Solar Echoes Landing at JohnCon! (part 2)

I'm particularly excited about this weekend at JohnCon because the students there will be the very first to try the newest changes to the core Solar Echoes rules. If the players this weekend are willing, I plan to put each of their names into the credits as beta-testers in the Solar Echoes Players Guide update. The updated rulebook will be released online sometime near the end of April or at the beginning of May. At JohnCon, I will be using the new dice system I discussed last month, which involves a few twists to make die rolls more dynamic with greater risks and rewards. I'll also showcase the new rules for the dialogue system, which allows NPC's to "fight back" with their words during a dialogue encounter. Plus, all the alien characters now have a particular biological weakness, which should increase interest in the various weapons available. Gamers at JohnCon will be the first to play with these new systems and have their names immortalized as beta-testers in the credits of the updated Solar Echoes Player's Guide!

 JohnCon Facebook 

JohnCon Webpage

Solar Echoes Landing at JohnCon! (part 1)

A large variety of conventions are run throughout the year, and I've found a number of them where convention goers enjoy playing tabletop role-playing games like Solar Echoes. This coming weekend, from April 14-16, Johns Hopkins University is hosting their annual gamer convention, JohnCon. I get excited for JohnCon every year, for several reasons. One reason is that the Hopkins Homewood campus brings back fond memories from when I took some classes there during college, such as Creative Writing (training which I've definitely used to make Solar Echoes!) Another reason is that I love hanging out with the college crowd, and playing Solar Echoes exclusively with college students is always tons of fun. It's a dynamic quite different from other conventions, and though it isn't a sprawling, crowded event like Balticon, the students that put JohnCon together do a great job, bringing in vendors, putting on comedy shows, providing interesting panel discussions, and running anime, movies and games all night. There's lots of food available and, if you have the stamina of a college student, you can enjoy the convention 24 hours a day--it never closes until the convention ends on Sunday! 

https://www.facebook.com/johncon.jhu

JohnCon Webpage

Artwork in RPG's (part 5)

It's difficult putting together an RPG product and publishing it. Long hours are spent editing and formatting so the text is concise, readable, and presented logically. Graphical design options are limited, but recently I have begun to put in boxes that highlight certain areas, such as stat blocks for enemies and vehicles that characters will encounter. I've also been trying to work a lot of color into recent products—originally, when Solar Echoes began, I was pursuing a physical printing model for my business. I intended to print up lots of books and sell them in game stores and book stores. My first print run was very small, and I knew that printing with color was significantly more expensive than black and white, so I kept most pages down to only a couple colors. However, now that I've shifted my business model more towards digital sales (though I may swing back to physical if I decide to pursue a Kickstarter campaign to that end), I can potentially fill every page with color. As a result, I've been going back to a lot of the artwork I originally commissioned as black and white and have been taking it into Photoshop to touch up and colorize. It's a very long process, but the results are much more appealing. Every time I raise the level of a product, it sets a new standard for future products, so I'm very excited to continue making more products for everyone! Hopefully, you'll spread the word about Solar Echoes so sales will help make this possible. Thanks everyone!

Artwork in RPG's (part 4)

Artists have areas of specialty and preference. As an analogy, I play classical guitar, but if someone asks me to play rock, jazz, or blues, it just isn't my thing. I might be capable of it, but it's not my specialty; I don't enjoy it, and I'd sooner recommend someone else do it than try it myself. I've quickly learned this with artists—one person might be incredible with alien character design (John Fell, for example) while another might be more interested and skilled with logos, vehicles, or weapon design. Due to this variety of specialties, I had to hire several different artists to put together the Solar Echoes Player's Guide. It was difficult getting them all to come together to the same style and vision, but it was necessary because the art in the book needed to feel like it was from the same game universe. I worked with several artists independently at once, but shared their art so that they could get a better feeling for the style. Timing was important, too—the character artists weren't comfortable designing weapons, so I delayed the completion of some artwork so that my weapons artist (Jon Aguillon) could finish his work, which I could then share with the character artists. The character artists would reference and integrate Jon's designs into their own. One style description I often give to artists is that Solar Echoes should look sort of like “anime blended with realism.” I don't want heavy, dark realism, but I also don't want things to be too cartoon-like. It's a difficult blend to achieve, but now that I have enough artwork, I can share it with other artists and simply say, “do something similar to this.”

Artwork in RPG's (part 3)

As I mentioned yesterday, I've been working on putting together fresh artwork by combining the works of other artists. I'd like to highlight today a recent work that I've “Frankensteined,” using the work of Sarah Carter (Reln and Omul alien characters), Jay Darnell (Reln head), John Fell (Chiraktis character), and Jacob Sumrow (vehicle.) I've included an image below so you can see what the original artwork looked like from each, and then see how I colorized the black and white pieces and combined everything into a new piece of art. Originally, I had thought about using Sarah Carter's fun “road gang” artwork—it has a lot of character and I've used it before in other products. However, I wanted something newer, so I decided to use Jacob Sumrow's sleek gang-skimcar image. I'd intended to simply cut and paste Sarah's aliens into the car, but once I got started, I kept adding bits and pieces from other artists. I hope you enjoy the final result! This can be found in the car chase section of the upcoming demo-kit (which will have a different name...wait for it ;)

Artwork in RPG's (part 2)

Artwork is so expensive because it requires a lot of time to produce. I'm a decent artist myself, capable of making sketches that can suitably convey my ideas to others. But my artwork does not have that professional polish or look, even if I spend days on it. Thankfully, though, I have enough artistic ability that I can communicate really well with the artists I commission. When artists I'm working with send me their latest iteration, I can go into an art program like Photoshop and make adjustments, write in details, and send it back for them to polish and adapt the changes I made. It's a very collaborative process, and I especially appreciate artists that are receptive to my ideas and understand my vision. (See example of the process with the artist, John Fell, and how I guided the changes in his art for the final version of the Chiraktis) This art production process takes time, though, often weeks to months, so I decided last year to purchase Photoshop. Now I am able to get in on the process a bit more by myself, producing simple pieces of art or making derivative works of previous art I've commissioned. By being more involved in the art process, I can help speed up overall production speed and get finished products to you more quickly. One thing I've been doing more of recently is combining the art of various artists...

Artwork in RPG's (part 1)

The thing about artwork is that it is expensive. Very expensive. Corefun Studios is a very tiny company with an equally tiny budget—a budget that is funded exclusively by gamers. When you buy a Solar Echoes product, your money is going directly towards keeping the company running and towards the production of future projects like new missions, game supplements, and even 3D-printed miniatures for the game. The difficulty is that there are other very big gaming companies out there that I compete with (note that I'm competing with them—they're not competing with me...at least, not yet! ;) Companies like Wizards of the Coast (Dungeons and Dragons) and Paizo (Pathfinder) are extremely successful and have a huge following. This enables them to invest tons of money in their games. If you've ever looked inside one of their rulebooks, you'll find high-quality, full-color, professional artwork on almost every single page. These companies pump $50,000+ into the artwork for their books—they understand that gamers look at the rulebooks as artbooks, not just gamebooks. I'm trying my best to provide Solar Echoes fans with as much artwork as possible in every product, but I understand very well why art is so expensive. Check out an image of two pages from the upcoming demo-kit I've been putting together—I'm trying to keep it colorful and full of artwork.