OK, it's a long, long ways from being finished finished, but I've finally finished the manuscript. I'm giving it a little polish over the next couple of weeks, and then I'll fling it up here at the start of August. Defence Mech patrons will get it first for a couple of weeks. Once I've taken into account any observatio...
2020-07-22 18:00:01 +0000 UTC View Post
I thought I'd share this with you guys.
I was chatting with one of you on the Discord (currently only for Defence Mech patrons, but this will change in September) about a Heavy Gear Blitz version of Horizon Wars that he's working on and he pointed me toward Shiny Games...
2020-07-20 09:24:10 +0000 UTC View PostOK, guys, so I need six "tribes" for AD. I've got:
I need one more.
I'm mostly torn between robots ...
2020-07-19 11:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostSo, Plast Craft Games looks like they're going under. How did this runaway success and tabletop tech leader get into such trouble? Well... I can't pretend I really know, but I'll take a good guess in this week's episode.
2020-07-18 13:22:54 +0000 UTC View PostSo I occasionally get hit with the inspiration brick and have to write something down before it escapes, and as I've run out of scheduled posts to keep you entertained while I'm distracted with "proper" work I thought I'd share this one with you:
Zero Dark: Antediluvium
This would be a supplement for Zero Dark, set ...
2020-07-14 16:00:56 +0000 UTC View Post
Given the caveats that I am not an artist, check out what I did!
These are all the tiles you'll need to play the "Tunnel Vision" mission in Operation Nemesis. Very basic, yes. A certain amount of repetition among the splashes, I agree. But for a first try... well, OK, second... no, let's be honest, third... ...
2020-07-12 14:00:00 +0000 UTC View PostThere was some excitement recently over a falling-out between venerable miniatures wargaming forum, The Miniatures Page, and respected historical game design partnership, Too Fat Lardies.
You know this ...
2020-07-10 11:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
To help better inform my thinking for this game, I've been hanging out on the Starship Miniatures Gaming FB group, getting a sense of the ships people play with, the games they favour and all sort of other little details. For example, I've...
2020-07-06 08:59:59 +0000 UTC View PostIt has been a haaard week. Originally my clients and I though that I'd be working on their restructure project for about three days a week, with room to stretch to four if needed. But in practice, it's been full-time, 45-50 hours this last week.
My client is in the catering and hospitality sector, with field-based workers all o...
2020-07-04 16:29:48 +0000 UTC View PostDue to the other stuff going on in my life, I pre-recorded this podcast, so it doesn't include some important things I'd like to talk about. I'll get to those next week!
Companies mentioned:
Artejoal Studios and their 2020-07-03 11:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post
If you've already seen the Fireside chat video, this is a summary of the important points, which I'm repeating here for those who may not have the time or inclination to watch a video.
Those of you who know me IRL or who have paid attention to some of my general media presence will be aware that, before I decided to sack it all in and do t...
2020-06-29 18:00:00 +0000 UTC View PostAs we grow the concept of Zero Dark to incorporate more complex tabletops - corridors, doors, barricades, sentinels etc - so the desire to take the opportunity to exploit them becomes impeded by another core feature of Zero Dark: the ticking clock of the Control Deck.
As we contemplate the end of lockdown and the easing o...
2020-06-29 12:00:00 +0000 UTC View Post
This one is quite important, to the extent that I will be posting a detailed summary of its key points later today, so if you don't have time to watch this, be sure to read the post later.
2020-06-29 10:50:20 +0000 UTC View PostI didn't get to spend as much time doing mech stuff as I wanted to in Mech Week, but I did record this podcast (among other things).
So I have a chat about mechs, and why I think they're awesome, even when they're stupid.
I've unilaterally decided that the week commencing 22nd June will henceforth be The International Ambulatory Transport Platform Appreciation Period, or #MechWeek for short!!
Patrons are getting a little advance notice that from Monday 22nd to Sunday 28th June, all mechs on the Precinct Omega website will be at 15% off to celebrate.
I...
2020-06-21 10:00:00 +0000 UTC View PostThere's been a lot of chat about miniatures-agnostic games, lately, so I instead take a look at game-agnostic miniatures instead, this week.
