My involvement with Mark and Mary all started with a
friendly exchange of e-mails regarding the game industry in general and Flying
Pig Games in particular. I’ve had this idea for an admittedly wacky game design
for years and just haven’t found the right venue for it. Knowing Mark’s game
design philosophy from his Lock n’ Load days and seeing where he was going with
his Flying Pig designs, I decided one day to take a chance and describe this
crazy idea to him. Mark seemed to be a kindred spirit when it came to game
design protocols …. a preference for games whose theme could involve just about
anything, just as long as they are damn fun to play. So I pitched the idea for
this game design about – what else – total chaos. As some of you may know, most
of my game designs involve elements of “historical chaos”, a simulation
mechanic that we feel better reflects the reality of the historic battlefield
than the more traditional “I Go – You Go - Both players have perfect knowledge”
method of wargaming. As a humorous aside, I’ve remarked in the past that one
day I would love instead to do a game with unrestrained chaos,
just for the pure entertainment value. The premise for the design (yes, there
still needs to be some kind of cogent storyline, even if absurd) would be about
an alien race from another dimension (the “Kay’otz”, in this case) that goes
about things in a totally misunderstood and illogical manner – or at least
misunderstood and illogical to the human mind. When I finally did get the guts
up to propose this game idea to Mark, he actually loved it. And thus was born Invaders from
Dimension X, one of the half-dozen new games being offered out of the gate
by Tiny Battles.
So the transition began immediately from a “cool idea” to
a physical game that actually works. This is the toughest part for any game
designer, in my opinion. Ideas are a dime a dozen – getting the ideas into a
workable game design that actually ends up on the table is another matter
entirely. My developer and playtester extraordinaire, Fred Manzo, came up with
the brilliant idea early on to drape the design in a 1950’s campy science
fiction cloak – just to make it even more fun and unique. Well once we did
that, the ideas just kept flying and we basically designed the essence of the
game in one weekend. Then our artist, Tim Allen, kept the momentum going with
some outstanding artwork that perfectly reflected the “attitude” of the game.
All this theme and flat-out fun allowed us to invent the Alien Monolith, the
Multi-Frequency Phase Nullifier, the Phase Shift Depolarizer, the Alien
Overlords and more. This is an example of how a pretty basic idea for a game
can gain a life of its own and it then starts to design itself. The effect is
much like how a novelist lets his/her characters write the story, as long as
they have enough personality and drive built into them to do so. As such, Invaders from
Dimension X became possessed (by alien forces, we presume) and just
“blasted off”, almost on its own.
Fred, Tim and I certainly hope you enjoy playing our contribution
to the Tiny Battles Publishing catalog as it now “takes the field” for the
first time. We very much hope that it does well and that gamers have fun with
it – we, in fact, have a lot more story to tell! And we’re aiming to do
two-player and even three-player versions of the game to increase its
accessibility to all sorts of different gaming groups.
So thanks for letting us throw out this “first pitch”!
Just be thankful that I’m not also singing the “Star Spangled Banner”. ; )
Mr. Luttmann's Invaders from Dimension X on sale now. You can find it here.
Mr. Luttmann's Invaders from Dimension X on sale now. You can find it here.
Good stuff! I do like reading about the game design/publishing process. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteThank you.
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