Game Chef: Gettin' There

Seriously, this is the worst game-designing time of the year. Even with nothing else hanging over my head, Comic-Con always takes it out of me. Then there's FATE Kerberos demanding my attention, along with a few other non-game-related commitments. Look, I realize these are first-world geek problems, but still. Bear with me.

Anyway, one good thing about Comic-Con colliding with Game Chef is that standing in line for panels gives me a chance to take notes (by hand, with a pencil, on paper -- barbaric!) on this here game of mine. I'm pretty confident I can get it put together tomorrow and sent out Sunday night sometime. The mechanics have been tightened up, streamlined, and re-focused on creating good stories. In my early enthusiasm for a game in progress, I find I often have a hard time separating "fun and meaningful mechanics" from just "fun and random mechanics," but today the distinctions became clearer, and I think it shows in the design. Maybe there's something about being surrounded by people dressed in Venture Brothers costumes -- I can't say.

So I thought I'd post a little something to prove that, yes, progress is being made. Keeping in mind that I'm not a graphic designer-type person at all, here's the game's '90s-looking logo:

And here's the character sheet for Richard III Rick Rose, CEO of Globe Records, who may or may not have inherited the position from his brother under, uh, "questionable circumstances."

Some new things there, if you've been reading my last couple posts. A big circle! Only one Nature! A card suit! What could it all mean? Well, I think it's pretty easy to work out, but that's what the game's text is for. So far I have a solid... 293 words, give or take. Even after I start copy-pasting stuff in from my notes, I'm pretty confident that I won't come especially close to 3,000 words. It's a pretty straightforward game.

(But that's what everyone thinks of their games, right?)

Oh, weird thing to mention: Today (Saturday the 23rd) at noon, I'm going to be on a panel on game design -- at least, I hope it's on game design, or something else I can easily fake my way through -- at Gam3r-Con, a small but ambitious game convention that's running parallel to Comic-Con. If you're around, come check it out. Let's discover what I might have to say together, shall we?