#RPGaDAY2015, Day 2: Kickstarter Game You’re Most Pleased You Backed

by ThomasNo Comments

The second #RPGaDAY2015 topic is Kickstarter Game You’re Most Pleased You Backed. I would reword that topic to “Crowdfunded Game…” because there’s some fantastic stuff coming out on Patreon and IndieGoGo. Every three weeks at Purple Pawn, I write a Crowdfunding Highlights article (4-6 things that have caught my attention) in rotation with two other staff members, and there’s more to crowdfunding than just Kickstarter.

But Kickstarter has the best interface for finding things to throw money at, which is part of the reason why I’ve backed many more things on that funding platform than all others combined.

I’m going to go with a game that I worked on: Chill, 3rd Edition. I backed this at a dollar, which is something I do when I’m brought on board a project before the campaign ends. I really I want to see the backer-only updates and the backers’ comments. (And, if need be, respond to the comments if it’s cool with the campaign creator.) There are about seven of them in my backing history, and Chill is one of those one dollar backings.

chill-openI’ve played Mayfair’s edition of Chill and loved it. When I heard of a potential 3rd Edition, I contacted Growling Door Games, and after a little bit of discussion, there I was, creating the graphics for the KS, laying out the quickstart, and designing the rulebook. And by designing the book, I mean actually designing the book — I had just come off of Firefly, where I was working from Daniel Solis’ design. While Firefly was a fun gig, I wasn’t as free to lay down some design work for a full product. The physical book arrived just three days ago, and it came out looking even better than I thought it would. I’m still amazed — here’s this thing that I did and it’s right here. It’s so…awesome. It makes me smile. Chill, 3rd Edition, is the most pleasing game I’ve backed.

Honorable Mentions: Posthuman Pathways for the ENnie, Primetime Adventures because it’s my favorite RPG, and Play Dirty 2: Even Dirtier because John Wick is John Wick.

Aside: I also backed a book at a level that would have gotten me the PDF of the it. After the campaign, I came on board during production to finish laying out the book. After it was done — meaning, I had all the book files from here — I received a download code to get my free copy of the book. Crazy!

Current Work: Posthuman Pathways RPG

by ThomasNo Comments

posthuman-pamphlet

Client: Genesis of Legend Publishing

Project Scope: Graphic design, layout.

Project Description: A series of accordion-fold and gate-fold pamphlets that make up the physical play components of a transhuman roleplaying game.

The Posthuman Pathways project consists of five legal-sized pamphlets that are used to play the game. The above graphic is pamphlet one: The Long Road. The obverse has an introduction to the game. This side has The Timeline, where players place cards and notes during the three eras of the game: human, transhuman, and posthuman. Unlike the other four gate-fold pamphlets, this is the only accordion-fold pamphlet in the game and will be laid flat when playing.

On this project, the basic organization of information was detailed by the game designer. My first task was to take Jason’s document and come up with different type treatments for the project. After two rounds of treatments, we had a good black and white layout mock-up prepared. Subsequent milestones included creating a background for all five pamphlets and a timeline graphic. The basic backgrounds involved geometric patterns (and a pseudo-algorithmic scale “timeline”) over a heavily modified corroded metal graphic to give a sense of space. The timeline graphic repeated some of these geometric patterns in a rising motion, which begin to clean the background, expressing the unknown future and how it emerges in gameplay.

Website: http://www.genesisoflegend.com/