I’ve been on vacation in upstate New York for a friend’s wedding which is the main reason for my lackadaisity in updating this site. At the SF airport on the way out of town I picked up a copy of “A Feast for Crows,” book 4 in George R.R. Martin’s “A Song of Fire and Ice” series. I powered through the first three books several years ago. “A Game of Thrones” was one of the most intriguing and gritty fantasy novels I had ever read. I petered out around the middle of book 4 when my friend asked me to return his copy and didn’t pick it up again for 3 years. Now, I find myself lost in a net of intrigues and alliances as I try to pick up the dimly remembered threads of plot and piece out the tapestry that Martin wove in the first 3 books. I am supremely jealous of all you with HBO or onDemand cable and the ability to watch the much-lauded live-action miniseries staring Borimir (that’s his name, right?) as I’m sure that would help me get a better grasp on what is happening three books later.

The Round-Up

Here are some things that have been distracting me from work lately.

Peter Jackson has been slowly releasing pictures of the 12 dwarves in full costume and makeup. The producers of the Hobbit are playing their cards pretty close to the vest so any little scrap thrown to the hungry masses makes a bit of a stir. And this is a pretty big scrap… One of everyone’s main concerns with the production of the Hobbit has been how to make the 12 dwarves distinct and recognizable without having the epic movie degrade into some CG extravaganza of Snow White.

These pictures show that they’ve done a great job keeping the production from looking like a garden gnome infestation. But hey, did we expect anything else from the gurus at WETA? Thanks to theOneRing.net for bringing us the pics and all the latest Hobbit news!

There are shenanigans over at everyone’s favorite casual gaming company. Congratulations to all our friends at PopCap games which was recently acquired by EA. Here’s to keeping it real. Also, they have a fun new blog, written mostly by the always entertaining Jeff Green. Check it out for a good laugh.

I spent a good 3 hours playing Tower Defense games on kongregate.com last night when I could have been doing something productive. My fiance accused me of wasting my time on one silly TD clone after another (“They’re different, I swear! In this one I use monkeys to pop balloons and in this one I use gems to smash little bug things…”) while railing against formulaic writing in novels and T.V. programming. Touché my dear. But Tower Defense still rocks and the butler did it.

Don’t think that my silence has been out of idleness! One of the many things that has kept me busy of late is my plan to add an entire new section to this site dedicated to reviews of board games (and maybe video games but there are plenty of video game review sites that will be hit up before this humble blog). Partially inspired by the delivery of Mansions of Madness, Dassance and my first wedding present, I’ve decided to create a page on this site where I can discuss different board games and maybe get some recommendations from you in the comments!

But board games and website redesigns are hardly the main thing keeping me busy lately.  As many of you may know, I’ve been learning AS3.0 and game design in Flash. I’m most of the way through my first Beginner programming book, and the next one is in the mail. I also found a nifty little WordPress plugin that allows me to easily insert SWF (Flash movie) files into a post for all of you to waste some time on! So here are a couple of projects I’ve been working on. Neither is a proper game. Instead they are studies in techniques that will be invaluable when it comes to designing and developing a real game.

First is one of the earliest projects from the book, Foundation Flash for Beginners. It has a couple of flaws and could benefit from a restart button. The only way to restart the “game” is by refreshing the entire page. But go ahead! Use the buttons to explore the cute kitty’s (modeled after our own Domino) little world and even meet a new friend!

It’s a far stretch to call this next one a game, but you do get to play the part of a space-faring pig exploring Phobos which you must admit is pretty cool! Again, there are a couple of problems with this one, but the main purpose of the project was not to create a perfect game but to get the player to move across the stage, then once it reaches a certain point on the stage, have the background move to create a sense of continued motion. Anyone who has played a video game knows that these two aspects are fundamental to 95% of games out there. You will need to click on the game before the arrow keys will control the game file.

I’m still having a blast learning how to program and while these are just baby program with very simple code, it’s not too shabby considering I didn’t know what a method or an argument or even a class was two weeks ago.

In my next post I’ll share my first true game, a tiny little thing, but playable from start to finish with defined objectives and the ability to win or lose. What is it? You’ll have to wait until next time. For now, enjoy Phobos and the cat-infested pastures of my Flash projects!

Just a quick post tonight about some of the games I’ve been playing lately. I’ve been so busy I haven’t had much time for gaming. My Gamefly queue is stagnant, and Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood remains unbeaten in my Xbox tray. Between designing Ismia and learning Flash game design, I’ve been eeking in precious minutes of gaming and I’ve found myself drawn back to the wonderful world of PopCap. In particular, I’ve been hovering around Zuma Blitz, PopCap’s frenetic facebook version of the classic Zuma. It never ceases to amaze me that the simplest of game mechanics can yield the most addictive of games, a trait of gamer psychology that PopCap has mastered. In both Bejeweled and Zuma, two of their most addictive games, the central mechanic is simply “match the colors,” and it keeps the user enthralled for hours on end.

