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I'll be giving four talks at Origins in early June. The first one (Friday at 7PM) is erroneously listed on the master event list as costing $2. No, these are all free. Dragon Rage is available in the USA again from Funagain games, $79, free shipping. Eclectic Zeal is offering it for $59 plus shipping as of 15 May 2012. Orders over $99 have free shipping. Game Design BookMy book "Game Design: How to Create Video and Tabletop Games, Start to Finish" will be available summer 2012; at this point (15 May) I'm told it is in copy editing, then I'll have to make the index. Publisher's web page for the book. PDFs of publisher's new titles catalog page listing the book. Entire catalog. The book can be pre-ordered. Because McFarland's first market is libraries, you have an alternative not practically available for most books: you can request that your library order a copy. Many public libraries will respond to suggestions/requests, though many of those want more than one person to make the request. Why would you read a book? While the book is no longer the absolute treasure trove of information that was when I was a kid (see below), it still organizes information in an easily digestible form. But more important, a book can convey the experience of the author to the reader, and if that experience is valuable than this is something the reader won't get anywhere else. A major purpose for me in writing the book is to help beginning game designers avoid the "school of hard knocks" that I had to go through, applying my experience in teaching novice game designers as well. When I was a kid in the 50s and 60s, if you were lucky you had three television networks to watch instead of two, there was no Internet and consequently no e-mail, no cell phones, no personal computers (or printers), no World Wide Web, no Facebook, no Twitter, no YouTube. A long distance call of any length cost real money. I first saw color TV in a person's house when I was 10 (trick-or-treat: the people let the kids come in and see their cool color TV). Music was on vinyl LPs and (later) cassette tapes. If you wanted to watch a movie you stayed up after 11 (old movies only on TV) or you went to a theater, there was no way to record a movie other than film. There was no instant replay on sporting events because videotape had not been perfected. In that era, as for generations before, a book was a treasure trove of information, something to be read carefully and absorbed as much as possible. Nowadays people are much less impressed by books because there's so many other sources of information, but if you really want to learn about something in depth a good book is the best way to do it other than having an experienced person teach you directly.
I talked about managing frustration in game design at the East Coast Game Conference on 26 April 2012. More than 75 attended. I'll describe the conference in my blog. Slides and the audio from the talk will be posted on this site. Those who read my blog on BGG and F:AT have seen a written discussion of the same topic, though of course written and oral versions diverge considerably. I was the guest on the Ludology podcast #26 about epic games (tabletop games, not the video game company). This is the only podcast I listen to, because it's about "the why of games", not about new games and community chit-chat.
My blog is posted, now, in as many as five places, reaching a quite different readership at each place. The blog has existed since 2004 but I "spread out" only in 2011. The "home" is at: http://pulsiphergamedesign.blogspot.com/; on Boardgamegeek (and the other geek sites); on boardgame designers forum; on "Fortress: AT" ("Ameritrash"). Some, but not all, of the posts are also on my "expert" blog on Gamasutra, the site for video game professionals. The sometimes-lively discussions at BGG, fortress:at, and Gamasutra, where most of the readers are, are usually very different from one another.
Dragon RageDragon Rage is available in the USA again from Funagain games, $79, free shipping. http://eclecticzeal.com/ is offering it for $59 plus shipping as of 25 Jan 2012. Orders over $99 have free shipping. A very complimentary Dragon Rage video review (in accented English this time) that could be used as a tutorial before people play their first game. On Youtube. Also on BGG with comments. Michael Barnes' review on fortressat. Boardgamegeek's video about Dragon Rage. A review of Dragon Rage appeared in a British blog. Also on BGG. Video review, in German, of Dragon Rage. A review of Dragon Rage on Opinionated Gamer. Another review, from "Fortress Ameritrash"! I have to quote this one: "It’s an absolute grab-bag of fun fantasy memes and is certainly the most customisable wargame without miniatures that I’ve ever seen."
