24 Hour Game

[Jonathan Walton]

Okay, did a simple layout in InDesign but didn't change the content at all (wanting to show you guys the original 24-hour version before I revise it).  There's a thread going on over in the Key 20 Forum about trying to improve the stream-of-consciousness version from yesterday.

Originally, I was getting a blank pdf on this machine too (one of the lab PCs running Win 2000), but now everything looks great, so hopefully I've fixed that problem.  The new file is up here:

http://www.godmachine.org/Vespertine-v24.pdf

Let me know if you still have issues.

[anonymouse]

Having partaken of both the Sacred Pizza and the Sacred Coke (because the Sacred Jolt was done away with years ago when they changed the recepie into dirt or something), I am now prepared to..

..stare at the screen for twenty-three hours before exploding into a panic attack. Hopefully I'll be able to come up with a new idea and do something with it before that. ;)

The toughest part has been not thinking about this over the past few days. Every time I did, I had another idea for one; another idea I couldn't use when it finally came time to give it a shot. =/

Here's hopin'! I've got a Paladin game in 4.5 hours or so; maybe I'll take a break after that and see if I have any updates to post.

The super-fun part is that I've never done any wholesale design stuff before; the furthest I ever got was messing around making a cover in MS Paint when I was.. oh.. 12 or so. Never really got anywhere past that..

[talysman]

The toughest part has been not thinking about this over the past few days. Every time I did, I had another idea for one; another idea I couldn't use when it finally came time to give it a shot. =/

I hear ya there! =)

at least I have a TFT-like game mechanic that I developed for three of those premature game ideas that I can steal for my "24 hour rpg" when the idea comes.

what I've decided to do is: wait until I have my inspiration, post my start time, then begin work. no point in starting my stopwatch and sittin' for 20 hours... I also want to check various regularly-updated news sources for seed concepts -- sort of an extra freshness challenge. but that's tricky, because I have to ignore "regular" news, since it's mostly about the war. not something I'm interested in doing. hmmm... exec fired over hitler comments, hype over the sandler/nicholas movie and the harry potter dvd release... no ideas forming just yet.

I'll think about it some more.

[clehrich]

You know, it's weird, but I find this whole discussion very inspiring.  I feel this nasty urge to drop everything and write an RPG at 100mph.  Unfortunately, I think if I did that it would almost certainly have bad effects on the rest of my life for a disturbing long time to come.

Since everyone seems to be doing this in spurts, let me make a suggestion to Phil.  How about you declare "ladies, gentlemen, and others -- start your engines!" and then give a definite finish-date, say about 1 month later.  You're on your honor to do the thing in 24 hours, follow all the rules, and whatnot, and then you submit or post or whatever to some central point.  

The running thread would be, as it has already become, essentially a spiralling blog, along with tech comments about games that don't seem to open or whatever, and of course links and remarks about the games that are out.

At the end of the period, it's open season to actually tear apart -- er, playtest -- the games, critique, comment, and so forth.  Until the writing month is done, no comments except (1) technical, and (2) from the author (as blog).

The point is that this would allow people to set up 24-hour periods that work for them, and also keep the thread clear of devastating critique while people are still writing.

Just a thought for next run.

[James V. West]

I agree with Clerich that we should avoid serious critiques of games that are still being created (if that's what you meant, Clerich).

Also, I agree with Paul that selling these as a package might not be the best idea. Perhaps doing that later would work better. Why not go with the package idea but make a freebie and have everyone promote it via their websites, email lists, newsgroups, or whatever. The package would contain ample information about The Forge, how to get here, what it's about, and what the 24 Hour RPG is all about. Seems like that would keep in the spirit of the 24 Hour Challenge and avoid the pressures Paul mentioned.

I'd like to hear more thoughts on this.

[philreed]

The freebie package would probably work fairly well. I'm still interested in hearing other ideas.

Looks like I'll be starting mine tonight when I get home from a con. I'll post here when I start.

[SrGrvsaLot]

Well, Ive finished mine, with time to spare it looks like. You can download Mutant Space Cowboys at //www.mesastate.edu/~jfrazer/cowboy.pdf

Good Luck Everyone!

[Jeph]

SrGrvsaLot, all I see are punctuation marks and tables. I'm using Preview on a Mac OSX.

Oh, and I cast my vote against charging for these games. I'm not sure when I'll find time to make mine, as . . . wait . . . I'm starting now. That's right, I'm starting this instant. Start time, 5:15 EDT (by my clock). See ya in 24 hours!

[talysman]

ok, I'm throwing my hat in the ring.

I don't actually have a new idea just yet, but I started doing some fantasy landscape art, and I guess that counts, so I'll get to work.

I was digging around in my old posts and found this game mechanic that I more or less forgot about. I'll make some changes to that and put together a little game.

[philreed]

SrGrvsaLot, all I see are punctuation marks and tables. I'm using Preview on a Mac OSX.

Oh, and I cast my vote against charging for these games. I'm not sure when I'll find time to make mine, as . . . wait . . . I'm starting now. That's right, I'm starting this instant. Start time, 5:15 EDT (by my clock). See ya in 24 hours!

Works fine for me. Mac OS 9.2, Acrobat Reader 5.0.

Need to eat, relax with the wife, then get started. I'll post my time when I turn the light from red to green.

[anonymouse]

Well, I'm throwing in the towel, at least for now. Pretty tired, aggravated, discouraged, et cetera.. I thought I'd try something a little funky; a game written in 24 hours that's supposed to only be played in 24 hours (taking a longer page from Insects).

Maybe I'll come back to it, or try another idea in a couple of weeks when I've had time to unwind. The RTF document, in case anyone wants to look at it anyway, is at: http://216.99.207.42/dragon.rtf

[hardcoremoose]

Hey guys,

Time's come and gone on my project, and as predicted, work interfered with its completion.  The good news is that I finally got to work on something I really liked but had basically written off.  I'll continue to work on it now until its presentable, while preserving the 14 hour mark (which is how far I got before I let the real world intrude upon me) as a record of the endeavour.  If you want to see it, I'll see about making it available later, but for now I too have to eat dinner with the wife.

- Scott

[SrGrvsaLot]

SrGrvsaLot, all I see are punctuation marks and tables. I'm using Preview on a Mac OSX.

That's funny, becuase it looks fine in Acrobat Reader 5.0. Seeing as how this is the first PDF I've ever made, I'm not sure how to fix your problem. If anyone has any advice on what I should do, I'd be happy to hear it. In the mean time, I've made an HTML version.  //www.mesastate.edu/~jfrazer/cowboy.htm

[Jeph]

Well, I've got the title page, half the intro, and 99.9% of the Characters section, so far. The game's turning out to be a sort of X-Men type Supers game, with a strong emphasis on doing cool stuff and the conflict of power vs. self control. More updates later!

[philreed]

My game is due 9 PM (central time) Sunday, April 13th.