Zuma Blitz is, dare I say, nearly a perfect game for me right now for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, it is time limited. It won’t allow you to play for more than a few minutes at a time, before having to wait for your turns to refresh, giving me plenty of time to return to the things I should be doing. But even better, it incorporates a system of character advancement, making your little colored-ball-spitting frog more and more powerful the more you play. I read a study of game psychology that showed people play games not because they are fun, but because of the sense of accomplishment they feel when rewarded for completing objectives. The system of leveling up in Zuma Blitz taps right into that part of my brain. If you haven’t tried it on facebook yet, give it a shot. It’s a blast. See if you can beat my top score. Or better yet, see if you can beat my best friend (and PopCap employee) Joey Trimmer’s top score. Good luck with that.

Another game I just started dabbling with today is the newly released XBLA game Daggerdale, the first Dungeons & Dragons 4e video game. I’ve been looking forward to this release for a while because video games provide one of my few opportunities to experience DnD as I usually end up being the DM in any campaign I’m involved in. I haven’t gotten far into the game but so far it’s been enjoyable. I look forward to playing co-op with some of my XBL friends to see how the multiplayer game differs from the solo campaign. There are some unfortunate aspects of the game, though. The gameplay is fun and intuitive, but it’s a bit buggy. At times the cut scenes don’t display properly and often the enemies don’t fall to the ground when they die. Unfortunately, these flaws in minor details detract from an otherwise well made game, but hey, what do you expect for a $15 game on XBLA. It is far and above better than most other XBLA games I’ve downloaded at a similar price point.

Well, I’ve been writing for a while now, and I’m sure some of my turns have refreshed on Zuma Blitz, so it’s time to try to take Joey down!

I’m happy to announce that I’ve registered heroesofismia.com as the future home of the Ismia “franchise.” I’ve only spent a little time getting it up and running.  It still requires a lot of content and finesse, but I’m pretty busy lately so that will come when it comes. For now, most of the Ismia news will still be available right here at reedaraymond.com. I intend to migrate game discussion over to heroesofismia.com only as games become ready for public prototyping and hopefully, eventual marketing.

My little project of learning how to program games in Flash is going well. I spent the weekend doing online tutorials and my Amazon order, Foundation Game Design with Flash, arrived this afternoon. I’ll spend a few months working through the book and hopefully come out the other end prepared to design and program my first video game.

The idea beating around in my head right now, still in a very nascent stage, is a flash web game called Villains of Ismia. It will incorporate some of the main aspects of the Heroes board game like gathering, stealing or trading for resources, building special structures and training combat and magic, but you will play as (drum roll) a villain. The game will also be heavily influenced by Dungeon Lords by Z-Man, one of my all time favorite board games.

Keep checking for more updates, or share your thoughts with a comment!

So I’ve had a bit on my proverbial plate of late, what with Ismia (designing, play-testing, illustrating and coloring), Dungeons & Dragons adventure mod design, Maya work, gaming and blogging, but just to make sure I don’t have a shred of free time, I figured I’d learn how to design games in Flash.

It’s an idea that’s been kicking around in my head for quite some time. I loved designing Ismia. I revel in the problem solving and logic that goes into developing game mechanics. It has always been just a matter of time before I tried my hand at my other love — video games. The logical first step for me is learning Adobe Flash.

No problem, I thought. Just look up some tutorials on line and get to work. I found my first tutorial, designed for beginners like me, started reading it and was a bit disappointed with what I found: gobbledegook. Turns out I was more than a beginner. Back to square zero. I have some rudimentary knowledge of HTML and I knew my way around a DOS prompt back in the day, but a programmer I am not. I would really need someone to hold my hand. Luckily, the next tutorial was ready to do just that, and it had been hiding under my nose on my favorite flash games site.

Kongregate has a section of their site devoted to a series of very well made tutorials or “shootorials“ that hold your hand through the development of a very simple side-scrolling shooter. The author has a knack for divulging the right information at the right time, and assumes the reader has absolutely zip knowledge about Flash. He explains not only the code but other basic Flash jargon like the “stage”, “variables” and a “class.” Terms that the other tutorials assumed I knew.

The tutorials quickly get more advanced but never feel too difficult. There were times that my version of the game didn’t work even though I had done the steps exactly as they were laid out. By that point the author had already instilled a level of competence that allowed me to look at my code and find out why it wasn’t working, then move on with the tutorial. In this way, the author slowly lets go of your hand and off you go.

