Getting Rolling

Posted on by

We’re going to be rolling pretty soon with content about Warhammer: The Old World, but until then I’ve uploaded a bunch of Oldhammer content about Warhammer 8th edition, taken from my previous podcast, Dimensional Cascade. A lot of the tournament related stuff is probably boring and irrelevant, but there’s bunch of hobby content that is evergreen, and even some of the tactical information is likely to be of use in any rank and flank style game. Hope you enjoy!

Originally written for rankandflank.com.

Infralight — Our Love Letter to Buck Rogers

Posted on by

Infralight was our love letter to Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday on the Sega Genesis–a game our whole family agrees is the best retro RPG ever made (we will not be taking questions on this).

Built for Dungeon Crawler Jam 2023, the theme was “Duality.” We ran with it literally: two types of light, two types of enemies. Robots you can see normally, mutants that are invisible unless you switch to infrared. The game is set on an asteroid mining base, and you’re assembling a party, exploring corridors, and fighting tactical turn-based battles where you issue orders and then watch them resolve simultaneously.

The ambition was there. The execution got about 60% of the way. The combat system was the centrepiece, and it was too big a stretch for the jam timeline. The first level plays through fine, but there’s a bug that stops you getting past the second combat encounter. We’d planned additional party members for levels two and three, but the clock ran out.

Our friend Miles from Bad Juice Games joined us on this one–partly as a way for us to hang out together, and partly so Fintan could learn from someone who actually knows what they’re doing. I’m a regular software guy, not a games guy, but Miles is the real deal, with experience on shipped titles like Marvel Puzzle Quest. Even with that firepower, we’d bitten off more than a week could chew.

No artists or composers on the team, so we leaned on Synty asset packs and the Badlands music pack. The focus was code, story, and level design–which is a polite way of saying “we couldn’t draw.”

Still, the core of something good is in there. The infrared mechanic genuinely changes how you approach each room, and the tactical combat (when it works) has that satisfying “plan and pray” feeling that made Buck Rogers so compelling.

Download Infralight on itch.io (Windows only, first level fully playable)

Watchtower play test reflections

Posted on by

The recent posts about Watchtower were from a one-shot adventure I ran for my son’s gaming group. They’ve been playing (mostly) D&D together regularly for 3-4 years, and it was a good opportunity to test out the rules with a group that had no preconceptions. The players created Talos-class exotics (the middle of the three classes, which is still very powerful). A few things that I learned from this:

* We need to update our skills to reflect the Watchtower world
* Some power stunts are probably too powerful (looking at you, Chronatics)
* Definitely need to write the rules for Prototypes for high tech heroes

However, broadly speaking the system worked as intended, character creation was pretty quick and fun, and the game flowed easily. We’re going to attempt a variant using troupe play, where each of the players creates a trainee (sidekick?) Achilles-class exotic (the lowest class) to be paired with one of the other players, and in this way we get two different Watchtower teams, and the players get to try different powers and power levels.

Originally written for lategaming.com.

Watchtower SF: some recent headlines

Posted on by

Whyte Buys Watchtower SF

San Francisco Chronicle, July 1st 2022

Jack Whyte, exotic and indestructible billionaire, adds Watchtower SF to his stable of Watchtower franchises. This brings his franchise total to four, starting in 2013 with the NYC franchise, and adding the Twin Cities in ’15 and Miami in ’19. “The San Francisco franchise of the Watchtower has a long history, with many beloved legends on the national and international stage,” said Whyte at press conference today. “I will bring the same level of oversight and investment as at my other franchises, and will work with local law enforcement to help keep the Bay Area and northern California safe from exotic crime.” He was joined at the press conference by several existing Watchtower members, all of whom confirmed they will be staying under the new management. This includes old-timers such as Captain Brian “Crackshot” Thomson, the bulletproof ex-cop; Dr Automaton, the robotic-bodied, long-standing leader of the Watchtower’s primary team; as well as some of the more recent additions like Tyrannus, our first visitor from another galaxy; and the shapeshifting, duplicating Primordial. No other personnel changes were announced. This correspondent hopes that Whyte’s experience, discipline and deep pockets can help prevent another tragedy like we suffered in ’99, when then-Watchtower leader Atomic III turned on the people he was sworn to protect and devastated the downtown area by using a commuter train like a missile. Maybe the new management will finally be able to determine what happened to that team back in the day? Either way, there’s a new sheriff in town.

Tower of Teens?

San Francisco Examiner, July 15th 2022, Op. Ed.

