How I wrote City of Judas (part one)

How I wrote City of Judas (part one)

A short break from the play reports: this is going to be a series of very brief discussions about the design process of the game. I’d love to hear your opinions – as fellow game designers and as players as well. So feel free to comment, ask questions, present your own experiences! 

I am absolutely not an authority on game design, so I’m sharing these with the hope the discussion can actually help me to improve!

Inspiration

While I designed the City of Judas, I looked at multiple sources of inspiration. I hope I mentioned all the important ones in the Credits, but I might have forgotten someone. I apologize for that; if you notice something in my game that resembles the elements of another game, or a concept that was mentioned in some article, blog or forum, feel free to notify me. I will be glad to give the proper credit to those who influenced me.

I did not mention every single source of inspiration, both because some I forgot, and others because the list would have become too long. RPG design is an extremely interesting field, and quickly evolving, as far I can see: it’s really great to see so many committed people, which are also usually very nice in person and kind when you ask for advice. 

So if you’re a designer, pick your contacts, ask advice from your favorite authors and don’t be afraid: always look also at other people’s work for inspiration.

If you’ve ever designed a game (who didn’t?), what were your main sources of inspiration? Have you ever reached out to other authors and asked their help? How did it go?

As a Player, what’s your feeling towards game that somehow “recycle” known mechanics, or tune or tinker with them a little? Did you ever encounter an hack which did something in a way that felt “just right” and perhaps suited your personal taste even better than the original?