spilledmilkfactory

@brackstone: Thanks! The whole concept was actually inspired by The Adventure Zone. I first came up with it on the episode of Crystal Kingdom where Merle loses his arm. I just like the way they make empathetic and inclusive stories in general, but don't lose the humor of it. That's something I'm hoping to get in Firelight, as well.

We're working on having some podcasts play the game before the Kickstarter, but yes you're right, video stuff seems like it tends to be very important. Cue rush to make sure the art is mostly in place by then

Looks kind of cheesy and dumb to me unfortunately

@dr_unorthadox: Thanks duder, the QR code thing is great advice! Especially since we're looking at trying to have as short of a rulebook as possible. Would be a great way to link to sample games, etc. as well.

Hey duders,

So as the title says, I've recently announced that I'm making a tabletop role-playing game. This game is different from a lot of other RPGs because of the way it's structured - "Quest" cards give your party their objectives, and it's up to you to improvise your way through them. Think of each Quest card sort of like a quest line in The Witcher or Skyrim: You have a base story with objectives associated with it, but the way you make your way through those objectives is completely up to you and your party. In this case, there's even more variance than in a video game because you can literally try any solution you can dream up.

The game is targeted towards people who like the storytelling aspect of RPGs more than the dice-rolling aspect, as well as people who are intimidated by the long rulebooks and lengthy character/quest creation processes that tend to be associated with these games.

So, my point in all this is... I was wondering how many of you out there have tried getting into role-playing games before. What was that experience like? Successful/unsuccessful? Were there any areas that posed stumbling blocks when you were learning the rules or making your character? Any feedback you have would be great as we are currently in the process of playtesting and finalizing our rules.

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For anyone interested, the game is called Firelight and features some really great artwork from folks like Michelle Czajkowski (Ava's Demonwebcomic), Loika (The Weight After Water book), Caitlin Scannell (The Adventure Zine, a spinoff from the McElroy-filled The Adventure Zone podcast) and more. Our website (totally Squarespace'd, thanks Beastcast) has more info.

Oh yeah, definitely. Though I'm the type that sees a ton of movies in theaters.

For me, I have a general fondness for the franchise despite not having seen a lot of the movies in it. I actually liked Prometheus for the most part, and I absolutely adore Katherine Waterston. Plus, I generally just enjoy movies where people go to an alien planet and weird stuff happens. So I'm in just for those elements.

I will agree with some of the others above that the scares in the trailer look somewhat uninspired, but we'll have to see - Sometimes horror movies don't come off great in trailers.

I think you're fine. People tend to remix songs a lot on Soundcloud

You know, I hadn't thought about how crazy the lineup has been so far until I saw this. Granted, I'm not into the vast majority of those games, but they all have their audience. Horizon, NieR and Persona all certainly look awesome.

This seems to be displaying in a really weird order, but ah well.. fitting, given that it was just a weird year all around.

GotY 2016

	12. Hitman A stealth sandbox with a sinister sense of humor, the only reason Hitman isn't higher on my list is that I only technically played the first episode. Agent 47's antics were still fun to watch in various GiantBomb videos, though.
	3. Enter the Gungeon Enter the Gungeon was as close to 'perfect' as any game came this year, with razor sharp analog aiming, whimsical humor and a deep, challenging world packed to the gills with secrets.
	1. Overwatch In a year where I was completely over most AAA multiplayer shooters, Overwatch managed to pull me in one more time with personable characters, tons of positive feedback, and fun seasonal events.
	11. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End Uncharted 4 marks a high point for story in the series, but its over-reliance on stealth scenarios coupled with a lack of any stealth mechanics to speak of crippled large parts of the game.
	2. Pokémon Go Flawed though it may be, Pokemon GO delivered a feeling that I hadn't experienced since Red and Blue Versions came out on the GameBoy; the feeling that the world is a big, magical place filled with incredible sights and wonderful chance encounters.
	8. Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE I didn't get to play much of Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE, but what's here is clearly a colorful and complex spin-off of classic SMT/Persona mechanics in the context of a fun story. It uses the Wii U GamePad in some really neat ways, too.
	13. Ratchet & Clank A fun and gorgeous reminder of the gung-ho enthusiasm that many AAA developers seem to have lost over the last decade, filled with varied events and colorful locales.
	10. Forza Horizon 3 I've always loved Forza Horizon, but the formula started to show its age with the third iteration. Luckily, the recent Blizzard Mountain breathed new energy into the series with accurate snow physics and 50 nail-biting new events.
	5. Gears of War 4 Gears of War 4 hearkens back to what made the series so cool in the first place: a small, atmospheric campaign that pits close friends against overwhelming odds. The stop-and-pop gameplay borders on repetitive sometimes, but the action setpieces are fantastic and feel classical (in a very good way) in how they vary the game's pacing.
	9. Titanfall 2 As I mentioned earlier, I have little patience left for online shooters. Titanfall 2's campaign, however, never outstayed its welcome and kept throwing out fun new ideas. It's not revolutionary, but it was a fun night and a half of game time.
	4. Pokémon Sun/Moon Pokemon Sun/Moon was just the sun-soaked vacation I needed this Autumn. It's colorful and filled with Good Feels, and shakes up the traditional Gyms and Types systems just enough to make Pokemon a compelling play yet again.
	6. Dishonored 2 Arkane has crafted one of the year's most dense and compelling game worlds, but its dark corridors and treacherous politics weren't always my first choice for unwinding after a long day. Still, I found myself compelled to find every last secret in a game where exploration is often its own reward.
	7. Final Fantasy XV In its weird idiosyncrasies, Final Fantasy XV presents perhaps the most convincing game world I've inhabited. Its often-inane fetch quests and sterile towns can't hold a candle to The Witcher 3, but when Prompto snaps an impromptu photo, Ignis makes small talk while you drive, and Gladio cooks dinner while the others play cards, it's hard not to feel that this is a living world filled with authentic characters.