After buying his fourth Watchtower franchise in what is clearly a bid to control the whole company, Jack Whyte today announced that two local teenagers have been added to the roster. One who can control gravity, codenamed Windrunner, and the other who can control time, codenamed Kairos. Seriously, Jack? Are there not enough adult exotics to choose from that you have to employ kids? And do these kids’ parents even know what they are being exposed to? It’s long past time that we introduced laws preventing the exploitation of exotic abilities in people under the age of 21. What’s next, babies who can shoot lasers out of their eyes being used as mobile weapons platforms? The safety of our civilians shouldn’t come at the cost of our youth!

Originally written for lategaming.com.

Watchtower SF: August 4th

Posted on by

Bergs in the Bay!

San Francisco Chronicle

Meteorologists were shocked today when a massive iceberg several miles long appeared off the coast of Marin County, seemingly on a collision course for the Golden Gate Bridge! “This iceberg cannot be a natural occurrence,” said Dr. Karl Limewall, Professor of Climatology at Caltech. “Nothing that large could have traveled from either pole to San Francisco without being spotted.”

Indeed, the Watchtower seemed to agree, dispatching six agents out to the iceberg as soon as it was spotted. It became clear why Windrunner was added to the team recently, as all team members were transported directly through the air rather than via a helicopter as might be more customary. The Chronicle was able to confirm that a combination of extreme digging and strategically placed explosives were able to reduce the iceberg to smaller and more manageable pieces, which were then destroyed or redirected away from the bridge.

Conga-line … of Doom!

San Francisco Examiner, Op. Ed.

Icebergs are one thing, but why is nobody talking about the impromptu parade today that took place in the north of San Francisco? Over 100,000 people “just felt like dancing” and danced all the way up Highway 101 and onto the Golden Gate bridge, completely halting traffic and putting themselves directly into harm’s way. And where was the Watchtower during all this? 110 year old Dr “I’m not a robot” Automaton landed in front of the crowd and shot a few people off into the water, including fellow teammate and old-timer, Captain Crackshot! Seriously, why are our lives in the hands of these geriatrics?

Not that the youngsters were much to be seen, seemingly having to spend all their time flying back and forth to the city to get instructions from the Overmind, Jack Whyte, before blowing up the looming iceberg. Great, happy we didn’t ‘berg the bridge, but are we going to get any answers as to who is controlling the minds of all the so-called Bridge Boogie Brigade? And what is Watchtower doing about it?

Power Outage in Western San Joaquin County

The San Joaquin Valley Sun

Around 800 homes and farms are still without power, following an outage at a local substation earlier this morning. Local officials are working to get power up and running, and they are confident everything will be back to normal within 24 hours. The cause of the outage is being put down to a freak storm, which blew up out of nowhere, dumped a load of rain and lightning and dissipated as quickly as it came. County Sheriff John Watson stated in a press conference earlier today that there was no cause for alarm, and that Watchtower had been alerted as part of standard procedure.

Originally written for lategaming.com.

Slo Moe’s Space Salvage

Posted on by

Slo Moe’s Space Salvage was our first 3D game, built for the LowestPoly GameJam in March 2022. The jam was–honestly–more about low-poly tech demos than actual games, but we wanted to make something you could actually play.

You’re Moe. Moe is a sloth. Moe runs a space salvage company, which is the sort of career choice that makes perfect sense for a sloth in zero gravity. Guide Moe’s ship through rocks and debris to collect cargo (conveniently shaped like crates of bananas, because even in space, sloths have brand standards).

WASD rotates your ship, spacebar boosts in whatever direction you’re facing. The catch is that boosting commits you to a straight line–no turning until the boost runs out and recharges. So you’re constantly weighing “do I boost now and hope nothing’s in the way, or do I drift slowly and run out of time?” It’s a simple tension, but it works.

This was Fintan’s project on itch.io (under the 7isanoddnumber account), and our first time wrestling with 3D in Unity. Turns out that going from 2D pixel art to 3D–even low-poly 3D–is a completely different discipline. But the low-poly constraint actually helped, because we couldn’t over-scope the visuals.

Play Slo Moe’s Space Salvage on itch.io

Airlocked!

Posted on by

After coming 5th in our first game jam, we were feeling pretty confident. Dangerous, that.

