Thursday 28 August 2008 at 11:44 pm
So here’s the deal: you all seemed to really like Ruckingenur, but there weren’t enough levels, and that’s a problem. A lot of you have suggested that I release a level editor but, as it currently stands, I don’t think that’s going to happen any time soon. Why? Because almost all of the effort that went into the game was designing, drawing, and implementing the levels – that’s why there are only four. So, in what it would take someone to make a set of decent levels, you could just as easily make a game from scratch. A new game. A better game! So, if anyone is inspired by Ruckingenur, I encourage you to create your own engineering game; we sure as hell could use some more. Be sure to send me a link to anything you make!
In the mean time, I’ll start working on the next installment of Ruckingenur. With more levels!
Wednesday 27 August 2008 at 01:09 am
Thank you to everyone who came here from Hackaday – in the past two days, I’ve had over 3000 downloads of Ruckingenur II, along with about a thousand combined downloads of my other games. Your comments have bolstered my spirits and my faith in the notion of Games for Engineers, a niche that I’m happy to serve. I just started a new job, so my life is a little hectic at the moment, but you can most definitely look forward to more Ruckingenur in the near future. While I may be the one making these games, they’re also about you: the people who play them.
If you want to be alerted to new games and products from Zachtronics Industries (which includes more Ruckingenur!), visit this Google Groups page and join the group. You’ll only receive emails on it from me, and only when I release important things that you might care about. Plus, you can unsubscribe whenever you want. It couldn’t be simpler!
If you have any feedback to send my way, such as ideas for new things you’d like to see, feel free to post comments on the relevant page or email me directly at zachbarth@gmail.com. I try to read all comments and respond to most emails, so go ahead and let me know what you’re thinking!
Thanks again, and have fun!
Friday 15 August 2008 at 01:45 am
My new office is pretty boring and empty, aside from the five computers and their accessories scattered around. Thinking about decorations, it occurred to me that I had just about all the parts I needed to build my very own Electro-Sapper from Team Fortress 2!
It didn’t occur to me until after I started that I didn’t have anything to make the case out of, so I ended up using some leftover foam-core from WWA!, acrylic paint, and crystal clear spray enamel. I was able to print out a new scale for the meter using my laser printer, but couldn’t seem to make it print out an “ELECTRO-SAPPER” label that didn’t look awful. I ended up stenciling the text and the white details on, but didn’t have much more luck with that. As it turned out, I was also out of the components I needed to make a small noise generator to twitch the meter, so I ended up soldering an old battery powered FM radio into the circuit, which does a pretty good job of making static noises and making the meter move.
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Monday 04 August 2008 at 2:25 pm
I playtested my new tabletop game, World War Awesome!, last night. It wasn’t very satisfying.
It all came together into a fairly complicated and bulky game, which I think would have been okay if playing it resembled having fun. The Superpanzers, the only mechanic that I really liked in the game (and happened to be the only real major gimmick of the game), seemed to be one of the major problems. As I’m currently trying to get ready for work (I start next week), I don’t think I’ll be fixing World War Awesome! any time soon. Which, quite honestly, is perfectly fine by me.
In the meantime, here are the resources I used for the playtest.
Latest Version of the Rules
Frequency Board
Custom Dice Stickers
American Token Sheet
American Tank Board
American Tank Card
Soviet Token Sheet
Soviet Tank Board
Soviet Tank Card
