Independent game design from beyond the grave

News & Updates

Aug
03
Posted by Jared Sorensen at 12:00 am

Dirty Secrets of Game Design – SEM1120296
Learn five dirty secrets that the game industry doesn’t want you to know. Use them to make your games better. Designers Luke and Jared share their jaded, sometimes humorous view, of the world of game design. Jared will do this entire seminar in a character voice!
Thu 4pm – 1 Hr – Marriott Indiana C

Game Design Is Mind Control – SEM1120297
Games compel people to make irrational decisions that they would not otherwise undertake. Come and watch Luke and Jared make fools of themselves as they try to prove this point. We promise; we will control your minds!
Fri 2pm – 1 Hr – Marriott Indiana B

Action Castle – SEM1120298
Relive the days of yore when the command line was king! GO WEST and LIGHT LAMP in a live-action text adventure with a few hundred of your closest friends.
Fri 3pm – 1 Hr – Marriott Indiana E

InSpectres The Movie: Behind the Scenes – FLM1127763
We will be talking about the process of making InSpectres and showing a short sneak peak from the film. Yes, it’s real.
Fri 6pm – 1 Hr – Westin Capitol III

Return to Action Castle – SEM1120299
Return to a land of action, a land of castles, RETURN TO…ACTION CASTLE! Many years have passed since a new king was crowned…find out what happens next in this massively multiplayer live action text adventure game!
Sat 2PM – 1 Hr – Marriott Indiana E

Jul
07
Posted by Jared Sorensen at 12:00 pm

 

Heading off to Hartford tomorrow with Luke to attend Connecticon, an anime con we’ve attended for the past few years. We’ll be doing panels with the Front Row Crew guys Rym and Scott for Geek Nights, and I’ll throw down with some Parsely.

Jun
16
Posted by Jared Sorensen at 1:46 am


Three RPGs and two board games vie for hobby gaming’s most exclusive trophy

The committee of the Diana Jones Award is happy to announce the shortlist for its 2011 award. Boiled down from a longlist of 22 nominees, this year the list contains five candidates that in the opinion of the committee exemplify the very best that hobby-gaming has produced in the last twelve months. In alphabetical order, they are:

The winner of the 2011 Award will be announced on Wednesday 3rd August, at the annual Diana Jones Award and Freelancer Party in Indianapolis, the unofficial start of the Gen Con Indy convention.

 

Jun
09
Posted by Jared Sorensen at 6:22 pm

Darkpages was supposed to be out on June 6, 2006. That’s roughly 5 years ago to the day.

In honor of this spectacular failure (resulting from a strange blend of starry-eyed optimism and extreme mental distress), here’s links to all nine of the game’s superhero concepts and their histories.

The Vigilante

The Vampire

The Outsider

The Ghost

The Freak

The Elemental

The Construct

The Beast

The Adept

 

Jun
09
Posted by Jared Sorensen at 3:05 pm

In 1995 I “published” my first game-related material online. From 1997-2001 I created and distributed gaming material on the web via Memento Mori Theatricks. But Summer 2001 was a milestone: I published SCHISM, a setting sourcebook/supplement for Ron Edward’s Sorcerer, a seminal RPG.

I did not know what I was doing and it shows.

Still, I think there’s some good stuff in there and it’s got some classic Sorensen-style game design decisions within its scant pages. The Sci-Fi Channel (now SyFy) used to have a magazine and they did a review of the game and gave it an A-. Not bad.

Anyway, long story short. 10 years is a long fucking time to be doing this. So as a “thank you” to my fans and supporters, I’m doing this

[ Download SCHISM PDF — 756K ]

Mar
25
Posted by Jared Sorensen at 11:50 am

It’s official! Sorensen/Crane will be in Denmark this April as guests at Fastaval.

We’re also planning to visit Gothenberg and Stockholm so let us know if you want us to stop by your friendly neighborhood game store!