Frayed Knights Wins Game-In-A-Year Competition
I'm very pleased to announce that the Frayed Knights Pilot: The Temple of Pokmor Xang has won the Dream Games' "Game In a Year" competition that began in April 2007, and culminated in April of this year.

The competition may have ended in April, but judging between some very strong entries took a little bit longer.

The announcement was made on Dream Game's forums last night. Rampant Games was cited as being "consistent throughout development, had the best quality product which adhered to their design, provided excellent testing and feedback cycles through their community."

Oh, yeah, community! That's you guys. Thank you. We literally could not have done it without you.

We had a TON of people sign up for the alpha and beta testing of the game, and while the pilot version of the game is probably not the pinnacle of polish and freedom from bugs (or even solid gameplay), suffice to say that the alpha test team endured far, far worse. Certain people in particular worked their butts off with suggestions and detailed test reproduction steps with every single build, probably growing almost as tired of the same level as I was. I'm going to note Random Gamer, francotau, DGM, Cowgod, Samrobb, Ezin, NME, JenaRey, Space Bumby (or, more particularly, her kids --- who gave it quite a workout), Califer, Smackey, and probably others who were quite active the first month but their posts got reaped by accident.

RandomGamer, DGM, and Cowgod in particular were amazing with their constant feedback and suggestions. They would dig DEEP to help me uncover some hard-to-find bugs. And I sometimes ignored their suggestions to my own regret.

Even those who were not heavily involved in testing provided me with some great advice and suggestions in my weekly development diaries. I made some major changes during development based on the advice of clear-thinking readers who were able to point out some areas where I was completely overthinking the problem, or going down the wrong path.

Likewise - I have been deluged with feedback from people who played the pilot. I have received over 700 responses with useful feedback and comments that are helping me shape the full version of Frayed Knights. Some people sent me gigantic forms of information full of brilliant insights, and some suggestions I'm dang well trying to incorporate. Granted, it's kinda humbling to realize that just about everybody BUT me could spot some of the glaring problems with the design. But this is about you, and about the game.

Several other communities have been very supportive of this project. The folks at RPGWatch, RPG Codex, Iron Tower Studio (More indie RPG goodness - also done with Torque!), Scorpia's Gaming Lair, RPGDX, and Game Banshee have been way, way cool and have offered plenty by way of both crits and encouragement.

You. Guys. Rock.

So - what's next?

Obviously, the Frayed Knights Pilot was just the first step. It served its purpose, as a scouting mission to see where I was on the right track and where I was completely in a different timezone from the right track. It was a complete game, albeit not a perfect one. We were able to get a lot done in a single year, and I'm very proud of it - particularly as my first released RPG (if you don't count Hackenslash).

Now comes the hard part - to make twelve times the game in less than twelve times the development time. Neither you nor I have the patience to wait twelve more years for its release. So what's it going to take? I don't entirely know the answer to this question. I have ideas, but not answers.

But this first chapter of the saga is completed, and I'm thrilled with what we've been able to pull off. Again - much of the credit goes to this and "neighboring" communities.

Thank you.


Wanna talk about it some more? There's a forum thread, even!

Labels: Frayed Knights

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 5:28 AM (Permalink)