Announcements and Game Designer Advice

          As promised, RocketFans, I will be making some brief announcements about our upcoming projects.

          As you already know, the March offering in our Ships of the Black Desert line is the Vojagi Orbiter.  Coming up in April we will be continuing with both the Black Desert line and our Ships of the Galaxy. In addition, I will also be releasing a new excerpt from the Core Book on Robots in the Black Desert, which will coincide with my article in the next D6 Magazine.  So April is going to be a big month for us.

           As if this weren't enough, I might be doing a collaboration with the folks at Wicked North Games on their newest offering, a Steampunk SF game called Westward.  I'm not sure what that will be specifically just yet, so stay tuned for more updates on that.

           It gets better: Sean Fannon, the editor of DriveThruRPG's and RPGNow's newsletter, had agreed to publish our Spacecraft Spotlight series bi-monthly!  In addition to the extra exposure, which I am enormously thankful for, but I will also be getting an bonus in Product Promotion Points for use in on-sight advertising.  I'm excited; all of these side projects go to help get our brand out there and get even more people interested in The Black Desert and Blue Max Studios.

           Aspiring game designers please take note: I cannot stress enough how important all of these kinds of projects are to getting much needed exposure and helping you hone your craft.   It can literally mean the difference between actually making it or not.

           It's like this: If all I did was work on the Black Desert core book, then all I'd be is some guy working on a game.  No matter how many forums I posted on, or how many blog posts I made, I'd still just be some guy working on a game.  Considering how much work is involved, and how little reward I'd get until the game was actually done, odds are good that I would never finish.  If by some miracle I did finish the game, few people would know about it and less would be willing to take a chance and spend money on something from an unknown that has no prior publishing experience.  I have a sinking feeling that many aspirants try this route, and never make it to sale.

           I could be wrong; all I know is that I would never have made it.  Instead of going that route, I obviously tried a different approach.  I started with deckplans, because that's what I draw when I'm bored anyway, and I know how.  I didn't worry about a potential market - it's the Internet, and I knew someone in the world is going to be into what I'm into.  So I just made rockets and wrote what I would like to see in a gaming product.  Then I did it again, on a regular schedule, and never, ever, missed an announced deadline.  So now when I'm on forums and blogging about Black Desert, I'm not just some guy; I'm a publisher with a body of work, awesome reviews, experience in the field, a reputation for not letting fans down when new products are announced, and I have a full game in development.

          See the difference?

          I'll stop preaching now, RocketFans; I'll see you tomorrow with more on our Missile Craft.