24 Hour Game

[iago]

I started this about 11.5 hours ago.  Here's a 16-page RPG with a cover, table of contents, clip art illustrations, and what is hopefully an interesting little diceless resource allocation mechanic at the core of it.  You'll need Acrobat Reader 5.something to view it, since my DTP program informed me it needed to be 5.something to use all the features I apparently wanted.  I'm pretty much fine with that.

At any rate, there may be some more revisions in store -- hell, I have an idea for an appendix on using the notions from the system with other games -- but given my health, level of medication, and the possible need to try to do my real job tomorrow in spite of all that, this may end up being the final draft.

At any rate, you can pick this -- and possibly others -- up from the Yahoo Group I created for people to upload their creations from this activity.  Feel free to put yours there as well!

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/24HourGames/files/

[philreed]

I go the office for a day, come home and sleep, and then find this. You guys kick ass!

Don't give these away to everyone in the world. Maybe we can bundle them and sell them as PDF with all proceeds going to advertising the project and The Forge. The final PDF collection would include advertising for each contributor and all of the games (even partials) created during the established timeframe. And, of course, each creator owns his own game so that you could always go off and revise and expand (or reduce) it.

I'm now going to take some time to read the two completed games.

[philreed]

As I opened up and started reading the Criminal Element PDF I suddenly realized that I've done something similar to this before. Vigilante was done over a 24 hour period (I remember starting one evening about 5 pm . . . Christopher Shy came by and I was working on the cover which was looking pretty cool. About 9 the next morning I was finished).

http://www.sjgames.com/vigilante/

It's only 16 pages and not really a game but realizing I did this I'm a bit more confident about actually finishing a game in 24 hours.

I'm really excited about this now. Thank you everyone who is participating . . . it feels like I'm wasting less of my life knowing that others are in the trenches attempting this insanity.

[MPOSullivan]

okay, i'll admit to it, i can't stop working on this damned game.  is it okay if i declare the Eastman option (as seen at the 24 hour comic site) and continue working stratight on through until completion and still submit the new stuff?

by the way, pace is nice dude.  good work, real slick looking.  what'd you use to lay out your pages?

   -michael

[iago]

okay, i'll admit to it, i can't stop working on this damned game.  is it okay if i declare the Eastman option (as seen at the 24 hour comic site) and continue working stratight on through until completion and still submit the new stuff?

Well, that's a "failure is success" option, so to speak, but I don't think any of us will turn away something created in the heat of the 24 Hour crucible.

Again, I'm not phil. ;)

by the way, pace is nice dude.  good work, real slick looking.  what'd you use to lay out your pages?

A trial version of InDesign that's due to expire in 2 days. Luckily, I should be buying it through a student friend sometime soon.  Thanks a lot!

[Shreyas Sampat]

Another thought - the 24 hour comic thing is somewhat of a thing that writers do, rather than an event.

Is there anything wrong with making the 24 hour RPG the same thing?  I really want to do this, but my exam period is coming up, and there is no way that I can spare a random 24 hours in the month of April.  Late May, sure, but according to the current rules, that doesn't quite count.

Michael, thanks for the shoutout in Criminal Element.  I liked your titling font a lot.  The titles in general do a lot for the game... Inspirato! was awesome.

[iago]

I realized I still had an hour to go, so I wrote up a one-page appendix and did a few tiny formatting tweaks to the Pace document.  Other than the appendix, however, the content is functionally identical.

And here, 7 minutes before my personal deadline of 1pm 10 Apr 2003, I call Pace as complete as it's going to get, clocking in at 17 pages including a table of contents (18, if you count the cover).

Enjoy, one and all!  You can find the URL in prior messages.

[iago]

Don't give these away to everyone in the world. Maybe we can bundle them and sell them as PDF with all proceeds going to advertising the project and The Forge.

Sure.  I'm not trumpeting the existence of the Yahoo Group, and it's mainly there to provide easy hosting space to anyone who participates in this project (it's got a quota of about 20 MB, and two of us have used 2.5 of that; unless I'm mis-estimating the number of people who will participate, we're probably fine).

And heck, if I can toss an advertisement for Fate on the last page of Pace, I'll be pretty durn happy.

I'm now going to take some time to read the two completed games.

I'm past my deadline in 2 minutes and hungry for some feedback.  Got any? :)

Come to think, I'm hungry for lunch too.

[Jonathan Walton]

Whew, crunch time for me!  6 hours left!

I've got about 12-13 pages now, with definite plans for at least 7 more, to cover the basics of background and color.  Whether I can make 24 is yet to be seen, but I'm aiming for it.  I'll probably have to make a choice between more content or proper formatting and layout.  The bulk of the mechanics are done, though, so now I can focus on describing what the game is about and doing some cool art!

Shreyas, I don't think this necessarily has to be an event with everything happening at the same time.  Maybe we can set up a webpage (I'd volunteer some space) where we can keep of record of when and where individual games were created, and where you can get or buy them.  Along with "everyone should create a Heartbreaker" maybe we need the mantra "everyone should create a 24-Hour Game."  I think you should feel free to do it whenever you can.  If I hadn't started on mine yesterday, there's no way I would have found time for it before exams.

Back to typing!

[philreed]

If you have to fail, I'd rather it be a failure that ends with an RPG. I'd say go for it and just note in the final version you post that it's a failure and why.

As to deadlines and schedules. Just create one of these whenever you feel like it. I'm honestly amazed at the response and am still reading the two currently available (I've read through once but want to make another pass before I make comments).

I'm feeling like a slacker for not having one done already.

[Jonathan Walton]

Ahhhh!

I've had this &^#@&# game done since 10pm (when it was due), but I can't seem to convert it to PDF, no matter what method I use.  pdf995 decided to render my Word file without spaces between the words.  So I head to the lab to use InDesign, and it's locked.  Right now, I'm trying to use Adobe's online service to convert the Word files and then I'll try to pdf995 them all together into one file.  You'll have it tonight!  This I promise.

[Jonathan Walton]

Here ya go!  24 hours to write the damn thing and then it takes me 5 to get it in a readable PDF format.  Next time, I'll plan to finish earlier and format it in the lab on InDesign.  Sheesh.

http://1001.indie-rpgs.com/Vespertine-24.pdf

Over 2000K because of all the artwork I included in it, so it'll take a few minutes to download, even on a fairly fast connection.

Hope ya like it.

[philreed]

Here ya go!  24 hours to write the damn thing and then it takes me 5 to get it in a readable PDF format.  Next time, I'll plan to finish earlier and format it in the lab on InDesign.  Sheesh.

All I can see are pics. No text. Looks like a PDF problem. I'm using Acrobat Reader 5 to look at it.

[ethan_greer]

I am totally going to do one of these as soon as I'm done working on Thugs and Thieves.

Phil, I think this is a cool thing.  I especially like the idea of packaging them together for sale with proceeds going to the Forge.  Are you serious about that?  If so, give me (and others here) a time frame for when you want submissions for such a publication.  If need be, I can put TandT on hold for this.

Rock on!

[philreed]

Phil, I think this is a cool thing.  I especially like the idea of packaging them together for sale with proceeds going to the Forge.  Are you serious about that?  If so, give me (and others here) a time frame for when you want submissions for such a publication.  If need be, I can put TandT on hold for this.

Rock on!

Very serious about that. I think the income from such a project could go toward co-op ads in some publications. Advertising geared toward directing people to The Forge where they'll learn all about a ton of different games that they otherwise would have probably never heard of.