This year Game Chef was all about integrating original art, and I worked up a submission for that side of the contest, too. In the end four people submitted games using my art! I’m really proud of it and I like all the games that used it:
Flush, Justin Jacobson
Escape from Tentacle City, Willow
Diesel City Life, Warren Merrifield
Negativity, Jen Schoonover
also
Be Real
Apathy: The Calling
Four Six original takes on my set. Thanks to all of you for using it!
Over here at BPGHQ, we’re rolling on beds stuffed with hundred Euro bills. Take The Roach Returns, for example – which we’re in the process of reprinting. It’s a fun little trifle, 32 pages and 16 new cards that we released in a punk rock low-fi version at Gen Con last year for six bucks. We printed locally and paid Graham Walmsley fairly for his 16 pages. We sold through in a hurry. Prepping for the reprint, we did the math and found that we made sixteen American cents per copy.
So our to-do list looks like this:
1. Take credit for Graham’s work and stiff him next time
2. Don’t try to sell anything for six dollars
3. See if they will buy back the yacht
To be fair, we knew going in that it was more of a marketing expense than a go-getter, but still, 0.16! I laughed when I found out.
Appendectomy
Low Treacheotomy
Lung Lobectomy
Splenic Arterial Bypass
These still aren’t where I want them but it’s a start. If you try any of these, let me know how long they take you so I can calibrate target times. (And I already saw the typo on the spleen sheet, thanks)
It’s all about Game Chef right now. The contest has a different flavor every year and this year it is extremely collegial and tasty. I’m enjoying it a lot. I also like my game!
I’m taking the lessons of Jeepform, mixing them with delicious constraints and currency like I like, and seeing what happens. It has a series of fairly subtle non-moving parts that drive play, the most interesting of which to me is an imbalance in player authority. If you play Dulse, the game is about you, but you are forced into reciprocal relationships. If you play anybody else, you have these flaming relationships with everybody, but the game isn’t about you. I can’t wait to playtest it.
I’ve ginned up a couple of procedures for Medical Hospital on a test template:
The Trauma set just contains generic torsos to spindle and mash, for straight trauma cases.
The Tendon repair is a very typical sort of procedure. I should add some clamping.
The Arterial ligature uses two sheets and represents the more complex sort of surgery, in this case a delicate and awkward operation on the neck. This could be made even cooler with some string and dental floss.
All the scans come from the magnificent Surgical Anatomy of John B. Deaver, MD, published in 1912. I borrowed about 25 pounds worth yesterday and I cannot adequately express how strange and wonderful it is. I wish I had better skill at evening out irregularly-toned book scans. I also wish I knew how to optimize pdfs better.
Give the two surgical procedures a try with a stopwatch and let me know how long they take you. Scissors = scalpel, post-its = sutures, and paper clips = clamps. That’s all you’ll need.