Development Diary #4

Rules of Engagement

Every so often, I get this sense of urgency to make progress in an area I haven't touched in the game. I felt this way with setting up the website, making the game logo, making the company logo, and various stages of formatting. I am now at that point with the rule book. The reason for all this urgency usually originates from the acknowledgment that it needs to get done; however, it is often to the detriment of other things I am working on, and it is a little bit of putting the cart before the horse.

In each case of putting the cart before the horse, it has worked out to my benefit. I had a logo to rally behind and share with artists I work with, which helps the theme and world-building, and starting the website early has allowed me time to work out the unforeseen kinks in the development process. Before I started to work on the rule book, I was working on formatting, painting, and play testing. I paused this work to start work on the rule book, which includes new graphics, formatting, and a whole lot of other stuff to make it look pretty. Now when I say rule book, I'm not talking about the text rule book that I have been editing and tweaking since the beginning, this is the final rule book for print and the website.

I spent a day obsessing over the cover of the rule book and sizing issues. That's not productive. Then I spent a day making a header for the book and another day making the parchment texture graphic the text and images will sit on top of. It's a long, obsession-inducing project, but ultimately, it's extremely important. So here where I am at with the project:

•Rule book cover ✓

•Header for interior pages ✓

•Page number frame ✓

•Background parchment ✓

So there's some baby progress, but I still need to add a ton of art to it as well as transfer all the text over. I am excited though because once this is finished, I can share it with other game developers and get their opinion on clarity etc. Well that's it for today, I'm hard at work on this as usual, and I will share my progress on this in a later post.

Best,

-Jonathan Flike