I'm kind of late to the party on this one, but I enjoyed your post and could relate to it a lot as someone who grew up seeking those 'magical' experiences in a small US town where everyone worked either in government or education. I spent basically my whole life trying to break into games, and it's been a lot slower for me than most people. However, our trajectories sound pretty similar, so here's how I see it.

What is clear immediately is that you have lots of talent in multiple mediums, most of which are pretty relevant for video games. Right now it seems like you are using your talents in ways that sort of suck the beauty from them to pay the bills - Painting football players doesn't quite give the same catharsis as painting a landscape. If you want to break into games, you'll need a portfolio and practice. It's a space full of really cool people, but it's also a really competitive space. If you haven't already, I would go onto reddit's r/gamedevclassifieds and r/INAT (I Need a Team) and post offers to do art or music for indie games. You can also try posting on TigSource as a lot of developers congregate there. Even those communities are pretty busy, so you may need to offer to work for free (it sucks, I know). It can pay off by making you some good connections and adding to your portfolio, though. With regards to moving, I don't have a ton of advice except that I moved across the US and although being in a more tech and art-focused part of the world helps a lot, I still feel disconnected because I'm not as talented as the people here are yet, and especially in code-focused parts of the community that can feel really prohibitive.

I'll give you some examples from my life and how I've been dealing with the same issues (not that I've been doing things perfectly; far from it). I've always loved designing games. When I was younger, I would draw my own Pokemon cards and sketch 2D Mario levels during class. I tried getting into dev, but the programming and math side of things was discouraging, and I didn't know anyone else who shared my interests. Game design majors weren't really a thing at reputable/affordable colleges just yet, so I went with Marketing and Entrepreneurship, which I'm also interested in, conceptually at least. Now, I work at a marketing firm with very demanding hours while designing things on the side. I took the route of designing an indie game too, and while it's good for making talented connections, I wouldn't rely on it to make you a livable salary out of the gate. I began by developing with my roommate, but eventually got some new partners, as he wasn't willing to put work in every day and wasn't serious about the idea. That's the thing about passion projects - You can't rely on everyone to have the same amount or the same type of passion as you. Furthermore, unless you have an incredibly simple, micro-game level idea, you will need to devote too much time, and there is too much market uncertainty, for this to be a viable source of income right away.

I designed an arcade-style puzzle game, and that will have been in development for probably 18+ months before it'll be released. Even then, I'm not relying on it making too much money because the audience is niche. I'm okay with that, because I was doing it mostly for practice and to see if I liked the experience. Side note, but if you have a game idea and are interested in attempting to suss out the potential market size, SteamSpy can be really helpful and I have some tips for using it.

Because video game design is kind of slow and requires lots of external input around the design (art, music, animation, etc) I also started designing a tabletop game. I ended up really liking it, and will probably do a Kickstarter like an above user suggested if I can get it together. Otherwise, I've cut my living down to a bare minimum and have been saving to design full time, but even in that process I'll need to take odd jobs and do a little freelance work here and there. Just having these two uncompleted projects in my portfolio has helped me get some leads at a few companies around me, too.

Anyways this has gotten huge, but that's kind of been my take on a similar experience. If you want, PM me and I can give you more details. Either way, good luck!

I agree with OP, both movies were good metaphors and I thought about both of them, especially The Babadook, for a while after I stopped watching. The Babadook actually had a really great ending, I thought. But as far as being fun movies to watch, I wasn't especially blown away, especially by It Follows. The creature in that movie is a complete idiot. It can look like anything, and the protagonist doesn't even believe it's real for the first third. Better dress up like a peeing eye socket monster! Why not just, you know, a regular person? Or her friends? I expected some The Thing-level psychological play but really there was nothing of the sort.

And I found BWP to be the worst of them all. 2/3 of it is just a bunch of petulant idiots screaming at each other in the woods while the camera states at some dirt