RPG Design Panelcast

Episode 179 - Fiction and Game Writing

Recorded at Metatopia 2017

Presented by Elsa Henry and Lauren Roy.

Fiction writing and game writing are definitely two separate skillsets, but they are complimentary. This panel will feature people who do both, discussing how to develop these skillsets to further both parts of your career, with extra attention to the ways they diverge and how to know which skills to use. Where do these skillsets not overlap, how do they fight against one another? What are the best ways to develop both skills without shortchanging one or the other.

Episode 178 - Communities and Settlements in Games

Special Episode

Presented by Jason Pitre and Phil Vecchione,

In this special episode, Jason and Phil talk about communities and settlements in games. Each of us bring our respective projects to the table to discuss and explore the potential mechanics which model/support these elements of play. Phil presents Hydro Hacker Operatives, his game about heroes who steal water for their communities in a cyberpunk dystopia. Jason presents After the War  , a game about building and protecting settlements on an alien world, a decade after a galactic war. 

Enjoy our discussion of this exciting area of design where we discuss what communities and settlements bring to games, the stories they let us tell, and the mechanics which represent them. 

Episode 177 - Crowdfunding on a Budget

Recorded at Metatopia 2017

Presented by James D'Amato, Jim McClure, Laura Simpson.

It is tempting to pour money into marketing a crowdfunding project. We'll discuss strategies you can use that take your project further without breaking your marketing budget.

Episode 176 - Do I want to be in the Game Business?

Recorded at Metatopia 2017

Presented by Michelle Lyons, Danielle Lauzon, Pete Petrusha, Maury Brown, Cam Banks.

It's relatively easy to make a game in this day and age. Making a business is harder. How much effort do you want to put into bringing a game to market/getting some revenue for your work? What are your options? How will you know what you want until you do it? Come join us for a panel discussing the whys and wherefores of game publication and where people choose to land on that spectrum.

Apologies for sound quality issues. 

Episode 175 - Stop Working on your Game and Publish It

Recorded at Metatopia 2017

Presented by Jason Walters, Brennan Taylor, James Dagg.

We'll talk about how to accept that your game will never be perfect and how to know when it's ready to publish anyway.

Episode 174 - Designing the GM Section of your Game

Recorded at Metatopia 2017

Presented by Phil Vecchione, Will Hindmarch, Beth Rimmels.

Designing the "For GMs" Section of your RPG" . GMing sections of RPGs are often a collection of rules, advice, etc, but they are not always effective. In addition, there is a host of great, generic GMing advice in both blog and podcast form, that no longer needs to be included in an RPG. What can we, as game designers, do when we design the GMing section of a game to better empower GMs to run the games we are creating?

Episode 173 - Selling The Goods: Choosing Your Sales Channels

Recorded at Metatopia 2017

Presented by Jason Pitre, Jim Crocker, Jason Walters.

Congratulations on producing your game! Now, you have to decide how you want to sell it. This panel will talk about all of the different ways you can sell games and the costs associated with each of them. We will help you pick which options are best for you, based on your product and priorities.

 

Epsiode 172 - Structure Matters: Layout for Writers and Editors

Recorded at Metatopia 2017

Presented by Jason Pitre, Matthias Bonnici and Will Hindmarch.

Producing a book involves communication and negotiation between the layout professional, writers, editors, and art-directors. In this panel, we will talk about how to establish structures that work for everyone, and point out some ways to keep your layout gal happy. 

The presentation used for this panel is here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GE7skzfOoRBUIDmw5hRZMvIApl6CguCO/view?usp=sharing

 

Episode 171 - RPG Design and Publishing for Newcomers Q&A

Special Episode

Presented by Jason Pitre, Anna Meade, Sarah 'Doombringer' Richardson, and Eloy Lasanta. 

 

In this special episode, most the panelists from the previous gencon panel get together to answer questions posed by attendees.  The questions on offer are... 

Q1: I've got a game, it's playtested: how do I get to market?

Q2: Outside of the mechanical or thematic design of the game, which part of development and release is the most challenging for you, and in what way?

Q3: What is the best value services to ensure a successful kickstarter?

Q4: How should one go about acquiring a publisher for their design?