The upshot is, two days later, I have my first playable game. When I encounter a problem, I am able to read through my very basic code and find the mistakes.  I am even able to write code that I think should work based on the logic of the program as I understand it and sometimes it actually WORKS!

With a book on Flash game design in the mail, and a burning itch to keep learning this fun and complex program, my first online flash game doesn’t seem too far off in the future!

I’ve finished illustrating the map of Cespius, complete with key locations and NPCs that might be encountered there. Feel free to use it in your own home Dungeons and Dragons campaigns.

Fifty years ago, Cespius was a ghost town and its environs were a desolate waste, scoured by a ravenous black dragon lairing in the crumbled keep that dominated the countryside. Just why Raspha Apocola, an elven paladin of Avandra, came to Cespius or how she slew the dragon depends on who is telling the tale but her suit of finely wrought black dragon scale armor is evidence that there is at least a grain truth to all the tales.

After slaying the dragon, Raspha began repairs on a section of the ruined keep and claimed it as her home. With the dragon vanquished and a powerful warden in the keep, farmers soon returned to the fertile countryside and the merchants and commerce followed soon after. A small town sprouted at the foot of the keep seemingly overnight, with much of the new construction paid for in dragon’s gold.

Today Cespius is a bustling farm town, famous for its fertile fields, quality ale, and benevolent ruler.

Cespius

A small farming community, overlooked by a crumbling keep and surrounded by fields of wheat and barley.

Population: 450 in the town proper, with another 100 living on surrounding farms who consider Cespius their home.

Demographics: Mostly humans and Halflings with some elves and half-elves.  Two dwarves run the celebrated local brewery. No eladrin or dragonborn have settled permanently.

Government: Raspha Apocola is widely considered the ruler of the town, but she shuns any title that would name her so. Still, she is responsible for organizing the town’s defenses and is often called upon to rule on local disputes.

Defense: The town’s most prominent defense is the Lady Raspha Apocola herself (see stat block). Kaleb Bolbeck is responsible for training the town militia and commands a local guard of 20 regular constables with an additional 100 irregulars available at need.

Inns and Taverns: Ballard’s Brewhouse is the famous brewery and the most popular meeting spot for locals and travelers alike; The Fortnight offers lodging and hearty meals to travelers.

Supplies and Equipment: Fedwick’s Outfitting is the local supplier of farming equipment and can provide some adventuring gear. Romanel’s Curious Curios has numerous minor magic items.

Religion: Shrine of Avandra; Temple of the Harvest (Pelor)

