the game and sell it by the end of the year.
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"Publish and sell" means you make it available to the public in any format and charge no less, no more than $1 for it. Games finished on the 31st will go in 2009 at midnight (or whenever after).

I'm not following. Sales must happen by the end of the year? Or sales start in 2009?

If a company makes their game available in print format, are they allowed to charge for postage and handling on top of the $1?

Paul

I can't be the only one to find this idea appealing...

...can I?

Who are the judges and what are the prizes?

Where do we enter and how do we know which number we are?

Posted By: JuddAlso, I often cannot tell when Jared is making a joke.

Sometimes, I suspect Jared doesn't always know either, but kinda watches how things develop. It's emergent satire!

I dont have a team
Otherwise I would take this
It does not state I cannot clean up and re-work existing items

Hey Lance,

Posted By: WolfeOn the other hand, assuming that Paul is correct and the motivation behind this is to just get people collaborating, rather than to really focus on the mechanics of game design, testing, etc. that is something I could get behind.

I've hired artists and given art direction. Folks hire graphic designers and editors. But that's all about the designer's vision. Producing a great product out of the energy of collaboration and trust is different than that. True collaboration and trust, everyone individually empowered to contribute, everyone getting inspired by the contributions of others, can produce results that are greater than the sum of the participants.

Paul

I could imagine doing this sort of thing with the right crew. I'm a bit busy, though, so it'd need to be an exciting project to spark me. Feel free to shop around for teams in public, and I'll jump on any project that seems worthwhile enough.

I'd love to be a developer on a team. Contact me if interested.

I'm considering bringing Sugarfighter Black or Sexy Deadly back from the dead. In both cases, the concept was simple, tight and action-oriented. I had clear ideas about the shape of the game. But creating a system for either seemed out of my hands, and I lack the writing skills to bring either to life correctly.

Anyone interested in banding together with me?

I would be interested in ruining writing or maybe designing rules for somebody else's vision. I don't want to be the cat-herder lead developer, and I don't want to set up the marketing/selling part at the end, either.

I like dark subjects, horror, violence, maybe political, espionage, post-apocalyptic. Or fantasy. Or gonzo nutbar.

I can do Bad Art, too, if that's appropriate.

Okay.

Posted By: joepubOkay,

Tony Dowler,
The complex could use some blueprint style maps! And the rest of the game could use some sexy women kicking ass and taking down mecha and stuff? Is this right for you?

Sounds pretty awesome! Complex maps and high tech machinery I can do, but I'm afriad I cannot do sexy women kicking ass justice. :(

Team northerain now has a writer and a developer or artist.
So we're looking for a system designer and an artist or a developer. If you have an idea for a horror/violent/dark game, shoot! In that case I'll step down from developer and do the art.

Joe,

David (Bullbar) was the first to contact me, via whisper. I'm not going to jump ship on him if he's seriously committed to doing this. He's not replied back in the last day, so I'm going to give him some time.

On the flip-side, do our teams need to be limited to 4? That appears to be the minimum, but is there a maximum?

Joe's idea does sound interesting, and I'd like to be in on it, and there is a bit of a time-hack on this, considering we need to be done and selling by January 1st. Joe, I ask you to give me until 10pm Pacific tonight to answer you, so as to give David a chance to reply back. If you're unwilling to wait and have others in mind, feel free to look to your alternates.

He said he's interested in tackling design. Until he responds again, I can't really speak for him, though.

Technically I was the first to claim a number, but you're further along with a team than I was, so I cede my claim, which will be academic if I'm on your team anyway.

I could be a developer, too, now that I think of it. This isn't a deep and developed idea by any means, just something I've been thinking of tonight. Feel free to tag yourself for any of the other three roles if you find doing something like this attractive. We'll do this if a team gets formed and I don't end up joining another team; I'm not planning to actively work on getting a team together myself, though, being that I'm as busy as I am. Happy to watch this contest on the sidelines, too, I might say.

The Natural State
History of man is a history of conflict. No matter which period and which war you pick, you'll have a story of common routines getting devastated by violence of utmost order. Brutality and choices that seem incomprehensible in light of peace reign. I've been tonight reading about various conflicts, such as treatment of prisoners in the Vietnam war, the Gladio conspiracy in Italy during the Cold War and the Boer wars in South Africa, and this common theme came up as something interesting. (Yes, I'm a bit of a Wikipedia addict.) Specifically, I found myself wondering how the men who found themselves ordering and executing those works of war justified them to themselves; on the one hand I am acutely aware of the sort of insecurities and inner demons that can drive men to extremes of action, but on the other hand there is much that is despicable and difficult to defend on any grounds in those stories of war. I am left thinking that war is some sort of modal shift on the societal and psychological plane, one that might be described as a demon riding the people in a sort of nightmare reality that takes place in between these periods of peace we enjoy in between.

