Lets talk Infinity Train

Back in the last decade, (Because saying four years ago doesn't give this show the gravitas it has earned.) The pilot episode got You-tubed, and went viral. Here is the link, or if you are just a bit lazy I have got it posted in full below the break. The animation is delightful and the characters are complex and well written. We are still only talking about the pilot too! I literally don't have the words to explain how well I liked it.

In fact the only reason I'm still putting words on the page is to make the page look better. Because I want this art over here on the page bumper for the main site. Seriously, look that over. If you aren't enthralled by it, then you can probably skip this whole thing and save yourself some time.

In any case, the Pilot got greenlit within a month of being posted online. I am super hopeful that more pilots are handled in this fashion. Put online, and then your prospective audience can tell you directly that the show is good or bad.

Fiction Day - These story chunks are becoming increasingly out of order

The stars outside sparkled and streaked, flying past the view port. Gaile watched the passing glinting lines contemplatively. She fought the urge to yawn, brushing her red hair away from her eyes. Soon, the ship would land in Buenos Sochi. Gaile flicked her eyes to the camera screens. The boxes of goods in storage sat unmoving. The last few hours of a transport job always bored her out of her mind. "Ugh, When do we arrive again? This is such a pain." She tapped the navigation screen on the control panel. "I don't know how you can read this thing."

Fiction Day

( Note This happens duringa  break between sections of the last entry.)

The streets seemed to be uneven as Gaile walked back in the direction of the docks. She took an uncertain step grabbing Wesks arm for support. Wesk slowed down a little, giving her a chance to get her balance. "Gaile, why do you do this?" Wesk sighed, "Obviously, the asshat deserved it. Just one of these days... I worry about you, yeh know."

Fiction Day! - Trigger warning!

Wesk sat in his cabin, tinkering with his pistol. It looked like the springs needed to get replaced soon. The sound of the Ship at dock, quiet and morose tempered his good mood from the delivery. The ship was almost quiet like a tomb when it was powered down. Destro was off doing some maintenance and Gaile should be back soon. You could always hear the past too well in the quiet. The screams and gun-fire snuck in slowly, almost unnoticed until it was pounding in his ears.

Fiction Day!

Lacona's screen was taunting her. The thrice damned blinking cursor just sitting there not giving her any ideas on what to do next. "Maybe coffee will help." She brushed the hair out of her eyes and looked over to the station coffee station. The pot was full, and it didn't look more than 3 or four hours old. "That will do." Standing, she stretched her lower back. Yep, still not very helpful. The walk to the pot needed to be quick and purposeful. Otherwise, someone was going to try to interrupt her thought proce...

Fiction Day!

"This is literally the worst." Gaile looked at the pile of scrap formally making up the engine to the ship. "All I have to do is just repair the whole thing and we will be good. It's only the main component to get us airborne again so we can start making more money."

Wesk looked the scrap over, and tapped the side. A broken bolt shifted, then fell off with a loud clank. "I dunno, this looks like we need to go find a new one. The holes we got during the last dust up look like they went in some pretty important places." He picked up a catalytic converter and peered through the misshapen bullet hole on the side. "This seems kinda dead."

Making a Game 2

My office drones come in all colors.
Also, they work weekends for free.

Okay, so last time we worked on making a depressing office simulator board game. Lets look at some basic game play elements. I need to have a tile laying system so we can play office workers. I'm thinking that you draw from one deck, and play anywhere on the office. You want to play yours farther from the breakroom/bathrooms, and closer to the printers and the office supply. Some actions in the game will let you play extras or even force opponents to remove workers. The tiles will have to be placed to that the workers can leave, but I think maybe making it worth more to make the cubicle farm maze like should be an option. I can already see some neat options here. But I think this is just something you do while playing the actual game. Some extra player interplay as they do their thing.

I think everyone starts a project from either a dice role or from a card deck at the beginning of the game. Cards could let me go more projects with funny names and a greater variety of what the goals are. This would both add replay value, and add some good humor. We could have projects range from "Upgrade accounting software" to "Develop new flagship product." The points values could be more targetable for each one, and some could have a random amount of points with a random size of the project. On the other hand, keeping it to a table you roll dice on makes it easier to make the projects as you can keep the list very generic. I.E.

Fiction Day

This was going to take not giving a shit to a new level. Fred looked at the orders sheet from corporate. It looked like they wanted nothing more than to pretend that the economy was still in one piece and they still made some money.

Sighing, Fed set the sheet down. The office he was standing in didn't really belong to anyone, but the staff was required to come in and do some reports every day. On yet another day, the store was understaffed by people who didn't know how much effort was required to do the jobs they asked for. He hurriedly filled out some reports, showing he did close out the safe correctly, watch the cameras, and pulled some boxes from the back. Finally, he went out and pulled the lever behind the counter. It was big and silver with a red handle. It could have come from a cartoon, it was so out of place on the wall. Fred hung out while registers came online, avoiding the eyes of the customers outside the store.

"The store opens at 10, they can just freaken wait." Fred mumbled to himself. It probably wasn't smart, the systems were coming online, and the mics could come online at any point. The high-pitched dings of the registers sounded as they came online one after the other. Fred quickly wound his way out from behind the counter, it wasn't goo
d for him to stay back there. He checked his watch, looking to see how much time he had. The time said 9:57, just enough for him to run down a few aisles making sure there was nothing on the floor. He would never hear the end of it if a customer got stuck halfway through the store. The loss in profits alone would endanger his job.

Making a Game

Standard meeple army

Okay, its time to make a game. Specifically, a table top board and or card game. This series going to mostly be a design diary, but if I get a really strong interest in moving forward.... Who knows. Lets get started.

First things first, I need some basics. I could go with a very complex or a very simple game. I'm going to try to keep it simpler. First, its just me play testing this game later. I cannot play test enough for a complex game like say Warhammer 40,000 or Magic the Gathering. So no to tactical miniatures, and collectible card games. I want to stay away from lots of tokens and draw decks. some are fine, too many can make the game take more time to set up and clean up than to play. Long setups can stop a game before it starts, and long cleaning ups will cause either lost pieces, or be the last thing you remember about a game. I want player turns to be relatively quick no more than 1 min or so per turn, with a total playtime of 20 to 40 min. Longer games will likely run afoul rules complications and such. Do I want a board for this game? I suppose I will find out later.