Airlocked! was our entry for Make A Game, The Game Jam, where the theme was “Connected.” We went with a dual interpretation–aliens that are physically connected to each other when they multiply, and a power grid that connects the ship’s systems. You’re the last crew member on the USS Arkenfeld, and the ship has an alien infestation. The aliens multiply every time you open a door, and you can only flush them out through the airlock if they’re all touching each other. So you’re running around, opening doors, repairing junction boxes to keep the power flowing, and trying to herd aliens into a corner.

Great concept. Really clever puzzle mechanics. The kind of thing that sounds brilliant when you’re explaining it at 1am on day two of the jam.

The execution, though? The game more or less didn’t work. We had to make a silent YouTube tutorial video because players couldn’t figure out what was happening–which, in hindsight, is a pretty clear sign that something has gone wrong with your game design. If you need a video to explain a puzzle game, you haven’t made a puzzle game. You’ve made a riddle with a download link.

Built in Unity, runs in the browser. It’s pixel art, it looks decent, and if you squint hard enough you can see the good game hiding underneath the bad UX. One of those “great on paper” situations.

Play Airlocked! on itch.io (good luck)

Tomb of the Snake King — Our First Game Jam

Posted on by

In early 2021, I was living in Seattle while my family was back in Ireland. Covid had made the world very small, and we were running out of ways to spend time together across nine time zones. So when Zeno Game Jam 3 came around with the theme “It Never Ends,” we figured–why not make a game?

Tomb of the Snake King is a rogue-like snake-like (a genre I’m fairly confident we invented). You venture into a tomb to grab cursed treasure that trails behind you like a growing serpent tail. Dodge mummies, avoid scarabs, don’t touch the walls. The “It Never Ends” theme fit perfectly–the longer you survive, the harder it gets, because you’re literally getting longer.

Ellie, who was twelve at the time, did all the art and music. The pixel art has a charm to it that I genuinely couldn’t have produced–sometimes having a twelve-year-old’s sensibility is exactly what a game about raiding cartoon tombs needs.

We built it in Unity, targeting browser so anyone could play it. WASD to move, and the whole thing runs in a few minutes. It’s the kind of game where you die, say “one more go,” and then it’s 2am.

We came 5th overall out of the jam entries. For a first attempt–a family scattered across the Atlantic, cobbling a game together over video calls–that was a massive boost. It went from “that was a fun experiment” to “so when’s the next jam?”

Play Tomb of the Snake King on itch.io

WatchTower: The Game

Posted on by

After many games of WatchTower played using rules from other systems (primarily the classic Marvel Super Heroes game), Matt and I have knuckled down to start writing the actual WatchTower game. We were planning to start a new group and play a Supers game (Godlike was the original proposal), and before you know it we had 12,000 words and all the major system components in place. This will be the first game we’ve written together, and the third published under LateGaming. For me, it’s the one I’ve wanted to write most (it will actually be my first full game, and Matt’s sixth!).

So, what is it?

Matt wrote the background for a supers game back in mid-90s when we played the first iteration, and then a quick primer for a new group that we kicked off in early 2007 that’s a good overview of the background. Most of the blog posts we’ve written under the WatchTower category are about games we’ve run or thoughts we’ve had along the way. It’s a labor of love, because we’ve played the characters and backgrounds multiple times, with different groups, in different countries. It resonates with anyone who enjoys the genre.

What makes it different?

As with all of our games, we value simplicity, flexibility and storytelling. This game reflects those values, and will allow gaming groups to play as any super (or Exotic, as they are known in-world) that they might want to, while having to remain grounded in dealing with real world consequences of what it really means to have powers, and to live in a world where powers exist. The background spans the last 100+ years, allowing for different flavours of game experience, based on the era in which you choose to play. Different classes of campaign are possible also, based on which powers are available in that era and what power level of Exotics you choose to play. The mechanics of character creation are simple and fast, while still having plenty of nuance to allow for interesting stories. This also works in favor of the GM – creating NPCs is a snap, allowing you to focus your energy instead on the flow of the narrative.

When will it be ready?

Ah, the big question! We are getting the mechanics ready to game with our group starting in the next few weeks, and use that as the main play-test. Meanwhile, we (who am I kidding? Matt) will be writing the background material, explanations for the powers, and useful descriptions of the game mechanics. We’ll be commissioning art for our favourite heroes, villains and scenes from the games we’ve played to tie it all together, and that can be the longest turn around for getting the book finished. So, the answer is: 2021, sometime ?

Stay tuned!

Originally written for lategaming.com.

Blog moved to new home

Posted on by

If you tried to access the blog over the last few weeks, I’m sorry – I was moving providers. Everything is moved now, and hopefully things will be smooth sailing from here on!