Scope creep and the 24 hour challenge

Posted: July 6, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Updates | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

For those of you unfamiliar with business jargon, Scope Creep refers to the uncontrolled expansion of an idea, especially expansion that eventually overwhelms the project. In a 24 hour challenge, this can be deadly. Let me first highlight the successes of Wednesday’s efforts.

Here you can see the process of creating the board (sort of). The drawings were obviously not done by me, but I was technically in the room, so I can take some sort of credit. Anyway, the final(ish) board is a hex grid overlay on the dragon, and is split into a few distinct sections. Blue spots are entries and red spots are weak points. When you are on the dragon, he will occasionally attack using his limbs, tail, wings, or head, and if you are on that part of the body you must roll to hang on. If you do fall off, the next time there is an attack with any of the entry sections, you may “grab on” and begin your climb once more. Attacking weak points will lower the strength of that area, making it easier to hang on, and you may eventually disable an area by hitting all three. The head and neck area is the most commonly used area, and as such is the hardest to climb. The aim of the game is to attack and kill the highest weak point at the top of the head. Strategically, you can choose to just go straight for it and constantly fall, or to spend some time weakening the dragon before you attempt to make it to the head. The game is meant to be played cooperatively with up to three players, playing as the following three characters.

These drawings are awesome. The Founding Fathers would be proud. Although it never got this far, the idea was to have three different characters with different speeds, hanging strengths, and perhaps some special effects. Washington was to be balanced, Jefferson would be quick and weak, and Franklin would be slow, strong, and really wacky. We were hoping to involve French prostitutes in his play. Sadly, the game never made it quite this far.

That’s about all I can say about this for now. Considering the great art assets I have now, there is reason to hang on to this idea and work on it later. In the next few days I’m going be posting pretty frequently. Work doodling has gotten extreme.

Three hours in, and things are getting weird…

Posted: July 4, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Updates | Tags: , , , , | 1 Comment

So I’ve been thinking about the contest for a few hours, and I’ve had a good conversation with my friend about it. We’ve ended up in a really strange place, but I like it a lot. I mentioned earlier that I was hoping to have two thematic restrictions, and that I was disappointed that I only have one. So I instead decided to make my own conflicting theme decision: The Founding of America. It’s going to be weird. Here’s a little visual brainstorm.

Imagine this type of game:

But substitute this:

And people like this:

So all in all, a weird game. I have some ideas for the other players (Jefferson, Franklin, etc.), but that’s where I’m leaving it now. Actually, one more thing.

He would totally slay british dragons. Incidentally, British Dragon is a steroid, so that was a weird google search.

24 hours begins… now

Posted: July 4, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Updates | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Just throwing up a quick post to say that the next 24 hour contest is here. I’m a little disappointed though, because I was hoping to combine this contest with the BGDF design showdown that lasts a week. Just as a reminder, the 24 hour contest has a simple restriction, and the Game Design Showdown usually has both a thematic and mechanical restriction. Unfortunately, I managed to keep myself from seeing either of these things for a few days only to find out that 1. There is no posted Game Design Showdown this month, and 2. the theme for the 24 hour contest is just “dragons.” That’s it. Dragons. I’ve already done a contest about dragons. In fact, this is the second contest I’ve seen this week that is basically a repeat of something I’ve already done. The Game Crafter posted their next contest, and the theme is “Steampunk Dice Games.” Are you kidding me? I just did that!

Anyway, I’m just rambling here. Hopefully I can be inspired by a one-word restriction and will come up with something better than Farmer’s Nuisance or Jargon this time. Happy 4th of July!