Confessions of an Out-of-Phase Indie

Posted by Rampant Coyote on January 31, 2013

In spite of having been “indie” for quite some time, even before it was much of a thing, some days I look at what’s happening in indie-dom and really feel like an outsider. I think a good deal of it stems from background and culture. I have been a PC gamer – a computer gamer […]

Filed Under: Geek Life - Comments: 21 Comments to Read

Frayed Knights 2 Update: What It’s Got in its Nassty Little Pocketses?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on January 29, 2013

One might think that working  11 to 12 hour days on the “day job” – plus weekends – would make it impossible to do game development on the side. One would be wrong. But it really does slow development a lot. What used to be four hours a night of development time slows down to […]

Filed Under: Frayed Knights - Comments: 6 Comments to Read

Matt Chat with Chris Taylor – and the Undetermined Future of Gas-Powered Games

Posted by Rampant Coyote on January 28, 2013

This is… sobering. And very frank. I wasn’t really a big fan of the Dungeon Siege series. But I have played WAY too much Supreme Commander 2, and Total Annihilation back in the day. I really enjoyed attending a talk by him many years ago at GDC. The interesting thing to me is the “vicious […]

Filed Under: Biz - Comments: 4 Comments to Read

Brewster’s Millions (of Gold Pieces)

Posted by Rampant Coyote on January 25, 2013

When I was a teenager, I read a book called “Brewster’s Millions” (which was, around the same time, made into a movie featuring Richard Pryor, which I’ve never seen).  The book was written just over a hundred years ago, when a million U.S. dollars was worth a heck of a lot more than they are […]

Filed Under: Design - Comments: 23 Comments to Read

Why Female Fantasy Armor is (Usually) Stupid

Posted by Rampant Coyote on January 24, 2013

Once upon a time, when we were playing Fantasy Hero on a regular basis, the women in our gaming group started referring to the “companion” supplement as the “Stupid Armor Chick Book.” It was funny, and soon we were all calling it by that name. The cover art was from a Larry Elmore painting, “Journey […]

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A Dungeon Crawler Recipe?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on January 23, 2013

It’s a start: The Dungeon Crawler Recipe I think you need more to it than this. And “theme” – I dunno. Some of my favorite games of previous eras played fast and loose with this, and that was part of the fun. It seems modern players get much more hung up and demand a purity […]

Filed Under: Design, Retro - Comments: 4 Comments to Read

RPG Design: Four Guidelines for Making An (RPG) Introduction

Posted by Rampant Coyote on January 22, 2013

Maybe I should blame Star Wars. I mean, perhaps the biggest hit movie of its time, and it opens with… text. A big wall of text. Literally, a crawl text. I mean, what is this, a silent film?  Well, not exactly… but George Lucas borrowed it directly from the old film serials of his youth, […]

Filed Under: Game Development - Comments: 7 Comments to Read

Lady Has Bustle!

Posted by Rampant Coyote on January 21, 2013

The world is happier with more steampunk stuff.  Just my opinion. So with that in mind… a parody of Sir Mix-a-Lot’s notorious classic, “Baby Got Back”, “Lady Has Bustle!” Some words that can apply to RPGs as well (I should take this advice myself): Steampunk is most sublime A lot of punks won’t like this […]

Filed Under: Geek Life - Comments: 13 Comments to Read

What Game Designers Can Learn From Fortune Tellers

Posted by Rampant Coyote on January 18, 2013

Line Hollis has a post that has probably been around a while, but was recently re-posted to her blog, comparing storytelling to fortune-telling. She contrasts the differences between the Persona games and Fallout: New Vegas, and how for her, Persona wins in the narrative category (I’d probably agree with her): Game Stories and Fortunetelling I […]

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If It Weren’t For Bad Luck, I’d Have No Luck At All…

Posted by Rampant Coyote on January 17, 2013

A few weeks ago, I joined my family for the board game Talisman. It’s the new version, released a couple of years ago, based on the classic 80’s board game that just so happens to be one of my wife’s favorites. My memories of the game were a bit less favorable. I remembered it being […]

Filed Under: Design - Comments: 6 Comments to Read

Shhhh! Don’t Give Them Any Hints!

Posted by Rampant Coyote on January 16, 2013

Steve Peterson (designer of the original Champions RPG, among other things) explains how the old models for game development (and game design) are now all but obsolete, and must change with the times: Trimming the Fat: How and Why Game Design Must Change   This is pretty much ancient history for most of the folks […]

Filed Under: Biz - Comments: 4 Comments to Read

Games And Guns

Posted by Rampant Coyote on January 15, 2013

A friend of mine emailed me with the subject “Has the world has gone crazy?” It linked to an article about a good ol’ fashioned book-burning that included video games, and how violent arcade games were getting removed from public rest stops.  The latter one I could kind of understand (I have never seen an […]

Filed Under: Geek Life, Politics - Comments: 8 Comments to Read

The Cost of Development

Posted by Rampant Coyote on January 14, 2013

When I hear gamers complain about the cost of video games – and arguing that indie games shouldn’t cost more than $X (X being an arbitrary number, almost always under 10, often less than 5), I wonder if they really understand the cost of making these games. I dream of one day turning “Rampant Games” […]

Filed Under: Biz, Game Development - Comments: 7 Comments to Read

That Cyberpunk 2077 Teaser…

Posted by Rampant Coyote on January 11, 2013

I was pretty amazed when I saw this teaser for the Cyberpunk 2077 game. But when I still think about it hours later, I figure it’s made an impression. Warning – if you haven’t seen it, it’s… dark. Disturbing. CD Projekt Red offers the commentary, “The teaser shows how the Psycho Squad might acquire a […]

Filed Under: Game Announcements, Mainstream Games - Comments: 5 Comments to Read

Frayed Knights 2: Building a World

Posted by Rampant Coyote on January 10, 2013

Someone told me last week that J. K. Rowling said that her secret to success in writing the Harry Potter series was to make up a bunch of details in the early books and then try and figure out what they were about when incorporating them into the later ones. I can’t verify that quote, […]

Filed Under: Frayed Knights - Comments: 6 Comments to Read

BREAKING: A New Torment, Sans Planescape

Posted by Rampant Coyote on January 9, 2013

Holy crap. RPG fans, this could be big. Post-Planescape: Fargo Reveals the Future of Torment InXile is working with Monte Cook, one of the key people involved in creating the original D&D “Planescape” setting, to set the new game in Cook’s own custom pen-and-paper RPG universe. Thus, no need work out licensing with Hasbro. But […]

Filed Under: Game Announcements - Comments: 4 Comments to Read



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