Building on Past Work

No-one ever became a success overnight. If it looks like they did, then you are probably missing out on a lot of low level prep work they didn’t before you noticed their ‘overnight’ success.

Building a strong foundation, sticking to and repeating your core message and perfecting your craft are all ways to build up to that success.

My most popular work is always the Dungeons and Dragons map tile generator. It has slowly gained in popularity over time, and now drives the vast majority of visits to the toadflaxgames site. In the spirit of building on foundations to promote successes, I’m going to be making some improvements to the generator, to make it the best it can be.

Let me know if there are any improvements you’d like to see, and I’ll look at implementing them.

Developments and Designs

Work has begun in earnest on my new game. It’s different to any others that I’ve worked on, as it’s an online game. It’s a lot more involved than my Countdown implementation, or anything else I’ve done before, it’s a real chance to exercise my rather rusty php muscles.

I’ve been working mostly on the essential framework for the game, I’ve only got a few game-like elements in there at the moment, but things like user logins and account management are starting to come together. I’m hopeful I’ll get this necessary admin stuff over with soon, and be able to get onto the meat of the game itself.

Until I’ve got further news, you should consider visiting Kongregate (a great website for flash games), and look at the understanding games series, which present a lot of important concepts in game design, in a very accessible format.

New Game

I’ve started work on a big new game, which is why it’s been quite quiet around here recently. I’m really excited about it, but it’s all a bit nebulous to share at the moment, but expect to hear more in the coming months (I told you it was big).

Until then, we’ve got the release of Dungeons and Dragons 4.0 to look forwards to, I’m planning to pick up a copy of the three main books when they are released in June, you can get the set on Amazon for less than £45, and once I’ve got those, expect some new content for the new game (and updates to the existing stuff, let me know in the comments what you’d like to see first).

I’m also looking to post more of my thoughts on the nature of games, especially what I enjoy and why, hopefully these will be linked to the new game I’m working on, so I’ll be mixing up practical and concrete examples with my theories.

DnD 4th Edition

Dungeons and Dragons Fourth Edition is nearing completion. Wizards have released a couple of teaser books, Worlds and Monsters and Races and Classes. They look interesting, but not something that I’m desperate to read.

I’ll be sure to pick up copies of the core books when they are released, and look at upgrading my list of NPCs and adventures to fourth edition. I’m unsure about keeping the third edition stats and running them in parallel, I will probably keep them on the released characters, but not include them on new releases, unless there is a suitable level of demand from interested parties.

Pen and paper

I’ve been thinking about various pen and paper games recently, the sort that you can play on a long journey, when you don’t have access to a lot of space, and so have to make do with a pad of paper and a pen, or maybe just with your own mind. I was triggered into this train of thought by a post on the xkcd blag, concerning Ghost, which is one of this type of game.

It’s a nice constraint to apply to games, you limit the space, playing pieces are severely restricted, and the rules need to be simple and concise enough to remember. The problem with this format is that simple games can be easily solved (look at noughts and crosses), and that means they quickly becoming boring to the hardened game player. Saying that, these games are not always played perfectly (and you can visit my earlier link for proof of that, as it is possible to win), and that can provide incentive to keep playing.

So, realising that any game you create within this space will likely be solvable, you are looking to balance the difficulty to solve versus the complexity of the game, and hoping that you can come up with something in the middle that is both fun, and worth playing.

I’ve been working on a few ideas, and will hopefully post some of the best of them soon, and then develop those showing most promise from their initial drafts. Wish me luck.

Superheroes

I’ve been working on a new game, Superheroes. I’ve been influenced by the recent release of Spiderman 3, and the upcoming release of various other films. Seeing as I’d never be able to get official permission for anything based on a Superhero franchise, all of my work is based on suitably generic superheroes and superpowers, I’m looking at creating interesting game-play, working within the Superhero genre.

Thus far, you can see a draft copy of the rules, and I’m working on typing up a draft set of cards. Expect this to change quite rapidly and significantly over time.

Nanowrimo Games

Nanowrimo is a national competition where you attempt to write an entire 50,000 word novel in the month of November, from start to finish. I’m not really a novel writer, but I’m quite keen on designing games, so I’m thinking of trying to do a Nanowrimo Game, fully designed, play-tested and published in a month.

I’ve got two ideas at the moment, and I think I’ll run with whatever grabs me the most at the beginning of November.

• Space Race – You are competing with the other players to build a Space programme from scratch, and to make money, by colonising space, selling your technology, and exploiting the resources of the Solar system.
• Volcano – A co-operative game, players are a group of scientists, attempting to warn a community to the dangers of a volcano about to erupt in their midst, and trying to save as many people as possible from the lava.

I’m quite fond of both of these ideas, so the one that doesn’t get done as a Nanowrimo might find itself attacked in a more leisurely manner at a later date.

New games

I'm working on two new games at the moment. Both have had their rules roughly sketched out, one is being formatted for release online, and the other will follow afterwards. They will need some play-testing, so hopefully I can get my playgroup involved, I'd expect to see some major changes.

The first game is a trading an shipping game, where players sail ships from the Old World to the New, purchase resources that are produced in the new land, and return to the Old World to sell the goods. It focuses on gaining influence in the Old and New World ports to determine who is able to sell the goods the collect, and also on the efficient transportation and purchase of the goods themselves.

The second game is set in an Aztec-like jungle, where four separate tribes are vying for the favour of the Gods. Controlling territory and out-maneuvering your opponents are the key to success.

I'm hoping to have the first game available in a rough format very soon, probably by the end of next week. I'll then work on the second, get that available, and then polish the rough spots on both.