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A revolution in card printing capabilities may affect game design

Thu, 09/26/2013 - 14:55 — lewpuls

In the OneBlogShelf blog Steve Wieck of DriveThruCards describes what he calls a revolution in card printing capabilities. http://oneblogshelf.blogspot.ca/2013/09/the-coming-revolution-in-card-ga... His company is no longer tied to traditional sheet printing methods and can now print individual cards, though still using ink rather than toner for higher quality. He suggests that this can cause a revolution and how card games are designed:

Brief, free audio-visual Introduction to Game Design class

Fri, 09/06/2013 - 10:58 — lewpuls

I've created a brief, free audio-visual Introduction to Game Design class. It is primarily aimed at those who want to design video games (a much larger contingent than tabletoppers), but applies to TT as well. While many readers here already understand most of what I say, you might know someone who is just getting started in design who could benefit.

Video Wargame Conversions from the Tabletop

Tue, 09/03/2013 - 16:04 — lewpuls

I've recently become quite interested in conversions between video games and tabletop games, especially wargames.

GenCon (and WBC) 2013

Tue, 08/27/2013 - 10:43 — lewpuls

If you've never been to GenCon you might not realize the scope of the convention. Last year there were more than 40,000 attendees and I suspect yet more this year. The convention is spread out over the Indiana Convention Center, which is very large - immensely larger than Origins' Columbus Convention Center - and *eight* large hotels. The convention is not just about tabletop games, but also has a little bit of video games and a lot of anime, film, cosplay, comics, fiction writing - that's a big segment - and other cultures related to the gaming culture.

How NOT to start a print game magazine

Thu, 07/11/2013 - 07:10 — lewpuls

Of course, given the trends in publishing it would be very wise not to start a print magazine. Game Developer Magazine, a venerable print magazine for videogame professionals published by the same company that owns the Game Developers Conference (GDC) and Gamasutra.com, recently closed down. It was always profitable but not sufficiently so to keep it alive in the current climate. The World Wide Web is effectively a competitor with magazines, and I’ve seen in the video game fan magazines how competition from websites has changed the nature of Gameinformer and PC Gamer. The reviews always appear much later than the reviews on the web, so both magazines now devote a large fraction of their now-thin printed form to extensive previews of unpublished games. Print magazines are not sufficiently immediate for the Age of Instant Gratification.

But if you’re going to start one, and you want the largest possible pool of contributors, then your writers’ guidelines should not omit some of the things I’ve just seen omitted from a recently started print game magazine’s guidelines.

May 2013 Miscellany

Sun, 05/19/2013 - 10:34 — lewpuls

Thoughts about some game-related topics that are not long enough for separate blog posts.
**
As I read the rules for the 2013 Game Chef contest, the "self-plagiarism" component of this one struck me as bizarre:
"Rule on Previous Work
You may draw on concepts you have thought about or worked on before the contest, but everything you submit must be new work, not existing material. Plagiarism or self-plagiarism will get your game disqualified."

It reminded me of the education community, where "self-plagiarism" is regarded as wrong, and many teachers will flunk a student for doing it.

Giving Victory Points for Fighting Battles

Wed, 05/15/2013 - 12:10 — lewpuls

Occasionally I hear about a game that gives victory points (VP) for fighting a battle (not even just for winning, just for fighting).

Why would you do that? From a modeling point of view, what’s the virtue of fighting a battle, especially one that you do not win?

Three hats: the three parts of creating games

Sat, 04/27/2013 - 13:10 — lewpuls

(While I begin by talking about RPGs, I am later going to generalize to all kinds of tabletop and video games - “sit-down games”.)

When I used to write lots of articles about RPGs for White Dwarf, Dragon, and other magazines three decades ago, I mostly wrote two kinds of things: game rules, and advice about how to play and especially how to referee Dungeons & Dragons successfully. I rarely wrote settings; and only occasionally in the magazines did I write adventures, which are a combination of rules and setting/story.

Buyers versus players

Mon, 04/22/2013 - 20:47 — lewpuls

It’s going to take a while to get to the point of buyers versus players: please bear with me.

2012-13 Game Designer Survey Results

Mon, 04/01/2013 - 14:21 — lewpuls

Game Designer Survey Results

In the last half of December through the first part of February I distributed a survey for game designers on the Internet: "This is a short (10 questions, five minutes or less) survey for people who call themselves game designers, video or tabletop (which is as good a way to define who game designers are as any other)." In the end, 142 respondents have had a game published commercially, along with 46 self-publishers, more than half of the 346 respondents. Here are the results.

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by Dr. Radut