Q5: How do you balance an RPG across as many levels as possible when the system is rather complex? Is it just a long slog or is there a faster method than what I currently use?

Q6: How to turn a story/setting concept into a workable game system?

Q7: I'd love any advice specifically on making Powered by the Apocalypse games.

Q8: What is the single most important element of an RPG system that can determine its success or failure?

Q9: How technology is changing the Design and Publishing process?

 

Enjoy this special episode!

 

Episode 170 - RPG Design and Publishing for Newcomers

Recorded at GenCon 2018

Presented by Jason Pitre, Anna Meade, Jerry Grayson, Eloy Lasanta, and Sarah "Doombringer" Richardson. 

This panel serves as a welcome introduction to the twin fields of roleplaying game design, and publishing. It features a long discussion on how and why we design games, how games have to be about something, and how we can practically turn our ideas into products. This was a two hour panel full of brilliant insights from the panel speakers and has some fun banter to boot. 

Note that the audience submitted a number of questions in advance of the panel, which we will be responding to in next week's episode!

Episode 169 - Positive Aesthetic Sexytimes

Recorded at Metaopia 2017

Presented by Whitney Delaglio, Brand Robins

Sexy Times in-game can be serious business, but it doesn't have to be! Join us for a discussion about using artwork and tone to encourage fun and playful exploration of intimacy in games.

This episode coincides with the release of the kickstarter for Prism! Check it out here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2026929256/prism-1

 

 

Episode 168 - Boardgame Themes vs Mechanisms

Recorded at Metatopia 2017

Presented by Gil Hova. 

"Player in Three Persons - Studying the Theme/Mechanism Join of Board Games". "This game is so immersive!" "This theme is pasted on!" "Should designers start with theme or mechanism?" Lots of board game fans like to debate theme and mechanism. This panel is a technical deep-dive into the fascinating join of theme and mechanism of a commercial board game, and why the two don't always get along. 

Episode 167 - The Artist's Process

Recorded at Metatopia 2017

Presented by  Jack Parra, Leslie Casilli, Lissanne Lake

"The Artist's Process: Game Illustration From Start To Finish." presented by Jack Parra, Leslie Casilli, Lissanne Lake. Our panelists go over the process they go through when creating a finished illustration, and the different approaches they take. This panel is about helping artists of all levels improve. 

Episode 166 - Literary Criticism and Feedback

Recorded at Metatopia 2017

Presented by Tim Hutchings and Evan Torner.

Criticism and Feedback: How to Talk about that Game You Just Played. How do we talk about games in a productive, useful way? The panel will discuss methods and tools for giving useful, critical feedback for the game play experience. We will introduce critical methods from the creative arts and inclusivity-promoting discussion tools pioneered by Games to Gather in Portland, Oregon.

Episode 165 - Developing a Marketing Plan

Recorded at Metatopia 2017

Presented by Steve Radabaugh, Beth Rimmels, Jason Pitre

Developing A Marketing Plan For Your Game. We will be taking what Marketing Genius Seth Godin teaches about Marketing and helping you apply it to your game/brand. You will work in a small group to discuss how the information applies to you, and you will fill out a marketing plan template.  

Note: This is a shorter panel as the second half was dedicated to filling in the template.

 

Marketing Plan Questions

1. What Change are you trying to make?
2. Who are you trying to change?
3. What is the promise that you’re making?
4. Pick 2 desireable things to the people you are trying to change. What is your position on these axes? What are you committed to being on behalf of the people you are trying to change?
5. People like us do things like this. Who is the US, and what is the THIS?
6. Why don’t people choose you?

 

Episode 164 - Pitching Positively

Recorded at Metatopia 2017

 

Presented by John Adamus, Jacqueline Bryk.

Sales Pitches That Set A Positive Tone.. Building a pitch that captures the atmosphere of the game in a positive, rather than exclusionary way is a huge part of growing an audience and a community around your work. It sets a tone and conveys a lot of info. Let's give you a roadmap for success!

Episode 163 - Writing Rulebooks

Recorded at Metatopia 2017

Presented by Joshua Yearsley.

