November is one of my favorite months, for it contains Thanksgiving, one of my favorite Holidays. Thanksgiving is a big deal with the Barking Alien clan and well love when it rolls around.
Another November festivity I've been looking for to is the tempestuous, biting and oh-so-challenging National Game Design Month event!
For those of you who don't know about it, National Game Design Month, or NaGaDeMon, is a challenge put forth by Nathan Russell who was riffing off November's annual National Novel Writing Month event.
(It's cool too by the way and you should check it out. Even if its initials don't spell out a mythological monster. Our contest is just cooler like that)
The challenge is to design, write, play and complete a workable, playable game in one month. It can be a board game, a card game, a role-playing game or anything else game related. There is no physical prize other than having a completed game of your own design in your hands but there are the accolades and cheers of your peers and fellow NaGaDeMon slayers.
Last year I failed to complete the challenge. Heck, I barely started it. I had a few good ideas and false beginnings but the timing was terrible. Hurricane Sandy and some personal sadness lead to me giving up early on. My heart just wasn't in it (actually my heart was a mess but that's another tale for another time).
This year, SCREW YOU YA CREEPY, DICE-TAILED SERPENT! I am going to best this challenge and the resulting work is going to be so beautiful you will look upon it and cry little snake tears.
Yeah!
So what am I doing? Right...
Unfinished Business, my Ghost Story Role Playing Game which I have been thinking about for forever and a day, will be completed by month's end. That is my goal. You can read a little about my obsession and ideas for it here and here.
It may be biting off more than I can chew, but I also intend to finish The StoryTeller, my Muppets RPG variant based on the Jim Henson series of the same name featuring John Hurt and Brian Henson (as the Dog). You can check out what I've mentioned about it so far here. I have decided not to focus on any elements from the latter Greek Myths series but may do it as a sort of expansion at some later date.
Wish me luck and please stop by for periodic updates on my progress.
See you soon!
AD
Barking Alien
OOOOOH! best wishes to you. I love snakes and will happily frolic with your serpent so you can design stuffs. =)
ReplyDeleteWoah. Are you sure your husband's OK with that?
ReplyDeleteKidding! Let's keep it PG here folks. ^ ^;
lol! my ability to make darn near anything adult strikes again =P seriously. I will do all the worrying and stress and ugh for you so you can focus on making fun games.
DeleteI love the idea of Unfinished Business. I remember a (slightly tongue-in-cheeck) game called Lost Souls where characters were ghosts helping other ghosts "move on", in return for gaining karma - you wanted to be reincarnated as something more exciting than a slug or lawyer! It was very fun. I am looking forward to seeing how your games progress this month - Good luck!
ReplyDeleteGood luck! Are you going to have a print and play up after you finish?
ReplyDeleteThanks Loquacious, Nathan and Eric! I love having visitors. I'll brew a fresh pot of coffee.
ReplyDelete@Nathan - I will have to look into that. The name is awfully familiar.
Part of the reason I've wanted to make this game is that, while there are a number of great games on the subject of ghosts, rarely do you play the ghosts and even more rarely are you involved in the types of activities ghosts are always portrayed doing.
@Eric - I hope to do so.
I am embarrassed to say I've really never got the hang of making PDFs (my Muppets RPG was supposed to have one long ago). If I can figure it out I would really like to do it. If I can't or I run out of time this month, rest assured the rules will be available here on the blog, given out in my posts.
This is one idea I really hope to expand upon and publish someday so a 'Basic Edition' PDF for free is actually a great idea to get people interested.
Alright, looking forward to seeing ... however far you get with this : )
ReplyDeleteOnce you finish the ghost game then you can make the sequel where you play humans who are hunting them. I nominate "Buster: The Sliming" as the title.