New Page: Pen and Paper Projects!

Today I add an additional page to the site: Pen and Paper Projects

The page is pretty self explanatory, as it will host content i have created for pen and paper games. Specifically all my current work has been created for Pathfinder RPG. I was a big fan of Dungeons and Dragons 3.5, but 4.0 really lost my interest. Pathfinder has been called by many (including myself) as D&D 3.75. It offers many improvements to 3.5 while still being easy to convert to. While it doesnt adjust all the flaws of 3.5, (and has a few flaws of it's own) its still an incredibly fun game to play.

So far most of the content on the Pen & Paper page are all still works in progress. Over the next few weeks I plan on finishing at least the Necromantic Scientist base class and the Arashi character race, while still adding additional content to the Nal Tirrun campaign setting, and hopefully adding monsters in the future.

I'll also continue work on Legacies of Mistborn, but currently we've encountered some setbacks and the game isn't picking up steam like i hoped. We should have some good progress soon and i may even post about it.

Besides my work on pen and paper games and LOM, i have once again began working on the game Inevitable Death. ID is a 2D isometric game about a space fighter pilot marooned on an alien planet. It is the player's job to survive as long as possible, creating and improving tools and shelter. As the title implies, there is no win condition, and the player simply tries to survive against increasingly difficult odds.

Inevitable Death was started back in March by my friend and fellow game designer Tyler Coleman. During spring break at UAT, Tyler wanted to do a week long version of a Game Jam. It turned into a group of us all just working on one game, but our scope was simply too big for one week filled with distractions like work, concerts, and St. Patrick's Day.

Either way, we had a good start but after spring break ended, most of us, myself included, let it fall by the wayside. Tyler has been pushing to start work on it again, and since i am currently unemployed, it's a great way to further develop my skills and gain another portfolio piece.

Arms of Pewter

Today i finished the basic plot outline for Legacies of Mistborn: Episode 1. It will be about the half skaa bastard of a plantation noble who has a weakness for the illegal skaa fights that were mentioned in the books but never actually described. The main character, Duke Dirtfist, will be a fighter who secretly uses pewter to his advantage. Thats about all i can say without giving the plot away, so you'll just have to wait for the game to come out. :)

It should be fairly short, but that is more or less the point of splitting the game into episodes.My vision for the different episodes is to slowly add features to the concept of a mistborn game. This way i introduce the powers one at a time, with small games, get advice and critiques to help me improve them as i make them. That way the last episode will incorporate all 8 basic metals and hopefully players will be familiar with the various mechanics.

This can lead to problems as well if i expect players to have played the earlier games. I will definitely have to incorporate a decent tutorial for the mechanics without making it too boring for returning players. It is definitely a challenge and i'll have plenty of time to think about it.

I do have a bit of an idea for an overarching plot that will connect all the mistings together and the mistborn character as well. It would really be easy to make the connection obvious, but im going to try and keep it at least a little non obvious.

I feel really good about this project and i cant wait to finish it and pop that into my portfolio.



So it goes...

Trade Secret Update and Legacies of Mistborn

Trade Secret is doing pretty darn well lately. Our team size has gotten quite big, and at 23 members, we apparently have the largest team UAT has ever seen. Our project manager, producer, and other leads had a meeting with the schools marketing department recently and were assured that if we get sponsorship to GDC San Francisco, they'll send all of us.

I had fun volunteering at Austin and I plan on volunteering at San Francisco as well. Hopefully some of our more sociable members will spread the word much more effectively than i ever could. I've never been a good salesmen, but hey, that's what producers are for, neh?

I'm very much looking forward to working on this project more. I recently had an idea for a very cool new feature for the game that is simple to implement but will just require a lot of new content on my part. I'm pretty excited to do a bit more visible work, since much of the story elements aren't portrayed by cut scenes or dialogues. I'm not sure how much i can say, so i guess I'll have to be mum on more details.

There is another project i am going to begin very soon that i dont have the same restrictions. I'm excited to announce my plans for the game Legacies of Mistborn (LoM), based on the novels by the very talented Brandon Sanderson. This is an unofficial fan game and i will do my best to bring the excitement and feel of the Mistborn universe to a new medium.

I plan on splitting the game up into several small episodes, each featuring different characters with different allomantic abilities. Once i have the first episode to a point of testing or critique i'll post a link, and eventually once its completed i plan on sending a link to Mr. Sanderson himself.

Thats all for the time being. Hopefully i'll start to update more regularly, especially when i get my portfolio up in the next months.

So it goes...