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Reply: RPG Design:: Re: Those of you working on your first game, how's it going?
Posted: Fri, 11 Jul 11:46:54
Posted: Fri, 11 Jul 11:46:54
I have been designing and creating games for the last 40 years, mostly video games, but also some RPGs and board games. All as a hobby. I have released a few of them to the internet (since the internet became a thing in the 1990s), always for free. Sometimes they became big successes with millions of downloads, other times I got no more than a few hundred downloads. Some I released under my own name, others under a pseudonym. I don't really care about the number of players, I enjoy the creative process.
Of the video games I created, I do the playtesting by myself. I am a good enough programmer to trust my own testing. RPGs and board games I created I playtest with friends. The RPGs I created usually are within an existing system (in my case, D&D 5E, as I know that system well enough). I am not too interested in creating RPG systems. In my view, an RPG is about the story and not about the system, so I want to focus on story -- and if it is using an existing system, it is easier to get people to play it.
I tend to work on a game no more than a year. I strive to complete games that I start working on. I know that if the process will take more than a year, most likely I will never finish it. I set realistic goals, and once a game is finished, I may tweak it a little for a few months but then let it go. I know, from experience, that I am never completely satisfied with the result, and that the longer I tweak it, the more details I find that irritate me. But I am not going to redo big things once the game is finished; I rather take lessons learned to heart and apply them to another game.
Nowadays it is very common that people start creating a game and then release an early version. Then they release one or two more versions, with growing intervals, and finally let the game die. The reason is, I think (based on my experience) that initial enthusiasm tends to be high, but it is hard to keep one's interest up. Creating a game is work, and a lot of that work is menial. Like most things in life, creativity makes up only a few percent of the process. And the further one gets in the creation process, the balance between creativity and work leans increasingly over to work.
I do two things to offset the risk of losing interest in a game: the first, as I already mentioned, is limiting the length of the process to a maximum of one year. The second is that I do not define a game completely before I start creating it. I leave many details for the implementation phase, because I know that once I have filled in the final details, my interest begins to wane rapidly, so by that time I want to be so far in process that I am willing to finish it. Even if I do not intend to release a game (which certainly may happen, as the result is not always good enough to release), I want to finish it.
Of the video games I created, I do the playtesting by myself. I am a good enough programmer to trust my own testing. RPGs and board games I created I playtest with friends. The RPGs I created usually are within an existing system (in my case, D&D 5E, as I know that system well enough). I am not too interested in creating RPG systems. In my view, an RPG is about the story and not about the system, so I want to focus on story -- and if it is using an existing system, it is easier to get people to play it.
I tend to work on a game no more than a year. I strive to complete games that I start working on. I know that if the process will take more than a year, most likely I will never finish it. I set realistic goals, and once a game is finished, I may tweak it a little for a few months but then let it go. I know, from experience, that I am never completely satisfied with the result, and that the longer I tweak it, the more details I find that irritate me. But I am not going to redo big things once the game is finished; I rather take lessons learned to heart and apply them to another game.
Nowadays it is very common that people start creating a game and then release an early version. Then they release one or two more versions, with growing intervals, and finally let the game die. The reason is, I think (based on my experience) that initial enthusiasm tends to be high, but it is hard to keep one's interest up. Creating a game is work, and a lot of that work is menial. Like most things in life, creativity makes up only a few percent of the process. And the further one gets in the creation process, the balance between creativity and work leans increasingly over to work.
I do two things to offset the risk of losing interest in a game: the first, as I already mentioned, is limiting the length of the process to a maximum of one year. The second is that I do not define a game completely before I start creating it. I leave many details for the implementation phase, because I know that once I have filled in the final details, my interest begins to wane rapidly, so by that time I want to be so far in process that I am willing to finish it. Even if I do not intend to release a game (which certainly may happen, as the result is not always good enough to release), I want to finish it.
Thread: Hasbro:: General:: Alan G. Hassenfeld, a renowned philanthropist and former CEO of iconic toy company Hasbro Inc., the maker of G.I. Joe and Play-Doh, has died. He was 76
Posted: Fri, 11 Jul 11:24:22
Posted: Fri, 11 Jul 11:24:22
New comment on GeekList Solo RPGs on Your Table - July 2025
Posted: Fri, 11 Jul 11:20:23
Posted: Fri, 11 Jul 11:20:23
by jsteidl
The random space encounters start on p.70 of my 5P core rules. it's called the Starship Travel Events Table.
Arc 13 Ep 3: CoCo Corner PART 1
Posted: Fri, 11 Jul 11:07:28
Posted: Fri, 11 Jul 11:07:28
A new episode has been added to the database:
Arc 13 Ep 3: CoCo Corner PART 1
One-Shots and Miscellanea 13: Going Down
Posted: Fri, 11 Jul 11:07:27
Posted: Fri, 11 Jul 11:07:27
A new episode has been added to the database:
One-Shots and Miscellanea 13: Going Down
Dust World RPG: Neon City - Episode 44: Memory of the Temple
Posted: Fri, 11 Jul 11:06:25
Posted: Fri, 11 Jul 11:06:25
A new episode has been added to the database:
Dust World RPG: Neon City - Episode 44: Memory of the Temple
Episode 28 (S3E28)
Posted: Fri, 11 Jul 11:06:16
Posted: Fri, 11 Jul 11:06:16
A new episode has been added to the database:
Episode 28 (S3E28)
Dragonbane 8 -- Mummies and Daddies
Posted: Fri, 11 Jul 11:05:17
Posted: Fri, 11 Jul 11:05:17
A new episode has been added to the database:
Dragonbane 8 -- Mummies and Daddies
Call of Cthulhu: Masks of Nyarlathotep 14
Posted: Fri, 11 Jul 11:04:37
Posted: Fri, 11 Jul 11:04:37
A new episode has been added to the database:
Call of Cthulhu: Masks of Nyarlathotep 14
Trinyvale X Strahd - Ep. 3: Ismark the Lesser
Posted: Fri, 11 Jul 11:04:33
Posted: Fri, 11 Jul 11:04:33
A new episode has been added to the database:
Trinyvale X Strahd - Ep. 3: Ismark the Lesser
Stonewatch – Dragon Empire Prep Session 29
Posted: Fri, 11 Jul 11:03:41
Posted: Fri, 11 Jul 11:03:41
A new episode has been added to the database:
Stonewatch – Dragon Empire Prep Session 29