Another game I designed is up on Kickstarter! Bo and I started working on this game a couple of years ago and it's gone through MANY iterations. It started out as just an engine with some loose connections to Numenera but at every step we've moved it closer and closer to the role playing game. Partnering with Lone Shark and co designing it with Mike Selinker has turbo charged the game.
I love being a dad. My girls are everything to me.
But I'm also a gamer, and so it is my dearest wish that my kids become gamers too and we'll play Caverna and Civilization and Five Tribes. However, they're a bit young for that at the moment. So I'm picking my battles and rejoicing in the wins that I get.
For example, my elder daughter is an iPad junky. She adores Minecraft and other building games. We had a very good run at Terraria together, although it largely consisted of me getting a new weapon or item and her stealing it. But we were playing together, so I didn't mind.
The younger one isn't nearly there yet. However, she's already well on the path, and I'm super hopeful. She loves playing games. It started with Candy Land.
I learned a lot playing Candyland with my kids. The older one just wanted to win. She would cheat like crazy. She'd peek and look for the cards that would jump her ahead the most. She just needs to get sneakier. However, the young one loved for the game to be fun and fair. She'd get upset if she got too far behind, but she'd get so excited if she was winning and I got a card that helped me catch up. It was about the experience and it was VERY important to her that we both got to win and do well. I can't ask for more.
We've also played a lot of Feed the Kitty. This is a random walk of a game. Each player gets some mice, and there is a bowl with more mice in it. You roll two dice and do what they say. They possibilities are: Do Nothing, Put a mouse in the bowl, take a mouse out of the bowl, or give a mouse to the player on your left. It's weighted toward players getting rid of their mice, but there's no agency, so it's pretty much just a long random walk until someone runs out of mice. But she loves it and that makes it fun for me. The Do Nothing result shows a sleeping kitty, and so she insists that you put your head on the table if you roll it on both dice, and the other player has to wake you up. I'd play anything with those rules.
So she's on a good path, and I'm grateful because I think she's making me understand better about how the experience is the most important thing.
Caverna can wait.
Welcome to my website!
I often have thoughts about game design and this will be a place for me to let them out into the world and see what the world thinks of them. I will talk about game design and theory, conventions, my games, cool things that happen, cool people I meet, and just generally about my life.
I will also be posting reviews of games, movies, TV shows... whatever I think needs my opinion stamped all over it.
I hope you enjoy it!
