Introduction
I’ve been doing this game design thing for a while now, so I decided the turning of a new year was as good of an opportunity to write a retrospective as any. Here you’ll find commentary on all the games I’ve published to date, as well as a handful of drafts and concepts that’ve either made it particularly far or hold a special place in my heart. As of the time of writing this introduction, I have no thesis. I’m just looking to dig up some skeletons, and I’d be happy for you to join me. This is my Oeuvre in Review.
Each part of this series will take us along my path of game design. For now, I’m offering this introduction and a crash course in my background. Whimsy Machine started in 2014, which is where our official timeline will start. I’m taking my times with these reviews and commentary, so I expect a steady but slow-paced release schedule. I currently have sixty games to talk about, so this might take me all year.
Early History
This is the obligatory “I’ve been making games since before I could read” section. Imagination play is an integral part of childhood development. We all roleplay as kids—we make up characters, games, whole worlds. My two notable entries from this period include the “mazes” I would make for my older siblings to play and “The Stick Game.” The mazes were essentially 2D puzzle platformers I’d draw on paper and make them run through.
The Stick Game was a playground activity from third grade. A couple classmates would pick out a piece of bark (the ground cover of choice for our school) to stand in as their character—this is the titular stick. Their character would then run, Borrowers-style, across playground equipment while I narrated their surroundings and the challenges they faced. It was functionally a game moderator role with far, far less rigid mechanics.
From here, we fast forward to the first examples of Game Design As We Understand It in my early twenties. I played in and then co-ran a Changeling: The Lost live action roleplay (LARP) for about seven years. Throughout that, I wrote a wealth of homebrew content, including additional supernatural types outside of Changelings. I don’t believe much of it still survives, but if there’s interest I might go digging.
Near the end, the founder of the LARP was developing his own system so we could transition away from Changeling. I did a significant amount of writing and design for this new system through several of its early iterations. I don’t believe the game was ever published and, if it was, I highly doubt anything but the vaguest shadows of my contributions remain.
This foundation in World of Darkness homebrew and tinkering on the adapted system would inform some of my earliest designs. However, as we’ll see, I quickly skewed into weirder, wider directions. So, let’s take a look, starting over a decade ago.
To be continued…