The multi-contributor ETC Press book "Tabletop: Analog Game Design," edited by Greg Costikyan and Drew Davidson, is now available (electronic downloads free). Greg briefly describes it. Downloads here in electronic book and PDF formats. My piece on "The Three Player Problem" is the first chapter in the book. Slides and audio recordings of my game design talks at UK Game Expo and Origins are here.
The physical components are very impressive (compared with the original microgame), on a par with Britannia. The hit recording sheets are full-size plasticized cardboard, as opposed to the original notepad. The board is fully mounted, and has an orc lair on the opposite side, with new scenarios. You can see from the photo that the pieces are individually cut and have round corners, not like the typical wargame with square-cornered little pieces. This version includes a second map (of an orc lair area, more or less) and additional scenarios for it, devised by Eric Hanuise.
Welcome to PulsipherGames.com/Pulsipher.net, a web site for supplementary material and playtesting of games designed by Lewis Pulsipher (Britannia, Dragon Rage, Valley of the Four Winds, Diplomacy variants, RPG material, etc.), and for teaching about games. I started playing games more than 50 years ago. I started designing games more than 45 years ago. My first published (non-commercial) games appeared in the early 1970s, and my first commercial game over 30 years ago, in 1978 (Diplomacy Games & Variants), followed in 1980 by Swords and Wizardry. After publication of several commercial games, and after I earned my Ph.D., I took 20 years off from designing games, though I played and made up adventures (which is level design) and refereed lots of Dungeons and Dragons while learning computing, programming, networking, and making a living. In 2004 I decided to get back into game design rather than write computer textbooks, though my primary profession is college teaching. I taught my first course in game design in fall 2004, though I did not teach games full time until fall 2007. I do not run a public Web discussion board on this site, as Boardgamegeek.com serves the purpose very well. The Eurobrit Yahoo Group is the main location for Britannia discussions. Fantasy Flight Games also has a discussion board (generally inactive) at their Britannia site. Most of my new writing about games is posted on my blog, http://pulsiphergamedesign.blogspot.com/ or at http://teachgamedesign.blogspot.com/, or on GameCareerGuide.Com. I am lewpuls on twitter; I see twitter as of use only for publicity, so I hardly ever use it, but decided I ought to be on it. Dr. P's personal recommendation for those who want to get into the game industry and live in this area (central-eastern North Carolina). Disclaimer: occasionally people send me unsolicited ideas or concepts for games. Be aware that when you do this you acknowledge that I may use your ideas in any way I wish without legal obligation. (I'm unlikely to do this, but I may have the same idea already, and I have no desire to be sued by someone who doesn't realize that ideas are not protected by copyright law in any case.) WBC 2011 tournament account by Jim Jordan. I have added an archive from my game design blogs for most of the past year here. It is 41 pages in the word processor. In November I was at the MACE game convention in High Point, NC, my first visit. It's interesting how different a game convention can be when it comes from SF/F convention traditions rather than from game convention traditions. I've posted one of my old (and popular) first edition AD&D character of classes, The Necromancer, originally from White Dwarf #5. Dragon Rage will be republished either late this year or early next. The graphics have been redone, another set of scenarios has been added by Eric Hanuise, and rules have been translated into several languages. There's a Facebook page for it as well as the BoardGameGeek page. This link leads to a Boardgamegeek video review and "how to play" video (which are on YouTube, actually). PrezCon 2010 was good (see my blog for more); I'll be at WBC this year, but not Origins or GenCon (which is at the same time as WBC). Conventions. I enjoyed GenCon 2009, my first time there. The next two years it is at the same time as WBC, so I'll attend WBC in 2010. I'm putting some comments engendered by the conventions on my blog. I am a contributor to Family Games: the 100 Best, which will be published later this year. I've been asked to contribute to another anthology, a book about