Velocimancer Games

Well, it’s late on a Wednesday but I still want to try to get a game design post in for the week, so let’s do another un-categorizes update.  I’ve had some good chats with other designers since last I posted, and it has indeed been good for me to live less in this isolation and more amongst the people.  For so long during the pandemic, I struggled to think, to feel, to even stand my own company, and I only recently felt able to get my individual shit together, that now it’s alien and new again to look outside the tiny space I’ve carved.  But it has helped! I’m not sure when I’ll go back to work again, so isolation is my expectation for the foreseeable future, I’m very grateful to be regaining my bearings and rebuilding my engine under these circumstances.  My dumb ass has already started booking out every available hour with emails I owe or meetings to be in, because being broken that way is how I know I’m getting back to myself again. Anyway, I’ve got some solid p...

Ok, so I figured I’d freeform some general notes for The DOLLIE Extraction today, as I did two blog posts last week but no actual dedicated game design.  So! I resolve, once again, to try to do one 20-minute writing session, and one twenty-minute building session, separate from this blog post.  Here’s hoping that I have better luck this coming week.  Actually, fuck luck, I just need to make time instead of watching yet another pilot for a show I ultimately won’t go for.  Anyway, here are some more notes for The DOLLIE Extraction. There should be non-combat-capable clones hooked up as human computers for research processing.  Possible to work that interface in as part of the hacking approach? Look up the proper names for cruiseliner decks, but here are the general ideas for locations: Bottom deck, we’ve got (from aft to fore) an engine room that also contains the Engineering division, leading into the primary Frames Barracks, with the Experimental/Research B...

Alright, so I’ve knocked out a fairly workmanlike TTRPG Tuesday but I think I should follow up on last Wednesday’s post about my three-tiered plan for accomplishing game design quarantine goals, with the trickier half of the planning process; actual action I can take to accomplish those objectives. I think that my approach needs to be two-pronged: I need to motivate myself, and dedicate time to game writing and prototype-building; I also need to get together with some collaborators, and try to get some group project momentum bouncing back and forth.  Let’s start with the first prong, my own actions. To begin with, I think that my habits as they stand now will meet the demands of my Bare Minimum plan, so I should focus right now on the Realistic plan.  From there I should prioritize my objectives based, frankly, on what I most want to do; I’m not on deadline and as my own task manager I need to take motivation where I can get it.  I should also prioritize ease of comple...

Well, I’ll keep it short today since I plan on doing another blog post tomorrow following up on last week’s plan.  So please enjoy a quick rough sketch of the inhabitants of the Hall of Mirrors: The Shepherdesses, the Numbered, and the Frames. Clone Hierarchy Aboard the Hall of Mirrors Shepherdesses The Shepherdesses are a small group of leaders appointed by Dr. Halliyal to administer the affairs of DOLLIE and the Hall of Mirrors in her absence.  Shepherdesses may freely engage in modifications and cloning, of themselves and non-Shepherdess clones, and are the only ones authorized to keep their original eyes, which all of them do. 213: The Captain of the Hall of Mirrors.  Relatively un-modified save for minor enhancements to inner ear and appendage strength.  Grace: Manages the DOLLIE Brand and oversees damage control.  Heavy age-compensation cosmetic boosters, overclocked metabolism, telescoping lionfish spines on ulnas. Sita: Subordinate to Grace, in...

Well I missed my chance to do a Mechanic Monday, and then got too busy at work to do a TTRPG Tuesday like I’d planned.  I suppose I could simply say “here it is, late” and do either of those but instead I think I’ll just talk about where I’m at with regards to game design, and make a plan for hitting some goals during These Trying Times. I told my playwriting students in an email this week to make three writing plans at a time.  Ambitious, Realistic, and Bare Minimum.  Although I didn’t come right out and say it, this is meant to gamify things.  You can feel bad about falling short of the Ambitious or Realistic goals (and feeling bad discourages future progress more often than not) or you can feel good about hitting the Bare Minimum (and if you can’t hit that, there are bigger issues that need addressing).  We spent the lion’s share of the in-person time together doing exercises, having discussions, and doing a lot of theorycrafting and pre-writing.  Now ...