Cancellation and Body Parts

Oh Dear!

Slight disappointment really. You may remember that I was saying that a friend of mine was going to take Marooned to a game convention for me, well unfortunately he isn't going now and therefore neither is marooned :-(.

I was looking forward to sending it off with a pat on it's bum and a bag of tuppenny chews in its hand, but that's how it is I'm afraid. I will look into taking it myself to a Con in the future but at the moment I have no idea where or when that might be.

Not got much further with things at the moment as the non game world has impinged a little on the development, I've got a job in the next week that has distracted me a little... very interesting stuff which I will tell you more about a little later on.. there is a need for secrecy but I promise it will be worth the wait!

In other news.... I've been playing around with an idea for another game... Based around the reanimation of dead tissue this has about as much in common with Mary Shelly's Frankenstein as... well... most of the Frankenstein films ever produced by Hollywood! In my game (Tentatively Titled "The Spark of Life!" as "It's alive!" has already been taken) each player takes the part of a Mad Scientist attempting to stitch together and reanimate a dead body. There is a storm coming and once it hits then the process of reanimation must begin! MWAH HA HA HA HA! etc.

It's a card and dice game and I'm hoping to do it initially as a print and play thing as a beta version and then perhaps as a print on demand game from one of the online retailers. At the moment the art is pretty basic (as done by me with some marker pens and very little artistic talent) but that might change too!

So all in all both disappointing and exciting in equal measure... sure I would have liked Marooned to have swanned off to Q-con, then be whisked away by a wonderful producer and be in print within the year, but the chances of that happening were always very remote as it was. Here's to the next chance.

Where have I Been? Where Haven't I Been?

It's been a long time since I've updated this hasn't it?

Why? Have I given up on Marooned? Is there some crisis of faith that means that I'm giving up the whole thing and moving to Pontypool to raise Okapi?

Nah... none of the above... I've just been a bit busy. It's been nice out and I've been doing stuff.

But back to the Game!

Where am I at? Well it's getting close to that time where I have to give my demo copy to a mate to take to a Game Convention he is going to... that's exciting... but also a bit daunting.

I have a few decisions to make about what I'm going to send... I could just send the basic two player game with him (that would be the easy option) but I think that it may be best to send a version that can be played by 2-4 players... that's two double sided boards, forty blocks and requisite counters/men.

AND THE RULES!

That's the bit that is getting me in a tizzy... I have to get the rules sorted but I've not really got on with it... Last night I had a look at the rough draft I did and boy was it rough! There are a few problems I have to think through on this... there needs to be diagrams in the rules... some of the concepts of movement in the game are much easier to grasp if you can see them visually than read about them (well at least I am having trouble writing them in a way that can be easily understood!). But are diagrams better... or should it be photographs with additional arrows and so forth?

Also I think it best to include some sample moves within the rules... but should this be peppered throughout the rules themselves or in a separate section at the end? All things to be considered.

Gragh! well this isn't getting anything done is it? So for now I'm going to get off and get going on it and see how it turns out.


But I'm glad to be back and hopefully I can get moving on this very soon now for all those wonderful people who are going to get to play Marooned!