Writing Rulebooks: An Introduction and Workshop. Trying to write your first (or seventh) rulebook? Want to build a solid foundation on rules writing fundamentals? Ready to get your hands dirty with real rules revisions? This is for you. We'll first explore why rulebooks are so difficult to get right, discuss the goals of the rulebook itself, and then jump into the fundamentals. You'll learn a new language for describing rules, the theory and application of rules structure, and tons of tips and tricks to improve flow. After the talk, we'll break into groups and put these skills to use, workshopping badly written rules into better ones, guided by a professional rules writer and editor. This talk + workshop was first given as part of a course on game design taught by Rob Daviau, co-designer of Pandemic Legacy, at Hampshire College, where it received a great response (though the METATOPIA version probably won't give you college credit)

Episode 162 - Art on a Budget

Recorded at Metatopia 2017

Presented by Jack Parra, Scott Bowmanchester, Lissanne Lake

 

Get art for your game without breaking the bank. Getting high-quality art is key to making a product look professional. How do publishers do it without breaking the bank? Our panel makes with the tips and tricks. 

Episode 161 - From Imposter Syndrome to Arrogance

Recorded at Metatopia 2017

Presented by Kiva Fecteau, Beth Rimmels, Doug Levandowski, James Dagg, Nicole Perry.

From Imposter Syndrome to Arrogance - Knowing When To Step Back.  How do you measure your success in a field where most people don't have salaries or corporate titles to compare, "bad" games can be hugely popular, and the timeline of creative spark to marketable product can often be years? In other words, when are you an "Industry Pro?" No matter how much they've done, some people continue to feel that they haven't yet hit the mark. Yet others who are completely new to the industry may feel that they have all the answers. Both attitudes can hold back your ability to flourish in the gaming industry

Episode 160 - How to Pitch your Game

Recorded at Metatopia 2017

Presented by Jennifer Gutterman, Joshua Yearsley, Melissa Lewis-Gentry, Zev Shlasinger.

You made a game! Congratulations! Now explain your incredible game in one sentence. That isn't as easy as it sounds. You want people to buy into your game as players, as investors, or as retailers. You will only have one chance to make that first impression. It needs to have impact. If you want to see your game successful on a crowdfunding site, or sold by your local game store, then you need to know what kind of pitch types and styles to maximize both what you say and target the right audience. This panel will cover it all, from the one sentence pitch through pitches for retailers, and the many options in between.

Episode 159 - Anatomy of a Fight

Recorded at Metatopia 2017

Presented by Michael Malecki, Elsa Henry, Shervyn von Hoerl, Monica Speca.

Join us for a workshop to create a combat system that could possibly allow for the fluid and chaotic nature of combat but not be overwhelmingly disruptive to play style. The first half of the panel will cover offensive and defensive theories. We will go over the positives and negatives of things such as Narrative play, Slow-Fu, and Physical Combat. After a brief Q&A, those who building a system are welcome to stay and workshop with experts.

Episode 158 - How to Work with Artists

Recorded at Metatopia 2017

Presented by Jack Parra, Scott Bowmanchester, Chris Kreuter.

The panelists will touch on the process of how to find and approach artists, negotiate the contract, and then successfully work together. It's important that publishers get an artist's-eye-view of things so they can better understand what we do, the process, and the time involved and plan projects accordingly. 

Episode 157 - Writing Religions Respectfully

Recorded at Metatopia 2017

Presented by Julia Ellingboe, Jess Banks and Laiel.

Our panelists will talk about about incorporating actual real life systems of faith into settings, themes, and conflicts, rather than to making up a religion for a game. Let's talk about about writing about faith, particularly when it's different from our own. 

Episode 156 - Running Successful Playtests

Recorded at Metatopia 2017

Presented by Ann Stolinsky, Darren Watts, Tim Rodriguez, Justin Rogers.

Running a successful playtest when it's your creation on the table is hard work. It goes beyond putting your game on the table and hoping for the best. Join our panelists for tips and tricks on how to get benefit from every session, including those that don't go according to script. 

Episode 155 - Killing your Darlings

Recorded at Metatopia 2017

Presented by John Adamus and Ann Stolinsky.

Editing is the crucible through which your idea passes in order to emerge as the game and experience you intended. Find out what works, what doesn't, and how to navigate the red flags and feelings around them.