Exhausting Efforts and Stepping Things Up

Y’know…there’s this thing called a learning curve and I’ve sure ridden it over the past couple of years.

Sure, I’ve done the writing thing for a long time. No. I doubt you’ve seen much of it, but doing the game design thing, the whole enchilada can sometimes wear a guy out.

We’ve talked about this before on here, but I’m more determined than ever to step things up. If Reality Blurs is really going to grow like I envision, it’s going to be necessary, so if you see some of these posts be occassionally shorter or more terse than usual, it’s not intentional. It’s just while I’m ramping up the groove more.

Trying to start up the company, develop multiple product lines, and evolve the craziness that is RunePunk takes a lot of efforts. Note, I used the plurality of the word and I’m doing it on purpose. The efforts come not just from myself, but also from my friends and family as well. Writing is a solitary thing. You’ve got to have certain abundances of alone time to get it done. Which is at direct odds with gamers and gaming. We, as gamers, are typically a sociable lot…in the sense that we like to get together and game. Other than that, most of us have little use for the wandering masses of meatpuppets that make up the world. What we typically term non-gamers and snub our noses at. They just don’t understand, right? Right.

So getting back to what I’m talking about, it’s weird that person can be a writer and a gamer and the whole game design thing seems very weird on an abstract level. I’ve gotten a handle on it a lot better and am enjoying what I’m doing, despite the frustrations that seem to happen. Whenever they do happen, I consider the alternatives. I do, for the most part, what I love. No one honestly likes doing the business side of things, but I’ve got the handle on that as well. The balance is all good and we’re looking to make certain things improve, regardless of how the industry rolls overall.

I’m loving how RunePunk turned out. I’m looking forward to the finished product. It’ll be nice to focus on the next thing for awhile and to play the finished RunePunk with all of you guys at the conventions.

Despite what some may think, playtesting, at least from the designer’s perspective, is a lot of work if it’s done right. You’ve got to find the hidden coolness and the balance of things. If you do it properly, it’s a great buzz.

To digress a moment, I’ve got to say the Iron Dynasty playtests are going well. Everyone seems to be digging them and the only thing I’m hearing so far of concern is people are finding it a bit too historical. How cool is that? I’ve not attempted to fully overlay the weirdness into it, but started with the rough setting notes set down on paper and worked through the mechanics of it all. Now that the Player’s Guide is more or less settled and static, I can move on to inject the weirdness of the Iron Dynasty into things. Also, I’d like to note, the guide for this took less time to develop than for RunePunk…RunePunk has a mass of variables which I should really write up…if anyone’s interested. I’m awaiting the final review of the Player’s Guide by the powers that be before I get into it.

I’ve seen the errors of other people’s ways before. :)

All in all…Reality Blurs is getting good buzz…rpgnet has an interesting thread touting Orwell Industries right now. My health is back…my attitude is cautiously optomistic and I feel like I’m in the writing zone at present.

Keep it real and get your game on!

Regards,

Sean