When too much is a bad thing…
I am someone that frequently drowns my projects in foundations so heavy it sinks the ship while still in harbor. A good foundation isn’t bad, but my imagination envisions a product in 5 or 10 years’ time, and I tend to solve the problems of tomorrow as if they were the problems of today. Too much vision is probably better than too little, but historically it has really hindered both my projects and my career. This year I’ve promised myself to do whatever it takes to finish a project, and my project of choice is my tabletop role-playing game, Wistblade, where you and your friends run your own adventuring guild!
Progress, Progress, Progress
The last few months have seen consistent progress across all aspects of Wistblade, even though I haven’t updated this blog like I should have and haven’t had the time I would have liked to spend on the project. Here’s a summary of what’s new:
- I’ve got a one-page website mostly built
- I’ve got a logo
- I’ve got a theme and what I think is a sellable premise (Run your own adventuring guild!)
- Basic marketing imagery (need to find a pro to partner with, but still trying to find $$$ for that)
- Nearly finished character card designs (seen above!)
- Content for a ton of additional cards (something like 500+?)
- Play area designed
- 73 characters with completed stats
- 100+ characters with thumbnail art (no stats)
- Contents of the game and its box defined and budgeted
- 500+ wound tokens designed
- A quickstart document in the works
- Lots of research on where to go from here
Treading Water
But not everything has been peachy. I’ve been really struggling with streamlining art production. I have a legacy pipeline from another art project. It’s taken some time but I’ve finally determined that the pipeline is just too complicated for Wistblade’s current needs — specifically, my needs.
The Dream
Wistblade was originally envisioned as an endless sandbox with digital tools that would help anyone generate 10,000 NPCs quickly and beautifully, and then organize and database them on your computer. But as the project has evolved I’ve had to cut things that are beyond a realistic scope, and the digital side got cut back in January. Wistblade became a card game because cards offer a lot of similar databasing options as computers, with some advantages to boot.
I’m just Stubborn, yo
All year long, however, I’ve been hanging on to the idea of offering digital tools someday, and as such, have been hanging onto a legacy coloring pipeline that allows for a LOT of variety in colors as well as head and weapon replacements. But this amazing tool that I’ve built comes at the expense of being cumbersome and slow, especially for a one-man part-time art team.
“Nice” Isn’t Enough
Would it be nice to have every character in 5 versions with different skintones and heads to represent a variety of ethnicities? Yes. That would be nice. But keeping that around not only has been stressing me out, it’s just not the right fit for the project at this time. There’s just no need for it. I can’t print 5 versions of every card. The game is already clocking in at 1000+ cards. And while it would be nice to build a second business alongside Wistblade, the reality is it’s just not feasible. If Wistblade is successful I’m going to have my hands full just bringing it across the finish line, or building expansions for it.
Mature? Time-pressed? Or Wise? Hard to say.
I wish I could tell you that I know what I’m doing and have some deep advice to offer that will for sure change your life and give you success… but the reality is I’m just a guy trying to complete a project before the end of the year. This is my best guess on what needs to happen to keep things moving toward that goal.
Not a waste of time
And so I’ll be offering Wistblade character art in a single color way (instead of 8+ for people that might print at home). But… having walked this road and made 70+ characters in the other pipeline, I know it won’t be hard to prepare Wistblade character artwork so that if we get the opportunity ramp up the value we offer players, we can do that quickly and easily. The dream is still 10,000 NPCs for your fantasy world. The first boxed set of Wistblade may get a few hundred of those knocked out… and maybe some expansions may get it up to 1,000 … but if life offers me the chance to do more, I’ll do my best to get to you 10,000 unique NPCs with their own unique artwork, all made by real artists.