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How Beautiful!
Mar. 9th, 2013 09:14 pmIntercon was fun. Hiterby Dragons is one heck of a setting.
Speaking of games and settings, I'm excited to see that Shadowrun Returns has completed their Kickstarter and is well underway with the development of their game. Shadowrun is a great setting, the tabletop game had mechanics that really worked well with that setting, and the developers of this game really seem to get that. Does that mean the game will be good? Don't know, but early footage is promising.
Another thing I want to point out of definite interest to computer RPG fans, this Kickstarter for a Planescape: Torment sequel. Now, I can provide even less confidence that this one will be good; Planescape: Torment continually comes up on lists of the best RPGs, the setting is interesting and fantastic and the writing is superb, it won't be easy to match. I would have been glad to see another game in the Planescape setting, certainly Torment explored only a tiny fraction of that. But the developers of this game are taking a different approach, taking another deep setting (Monte Cook's Numenera, an as of yet unreleased and vastly overfunded tabletop setting from game designer Monte Cook) and creating a game with similar plot and themes to Torment, with a focus on writing that develops the character and setting in interesting ways, focusing on exploration and choice. Worth taking a look at the Kickstarter if you were a fan of the original, they seem to have a good team (including some of the people who worked on Torment at Interplay) and certainly enough funds to make a good attempt. (Plus the intro to their Kickstarter video is pretty funny.)
This trend of Kickstarter as an indie game publishing platform is pretty interesting. The obvious interesting thing is that Kickstarter has been successful at funding projects that major publishers might find too small / risky / unprofitable. What's struck me lately is that there are a lot of different sorts of Kickstarter projects. These two feature old, established game developers returning to beloved projects that they couldn't return to in a big-company context, collaborating with young indie devs. That's pretty different from an established game company choosing crowd-funding over a publisher. Or from two people with a new-IP prototype seeking to complete their game.
On an entirely different topic: I've been thinking about cookbooks. Lately, I've been mostly cooking from recipes found on the internet or just winging it. But in the past, I enjoyed browsing through cookbooks and planning elaborate meals. It's also pleasant to idly thumb through cookbooks, too, they're nice to have around. They can be beautiful and interesting art objects in addition to culinary references and containers of delicious recipes. So I thought I'd ask, oh readers of this journal, what are your favorite cookbooks?
Speaking of games and settings, I'm excited to see that Shadowrun Returns has completed their Kickstarter and is well underway with the development of their game. Shadowrun is a great setting, the tabletop game had mechanics that really worked well with that setting, and the developers of this game really seem to get that. Does that mean the game will be good? Don't know, but early footage is promising.
Another thing I want to point out of definite interest to computer RPG fans, this Kickstarter for a Planescape: Torment sequel. Now, I can provide even less confidence that this one will be good; Planescape: Torment continually comes up on lists of the best RPGs, the setting is interesting and fantastic and the writing is superb, it won't be easy to match. I would have been glad to see another game in the Planescape setting, certainly Torment explored only a tiny fraction of that. But the developers of this game are taking a different approach, taking another deep setting (Monte Cook's Numenera, an as of yet unreleased and vastly overfunded tabletop setting from game designer Monte Cook) and creating a game with similar plot and themes to Torment, with a focus on writing that develops the character and setting in interesting ways, focusing on exploration and choice. Worth taking a look at the Kickstarter if you were a fan of the original, they seem to have a good team (including some of the people who worked on Torment at Interplay) and certainly enough funds to make a good attempt. (Plus the intro to their Kickstarter video is pretty funny.)
This trend of Kickstarter as an indie game publishing platform is pretty interesting. The obvious interesting thing is that Kickstarter has been successful at funding projects that major publishers might find too small / risky / unprofitable. What's struck me lately is that there are a lot of different sorts of Kickstarter projects. These two feature old, established game developers returning to beloved projects that they couldn't return to in a big-company context, collaborating with young indie devs. That's pretty different from an established game company choosing crowd-funding over a publisher. Or from two people with a new-IP prototype seeking to complete their game.
On an entirely different topic: I've been thinking about cookbooks. Lately, I've been mostly cooking from recipes found on the internet or just winging it. But in the past, I enjoyed browsing through cookbooks and planning elaborate meals. It's also pleasant to idly thumb through cookbooks, too, they're nice to have around. They can be beautiful and interesting art objects in addition to culinary references and containers of delicious recipes. So I thought I'd ask, oh readers of this journal, what are your favorite cookbooks?
