Game Designing Blog.

So, way back in the depths of antiquity [2009] I began a small project of writing a table top war game.  The original premise was a war game based in the near galaxy in about the year 3000 [from the human perspective].  It underwent  a few changes initially and a bit of history was written, and few races added to the universe.  Then I was getting a little bogged down in the detail, so I tamed it a little back to the basic mechanic, then wrote a partial game based on the same - developing - mechanic that was a campaign developing crew on ships, pirate ships, etc. 

A little while passed and the pirate game had introduced so many little tweaks and quirks to what was meant to be a generic system, that I tied it back to the basic mechanic again.  That was in 2012.

Life has a way of taking over from dreams that you play with from time to time, and this was no different.  I wrote the basic mechanic, and added a bit to the universe and that was about all that happened for over 12 months.  Then, in the middle of 2013, a friend of mine prompted me to continue.  Not encouraged, mind you, just nudged a little.  So the mechanic got its 2013 rewrite that was generic, and then that generic mechanic has now - slowly - been ported over to the science fantasy universe again.  I have done a fair bit of work since then, mostly on the universe, and lot of it is still a messy jumble in my head.  Mostly a time line for the galactic sector and the other races have been established, and reasons for why 'X' doesn’t get along with 'Y'.  In this setting, the human race is still the newcomer to this long standing - and occasional brush fire - that is the portion of space we find our self in.

Until today, it was all on paper, or electronic document, or still tucked away in my head.  Today, I actually play-tested the mechanic.  Did it work?  So far, so good.  Does it have anything overpowered?  Well, I only tested basic armour, basic cover, basic rifles, and then tested a machine gun.  By my rules, the machine gun is a little overpowered.  But that isn’t really wrong, because, machine guns ARE overpowered.  I am going to do some more tests, to see if initial theories are correct.  But I was surprised how well it ran for a very small play testing session.

It is also very satisfying to have finally got to that stage.  Is it a full functioning game?  Hell no!  It's a long way from that, but so far my initial mechanic designs are working.  And this is amazing in its own right. 

More to be posted here soon as I continue to finesse the process and develop the universe.  At this point 'Next Frontier' has gone from theory to practice, even if I'm the only one that gets to play it.

RAInf with LSW - 40mm

Australian Army Infantry Soldier from the East Timor UNTAET campaign armed with F89 Minimi LSW.

This is a photo of one of the models I painted a few years ago. The model is an OzMade miniature in 40mm. The model itself is not bad quality considering the size of the OzMade environment.

Paints were all Citadel from teh time, and you can see clearly my heavy use of drybrusing and inking.



Why now?

I bought a new camera, and it has a funky telephoto detail auto setting which makes miniature happy snaps really easy...and this is the first miniature that I could find [without digging through boxes in the shed]

Looking at the mini up close is not so good now, because I can see where I could have done a much better job. Hallen's faithful will remember this one sitting in the display cabinet for quite some time.

New SodaPop Minis...

Kisa & Isabeau Now Available!

SodaPop Miniatures released two more of there range today. The figures have been floating around in the sneak peeks for a while, but are now available for purchase.

And now for the bad news...pay day is still three weeks away.

Personally, I think I prefer the Isabeau Durand figure.

See them / Buy them here.

SodaPop Miniatures

The gauntlet has been verily thrown down...

Prompted by the enthusiasm of my good friend over at OzMecha, I have acquired some of the Relic Knights range of miniatures from SodaPop Miniatures. Once I have the lovely little pieces of pewter in my hands I will be able to paint them up and show you all some pickies...

The eventual aim? Once and for all I will prove that OzMecha is a much better painter than I am...But have a damn fun time in the process. At the very least give OzMecha an example to say 'This is how you DON'T paint the SodaPop Miniatures'

Stay tuned.