| The site of game designer Andrew Greenberg. All opinions expressed here are my own and are not reflective of any organization to which I belong. | Thursday, 28 November 2024 - 10:48 |
Hypepotamus interviewed me recently. I hope you are amused by the results: http://www.hypepotamus.com/people/andrew-greenberg-man-many-hats/
Also had this fun interview recently with Comcastro: http://www.comcastro.com/andrewgreenberg/
While I’m at it, this game dev focused one with Game Developers Advice: http://gamedevadvice.blogspot.com.ar/2015/07/andrew-greenberg.html
Anyone who played Dungeons and Dragons for more than a couple sessions remembers the great feeling when her character suddenly went up a level (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0012.html). More powerful spells, more survivable characters, more annoying familiars … these appeared all at once, essentially overnight (much like how a baby goes from making little poops to suddenly making massive, diaper-exploding ones).
While making such leaps in development seems unrealistic, it primarily comes out of the miniatures game tradition that spawned D&D. I always thought it very much fits the game’s motif. Medieval and Renaissance life focused on initiation and definite moments of progress, far more than does modern life. Fighters went from page to squire to knight. Clerics went from altar boy to priest to bishop to archbishop to pope to the highest level, antipope. The Freemasons had 23+ levels of initiation, each with its own powers. Other occult orders were much the same.
The argument can be made that modern life is poorer for not having such levels of Initiation. As an aside, thank goodness SIEGE has them. Many of our members progress from attendee to volunteer to speaker to organizer. I’m not about to tell you the initiation rites involved, however.
It has been brought to my attention that RPGDad has been doing a poor job of paying attention to his appearance (big surprise there). A friend has offered up some logos for the site, and I would love your feedback. Please tell me in comments which you like best or what would work better.
Happy Father’s Day! Today has brought to mind the new way I am handling my task lists. Most game devs utilize some form of a task list, be it as a Gantt chart, a milestone checklist, or a bunch of posties (not pasties) littering the office. For me, one of the learning experiences in having a baby is the need to be really specific about the tasks I need to accomplish. For instance, in the past my task list had broad categories, like “Playtest Noble Armada” or “Contact SIEGE Speakers.”
For more reasons than I care to go into, that has proven less than optimal with a baby. Such broad tasks require that I have an hour uninterrupted in which to complete them (or at least 15 minutes). That has proven a tad unattainable. Thus my new tasks are more like, “Recreate firing arc bug,” “Contact a potential SIEGE keynote,” and the all-to-frequent “Find my cup of coffee.”
I’ve always prided myself on my multitasking, but babies take it to a whole new level, and I cannot keep that many tasks operating in my sleep-deprived mind. Even the baby tasks need to be broken down into very discrete steps:
Any other parents have to break down their task lists to this degree of granularity?
So I know I said my next RPGDad installment would be about level-based childhood, but RPGBaby came early and I had to change my plans. Who woulda’ thought a child would require something like that? I wrote the below while we were in the hospital, and I hope it does not offend too terribly much 🙂
In case you never noticed it before, childbirth is much like a good first-person shooter designed solely for female players. Some people may tell you it is co-op, but just like in most co-op games, you will be doing all the real work. As a man, I have perfect insight into this matter and am happy to share these truths.