Game Dev blog#2 Over Ten Years in the Making

So here we are, the first week of 2018. It’s hard to believe that just last year I got kicked out of my place, dumped in the most horrible of ways, and started my B-Chan YouTube page. I learned it’s not about the views you get, the real trick is to be heard. And over the past 12 months I’ve dabbled in many different forms of online content. My passion however will always be writing, and nothing showcases that more than the game I’m writing.

To recap, me and a team are creating a free to play RPG entitled Lumin: The Book Rush. I went to Ikkicon out in Austin New Year’s weekend to promote it for the first time in over two years. We had our original game plan, which was to show off the board game I made based off Lumin, however due to reasons beyond my own control as well as a little lack of foresight we were forced to drastically improvise. I wish I can say that this is a rare occurrence, that would be a flat out lie. But while I was walking around the con seeing old friends and talking about my work, I had a thought. What if I could just convince people to be interested with words? So, I set about on a personal goal to see how many people I can get in to the idea of Lumin with no art work or game play. It was somewhat surreal seeing how many people got excited at the idea of a free form game that doesn’t follow the normal cookie cutter structure we’ve grown accustom to. It would become quite wordy if I were to explain everything in this blog but the way the team and I are designing this game will resemble your traditional table top RPG as opposed to the typical formula of its video game counterpart.

I want to present The Book Rush in such a way because of how deep the plot goes. A few years back I made my own table top game based off the characters from the first video game I tried to develop. And in case you haven’t guessed it, Lumin is a part of that world too. But as a player, and for the voice actors, there is a lot to take in so what do you do? You give the players a world and library they can explore and learn about your world while creating your first major release. The library you build in The Book Rush serves two purposes. Not only do they give you the much-needed insight for the future titles, they also serve as in game strategy guide to assist you through out your adventures. I know it sounds like I’m trying to sell my own game in this blog but as a game designer and semi-retired Game Master I’m really looking forward to this game’s release.

I have a habit of wanting to get as involved with the players as I can. A while back I use to release these videos called Learning about Lumin where I would write up a script talking about the world and have various characters explaining certain subjects like magic or potion making. I thought it was a good idea, however we would never get much in terms of responses. That’s when I learned while I may have been the idea, the execution was lacking. The thing about people never telling that you did something poorly is you’ll keep going assuming that its right. I would’ve saved a lot of time and headaches if someone had just been upfront with me before but that’s all in the past now. And thanks largely to my B-Chan persona, I’ve learned enough to where I finally feel comfortable resuming the videos.

I’m sure you’ve noticed by now if you follow me on either B-Chan or Game Play Theatre that I have started referencing the two. I do this because my B-Chan persona only came to be so I could hone the skills I need to make Lumin as great as possible. The random singing, video editing, even writing this blog is all done to keep my mind sharp and focused on the tasks ahead. I’ve been thinking its time to end this public hiatus and hit the con circuit again. Things are going to have to be different though, I can’t do all this alone and I’m no longer going force myself to. In the words of a good friend, “Fuck anyone who tries to take advantage of a dream.”