PUSH comes to shove

[Jonathan Walton]

Hey Folks,

My new RPGnet column, PUSH, just started running this weekend.  Just wanted to make an announcement in case people weren't regularly wandering over there.  The first article is a personal introduction and then a reassessment and deconstruction of my front-burner project, Argonauts.  I'm planning on revising and developing the project over the first few columns, though each article will also focus on a seperate main topic, with the Argonauts stuff continuing in an incremental fashion at the end of each installment.

The first article is up here:
http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/columns/push30jun04.html

Comments and suggestions about the new column subject or format are welcome here, but specific suggestions on Argonauts should probably go in the column's forum or I can start a new indie design thread if needed.

[John Harper]

Hey Jonathan,

This is my "Way to go!" post. I really like the new article format and content. I'm looking forward to the rest of the series.

That said, I don't entirely agree with all of your conclusions about game design and the changes to Argonauts in particular. I'll post on the other forum(s) about that stuff, though.

Anyway, great column.

[Shreyas Sampat]

I'll comment that I found the pop-culture references distracting, but I'm really enjoying the content of this column; I look forward to seeing more.

[montag]

FWIW, I disliked the style. I freely admit that it's the number of bad texts written by older men who try to sound "hip" and "cool" which makes me instantly dislike any text using teenage slang, no matter how genuine these expressions may be in a particular case.
Still, it's your column, and I'd encourage you to go your own way both in terms of style and content.

[Jonathan Walton]

Hmm, being 22 years old, I thought I was still young enough to be hip, at least in a tongue-firmly-in-cheek sort of way (which is definitely what was happening, since I don't watch Emeril or Queer Eye or Pimp My Ride or Monster Garage, though I know they exist).

Comments definitely taken into account, though.

By the way, John (or anyone else), I'd love to hear your comments on the on-going Argonauts re-design.  Piers just emailed me some thoughts and I'd like to get as many people's perspectives as I can before finishing up the Argonauts portions of #2.

[neelk]

It occurs to me that I haven't said "Nice job!" yet. So I will rectify that.

Nice job!

[Emily Care]

JW--you old fogey. 22? Pick up that cane and start walkin'.

Seriously though, good job.  Walking folks through your design process is a great entry point for discussing design. Choice of Ralph's sacred cow post is right on too.  

And I really like Jonathan's idea of an evolving PDF product that improves over time and playtests before it is released on POD or other hard-copy format.

Playtest and publication can merge in the current marketplace in ways not available in the past. Good point.

Go, Jonathan!

yrs,
Emily Care