Manufacturers mentioned are:
2020-06-20 15:11:06 +0000 UTC View Post
Mission 10 in Operation NEMESIS - as I've previously mentioned - will take place in an underground corridor network. Although I'm hoping to establish a partnership with an existing designer of corridor pieces, my efforts in that direction have, so far, borne no fruit.
Rather than wait around, therefore, I've started designin...
2020-06-20 10:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
I know all of you already know how to play Zero Dark, but I thought I'd share the latest fruits of my efforts, sans voiceover, but very much avec lots of special effects.
I'd love to know from you what parts of the game you think would benefit from a tutorial video.
2020-06-19 15:02:54 +0000 UTC View Post
I'll be honest, although I'm a long way from being a professional graphic designer, I rate myself as am amateur graphic designer.
The layout for Over the Horizon taught me a lot. I put that to work in Zero Dark, and learned more. Hopefully Operation NEMESIS will show what I've learned with another ste...
2020-06-18 11:00:00 +0000 UTC View Post
A patrons-only exclusive preview of the cover art for Operation Nemesis!
I'm not sure what to say about this except "ooooooh!" I am loving this. This is far from the whole piece and isn't quite finished yet, but suffice to say that the team looks very cool and very dangerous and I'm only further motivated to commission someone ...
2020-06-17 17:05:06 +0000 UTC View Post
My new artist, Tan, has completed work on the first two smaller sketches I've asked for as what I think of as "bumper" illustrations. They provide context and interest to the book but are also user to shift or "bump" the rest of the text around to provide a more natural fit to the page.
I think Tan's style is a nice counter-point to ...
2020-06-16 17:00:00 +0000 UTC View Post
I've discussed before my aspiration to produce a custom Control Deck for Zero Dark. The idea would be to run a Kickstarter for the product in around November/December for delivery probably by the following April. This would be a deck of 54 custom playing cards with the imagery of the suits and the face cards themed around th...
2020-06-14 17:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostA short one, this week, because I was occupied with an astonishing breadth of other things so had less time for both thinking and recording.
Do we take our games too seriously sometimes? I ponder where such things can lead, why we shouldn't let it and look at a few new and emerging products that aim to help us keep a sense of proport...
2020-06-12 16:09:52 +0000 UTC View PostTo accompany the Zero Dark: FEAR rules for tunnels and other enclosed spaces, I wrote some rules for doors, but these are also a useful adjunct for normal playing surfaces, too.
Doors
If you play Horizon Wars: Zero Dark using scenery that permits models to be placed inside buildings, ...
2020-06-12 10:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post(Fighting in Enclosed AReas)
Zero Dark: FEAR will eventually be a mini supplement for Horizon Wars: Zero Dark. I'm going to include these rules free in Zero Dark: Operation Nemesis to allow you to play one of the missions. But in due course it will also be released as a standalo...
2020-06-10 10:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostIt is weirdly compelling, creating tokens, once you start.
I've been making a set and colouring in the edges with permanent marker, but I've decided to wait until my shipment of primer arrives (my local dealer was out of stock, so I had to go online and it is taking aaaaages). I'm just going to prime a bunch of 15mm MDF rounds in bla...
2020-06-08 15:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostI'm a white English guy sitting at a laptop in Gloucestershire. It would be easy for me to look at the news, right now, and to decide that it's not my problem, that there's nothing I can do and that it's all too complicated and outside my experience.
But change doesn't need everyone on the barricades. It just needs everyone to ...
2020-06-05 11:55:52 +0000 UTC View Post
Waaaay back, people asked for some tokens for Zero Dark and, at the time, I pointed out that pretty much every token you could need was basically already available in the Infinity the Game range of tokens that you could get from umpteen manufacturers or download for free online.
But, as I work on Operation Nemesis, so
With Zero Dark artist, David Sondered, working hard on the cover for Operation Nemesis, I reached out to another (slightly cheaper) artist contact to do some work on interior illustrations to give the book a bit more interest.
2020-06-03 11:27:35 +0000 UTC View Post
With both my fancy new graphics and my new dice tray, I thought it was time to get back to updating my old HTP video. I deal with the voiceover guy by simply removing his voice entirely!
Many thanks for all your feedback and suggestions. Let me know if this is doing it for you.
2020-06-02 13:30:55 +0000 UTC View Post