Fair Play
Posted by Jason on March 30th, 2008 — in Check this out dude, Design
Game Chef 2008 is happening right now. It’s organized in a new way - artists are submitting art, and eventually designers will be matched with the art to make games inspired by and using that art. At least I think that’s what is going on. Anyway, circumstances may prevent me from participating as a designer, but I was excited to try my hand at some game art. I thought I’d make a set of images that pointed directly at the game I want to play and see what happened. I’ll share it when the judges tell me it’s OK!
Posted by Jason on March 27th, 2008 — in Business Solutions
Via Paul Czege, the true origins of Business Solutions.
Posted by Jason on March 25th, 2008 — in Check this out dude, Design
So we’re playing Grey Ranks. The mission - defend the critical junction of piping beneath the waterworks, the only thing keeping clean water flowing to Old Town. We’re splashing around in the dark and the key motifs are claustrophobia, paranoia, and terror. I’ve got a personal scene coming up, so wham! Flashback - it’s 1940, it’s a sunny day on a sandy beach next to the Vistula under an endless blue sky and we’re all kids, naked and splashing around. My character, Robert, is gay. I want a scene where Danusia - two years younger, a severe Catholic prude by 1944 - finds out. We play it out, and the outcome will determine how Danusia takes the news. It goes bad for Robert, she takes it poorly at the tender age of 11, and we end the scene without feeling the need to explore that - we know what it means.
Here’s the thing - suddenly Danusia’s relationship with Robert has been colored by this event in their past. I can look at the previous two sessions of play and see why certain things did - or did not - happen. It’s like a puzzle piece falling into place, but one that we did not even know existed until it fell.
This happens all the time. It goes beyond simple agreement, because it informs plot, or story, or fiction, or whatever. It’s an interesting phenomena.
Posted by Jason on March 8th, 2008 — in Business Solutions, Design
Here are the latest versions of the Business Solutions forms - the three different player sheets, the “battle mat”, and the service call log. You don’t really need those last two, but they are kinda fun. The call log makes an excellent prop because if you use it, there’s always a little scene where the client is asked to sign off on the work that’s been done. The battle mat is just a place to organize community cards. I wanted the player sheets to look sort of corporate and poorly put together, but also functional. That’s an information design challenge and I’m not sure how I did yet. I think they drifted away from hellish and toward functional, but that’s OK. They will all get branded with a skeevy logo eventually, and that will help.
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Posted by Jason on March 5th, 2008 — in Night Witches
“1942 … the Germans were advancing very quickly, and our regiment was retreating with the army. One of our pilots made a reconnaissance flight with my aircraft, and upon landing she hit the propeller and knocked off part of the blade. The enemy tanks were closing in on our airfield, and our Regimental commander ordered us to redeploy to another location. There was no time to replace the propeller, and I had a choice of destroying the aircraft and leaving on a truck or flying it out if possible. I had the mechanic quickly cut off part of the opposite blade of the propeller to reduce the vibration. I got the aircraft into the air, and it was shaking so fiercely that only by holding the control stick with a strong grip could I manage to fly it. On my seat I was like a peanut jumping in boiling oil on a hot frying pan! I was escorted by the other planes of the regiment, but what was the use of that protection? If I fell down, nobody could save me. It was really moral support.”
- Senior Lieutenant Nina Raspopova, Pilot, Flight Commander, HSU
“On a mission near Novorossik, I had just dropped my bombs on the railway tracks and was turning away when I saw a German fighter, a Focke-Wulf, flying toward me. I managed to dive and make a sideslip. Only pure chance saved me, and I escaped the enemy’s fire. But the aircraft behind me, piloted by Dusya Nosal, was caught by the enemy fire. She was killed in her cockpit. Her navigator, Irina Kashirina, in the back cockpit knew how to fly and took over the controls, but the dead pilot had slumped forward over the control stick, and she was not able to use the controls. So she had to reach forward and hold the dead body by the collar with her left hand and control the aircraft with her right hand. The rough air over the Crimean hills almost caused her to crash, but she brought the plane with the body of the dead pilot back to the regimental airfield. She was in a state of shock.”
- Major Marina Smirnova, Squadron Commander, HSU
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