machai-umno

So, I figured with my second game coming out, I might as well start an official game development blog. More soon.

Introduction The main gist of this post is that we are not using the full narrative capability of video games. I believe we fail to take into account certain aspects that lie at the core of making artistic creations powerful and thus miss out on crucial strengths of the video game medium. To get to the core of these strengths, I will first have a look at other media (specifically film and literature), and then explore what lessons that can be applied to video games. What I end up with is a way of thinking that use basic elements of the film and literature experience, yet is quite different from these. It is very easy to look at other form of media, see what they do well, and then try and copy this. I think this is a big problem for video games. Whenever a game focusing on a narrative-oriented experience is made, it is instantly compared to other media and judged according to their strengths. For instance it is very common praise to call video games cinematic , or to concentrate critiq...

Rawr! The Otyughnomicon: Wyvern Spawn Otyugh has finally been released for sale. This terrible creature as well as the wyvern-spawn template are your to torment player characters with for the low, low price of $1.40. Wait what is that with this link it is only $1.00. That's crazy Mark! Obviously your fascination with all things otyugh has begun to rot your brain. What? There are pugwampis in there as well. That must be a pretty packed little PDF.

What’s next? The smaller 15mm scale Crusader. 5.5” (140mm) tall with FAR less parts, this model will satisfy a few aspects left wanting from its full-scale 28mm brother. This kit will be far simpler to build, no cutting, cussing, and a bit more survivable on the game table regardless of its smaller size. I had to go slightly larger than a true 15mm conversion on this kit due to the part thickness and casting concerns. I did not want any part thinner than 2mm. The model is roughly .5” taller than it should be, but as there are no windows or hatches to denote scale, this should not be an issue. I will keep this fact in mind when designing future releases and make sure no part is thinner than 4mm on the full scale 28mm models. The desire to make a model with fewer parts and a lower cost, required making the model a more fixed pose affair. Not wanting to have all the models look the same if you are fielding an armored lance or armored company, I decided to make a few customized parts...

The next entry in Sorcerer as Superhero covers 9th level powers. Things are getting a little less generic, but one pattern emerges from powers in the rule book. The most common bloodline ability is some sort of area of effect attack: breath weapon, elemental blast, hellfire or grasp of the dead. The attack deals 1d6 per sorcerer level and is usable once per day, twice per day at 17th level, and three times per day at 20th level. A Reflex save halves the damage. The breath weapon is the base power. Depending on the exact nature of the attack, each is modified. Since the elemental blast is a 20ft burst emanating from the sorcerer, and therefore something that might also strike nearby allies, the elemental blast acquires a benefit to offset this liability. Creatures that fail their save gain vulnerability to the energy type until the end of the sorcerer's next turn. Grasp of the dead gains two benefits because it deals slashing damage (which most creatures at that level will negate wi...

He is completing another customers order and will begin production on Monday. I will have him send the pre-orders in batches of ten or so to get them out to you ASAP. Any changes to any orders will need to be completed by Friday, May the 6 th 3:00 PST. After that any additions will have to be shipped separately from your main order. If you have a change to an existing order, you can contact me here. Please reference the name and PayPal email of your original order so that I can match up the changes. A note on armor upgrades: I received a price for the per-arm armor, and updated the website with this option. The caster has a minimum price, I have cut my margin on this item to try and keep it as affordable as possible. All Crusaders are shipped with the armor shown in the pics, if you purchased extra weapons they will not have the additional armor. There have been some questions about the armor upgrades and what fits what.. Each arm type has its own armor, Shooty weapons such...

I would like to thank my customers and the gaming community for a very successful pre-order. We filled 50 slots in far shorter time than I had imagined. I will be batching up the orders and sending them off to the caster tomorrow morning. Does this mean that you cannot place an order? No, we will continue to accept orders and all orders will be filled in the order they are received. The completion of pre-orders will allow me to give my caster a group order and receive a discount that I passed along to my customers in the pre-order pricing. Some of you have noticed that the instructions for the Leviathan Crusader have not been posted yet… I will be working on these and updating the link ASAP. They will be posted before the first kit has shipped. Once again, to all my current and future customers, THANK YOU for your business… I sincerely hope that you enjoy your purchase. All the best, Mark-