Key Locations

1. The Crumbled Keep:  Perched atop the low hill that rises north of town is a crumbled keep, its weathered stones pocked by some powerful caustic substance. One of the towers has been restored and is the residence of the Lady of the town, Raspha Apocola. When Raspha Apocola isn’t out adventuring or at Ballard’s Brewhouse, she can usually be found lounging in the restored section of the old crumbled keep. Regular NPCs: Raspha Apocola
2. The Constable’s Barracks: A long low building runs along one side of the parade ground at the base of the hill to the north of town. Guards drill basic maneuvers with their pole arms, overseen by a grizzled old veteran who sporadically barks commands and reprimands. Kaleb Bolbeck commands the twenty regular constables who live in the barracks. He also oversees the training of 100 additional irregular volunteers.
3. Ballard’s Brewhouse:  The smell of hops and boiling wort hangs in the air around the two story brewery leaning over the river that winds through town. A stone hops drying kiln on one side of the building belches bitter smoke skyward. Bolder and Bradin Ballard run the local brewery.  The two dwarf brothers left their ancestral home to bring their exquisite ales to the surface-dwellers.  Bolder, the brew-master, is short of words and spends most of his time in back tending the casks of ale. Ballard holds down the front, keeping the taps and conversation flowing in the common room.   Regular NPCs: Raspha Apocola (evenings), Bolder and Bradin Ballard, Kaleb Bolbec (evenings), Hogrin Hammerhand (evenings)
4. The Fortnight:  A rambling one story building, the Fortnight is the biggest inn in Cespius, and the most popular spot for a bit of good company outside of Ballard’s Brewhouse. Phaydra, the proprietor of the Fortnight, offers hearty meals (2sp) as well as ale from Ballard’s Brewhouse (1sp). A variety of rooms are available for anywhere from 5sp (communal bunk) to 2gp (luxury suite).  Regular NPCs: Phaydra, Romanel (evenings), Cephlin (evenings)
5. Fedwick’s Outfitting: A small warehouse on the north side of the market square bares a weathered sign, its peeling blue paint labels the building as Fedwick’s Outfitting. The smell of oil, leather and grain drifts through the darkened opening of a large sliding door. Fedwick is a retired half-elven farmer. His shop supplies the local farms with tools, equipment and seeds. He also has some mundane adventuring gear. Regular NPCs: Fedwick Farhaven
6. Romanel’s Curious Curios: The tall crooked tower on the western edge of town seems poised to fall over at any moment. Despite it’s dangerous appearance, the building is obviously occupied. Romanel the old elven wizard lives in the upper floors of the tower and keeps a shop of exotic magical wonders and weapons on the ground level. The precarious appearance of his tower is more of an advertisement than anything. Magic stronger than any mortar keeps the tower from toppling. Romanel is a former adventuring companion of Raspha’s and remains fiercely loyal her. Regular NPCs: Romanel
7. Shrine of Avandra: This small stone structure just off the main road into town houses an effigy of Avandra. The marble figure is wrapped in scraps of cloth and leather, left as offerings by travelers passing through town. A stone bowl at her feet burns incense and stubs of candles clutter the stone floor.
8. Temple of the Harvest: One of the few stone buildings in town, the Temple of the Harvest rises on the eastern side of the market square, the golden sun of Pelor gleaming on its steeple. Offerings of grain and small casks of ale clutter an alter just inside the open doors. Cephlin, a cleric of Pelor, serves the population of Cespius by blessing crops and farm tools. The church stores the grain and ale offerings left by the pious farmers in a warehouse in case of a bad harvest year. He is also able to perform rituals for troubled adventurers. Regular NPCs: Cephlin
9. Smithy: The sound of hammer on anvil rings in the air and the smell of fire and iron fills your nostrils. Farm tools, horseshoes and a few pieces of weaponry and armor hang from hooks or lean against the walls of the blazing forge. A powerful man pounds a red-hot ingot with practiced blows. Hogrin Hammerhand, the human blacksmith, does a fair trade repairing damaged farm equipment and shodding horses, but relishes the opportunity to show his craft with the rare commission for a fine suit of armor or a masterwork blade. Regular NPCs: Hogrin Hammerhand
10. Market Square: The two main streets that cross Cespius meet in the middle of town and form a large square. On weekends, farmers set up stalls to vend their harvest and local craftsmen sell their goods. On Market days, many items that would not normally be available to PCs can be found in Cespius as many merchants bring their goods to town only on these days. Any of the regular NPCs might be found in the market square on a market day.

I’ve been neglect in updating the last few weeks mostly because I have been so productive with my offline work. I had a week off from my day job and actually had time to be productive. It’s amazing how much one can accomplish when not burdened with work. I updated and redesigned almost every card in the game and completely overhauled the 4 character classes to promote player interaction. Even more exciting, Mike Lottes, a very talented artist friend of mine, volunteered to help with some of the monster illustrations. He’s been sending pencil illustrations and I’ve been coloring them in Photoshop using the technique I shared in an earlier post.

Here are the results of our very fruitful collaboration. The following cards were all designed by me in Photoshop with illustrations by both Mike and me.

The monster cards had the biggest redesign. My favorite part of the new design is the dice image in the upper left indicating the monster tier and reminding players how many dice this particular monster rolls in combat. The Meddling Sprite is a tier one monster and only rolls one die, but her magical defenses can still give low level players a rough time.

The Meddling Sprite card was illustrated and colored by Reed A Raymond.

Dragon Wyrmling: Illustration by Michael Lottes. Color: Reed A Raymond

Minotaur: Illustration by Michael Lottes. Color: Reed A Raymond

I’ve redesigned and reworded the cards in the Action deck to avoid confusion. The coolest change is the creation of a type of action card called an augment. Instead of taking one of your turn’s actions, augment cards make regular actions like moving and gathering resources more powerful.

Gather Magic: Illustration and Color by Reed A Raymond

In the very first version of “Heroes of Ismia,” items and actions were bundled together into the same deck. The mechanic worked all right as most items require an action to use and then are discarded, but the method of acquiring items (drawn at the beginning of a turn) never sat well with me. The arbitrary way in which a character could end up with a Potion of Focus or Scroll of Town Portal felt a bit contrived and didn’t jive with the RPG gamer in me. Enter the Town Decks: two decks you can only draw from when in civilization. The Item Deck is the first of the Town Decks. Items are purchased for a gold and kept either in your hand (counting against your hand limit) or played face up in your inventory (counting against your resource limit)

Scroll of Town Portal: Illustration and Color by Reed A Raymond.

