Hi folks...
My friend Carl told me a story of Tolkien and CS Lewis, and a few others gathered together periodically to form a club called Inklings (IIRC). They discussed ideas, kept each other motivated, that sort of thing. Carl was wondering if our local group of friends might be able to apply the same sort of "Artist's Circle" concept for game design.
So in that light, we set up a small group to meet monthly for just a couple of hours, in order to discuss and perfect our craft. We held our first meeting last night.
One thing that struck me, was the diversity of our group. I am working on board and game projects. Carl was interested in perfecting computer games, and is trying to learn Python game libraries, starting out perfecting a small learning project, a version of "Daleks." One other member, fed up with D&D, set off to create his own RPG from scratch. Another member is working on an empire-building game ("like Civilization, but less tedious.") The final member of the group wasn't working on any game, but loves to give his opinion about most everything. :-)
So, we all have a different angle of what makes games fun, what expectations are about games, and how tweaking those expectations helps or hurts the game. We talked about what makes games surprising and fresh. I think the meeting was successful. I playtested my latest proto and came away with many good ideas. I think everyone came away with some good feedback on what they had. (However, one caveat: they more stuff they brought to show, the more feedback they got.)
So, I thought I'd throw this idea out to the masses. It served somewhat of the same purpose as this forum, but the feedback was more real, immediate, and in-your face. I'd be curious to know if any other game developer groups are out there, and what makes your groups successful.
