EA Cracks Down on Ultima IV Remakes and Distribution – Hinting at Future Release?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 31, 2011

The news amongst Ultima fans this week has combined two events: #1 – Rumors (and Tweets) from a few weeks ago about Bioware Mythic’s Paul Barnett’s secret project, which point to a web-playable Ultima project. #2 – EA just issued a Cease & Desist against many sites offering free downloads of Ultima IV, as well […]

Filed Under: News, Retro - Comments: 7 Comments to Read

The Most Independent Game in the World

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 30, 2011

Courtesy of those Mega64 guys…

Filed Under: Indie Evangelism - Comments: 3 Comments to Read

Why Do You Quit Playing an RPG?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 29, 2011

So why do you quit playing an RPG without completing it? For me, I’ll generally keep playing as long as I am still enjoying two out of three of the following: I’m still finding interesting things to do I’m still finding interesting and significant ways to improve my character(s) I’m seeing progress in an interesting […]

Filed Under: General - Comments: 29 Comments to Read

Judges Guild: Older-School Adventures…

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 28, 2011

This weekend – in between bouts of some kind of illness that made me it’s punching bag – I stumbled across some unpublished work I did for Necromancer Games several years ago. This was principally work converting and updating some old Judges Guild materials over to to 3rd edition D20 rules. Yep, dice-and-paper, baby. Sadly, […]

Filed Under: Dice & Paper, Retro - Comments: 8 Comments to Read

Frayed Knights – Just Add Story!

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 25, 2011

Time for another update on the development of Frayed Knights, the indie computer RPG series that is to the CRPG genre what Dogs Playing Poker was to the world of fine art. When I realized that the size and scope of my “quick and dirty” RPG Frayed Knights was becoming bigger than the longest-winded Final […]

Filed Under: Frayed Knights - Comments: 13 Comments to Read

Why Our RPGs Still Need Numbers

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 24, 2011

Luke Plunkett at Kotaku asks the question: “Why Do Our Role-Playing Games Still Need Numbers Everywhere?”  Though it’s not so much of a question as a call to get rid of such archaic relics of the past. The Snark So first off, I’ll offer the defensive, snarky response that you are waiting for: “We’re already […]

Filed Under: Design - Comments: 23 Comments to Read

This is the Kind of Hero We Make Games About

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The L.A. Times wrote a pretty awesome article about one Hideaki Akaiwa, 43-year old man of action. I prefer the more colorful description of the man at Baddass of the Week (warning: strong language). And general awesomeness. Yes, it’s a bit more colorful and embellished, but I think it also paints a better picture of […]

Filed Under: General - Comments: 5 Comments to Read

The Ancient Games of the Rampant Coyote, part 2

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 23, 2011

Here are a couple more old unfinished games from my distant past development efforts that I managed to salvage somehow. Unfortunately, many others have been lost – probably forever – including a few of “finished” games (never publicly released, though). But here are two more that I managed to dredge up and actually run: The […]

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

The Ancient Games of the Rampant Coyote, Part 1

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 22, 2011

My first games, mainly for the Commodore 64, have been lost forever.  This is not what anybody should consider a tragedy to the art of gaming. But when I’ve found old stories, dungeon write-ups, and so forth from an earlier era of my life, I often do find it pretty inspirational. I would love to […]

Filed Under: Retro - Comments: 13 Comments to Read

How to Run a Game Company… Into the Ground

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 21, 2011

I recently re-read the book Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture by David Kushner. I had to buy a new copy, actually, as I can’t remember who I loaned my previous copy out to. I think it ought to be considered required reading by anybody wishing to leave […]

Filed Under: Biz, Books - Comments: 6 Comments to Read

RPG Design: Returning to Base

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 18, 2011

Many computer role-playing games (CRPGs) have a concept of a “home base” for the player – a safe location to return to in order to rest, heal, trade, advance, acquire and complete quests, and so forth. The actual location may change as the game advances, but these safe spots (which may literally be “save spots” […]

Filed Under: Design - Comments: 23 Comments to Read

Planet Stronghold Now Available at Rampant Games

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 17, 2011

Since I know you guys were only waiting to buy this game until I put it up on my own website… 🙂 Planet Stronghold Planet Stronghold is a sci-fi story-based RPG… sort of a hybrid Visual Novel and turn-based RPG.  You play a young but gifted new recruit assigned to the most heavily defended human […]

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

So You Want to Work in the Video Game Industry…

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 16, 2011

This video has totally been making the rounds over the last 24 hours or so… or at least, I went from never hearing about it to seeing it in a dozen places overnight. So I’ll make this a baker’s dozen… Now those in the video game biz (or close to it – like game journalists) […]

Filed Under: Biz - Comments: 18 Comments to Read

Over-Streamlining the CRPG?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 15, 2011

I was nodding along in general agreement (or maybe it was just sympathy) with indie game developer Lars Doucet up until the point where he tried to call a tower defense game an RPG. But I have to admit, in spite of my immediate “WTF?” reaction, the game does sound really fun. We’ll have to […]

Filed Under: Design - Comments: 16 Comments to Read

Yet More Ways to Use Your Console to Learn to Play Guitar…

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Rocksmith. Coming this fall… Ubitsoft’s New Rocksmith Game to Let Players Use Any Real Electric Gutar… An interesting point that’s just thrown out there in this Hollywood Reporter article about the game is this:  “Another Guitar Hero killer was the cost to license music. But Key says that’s not an issue yet with Rocksmith because […]

Filed Under: Mainstream Games, Music - Comments: 3 Comments to Read

A Whole New Game of Rock Band…

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 14, 2011

My new Fender Squier Rock Band 3 guitar arrived on Friday.  I’ve been saving up for this puppy for a few months in preparation for its release. Fortunately, I’d already picked up a $40 Mad Catz midi-to-XBox converter that I knew it required. This was the kind of thing I’ve been waiting for since the […]

Filed Under: Mainstream Games, Music - Comments: 4 Comments to Read



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