Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Update: What I'm Hammering Out


Greetings, all! I'm finally back with another post. This time, it's what I'm gonna call my "update" post, where I give a little peek into what's going on, gaming-wise, for me. Just another way for me to keep people posted, and to keep content on the blog, eh? This time around, I've been meddling in some pesky game design, which can be loads of fun.


Hacking, Bullet Style
A lot of my work has been making hacks. My current system of choice is Hollowpoint, which adapts surprisingly well to a variety of tasks. Not only have I made an Avengers-inspired hack of the game, but I recently bashed out PressurePoint, an adaptation of the engine to Capcom-style fighting games. I've also been conceptualizing "Highpoint", which is where I brutally mangle the Hollowpoint engine and come out with a game that ideally does a good job of handling high school comedy/drama/romance.

Speaking of high school...the big "I can't believe this held my interest" game of my recent reading experience is Monsterhearts. It's not a genre or style that I really get into, but I love how the mechanics lay out character-driven relationship drama in a solid and tangible way. I'm actually giving the game a spin over the weekend, and then I plan on hacking together a skin called "The Spark". Think Doctor Horrible meets Girl Genius meets high school nerdery. I may also try making "The Hammer Hero", as a worthy archnemesis to The Spark.

Longer-Term, A Calamity Awaits
One of my all-time favorite games is Bastion, an action RPG set in a weird mashup of fantasy and wild west analogues. There's a very particular style to it, and it's got me thinking a lot. I recently brought some thematic ideas together for a project that I'm calling Scourged World (or something along those lines). The Apocalypse World engine meets Bastion, a little epic/mythic fantasy, and a heavy focus on exploring and rebuilding a broken world as you come to grips with your character's destiny. Just because the world ended, doesn't mean legends end.

Back Behind the Screen
Final update! I'm going to be running a scenario for Tenra Bansho Zero at a local convention in a couple months. So I'm scrapping together my plans for what's hopefully an awesome game. I plan to meld the hyper-Asian action game with a slick cyberpunk setting for (hopefully) maximum awesomeness. So far, I've put together the pregenerated characters, and the bare skeleton of where the plot will point. Hopefully the rest comes together just as well!

2 comments :

  1. I want to see that Monsterhearts skin!

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    1. :D Me too, actually--in that I want to see it all pulled together. I'll most likely have a draft within the month, and refresh it once the Second Skins PDFs come my way.

      I'm envisioning moves that tend towards "you turn people away to get advantages on your mad science moves, but that gives them strings on you".

      The Hero, I'm actually thinking of ways to make them relatable. I could go in a really tragic direction there, too.

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