07/30/21: Product are our dreams realized (and monetized)
Everything is discombobulated.
I realized around bedtime last night that I had not written a newsletter update, nor had I done one last week. Realizing that this was a bad trend but also wanting a decent night of sleep, I decided to just be late. Then, happily, I didn’t have any insomnia and promptly forgot about it until “prepping for Friday night game” o’clock.
Tonight’s game will be fine.
I am at the stage of game design, this week, with Meridian, of overthinking and wanting to rewrite everything. New ideas keep happening and I could probably continue redesigning everything in this game forever. However, I’ve been given a deadline (which I’m going to miss) for getting out the Beta/Ashcan of the game and I’m steadily working toward being about a month late on that.
I was listening to a podcast this week talking to Jay Little, designer of FFG’s Narrative Dice System, who had some useful advice: At some point, as a designer, you have to give up the dream of your game and lean into the product of your game. Which is great advice; I just have to learn how to take it.
Anyway, design is happening, though perhaps not as fast or as often as I would like, but it is happening.