non-electronic game design, to be published this year by ETC Press. My book "Get it Done: Designing Games from Start to Finish" is at 123K words. I'm trying to cut it down because the original aim was 100K. I have posted the Britannia rules which accompany the 2008 edition, incorporating errata from the 2006 edition, and one small change in how Romans can withdraw when a nation submits. These come from my contact at Fantasy-Flight, and should be posted on FFG's site soon to replace the 2006 rules. (FFG link) More articles on Gamasutra/GameCareerGuide and other online locations (not including "expert blog" entries): "Playtesting is Sovereign, Part 2" 2 Sep 10 "The Elephant in the Room" (varieties of game-related education, lead article in Aug 10 IGDA Perspectives Newsletter special extended issue on game education) "Playtesting is Sovereign, Part 1" 10 Aug 10 Opinion: The "Virgin Mary" of Video Games? Depictions of Violent Death 31 May 10 "Identifying a good game school" 3/30/10 (co-author, Ian Schreiber) "What are game designers trying to do?" 2.19.10 "Maxims of Game Design" 2/4/10 "Some Game Playing Styles, and How Games Match One Style or Another" [a longer version] 1/25/2010 "Playing Styles, and How Games Match One Style or Another" 11.26.09 "Opinion: Are Games Too Much Like Work?" 4 Sep 09 "All I needed to know about games I learned from Dungeons and Dragons" 18 Aug 09 "Game Curricula: Differences in Focus" 4 Aug 09 "Industry Hopefuls: Prepare Intelligently" 7 July 09 "Student Illusions About Being a Game Designer" 7 May 09 "Expert Blogs": Triangle Game Conference, Law of Gaming, Effect of Reviews on Video Game Development, What Games Amount To. A modified version of the first is now on Gamedev.net. "Twenty Essential Design Questions" 14 April 09 "The Nine Structural Sub-Systems of Any Game" 17 Mar 09 The Nature of Games in the 21st Century 5 Mar '09 "Opinion: What Does 'Game Developer' Mean?" 2 March '09 Why Design Games 13 January '09 I am teaching curriculum game creation classes at Fayetteville Technical Community College (NC). "Simulation and Game Development" is a new Associates Degree program at FTCC. This is a program for artists and designers as well as programmers. More. Link to FTCC game development Web site. I have updated my list of Britannia-like games. I have posted mp3s of my talks at Origins 2008, Powerpoint slides are already posted. I've also posted a talk by Ian Schreiner. All here. I'll not be posting mp3s of the 2009 talks, I think. Most of my present gaming activity is in revising games and trying to write a game design book (the articles on Gamasutra/GameCareerGuide are sometimes excerpts). I am a contributor to Hobby Games: The 100 Best, an anthology book that came out at GenCon this year. Press release. Britannia is one of the "100 Best", I'm glad to say. I wrote about Stalingrad. Update: this book won the "Origins Award" in its category, as well as an "Ennie" award. The initial print run of Britannia sold out in 2007. It was reprinted in November 2008. International editions (German, French, Spanish, Hungarian [sic]) were printed at the same time. ** I have developed a 6 turn version of Britannia, using the current set, that actually works, and takes me about two hours to play (first time play by others takes a lot longer, of course). This is being tested; I intend to distribute it as widely as possible to help those who dislike the 4-5 hour playing time of full Britannia. Just for the heck of it, I developed a "broad market" version of Brit (the kind of thing that would sell with Risk and similar games). History may be too serious for a broad market, especially medieval British history, but it's an interesting exercise. I already have "Brit Lite" version, and that can be played by casual gamers, but I'm aiming at the sort of folks who might play Risk and Monopoly and a few other games, but not much else. I have liked the result so much that I am developing a series of games using the same rules (with exceptions), beginning with a new version of Barbaria that has turned out very well. I've added a podcast (11 minutes) "Quick Guide How to Play Britannia." I have started an announcement-only newsletter for new information about Britannia. This will include new editions, new variants, new articles, new reviews, new FAQ, anything that may be noteworthy for fans. Hence there probably won't be more than ten or so messages a year. To subscribe, go to http://pulsipher.net/newsletter/?p=subscribe. The information gathered will never be used for any other purpose. I