The Natural State is a game about war, preparing for war and the consequences of war. The player characters are each men directly capable of getting involved, whether as politicians, soldiers or generals. The players have great freedom in determining the civil conditions and civilian lives of their characters, while they are sharply constrained in all military matters by what is perceived as the game-reality. The game mechanics would be setting-agnostic or at least universal; the players either choose a historical environment they're interested in for the game, or they invent a hypothetical scenario. The game would be theme-focused, ultimately: the point would be to provide a common platform for grappling with the very state of war in general, as reflected in individual situations and stories. I'm not particularly interested in angst for the sake of angst, though; the philosophical questions are hard enough without dredging them through the trauma, anguish and horror of war, it seems to me. A lot of war-based drama gaming seems to emphasize revelling in how individual soldiers go mad after killing too much or whatever, but I'd be more interested in seeing a treatment on something like the Weapons Cache Case - why do such a thing, was it wrong, what could have happened as consequence (and what did, in fact, happen as a consequence in other times and places).

For The Natural State to succeed, it needs game mechanics that provide enough flexibility for the players to form their own specific situations and questions, while still being specific enough to support and focus the play on the issues of war as a social condition. A generic engine or an adaptation of something pre-existing is not an inappropriate choice; I could see working with the Solar System on this theme, for example, to get an uplifting treatment. The game will also need some insightful prose to drive home the at this point somewhat vague artistic kernel I'm messing with here; historical research with Wikipedia or something is required, as we'd probably use real paraphrased stories from history in lieu of made up game fiction. Production-wise the work would need to get up to a pleasurable visual standard, but one where it's still clear that we're not providing a product finished to usual expectations. At this point I'm envisioning leaving the whole complex of visual matters, layout included, to the graphic designer of the team - personally I'd only create a frontispiece as actual art and work with generic layout graphics for the rest, but this stuff has lots of flexibility.

Eero,

I was debating offering my services as a designer for a team. When I read your concept, a nearly complete design just struck me. It's organic, setting-agnostic, and close enough to some well tested game mechanics that they should bef more than functional. So, if you'd like me on the team, I'm offering.

- Mendel S.

So, Joe! We're pushing on toward my self-imposed deadline for complete acceptance. What plans do you have for continued collaboration? Considering we can't all sit down over a beer and have a face-to-face bull session, how are we going to do this? Do we start another thread here, share this one with others, throw up a wiki, take it to e-mail, what?

My thoughts lean toward e-mail or a wiki.

The first thing I think we need to discuss is the specifics of what each role is expected to do, and how much, if any, blending of roles will be acceptable. As I know Joe, myself and Tony (How to Host a Dungeon, right?) at least are aspiring or published game designers, we've all probably dabbled in all areas, and will probably have ideas for every segment. Clear expectations I think would really help us get on the same page and start getting this puppy designed.

After that, a specifications document would probably need to be produced by you, Joe, so that we all know what we're trying to accomplish.

I probably lack the necessary commitment anyway, so never mind me. Sorry.

Posted By: Sean Musgrave2) I do exactly 3 revisions until I think the text is perfectly clear.

(From my limited experience as an editor, these two criteria don't always match. Some writers will need more than three revisions.)

So I have none of these skills, except possibly some layout in latex (it can look like a math textbook!), but I'm on maternity leave and have a decent amount of ( one handed) time on my hands if anyone is desperately short

I'm in. Gonna develop me some game.

Just a clarification...

Companies with finished, submitted, ready for publication/sale games will be given numbers.

Exactly what I was thinking, J. Want to participate? We still have room in our team...

We'll have you, Alexander, if you want to write about the constitutional justifications for secession in the USA. That being the topic of The Natural State, the most boring game ever.

I'm with Judd in every respect.

EVERY RESPECT

Thor, do you have a writer for that game? I think I'd enjoy that.

Graham

Posted By: LxndrEero, that sounds interesting. Tell me more (in a whisper if you'd prefer).

Well, it's just the topic of The Natural State, it seems: this is not a game about crawling in the trenches, but one about the choices and their justifications made in the war room and the political leadership of the institutions of violence. We've been speculating about it a bit with Mendel, and although we don't seem to have the whole picture nailed down yet, at least we know that I have an endless supply of examples of historical narration to point to and screech about as the thing I want this game to deal with. (Screeching being my methodology as the developer, you know.) To wit:

• In this game the issue of the Civil War is not that your brother is fighting for the other side or your wife is in love with somebody she shouldn't be or something like that; instead, the issue is that you're being asked to conduct a war against secessionists in a nation based upon the right to self-determination. Or that you're asked to defend a state based upon slavery, I suppose.
• In this game the issue of the Werwolf organization is not how awful it is to work for the Nazis, but rather how one can actually let go of a national identity predicated upon dying for your country when the war is over.
• In this game the issue of the Bosnian War is not how teary-eyed the photos of the victims make you, but rather what would be the best possible justice in seeking and punishing the guilty, if there be such and if the truth can even ever be known.

