Tue, 30 June 2009  In this design episode, I talk to John Stavropoulos and Jim Sullivan of the Imagination Sweatshop (ISS) and NerdNYC about their new playstormed gamein-a-jiffy for JiffyCon Greenfield June 09, MonkeyDome. MonkeyDome was a vast collaboration including Jim, John, Emily Care Boss (of Black and Green Games), Jason Keeley, Epidiah Ravachol,
and Terry Romero. It's a game where you see-saw between incredibly grim
and really wacky moments in a post-apocalyptic nightmare, and it's
available for free on the ISS website.WARNING: The Independent Insurgency is an "explicit" podcast. This episode is 56.2 MB big and 1:01:20 long. 00:59: I interviewed Eppy in the last episode about playstorming and MonkeyDome came up 01:17: What's the game about? 02:46: The game was designed in (almost less than) a week! 08:11: The difference between funny and zany. 10:22: Playable as an ongoing game? 12:06: The mechanics 19:52: What it means to learn a lesson 21:02: Endgame 25:14: The GameBlaster's Tools: The Fuel and the Fire 26:03: World creation and what the characters do in the game 29:02: Other games you came up with? 30:20: Jim mentions a game idea that's a lot like Jason Morningstar's Fiasco (which he talked about on Canon Puncture #66) 31:20: Who did you steal from? 32:07: John is always inspired by Eppy's game Dread 34:00: What had to be dropped that you liked? 34:44: The hardest thing to fix 35:24: Playtesting 36:43: Trial and Terror is the prior game-in-a-Jiffy for JiffyCon game 38:13: Division of labor and editing 43:06: The ISS used a site called A.nnotate which lets you upload a fully-laid-out document that others browse through and comment on 44:06: What the art (by Scott LeMien and John) is used for 47:11: Luke Crane loves John's flow chart 48:05: Why this form factor? 48:41: Marketing 50:21: Branding and credit 51:24: Defining success 53:46: Selling the game 56:58: The next JiffyCon may be paired with MaulCon The closing song is Skins Don't Cry by The Hub City Stompers Logo courtesy of Daniel Solis: http://danielsolis.com/ Comments[5] |
Nice follow up to the last "eppy"sode. I find playstorming fascinating and want to try it, formally. (Though frankly, it's something I have already done several times informally with my children.) I recorded my 9 year old the other day explaining to me the rules of a game he made up. It's pretty funny.
Urgh. I meant "worLd gone mad." Forgot that damn L.
BTW, I'm halfway through reading Monkeydome (at work, mind you) and other than the jocular reference to Thunderdome I have no idea where the title came from. Why Monkey as opposed to some other kind of dome? Are monkeys just inherently that much funnier than other things?
BTW, I'm halfway through reading Monkeydome (at work, mind you) and other than the jocular reference to Thunderdome I have no idea where the title came from. Why Monkey as opposed to some other kind of dome? Are monkeys just inherently that much funnier than other things?
I'm sworn to secrecy, but I will say the key lies both in what we call the dice and the other major actor mentioned in the book. (Unfortunately, it's not a reference to a post-apocalyptic movie, but the lyrical beauty of the title it gave us was too compelling for us to get hung up on the particulars.)
posted by: Eppy on Wed, 7/8 08:26 PM EDT
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