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Author Topic: Seeking some design / development help  (Read 6481 times)

bayonetbrant

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on: October 16, 2020, 11:50:05 AM
 8) This is my official plea for help  8)

I've finally admitted to myself that I've hit a bit of a wall, and trying to do waaaaay too much myself, and seeing some of the great ideas others are sharing here has finally inspired me to quit jerking around with the backlog I've accumulated and instead reach out to see if there's anyone interested in collaborating on some game design projects I've had lingering in varying stages of "almost done" to "barely started"
Depending on the project, this is sort of a combination of "second set of eyes" all the way down to "here's an idea, and how could this actually be realized"

1. REBOOTING THE ORIGINAL WARFIGHTER SERIES OF GAMES
NOT related to DVG's games of the same name, but actually pre-date them by at least 5 years. It's modern platoon-level combat, but *not* WW3 in '85. It's actually modern in the 2000s, with the exception of one game that was Africa in the 60s, sort of.
Rules are written, with a variety of optional ones to use by scenario. 3 games were published, and a 4th on the drawing board and play tested. (They were reviewed at Armchair General, Wargamer.com, and were the cover story of an issue of Paper Wars) The rules need a serious cleanup and there are probably scenarios that need some better balancing.

2. ANYMINIS
a 'generic' *very* lightweight minis game that was designed as a 'convention game' where you could grab a miniature figure and based on what's on the fig, you could quickly stat out the figures and play a quick skirmish game with 4-8 figures/player. The basic stat assessments are in place, as are the move/shoot/hit mechanics. What's needed are some balancing/playtesting as well the building out the details for the special abilities, particular for high-tech, magic, gadgets, etc. This one is almost more co-design than developing/playtesting.

3. AN UN-NAMED TILE-LAYING REALM-BUILDER
uses some Carc-like mechanics to build the map, but the area-control mechanics are a little more robust. There's also special events, and variable scoring. I've got a pretty solid set of rules and the basic graphics put together, but need someone to really dig into it and tell me where the cracks are.
(truthfully, I probably have about 4-5 different variations on the realm-building theme, from all-card-based to all-dice-based to player mats that are populated by tiles drawn blind from a bag and you choose which side of the tile to put into play, but this is one I think has the most promise/is furthest along)

4. THE OLD "DESIGNING OUT LOUD" PROJECT
I was trying this back at GrogNews about 10 years ago – it was an abstract-map wargame that built a heavy ISR component into the game in and players had some doctrinal constraints in which they were forced to operate, and knowing something about the opponent's doctrine, they were able to employ their recon assets to help ID enemy disposition and status. There were also requisite C2 actions on your own part where you couldn't just change your initial plan without paying a cost in your own command points, in which you'd eventually overwhelm your subordinates with too many changes. There was some blind movement/concealment and bluffing, and units had different ratings depending on the type of mission you were executing. Not unlike #2 above, this is "co-design" more than "playtesting" as the concepts are there, but not fleshed out enough to really play anything with it yet.

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Folks that might've seen stuff I'd written about over the years will notice that I've NOT mentioned Orange Crush at all. There's a possibility that an actual publisher is going to pick this one up and run with it, and if so, then there's a real development team to work on it. We'll know more about that after the holidays.
Also, as much as I *REALLY* want to reboot the C2E2 from waaaaaay back when, that's got the potential to be such a large project that I don't want to tackle that until I can get literally any one of these others out the door first.

IF ANYONE IS INTERESTED IN COLLABORATING WITH ME ON ANY OF THESE, PLEASE SEND UP A FLARE.

I've just gotten to the point where I look at everything in front of me and realize there's no chance I can get it all done myself anymore, or even close to done, and I'm wondering if anyone would be interested in pitching in and seeing what comes of it all. Note that it's entirely possible that you get into the design and think "holy crap, this is a mess and there's no good way to untangle it" and that's totally OK. Better to know that it needs to be cut adrift than hang onto it in varying states of "done".

I know this is already too long, so I'll just say 'thanks' for reading this far, and I'll look forward to whatever y'all have to offer

=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=++

Random acts of genius and other inspirations of applied violence.
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Six Degrees of Radio for songs you should know by artists you should love


bbmike

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Reply #1 on: October 16, 2020, 05:42:00 PM
Of the four, your Anyminis has the largest audience appeal IMO. It sounds like you could use this for wargames and RPGs. It would be interesting to hear more about it. Plus it has a great name. It's screaming Kickstarter.

As far as proto-Warfighter, I think My Own Worst Enemy would need to unbox and review it before making any comments.  8)
And that name will have to be changed.

"My life is spent in one long effort to escape from the commonplace of existence."
-Sherlock Holmes

My Own Worst Enemy


bayonetbrant

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Reply #2 on: October 16, 2020, 06:25:09 PM
I'm debating the name change, given that I was on the market five years before he was

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Random acts of genius and other inspirations of applied violence.
-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
Six Degrees of Radio for songs you should know by artists you should love


BanzaiCat

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Reply #3 on: October 16, 2020, 10:52:55 PM
You need help, let me know. Sounds good.  :bigthumb:

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HellCat6

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Reply #4 on: March 15, 2021, 03:00:28 AM
Hi Brant.

Not sure if you are still interested, but I'm also kicking around an ISR based game. I'd be interested in discussing what your ideas are and comparing notes.

Tim



bayonetbrant

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Reply #5 on: March 15, 2021, 10:17:20 AM
Hi Brant.

Not sure if you are still interested, but I'm also kicking around an ISR based game. I'd be interested in discussing what your ideas are and comparing notes.

Tim

let's see if we can get past the "good ideas sketched out on a napkin" stage and sure!  8)

=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=++

Random acts of genius and other inspirations of applied violence.
-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
Six Degrees of Radio for songs you should know by artists you should love


bob48

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Reply #6 on: March 15, 2021, 10:27:50 AM
Will any of these include <cringe> meeples in any shape or form?

“O Lord God, let me not be disgraced in my old days.”

'We few, we happy few, we band of brothers'


bayonetbrant

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Reply #7 on: March 15, 2021, 10:44:10 AM
Will any of these include <cringe> meeples in any shape or form?

if you're lucky

=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=++

Random acts of genius and other inspirations of applied violence.
-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
Six Degrees of Radio for songs you should know by artists you should love


Steelie

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Reply #8 on: March 15, 2021, 11:17:49 AM
Meeples and dongles and I'll pay upfront   :bigthumb:

Somewhere, somehow, I woke up in the wrong timeline. I'm pretty sure this isn't even my dimension.


bob48

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Reply #9 on: March 15, 2021, 12:05:17 PM
Meeples AND dongles will double the cost.

“O Lord God, let me not be disgraced in my old days.”

'We few, we happy few, we band of brothers'


mcguire

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Reply #10 on: March 15, 2021, 02:12:52 PM
Hi Brant.

Not sure if you are still interested, but I'm also kicking around an ISR based game. I'd be interested in discussing what your ideas are and comparing notes.

Tim

let's see if we can get past the "good ideas sketched out on a napkin" stage and sure!  8)

I missed this the first time around. Not sure I can add anything, but I'm pretty good at playing "rubber ducky" to bounce ideas off.

"Man...knowing how to use the cards properly certainly changes how I play the game" -- judgedredd