The Workshop

I tested the exquisite corpse section of No One Emerges triumphantly and, most importantly, it works. I have a whole ton of other thoughts from the feedback that I’m going to need time to properly process, but it works. It also created an experience that I’m really not used to seeing, of a group of players writing in silence, achieving an almost ritual-like state of communion between their creative output, yielding results that I found joy in during all three of my playtests.

There were some pain points, but they’re fixable with some work. I still want to do some playtests online, because some of the strange frictions of playing the game in person added to the experience I think. I want to see how those frictions apply to the smoother space of the digital space.

A particularly surprising revelation is that the piece works on its own. I’m very strongly considering testing it some more, polishing the issues, and then putting it out separately. Then, I can work on attaching the other parts of the game to it, in order to make another, distinct, game.

The other big information is that it ran a lot faster than I was expecting. It wound up being only about five minutes per round, so I was finishing my playtest within 80 minutes between the teach, the play, and the debrief. Now I know, for future playtests.

I also began work on Project: Greenbriar, my NaGaDeMon game. It’s going to be receiving most of my focus for the rest of the month, even if I suspect that it’s not going to be quite complete. Basically, it’s a farming RPG about maintaining a small community garden, and I have a lot more notes written about it, but I’ll talk about that more next week once I’m properly rested.

Ludography

Game design is simple, actually - The title is deliberately tongue in cheek, as Raph lists twelve increasingly complex topics that can be improved to make a game better. I also disagree with some of his language used, but he establishes his personal meanings for these words so it’s still possible to understand what he’s talking about, even with that disagreement. And the theses at work here all make a lot of sense in terms of making games that are better to play. I think in order to fully grasp this article, I’m going to need to follow up on all of the links within, but this feels almost like a text book in how to make games, and I highly recommend everyone give it a go. Even if you don’t find the information within useful, in testing your philosophy against this text you’ll come to a greater understanding of your practice.