Since January 2000, we’ve put up one free print-and-play game every month – 10 years of games, for a total of 120 games. 10 years of free games is an accomplishment I’m very proud of. It’s also a nice stopping point. The December 2009 Game of the Month will be the last regular game update for the foreseeable future.
However, it’s not the end of regular updates at Invisible City Productions. I’m working on three new projects:
1) I’m writing a book. The working title is “The Philosophy of Game Design”. My goal is to explain my approach to game design through metaphysical, epistemological, and ontological analysis and deconstruction of commonage components and popular games. Additionally, I want to outline and explore the life cycle of a game from concept to prototype to publication.
How does this relate to Invisible City? I plan to regularly update (weekly?) the Invisible city blog with ideas and excerpts from the book. I hope that y’all will read what I write and offer comments and feedback on it.
2) I’m pitching my games to publishers. As you probably know, one of my games (The Isle of Doctor Necreaux) was licensed and published by Alderac Entertainment Group, and they’ve licensed a second game (Pressure Matrix) that has not been released yet. I’d like to get more games licensed and published. In fact, I’ve set a new goal for myself. I’d like to get 10 games licensed and published. I’m redirecting a lot of the time and energy that I used to put into the Game of the Month into refining, play testing, and “marketing” my games to publishers.
3) I’m co-launching The Inevitable Project. Long-time followers of Invisible City will recognize the name Jeremy Bushnell. 20 years ago, Jeremy invented a wonderful, terrible, awesome, dystopian game called Inevitable. We worked together on it for about two years, then went our separate ways. Intermittently, we’d independently dust off our Inevitable sets and share the game with out local friends, but the game never reached a very large audience.
Until now.
We’ve created http://inevitablethegame.com. There, you can learn about what Inevitable is and talk to Jeremy, me, and other Inevitable fans about Inevitable. Once the site officially launches, we’ll open a store where you can download a free print-and-play demo version of Inevitable, purchase a full print-and-play core version of Inevitable, and even upgrade to a commercially printed version of Inevitable! We’ll have other fun gaming related stuff on the site too.
So, that’s what’s up.
- The Game of the Month is going on indefinite hiatus.
- I’m going to update the main Invisible City page with ideas from my book-in-progress on games and game design.
- If all goes well, more of my games will be licensed and published.
- Jeremy and I are releasing a funny game about a future not much bleaker than our own at inevitablethegame.com
Questions? Comments? Ideas? All of these are welcome. I look forward to hearing from you.
Share and Enjoy!
Jonathan L.
PS: If you or someone you know has a print-and-play game you’d like to see featured on Invisible City, please let me know. Perhaps we can work something out?
— Jonathan A Leistiko :: thought
Invisible City Productions is a collective of game designers, writers, and artists who provide this as a space for the creators of secret media to come together and touch antennae.
I’ve enjoyed reading about your games in the short time that I’ve been around them. Congratulations on 10 years, that’s astounding. I look forward to playing some of your published works. Best,
— Jeremiah Lee Jan 8, 09:37 AM #Jeremiah
Kind of funny: I misread the headline as “A Millstone and New Projects. . . .”
— Dingus Jan 8, 09:36 PM #I’ve learned a lot from seeing you bring in extreme variations on mechanics – good luck with your book and with the Inevitable project.
— T. Derscheid Jan 12, 01:16 AM #