Tuesday, October 5, 2010

I'm on the inside and I'm looking out...

Gee, it's gotten dusty around here. Well, folks, I know it's been a while. Things got pretty busy round these parts, but it's all calmed down now. Since it's been so long, I decided I'm not going to stick to the old schedule but do something new. I asked what kind of blog I should do today and Ashy told me I should do one of an insider's perspective. A fan who received a huge honor by being allowed to actually help build up this game.





Well, let's get things started. I know I've told this story before, but I'm going to tell it again here because it's relevant to the blog. How did I get started in Untold? Well, my wife and I were at Mobicon two years ago. We were already fans of the Wandering Men and we made a bee line to their booth on the first day to say hi and catch up. Then we learned they were doing demo's a new RPG game. Jennifer ofcourse wanted to play, but I had made plans to compete in an L5R Kotei being held at the same time. Guess who won? Yeah...like I had a choice...





Anyways, so we demo'd the game and survived having Ashy as our GM. We liked it so much (Jennifer especially since she hated any other RPG I tried to introduce her to), that we came back and spent the entire next day demoing the game again with Raulston (Captain Blood on the forums), who was a great GM, if slightly intimidating...We loved the game. We bought t-shirts, and went home to share the game with everyone we knew.





It wasn't a week later that I pitched Ashy an idea about character, a L'na Twilight, with the body of a black tiger and bony spikes on his back. Ashy told me that I agreed to through on a scorpion tail, and write up a short backstory for him, then Ashy would find me the artwork. Three months later, sure enough, I had the initial sketches for Shadow, Lost Child of Ai. It was awesome.



It's been over a year since then, and what's it like now? Well, since then I have written dozens ecologies, short stories, and the like. From a purely technical standpoint, it's a good deal of work, including research, editing, and planning. What I do for Untold isn't just for me, but the entire Untold community, and I want to make sure that anything of mine that gets published the best work I can do. And I am really proud of the work I do. I love Shadow, and every creature I write an ecology for and every character that becomes of a Hebdomadal Persona.



From a personal standpoint, it's a real privilege. As both a fan and a developer, I can have fun and play the game, sharing cool combos and making up excellent stories. But as someone who contributes and helps build this awesome world, I can listen to what other fans are saying and try to incorporate what they want into Untold. The Wandering Men pride themselves on listening to their fans, but they are only four guys. They rely on fans like me, and the fan base as a whole, to come to them and tell them what we want.



So, what's new for someone like me? Besides doing ecologies, and the like, I am currently working on a great development team to help build up various areas of Apoc Earth! It really is a great team, with not only me, but MegaMagicMonkey, LumberKlik, and Melissa on there as well. And we really hope you enjoy what we have in store for Untold.



Well, that's it for this week. I know it's short. Next week, we're going to tackle an interesting topic that Untold has a unique solution for: What happens when a GM wants to be a Player and vice versa?

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