Wisdom comes from examining and
reflecting on one’s experiences with an eye toward learning from
them. The turn of the New Year offers a milestone at which many
people stop to reflect on where they’ve been the past year and
where they’d like to go in the coming one. Some set their
expectations high with those pesky annual and often-forgotten
“resolutions.” Others examine where they’ve gone right or wrong
in the past year and resolve to be more mindful of such opportunities
to improve themselves in the coming months.
The New Year’s holiday offers a
chance for me to reflect on my professional game activities over the
past 12 months with an eye toward evaluating my strengths and
weaknesses, finding my inspiration, and re-focusing my efforts
Achievements in 2013
Looking back over the past year I see
my accomplishments range across a number of activities, few of which
one measures in quantitative terms: publishing and promoting gaming
product, communicating with the vast gamer community, and connecting
with key individuals for both playtesting and networking. Some
endeavors have had particular significance for me:
Blogging: Over the course of
2013 I wrote 52 blog entries on adventure gaming and game design.
Yes, everyone seems to blog these days and many argue it’s going
out of vogue; but blogging fulfills two goals for me. It enables me
to communicate with gamers on both general subjects in the hobby
gaming field at Hobby Games Recce and on specific issues of game
design here at the Game Design Journal. Blogging also requires me to
maintain discipline, both to produce relevant, polished editorial
content in more than 750 words each week, and to do so on a schedule
(every Tuesday morning at alternating blogs). I’m not always
successful in the “relevant” and “polished” categories, but
the exercise keeps my writing skills active.
Online Playtesting: I sent
several projects through various stages of playtesting using online
contacts and access through Google Docs (or whatever they’re
calling it these days). I viewed this as an offshoot of my activities
to increase my online interaction with the gaming community. Early in
the year I sent various iterations of my fantasy roleplaying game
engine using some innovative dice mechanics (the Oracle System,
about which I’ve written before). When inspiration hit me to create
a customizable random dungeon generation system, my playtesters rose
to the challenge and helped me refine my vision for the product. As
with any playtesting effort, some participants offered vague
suggestions and impressions (if any at all), but more than I expected
provided constructive criticism, fresh ideas, and positive
encouragement. I am fortunate to have cultivated a small group of
intelligent and loyal playtesters during 2013, an asset I intend to
continue using throughout the new year.
Pay What You Want: In 2013
DriveThruRPG.com and its affiliated websites offered publishers the
option of pricing products as “pay-what-you-want,” giving
customers the option of downloading product for whatever price they
wanted, even “free.” The trend quickly gained popularity among
publishers for a variety of reasons. I chose to convert all my
previously free downloads -- mostly short scenarios supporting my
Pulp Egypt and Heroes of Rura-Tonga supplements -- to
“free/pay what you want” in an effort to raise some extra revenue
from generous donors. (I examined the pay-what-you-want issue and my
views of it as a “tip jar” in an earlier journal entry.) The
change provided some additional revenue each month; subsequently
released free product has fallen under the pay-what-you-want price
rationale.
Themed Dungeon Generator:
An unexpected project evolved from playtesting the fantasy
roleplaying game rules under development. In seeking to self-test the
character and combat systems I turned to the venerable random dungeon
generation tables of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon
Masters Guide (with my own modified monster encounter table keyed
to my own game). After finding that experience haphazard and
thematically meaningless, I set about creating my own one-page, fillable PDF form to customize my own randomized-yet-themed solo
dungeon experience. It suited my needs; with some polishing and quick
online playtesting it released to the public through my
DriveThruRPG.com e-storefront. It was one of several small game
design diversions in which I indulged and the only one to yield
saleable product. I generally don’t like releasing small
supplements with low price points, but this one sold rather well and
made what seemed like sidetracked efforts pay off. (You can read
about my solo dungeon delves and the rationale behind Schweig’sThemed Dungeon Generator in past blog posts.)
Goals for 2014
I think I set a positive course for
2013, so many of those trends I intend to continue in the new year;
however, many new directions and challenges remain:
Project Completion: I’d like
to complete and bring to publication two projects that underwent
significant development and playtesting last year: my introductory
tank wargaming rules for a younger audience called Panzer Kids;
and a fantasy roleplaying game using the Oracle System’s
innovative dice mechanic for a basic gaming experience similar to old
school renaissance retro-clones, tentatively titled Basic Fantasy
Heroes. (I’m also allowing myself to go off on a few other
diversion to develop a small abstract board game inspired by some
interesting game elements and a quick battle game using 54mm plastic
soldier miniatures, which I’ve mentioned before on this blog; I
intend both for eventual publication in PDF form, quite possibly for
free.) I fully subscribe to the philosophy that “We will sell no
wine game before its time.,” which, regrettably,
means projects take their time to reach publication, but they meet my
personal quality standards on several levels.
Convention Scene: I’m hoping
to return to the regional convention scene this year, partly to
playtest, demonstrate, and promote my game projects, but also to
enjoy myself, mingle with gamers, try new games, and enjoy old ones
with new friends. Unlike my previous convention experiences years ago
where I attended as a gaming guest running games, speaking on panels,
and hosting a dealers table, I’m taking a more relaxed approach,
especially in these times of fewer and smaller conventions, tighter
finances, and fewer invitations to gaming guests. I have plans to
visit a few conventions I’ve attended before, as well as leads on a
few others, both well-established and relatively new, I’d like to
try.
Continued Blogging: I sometimes
debate whether it’s worth my time to continue writing two blogs,
one each week, especially when I’m light on relevant topics, have
little time and focus to write, or simply don’t feel as
enthusiastic about my subject as I should. Part of my blogging
satisfaction comes from a need to create meaningful content, but
another comes from the interaction I enjoy in sharing these views on
the adventure gaming hobby and game design issues. On occasion these
missives and discussions inspire me in new directions. I’m looking
forward to generating more discussions through blog topics that
interest me and the gaming community at large.
E-Publishing: I need to
re-focus some efforts to promote my e-publishing endeavors more
effectively, beyond actually producing and releasing product (a
challenge given my limited time, focus, and energy). I learned during
2013 to use social networking, blogs, word of mouth, and the Griffon
Publishing Studio website to promote my activities and publications
and intend to continue those practices. But I need to spend time to
more effectively market my materials using the publisher tools
offered by DriveThruRPG.com and its affiliated sites -- particularly
the “featured product” messages -- to boost sales. I also need to
start seriously looking to make several of my PDF products available
through that website's print-on-demand program.
My reflections on where I’ve been and
where I’m going with my game-design endeavors serves as both a kind
of “annual report” of the past year and an outline of some tasks
that lay ahead. In reviewing last year’s “New Year’s” post
I’m relatively satisfied that I’ve at least confronted the
challenges I set for myself in 2013; I’m looking forward to moving
into 2014 with renewed purpose and some solid goals to achieve.
As always, I encourage constructive
feedback and civilized discussion. Share a link to this blog entry on
Google+ and tag me (+Peter Schweighofer) to comment.