The second Town Deck is the deck of Quest cards. The majority of work that went into the quest cards over the last few weeks was the writing of copy, making sure they all had unique back stories and objectives that matched the theme of the flavor text. Another new addition to the latest version of the game is the optional objective/reward, allowing players to get a little more out of the quest or, if they are in a race to complete their Epic Quest, just turn in the minimum objectives and move on.

Lambs to the Slaughter: Design and Text by Reed A Raymond.

I’m looking froward to playing with all these new tweaks and seeing how they work on the board outside my head. You’ll hear all about it here just as soon as we finish cutting out all these new cards!

Only a quick post today as it’s late and I’m in the middle of a fast so I don’t feel like writing too much right now.  I have been collaborating with a friend on monster illustrations for Heroes of Ismia and he has been producing some pretty awesome stuff. I’ll share the results of our combined efforts on the site soon. Today I decided to take a break from the card and mechanics development and illustrate a monster of my own.  Here is the result.

A few posts ago I shared an illustration of a female fighter I was in the middle of. In this post I’d like to show how the pencil drawing turned out, then give a couple of tips on how to color a pencil drawing in Photoshop for a nice cartoony result.

Starting with the finished, shaded pencil drawing, use the magnetic lasso tool to mask off the character you wish to color.  Go to “Select>Save Selection” so you can easily retrieve your mask if you accidentally de-select it. For more precise control I sometimes make a separate mask for each color, but on this drawing I simply masked off the outline and carefully colored the interior colors. Here is the fully shaded illustrating with the selection mask applied.

An optional step to create a nicer gradient in the shading and fade some of the sharper pencil lines is to apply a blur filter. Duplicate the layer to preserve the original image. At this point I also painted everything outside the mask white (not mandatory, but I like the cleanness). Now, with you pencil drawing selected, go to “Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur” and apply with a radius of 1 to 2. This not only smudges your pencil lines, it helps take out any white area left in the drawing. Pure white won’t apply tone to the color layer and will remain pure white in the final illustration.

Now create a new layer and change the layer type to “Color.” As you apply your color to this layer, the blurred pencil drawing will create the tone. In areas where the color isn’t as saturated as I’d like, or in places I need some more shading, I use the burn tool on the blurred layer. Here is what the color layer looks like alone and with the values applied with the blurred layer. Notice that the values in the “color” layer are much more saturated than on the combined illustration. Keep this in mind when you are shading your illustration with pencil before scanning it into Photoshop.

And here is the final version. I’m really looking forward to putting this on the character sheets. I’ll post the other classes as I finish them. In the mean time, please feel free to ask questions or share your own work in the comments section.

Several weeks ago I promised a post about the monsters of Ismia and I’m here to deliver. In the last GDD I discussed resource collection and management as a central part of questing in the world of Ismia, but what is a quest without its fair dose of beasties. Many quests and locations in the game require the player to attempt a combat. The main combat mechanic has remained fairly unchanged since the game’s inception. Every monster has a level and most have bonuses or penalties based on who or where they are fighting. Characters also have levels and bonuses based on their training and equipment. Both character and monster roll some dice, add the results to their modified levels and the higher result wins.

The system worked, but after the first play test it was apparent that it needed some serious tweaking. When a player drew a level appropriate monster from the monster deck combat was exciting and suspenseful, but it was much more common to draw a monster that was either impossible to defeat or impossible to lose against. We tried a few solutions such as monster hordes where if you drew too low-level a monster you would have to fight two or three of them, but the new rules were clunky and didn’t solve all the problems. Finally we came to the realization that it wasn’t the rules of combat that were flawed but the organization of the monsters. I separated all the monsters by level into three stacks and decided that characters from level 1 to 3 would draw from the low-level “Tier 1″ stack, levels 4-6 draw from “Tier 2″ and the highest level characters, levels 7-10, draw from the vicious “Tier 3″ deck.

I also decided that rolling one die just wasn’t enough. The more dice you roll at once, the more predictable the results become (7 being the most common result on 2d6). More dice also increased the range of defeat-able monsters at any particular level. In the current iteration of the rules, players always roll 2d6 before modification by powers and cards, while monsters roll 1d6 per tier.

The upshot has been much more exciting combats with more predictable results. Most monsters are surmountable but not without a good deal of sweat, and combats that are so easy you don’t bother rolling are a thing of the past (or at least a thing of the previous tier). Most importantly, combat has gone from being something you had to but didn’t really want to do to the most exciting aspect of the game, as it should be.

P.S. Thank you to the many anonymous artists in google images who unknowingly provided placeholder artwork for my prototype. I am working on illustrating the game but  haven’t had time for all the monsters.