received a certificate awarded November 2006 to Britannia by the Viennese Games Academy: "Vienna Selection of Games, 2006" 99 games are selected each year. According to the accompanying letter, this certificate has been awarded annually since 1996. Their Web site: www.spielen.at (mostly in Austrian). My article "Uncertainty in Wargames" appeared in "Against the Odds" magazine, #18, late in 2006. Tom Vasel reviews dozens upon dozens of games, but he is not a wargamer, rather he's a Euro gamer. I have wondered whether he would review Britannia at all, but he has, very positively in the circumstances. See http://www.thedicetower.com/thedicetower/index.php?page=britannia. This only reinforces my intention to make shorter versions of Britannia (and other games) that don't use the old combat system. I have played both "Britannia Brevis" (10 turns, no dice used) and "Britannia Minimus" (6 turns, much less luck in the dice system). Unfortunately, FFG has no interest in expansions, as the numbers just aren't there. But I have finally devised a version of Britannia using the same pieces, sides, colors, that lasts just six turns, yet seems to reflect everything that happens in the longer Britannia, just much faster (and with more attacking). When finished this will be posted (free) in as many places as possible. For now you can find the draft at the Eurobrit Yahoo Group. There is a Wikipedia entry for Britannia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britannia_%28board_game%29 Boardgamegeek has the following entry for Britannia: "Nominee for the 1987 Charles S. Roberts awards for Best Pre-World War II Boardgame (Charles S. Roberts Awards)." I had not known this, as by that time I had "left the hobby". My blogs: http://pulsiphergamedesign.blogspot.com/ http://teachgamedesign.blogspot.com Facebook:
Local (North Carolina) game links (video and otherwise) Recently (October 2011) played video games: Gratuitous Space Battles, Angry Birds, and several "social network" games. I played the latter (all Zynga games) because I was talking with them about the possibility of working as a game designer in Bangalore India. But the current emphasis in these games is on frustration (to persuade people to spend real money), and that's the opposite of what I want to create. Further, I suspect Zynga is stuck in the rut they've made, a company so large that they may not be able to risk trying games drastically different from the ones they now support. I know what kind of social network game I would make, first and foremost to make it truly social, not solitary. I have never designed a published "computer game", largely because I have not known anyone able and willing to do the necessary programming and artwork. I have never been interested in starving in order to produce a video game. Nowadays, of course, computer games are the products of teams, not of individuals. Back when one individual could write a game, I was a database programmer, which doesn't help much with computer games, nor do I have a hint of an artist in me. Why would I want to design electronic games? I'm better off as is: 1. The "AAA list" electronic games are really designed by committee. When I design a game, it is almost all MINE. (The rest is playtesters and publisher.) 2. Video games, until fairly recently, were almost always
interactive puzzles, not games. Games are about people, interactive
puzzles are about computers. I like games, not puzzles. People become computer game designers after working on computer games for a company in other capacities, especially level designer. Practically no one is hired directly as a computer game designer, though level designers (a subset of game design) may be hired directly from school. The production costs for "big" off-the-shelf games ($10-100 million) make a person without a track record too much of a risk. Click here for advice for those who want to get into the game industry. Hits since August 07:
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"Always do right--this will gratify some and astonish the rest." Mark Twain"A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." Antoine de Saint-Exup'ery"A teacher is never a giver of truth - he is a guide, a pointer to the truth that each student must find for himself. A good teacher is merely a catalyst." (Martial Arts quote)"We have met the enemy, and he is us." Pogo (Walt Kelly) "Enjoy the Journey"Send mail to webmaster (at) pulsipher (dot) net with comments about this web site. Last modified: 04/27/12. Copyright 2009 Lewis Pulsipher |
