Well the time has come again for the traditional retrospective. How did things go in my last year of gaming?
Generally very well, I think 🙂
Gaming As Work
Mantic ran two Kickstarters of games I designed: Deadzone and Mars Attacks. With 4,300 backers for one and 2,700 for the other I’m pretty pleased with them both. Of course there are niggles – there always are – but overall I think they came out pretty well. Actually, I don’t think I’ve ever worked on a project that I couldn’t afterwards think of a way we could have done better with more time, money or simply the old 20/20 hindsight. So some learning points here and there, but no major disasters.
Originally we’d planned to squeeze DKH4 into 2013 as well, but in the end there simply wasn’t the time to give it the treatment it deserved. That’ll have to wait a little while yet. Still, we have done some of the prep work and the current plans are rather exciting. I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of that.
DreadBall hasn’t gone away either, with (I think) everything that was promised in the Kickstarter now having been delivered (plus work started on DBX). Speaking of timings, Deadzone actually started being delivered early!
Unfortunately, my own projects for Quirkworthy have suffered in the time I’ve been able to devote to them. Most notably (for the tip of the iceberg that I’ve mentioned in public) is the delay to Eternal Battle. This is just a matter of the time it has taken me to get the work for DreadBall, Deadzone and Mars Attacks done. That said, I’ve recently begun to make some more headway on EB, and the last game we played was quite exciting 🙂
Gaming As Play
I’m still being rubbish at getting stuff painted. I’ve done a very small amount, which is better than nothing. Still a long way top go there though.
I have managed a few more “fun” games of late, which is good. With gaming being work as well as hobby, I almost always end up playtesting something that’s in progress rather than playing for my own amusement. Our regular God of Battles days on the first saturday of each month have been a help in this regard. Although I wrote it and often spend most of the time teaching newcomers the rules, I don’t think of these days as work, really. In fact, we have one of these get togethers this saturday (the 4th) and I’ve been challenged to a game, so I know I’m playing this time 🙂
Among the many other things on my to do list, I’ve been whittling away at the endless mountains of things that need sorting and rationalising. As I mentioned months ago, Hordes/Warmachine was on my “one last chance” list. As it stands I’ve not played it since, and so it is now in the repurposing/Ebay pile. Plenty more sorting left to do, and naturally I’ve managed to acquire more toys over the year, so there’s less space rather than more in my study *sigh*. A work in progress…
Quirkworthy
Part way through the year I wrote a post about trying out a new approach to writing this blog. I was, I said, going to aim for a post a day as an average. Well there have been gaps and double postings here and there, and I did start part way through. In the end though, the total posts for this year is 261, which isn’t a bad effort. It is also three times what I managed the previous year, so it’s clear that this approach is working much better than my previous plans. I’ll be continuing with that and perhaps I’ll get 365+ this year. We shall see. I certainly don’t have any shortage of things to write about – just (as ever) a shortage of time 🙂
Looking at the other stats, number of views, subscribers and all that jazz is also up, which is nice. The most interesting number in my stat report was that I was viewed by residents of 145 countries (up from 127 in 2012). I wonder how many is all of them, in terms of all that have the right kind of gaming community (and internet connection) and speak enough English to make this site of any interest? There are somewhere between 195-205 countries in the world, depending on how you count them, but I doubt I’d ever get all of them. I’m not sure what definition WordPress uses for country.
Ever Onwards
Tomorrow I’ll look a bit more at what I’ve got planned for 2014.
Quirkworthy 
I most definitely feel you should see your achievements in work as having been very positive!! I understand your woes as a gamer but sadly no matter which profession you follow are hobbies will always play second fiddle, especially once significant others are taken into the equation.
Regarding this blog I feel you are doing a fantastic job with communicating to your fans/critics (same thing really) and if I was half as good at getting my online projects updated I would be ecstatic.
crimsonsun
I love coming here and am excited about dkh4,might be the shot i need to delve into a fantasy setting. Keep up the amazing work!
I have a request as to your first task of 2014 🙂
DEADZONE FAQ 😀
I know 😉
Congrates on your accomplishment for 2013. Really looking forward to stuff competing from you in 2014. Is the a possibility of DKF4 being a Kickstarter? If so I would like to suggest also doing a Deluex version the would include all the previous plus what ever gets unlocked via the project. I have gotten Project Pandora, Dead Rising, Dreadball Seasons 1-3, and Deadzone this years as well as Kickstartered Mars Attack. Not a wargamer but have enjoyed the board game / skirmish games you have done. Good luck with your goals of 2014. And may you find yourself with more time to enjoy the year in conjunction with everything you do this year.
DKH4 will probably be a KS when it arrives. I just don’t know when that might be. Soon as I know more I’ll pass it on. Including the previous stuff will depend on the format that DKH4 takes. That is likely to include at least some of that anyway – at least things like cave-ins and whatnot.
I started reading your blog during the Deadzone Kickstarter and it has been really a joy to see the game developers view on things, as well as discovering that you are the man who made another one of the pearls in my game collection: the Lost Patrol (even my common-law wife loves that game). I can’t comment anything about your earlier years with this blog, but the current pace of new posts has been satisfying.
I want to congratulate you for writing the Deadzone and thank for making it very close with my own personal tastes. It’s been interesting to take a peek at the developing side of the game and I want to compliment you for standing with your own design philosophy, instead of trying to please every critic and thus ruining the game. I also like how you take the time to answer questions from the players.
Every now and then your other games have also made me interested to test them, namely God of Battles and Dreadball. If I ever get a need for good fantasy battle game again, I likely give a try to the GoB.
What I would criticize is that you seem to start and not finish some subjects, like “How to work with Restic” (which is still in the part 1?). I would also like to see more posts about “Gaming as Play” instead of game designing, although I understand that if you don’t have time or energy for hobby gaming, there can’t be any articles about it either.
I wish you a good year 2014, may your games be balanced and rulebooks coherent!
You should definitely try out God of Battles. If you’ve got any fantasy minis left over from previous fantasy games then the likelihood is you’ll only need to buy a very reasonably priced copy of the rulebook. You will not regret it.
@Teemu – thanks Teemu. I know I’ve got a bunch of stuff outstanding and it does nag at me. The issue is always just one of time. Working on Quirkworthy is something I do for a number of reasons, but none of them is money. Unfortunately it often gets pushed to one side by having to do more hours to pay the bills, dull as that reason is. As you say. it’s hard to write lots of “gaming as play” posts when I get so little of it done. Hopefully I’ll be able to expand that this year.
In a little over a year there’s been the release of DreadBall Seasons 1, 2, and 3, God of Battles, and Deadzone, as well as the Kickstarters for Deadzone and Mars Attacks. I believe the British army book for Bolt Action snuck out this year too. Verily this be the Golden Age of Thornton.
I’d forgotten about the Bolt Action book.