Dreadful! I really shouldn't have tapped in as I knew I was too busy, and as it turned out - I was! It didn't help that my girlfriend is currently suffering from gallstones, or that I came down with a stinking cold the weekend it started, but I just didn't have time to knuckle down. It was a shame though and I think I'll go back to my West Wing via Olympus idea - I have oodles of notes too!

I took part last year rather more enthusiastically and had a blast - Lost Days of Memories and Madness will be poked at some more and go into more severe playtesting in the near future, I hope.

How did you get on Neil?

I took part and I finished although in many ways I think I didn't give it my all. The game, Toybox of Terror uses Ash's art and can be seen here:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg7pcbmq_13f5mdfpng

To me it feels more like a parlour game (albeit a parlour game for very sick minded people who like screwing each other over!) rather than a 'proper' roleplaying game. That isn't necessarily a bad thing and I was actually musing this morning that with a few tweaks it could easily become a little card game with RPG influences.

The Games Chef experience was ... interesting. I think I learned that it is definitely one of those things that you only get out of it what you are prepared to put in - and if you don't have time to put anything in, you cannot expect people to flock to your game and comment.

I have a slight suspicion of contests like this because I sometimes think they degenerate into a 'who can be the most cutting edge' fest but in the end, for me winning was not the point of the exercise. It was actually to give me clear blue headspace before the death run on D&H, which starts tomorrow!

Neil

Take the King's shilling at http://www.omnihedron.co.uk/dutyandhonour/

I took part and I finished although in many ways I think I didn't give it my all. The game, Toybox of Terror uses Ash's art and can be seen here:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg7pcbmq_13f5mdfpng

To me it feels more like a parlour game (albeit a parlour game for very sick minded people who like screwing each other over!) rather than a 'proper' roleplaying game. That isn't necessarily a bad thing and I was actually musing this morning that with a few tweaks it could easily become a little card game with RPG influences.

The Games Chef experience was ... interesting. I think I learned that it is definitely one of those things that you only get out of it what you are prepared to put in - and if you don't have time to put anything in, you cannot expect people to flock to your game and comment.

I have a slight suspicion of contests like this because I sometimes think they degenerate into a 'who can be the most cutting edge' fest but in the end, for me winning was not the point of the exercise. It was actually to give me clear blue headspace before the death run on D&H, which starts tomorrow!

Neil

Take the King's shilling at http://www.omnihedron.co.uk/dutyandhonour/

Andrew, we were in the same group - I really regret not being able to read a version of your game.

I didn't enter to win, just to write something - and I was only going to write something if I was certain about it as a game. I'm pretty lucky that I got two art sets that worked perfectly with an existing one-line idea for an RPG I had in my files.

So, yeah, happy to have drafted up something that might otherwise have stayed unformed for two or three years. Game Chef is a real kick in the pants.

Cheers,
Steve

Hey Steve - Serpentine looks really sexy and I hope to try it sometime! Let us know how you get on with it - we're here to feedback if you develop it further. Sorry I couldn't give you any real feedback during the contest!

If/when I get any further with my game I'll be sure to post it up here and there!

I finished my game, The Three Clans:

http://game-chef.com/af2008/?CommentID=5598

and overall I'm pretty happy with it. Heck, mostly I'm happy to have had the excuse to put such a focussed effort into designing a game, something that I've not managed with Anarchy yet.

Equally, though, I'm disappointed at the amount of feedback that I received and, more importantly, had time to give. I'm looking forward to the peer review process in that regard though. Now that I'm not so obsessed with trying to get my game done on time I should have more time to look at other peoples games.

Ovarall though I had fun and found it a very interesting and helpful experience.

~Geoff

Dread Fuzzy Blog

That was hard damn work!

I didn't finish my entry, Sleeping Centuries, though I got a couple of thousand words done. And in the end, while the mechanics worked, were interesting, and got the job done, I didn't like the game it produced.

Roughly, the group would play through four parallel lives - alternate histories and the modern day. Characters were shared by the group. And while this is in the vein of Dirty Secrets and Spione, I don't really *like* that style of play. So keeping my enthusiasm going was tough. The game felt a bit more like a chore than it oughta.

But some of the mechanics, where you could trade a portion of narration for later effectiveness will undoubtedly come up in a subsequent game.

My team Cygnus, was superb. I fully expect to see Things Held Dear, Dead Line and Tentacle City appear in some sort of published form.

And thanks for posting your entries above, guys.

I entered, and got something together; variously known as Diesel City Life, Diesel City Stories or Taking Without Consent: Diesel City. It's my attempt at doing an over-the-top contemporary gang game in the style of GTA.

It needs a good rewrite, as this is a bit of a hack job. But I liked Game Chef this year -- I was inspired to actually finish something, rather than mess around with fragments, never getting anything complete.

Diesel City Life

Just managed to upload a nice pdf version of my entry.

MoobleBall in Hell!

Its awesome but will probably never get played. Ah well, mashing up Walton and Cowen's art was funny.

Having to submit a txt file in an art based comp is ridiculous.

I never got put in a feedback group and I haven't even looked at another game.

Yay Game Chef!

+++
JoE
+++

Prince of Darkness Games
Rock N' Role-Play....

...was class. Ahh, Moobleball takes me back to chatting about football games at the food amll in Indianapolis!

Well done to those taking part, and welcome to the forums Warren.

The text file requirement was more of a pain than I expected. Not being able to bold and italicise was... wank.

Yeah, the text file thing was really awkward, especially considering the fact that our games were based around art. Still, to an extent I can see their point. Even if it's only subconsciously the judges would naturally give more weight to games with better layout and graphic design, something that GC just isn't about.

It would have been nice to do real titles though...

~Geoff

Dread Fuzzy Blog

Joe: Matt Cowen's a good friend of mine! I'll have to check out your game, see what mis-use you put his art to.

Cheers,
Steve

Had a pretty bad time of it this year, no fault of Game Chef's. I was suddenly stricken with really horrible depression half way through the design phase and couldn't get anything done. Doc's given me some pills for it so hopefully I should be OK soon, but it screwed up my chances of getting an entry complete so I pulled out. At least I managed to contribute to the art half.

Ash

And your art was reasonably popular. In fact it was one half of the inspiration for the game (other than my own) that I most enjoyed in my group (Capricornus); Fractured Lucidity.

~Geoff

Dread Fuzzy Blog

I had, and am still having, a great time, though the feedback phase is a lot more difficult than the design phase I think! I was lucky enough to have a lot of time to put into it, and my feedback group was really good, very encouraging.

My submission is "Duality : The Mirror Kingdoms" which is very very weird, and I am not sure I really want to take it any further, but I had a lot of fun writing it. The pressure of the deadline was a great motivator.

http://www.solipsist-rpg.com/