Busted my hump yesterday 18 hr. straight! I think I've found my calling! Been a gamer since 1977, yes I played D&D around 1979-1980. I must have played a 1000 games since 77, and It seems I'm pulling Ideas from them all.
Have the design for my first game, still working in Excel to do my math for me. Still trying to decide what to put on my page (BGDF). I'm learning all about the K.I.S.S. principle! I'm also finding that I'm constantly changing aspects of the game, to simpler ideas. Working & re-working.
I have the general aspects of the game, trying to figure out the mechanics. Need IE. character attributes, game action. Already have the Ledger Formulas (income, expenses) concept written. Went with a typical week/mo. format.
Please forgive me, I'm probably using the wrong terms for the aspects of my game. I'll get better over time :) I'm attaching my generic EXCEL Ledger/balance, for anyone need a week/month $$$ income/expense calculator.
Comments
Simple is good.
You may want to start with a simple design doc. Mine look like this.
Name: Cheese Festival
Number of Players: 3-4
Ages:12+
Length: 15 min per player
Materials:
Cards: 54
1d6
Nationality mat
Description: Player act as venders at an international cheese festival trying to sell the most of their countries hallmark cheese.
Description of play: Players will hold a hand of cards representing visitors to the festival each with their own cheese preferences. By playing these cards they will have the opportunity to attract the customers to their booth and sell them cheese. The odds of making the sale depends on the customers preference to your cheese. Customers put into play will stay in play until they have purchased a given amount of cheese.
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After that comes the actual rules but I find it good to frame the project first. The game mentioned above is very simple and might need other elements to make the play truly interesting. I’ll wait to add those once I see how the core works.
So what im saying is don’t throw in the kitchen sink from the start. Build the base and then add from there. It’s much easier to add to a game than take something out.