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Interviews: Ask Steve Jackson About Designing Games
Since starting his own company in 1980, Steve Jackson, founder and editor-in-chief of Steve Jackson Games, has created a number of hits, starting with Car Wars . . . followed shortly by Illuminati, and later by GURPS, the "Generic Universal Roleplaying System." In 1983, he was elected to the Adventure Gaming Hall of Fame - the youngest person ever so honored. He has personally won 11 Origins Awards. In the early 90's, Steve got international press due to the Secret Service's invasion of his office. The EFF helped make it possible for SJ Games to bring suit against the Secret Service and the U.S. government and win more than $50,000 in damages. His Ogre kickstarter a couple of years ago brought in close to a million dollars. His current hits are Munchkin, a very silly card game about killing monsters and taking their stuff, and Zombie Dice, in which you eat brains and try not to get shotgunned. His current projects include a variety of Munchkin follow-ups, and the continuing quest to get his games translated into digital form. Steve has agreed to put down the dice and answer any questions you may have. As usual, ask as many as you'd like, but please, one per post.
My son has "like 3000" ideas for new munchkin cards. Any advice for a budding young game designer about getting started/self-publishing/submitting ideas to existing publishers like SJG?
Would you ever consider creating a truly unique car wars video game as a 3D, first person shooter, MMO, RPG?
I've thinking something with the open world and economy of Eve, but with the same kind of game play as GTA5, in a persistant MMO world, but using cars and trucks, in a post-apocalyptic world, where the players can live out their Max Mad fantasies, but still have to deal with the complexities of designing and building their cars with the flexibility that that board game had.
I've been waiting my entire life since childhood to see a truly epic car wars game, and have been continuously disappointed. Only the original apple game inspired me, but with today's tech, I think it's now achievable.
When I was young, I played games from SJG, TSR, Palladium, R. Talsorian, ICE, FASA, and a bunch of one-off studios I can't remember now. Some of the systems worked really well, some required some tweaking, and others were essentially unplayable. But it was easy to see links between systems. Despite the occasional legal threats, there seemed to be a lot of borrowing each other's ideas. Palladium clearly was influenced by TSR (and I think they've admitted that the first version of their rules was essentially heavily modified D&D rules), and R. Talsorian's old D10/D6-based system seemed to have some influences from FASA.
When you're designing a game, what external influences help shape the game? How far can you adopt someone else's ideas before you have to start worrying about lawyers getting involved, and has that changed as the pen & paper RPG has waned in popularity?
You can never go home again... but I guess you can shop there.
While cleaning out my closet a few weeks ago, I came across a stack of Metagaming micro games. I played these with friends from high school over thirty years ago, and we really loved them (they actually got more playtime in our gaming group than some of the larger Avalon Hill titles of the time). While the well-known Ogre and GEV were in there, I still have some old lesser known titles like WarpWar, Invasion of the Air Eaters, Sticks and Stones, and Holy War.
Have you considered re-releasing some of the better titles from the old Metagaming catalog?
"Can't you see that everyone is buying station wagons?"
As visible in your official company FAQ, you had run a ISP as well as other online services (I seem to recall there having been some manner of MOO/MUSH service for running online games), well in advance of most other RPG publishers. Furthermore, you run your own digital store (e23) rather than using through the DriveThruStuff platform used by the rest of the tabletop industry, and made PDF copies of your books available for purchase before the other "major" industry players (Fantasy Flight, Pinnacle, WhiteWolf, and WotC).
How much of this decision was strategic—based on a firm belief this was "The Way of the Future"—and how much was it exploratory / risk-taking? In hindsight, what decisions for your online presence would you have made differently?
Do you like Japanese imports?
My boys and I love playing Munchkin. Recently, my oldest got Munchkin Adventure Time. Being big fans of both, we loved playing it. This led me to wonder: Assuming you could get licensing for any ONE franchise (e.g. Star Wars, BTTF, LOTR, Harry Potter, etc), which would you make into a Munchkin game?
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
I'm a 50 year old old school gamer.
I've met you several times over the years, but you almost certainly don't remember me, including playing xbugs with you at a small game convention in Bellevue. and years ago in Austin. Long time GURPS fan, long time games fan.
You have a game called "Awful green things from outer space" that I loved as a teen. I've been thinking about it off and on for years, and figured out how to upgrade it into a slightly different game while using the same basic look and feel and mostly similar game mechanics..
How does one go about doing that? Do I just ask permission? Pay a licensing fee? or just make the game so different it doesn't resemble the original at all (which is least preferred) I'd rather just make a prototype,, give it to you and _maybe_ make a little money off it. To tell the truth, I'm not particularly greedy, and I could whip out the rules and basics over the weekend, The hard part is what YOU do... making all the bits, marketing, packaging, and distributing. All I'd contribute is the upgrade idea.
You probably get people all the time with stars in their eyes not understanding the business side of things.who get weird and upset and think the idea is the only work that goes into all this. Me, I just want to give you the idea and see it on a shelf at some point.(I wouldn't turn money down, mind you, it's just not my focus)
Steve, I read that you consider yourself a "small-l libertarian." These days a lot of libertarians have come to oppose copyright law, or else favor severe reforms for it. As a publisher, game designer, and libertarian, how do you feel about the subject, and do you feel that these various roles are in tension with each other?
On a related note, in junior high school I bought GURPS Cyberpunk from a friend, only to later find out that that friend had shoplifted it from a bookstore. I've always regretted that. Do I owe you guys some money?
Secession is the right of all sentient beings.
I am a game designer myself (sounds corny but hey, I design my own game so I must be a game designer, right? right?), I found that there's a certain limitation for game design tools. I am not talking about game engines here, nor art creation software, which the world has seen plenty, but dedicated software which help you transform your ideas into structured documentation.
I'm currently using FreeMind to describe and detail all aspects of my game, and work directly with a MySQL database to lay out (architect) data holding and manipulation parts (tables, scripts, etc). But FreeMind starts showing its limits (very difficult to build a skill forest in it) and MySQL, albeit capable, lacks certain features (e.g. versioning tree).
My question is: which software tools would you recommend for laying out the foundation of the game, from the main idea to game mechanics, formulas, skill trees, level advancement, etc., including but not limited to presentations and BRDs, in case I decide to sell my design to a company which has the resources to produce the game itself?
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
In Car Wars it was impossible to kill yourself with a .45 magnum pistol. (People had 3 HP, 1 damage injured, 2 made the character unconscious. A heavy pistol did 2 damage so shooting yourself with it made you unconscious) Unforeseen bizarre results often appear in game play- what was your favorite?
"Seven Deadly Sins? I thought it was a to-do list!"