As part of the shake up here at the Assault bunker, we thought that it would be interesting for each of us to post a regular short blog piece. Partly this is because rules writing can be a pretty dull activity, and - especially in the initial stages - a lot of the process happens behind closed doors, but we wanted to involve people at all stages of the process if possible. It's also a chance for those of us a bit more behind the scenes to poke our heads above the defences at the bunker and wave. And I am sure that its just a coincidence that I need to follow a blog post from the boss where he just got back from a weekend playing games and had a load of pictures to publish..... Yep... Just a coincidence......
I wanted to use this first post to talk a bit about me, where I fit in the studio and generally what I am working on. I will be your Friday host on the blogs, and in future posts I hope to look a bit at the design process, the various challenges in rules writing, and shine a spotlight on a few concepts and mechanics, both in games that I am working on but also some mechanics in other published games that I think deserve some recognition. One thing that I will say right from the start is that I am certainly no expert, and at no point do I ever want to come across as one. There are no real qualifications when it comes to this, and we all have our own ideas and biases.
I have been involved in Assault Publishing in one way or another from pretty early on. Marcin and I met through our shared love of Games Workshops Battlefleet Gothic game, and when he needed someone to help check his various rules and documents he asked me to take a look at them. Since then, I have been involved in most games from Hind Commander to Shadows in the Void, although primarily as a proof reader, through rules discussions or in a world building capacity. Before this, I also worked with Dark Realm Miniatures and I have been quite active in the 6mm scene and in particular for Games Workshops Epic/Space Marine/Adeptus Titanicus game series. Apart from games for Assault (which I will talk more about next week) I have been thinking about my gaming recently and changing my focus. I had a habit in the past of getting carried along by whatever was popular here in Singapore, but my very slow rate of painting meant that I was always behind and by the time I was ready to play, the gaming focus had shifted to the next game. So I am starting to just focus more on the games that I want to play. Skirmish games are very popular here, in particular the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game and Bushido, along with This Is Not A Test and Kill Team. I am building a Tyranid army for 40K and looking to restart my Epic gaming with two (or more) new armies shortly.
I have two main games in the works for Assault - Dark Portents and Depth Charged. Depth Charged is a game that I have been working on for several years, and is a post apocalyptic/near future submarine warfare game. This is currently on a back burner to allow me to focus more on Dark Portents, which will be a mass combat (at 28mm or 15mm scale) fantasy battle game, with its roots in ancient battles and 'realism', and with a focus on units of troops where heroes and wizards are more about supporting the army than winning the fight alone. I will go into a bit more detail next week. In the meantime, if you have comments, feedback or questions, we would be happy to hear from you.
See you in 7!
Cybershadow