In other words, the most boring game ever is one that tries to be dramatic without involving the sort of sordid, personal human issues that are the bread and butter of the Forgista dramatic technique. We'll see if we can get anything out of the concept.

(I should clarify that in reality I'm not so sure if the above is right at all. Our real goal is to "make a war game Eero likes", the above is just an approximation of where we might find that. Join the team, I'm sure it'll be fun to try to figure out what I want. Idle hands are the tools of the Devil, as they say.)

I'll be sure to know more after the weekend. Legend has it that I'm going to playtest the game then. Or wait a minute, actually it's not a legend, it's me - I'm putting pressure on the design contingent by threatening to playtest whether I have anything to test or not. I'm so smart WotC should hire me.

This thread is hilarious. It also is getting a lot of people off their butts and into motion, even if at this point it's kind of a flailing motion. But things (if the gajillion whispers are a sign) are congealing and forming into something that very well might be kind of cool.

So what the hell, let's sticky this for a little while.

I'd be so in, if it weren't for my job. Love it, but it keeps my head-space and time incredibly tied up.

Good luck everyone.

-Andy

ps, I also love JD's prize.

Andy's got me all fecked up. I wanted to come reference something, and I'm looking all down the page for this thread. I was like, WTF?? Finally I did a find, and there it is, very top of the page.

...thanks a lot, Andy.

Also, it looks like Joe's got the same idea as Eero. He wants me to have this puppy done to playtest by this weekend, or early next week at the latest.

I just might pull that off.

Elaborate joke or not, Jared, thanks for this.

This is definitely a cool thing, whether it's a joke or not. I'm collaborating with people that I barely know and they're turning out to be really neat people, and being able to focus on system while people worry about the other stuff and are invested in what I'm doing and giving me feedback is awesome.

If there's anything "emergent" about Jared's challenge design it's at the end of the month we'll say "fuck your stupid company names and this is worth way more than a dollar."

So, I have an idea for a game. I'd be the developer. Here it is:

X-Files: The Game (by some other name)

As they investigate, characters form mundane and supernatural theories, struggling to identify which one is right so they can take action before the situation explodes.

Meanwhile, teasing glimpses at the menace are given to the player(s) to heighten anticipation.

Intended to run one-off investigations that result in satisfying endings of the X-Files variety. This ranges from "we stopped the threat, saved what was threatened (often Scully or an NPC), and figured out exactly what happened" to "well, the immediate crisis is over, but there were losses, and the threat might still exist and resurface later, and the characters don't know the full story (though the players do)."

Could be one GM or not. Creating situation must be manageable and fun despite the situation's demands (escalating problem, supernatural ambiguity, two possible explanations, opportunity for finding out).

Dramatic pacing is key. This game emulates a TV show about investigation, not real investigation.

Anyone up for that system design challenge?

As for writing and art, my vision would be to emphasize suspense and the half-known. Art should ask, "what more am I not seeing here?"

The Setting particulars can be X-Files exactly (weirdo-investigation branch of powerful govt agency with plentiful resources), or something else, pending system designer's requirements for situation-creation.

Anyone want to join up? I live in NYC if that makes a difference for communication purposes.

I'll throw my hat in the ring as well with an idea I've been kicking around for a bit that I'd like to develop.

To Slay the Dragon

Action adventure along the lines of Star Wars or Lord of the Rings.

The Dragon has come and laid waste to the land. Burned fields, killed and eaten livestock, terrorized villages and defeated armies. Now a small group of individuals will set out on a quest to destroy the monster and bring peace to the land.

Characters are defined by three things.
1) Why do they want to kill the dragon : do they seek vengeance, are they out for glory, is it their duty, do they seek the treasure
2) What is special about them that makes them think they can kill the Dragon: do they have sorcerous powers, a magic weapon, amazing skill as a hunter, the greatest warrior in the world
3) What (or who) stands in the way of completing the task: are they afraid, inexperienced, weak, have an enemy that wants them to fail, someone who doesnt want them to go on the quest


These issues must be resolved before they can hope to Slay the Dragon.

Sure! Feel free to start sending questions or ideas my way!

We still need a writer and artist, though...

Christian, where are you at on this?

So, team check-in! I can tell you that Team Sexy Deadly is working nicely. I don't have the complete picture as I'm just a lowly systems designer, slaving away in isolation here in Iraq, but I know that things are moving along nicely. Maybe Joe will stop by and give a better snapshot of our work.

Anyone else who's got their team assembled and is actively working on their project, speak up. I'm curious to know how many competi- err, comrades in arms we have.

Team Horror is doing well with Jarrod on the helm. Bret already has a really neat system going on and Jarrod is putting down the concepts as we speak. No art yet though.

Team X-Filesish is now complete. I got a former classmate to do the art, and I'm psyched, cuz he's good. Lxndr has a first system draft that's going in exciting directions. I wish we could playtest it together! Alas, geography won't comply. Perhaps separately...

DIY.