These are some notes on secondary game design stuff I've done. (My primary works are listed on my Game Design page.)
Incredible Idiots in Space - This was going to be a comedy sci-fi adventure game for the Sony Playstation, about a couple of bumbling Galaxy Patrol officers who save the universe from hordes of mind-controlling slugs. Unfortunately, after 2 years of development work, and just when the game was really starting to take shape, the production was canceled. Of course, this happens all the time in the world of multimedia and computer game development, but even so, it's a drag when it happens to a project you've devoted a lot of time and energy to. I was the Game Designer on the project, and I finished writing the Detailed Game Design Document just a couple of months before they pulled the plug. Too bad it'll never be implemented.
Undeveloped computer game proposals - While at Magnet, after completing Icebreaker, I was part of a brainstorming team charged with generating proposals for new game projects. As such, I wrote quite a number of game proposals. Unfortunately, since Magnet's game division was ultimately shut down, none of those proposals went anywhere. But I did cook up some neat ideas and also got a lot of practice at writing game proposals.
Experimental 3DO software - After the 3DO game system went belly up, I acquired the 3DO development equipment I had used at Magent to develop Icebreaker, which I now use for video game prototyping. Of course, like Icebreaker 2, you can't try any of this stuff out (except at my house) until and unless I then port it to another platform, but it's still a useful tool for me.
Early computer game efforts - The very first games I created were computer games, specifically text adventure games. I played the classic Colossal Cave adventure game on a mainframe at NASA in 1976 and was instantly obsessed with them. In the late seventies, my dad built an early home computer from a kit (the SouthWest Technical Products 6800 computer), and I began learning to program in Basic. I wrote a series of text adventures, of increasing quality both in terms of the software and the gameplay, ranging from the very, very bad to the bad. The only traces of these games that remain at this point are source code printouts I have of the last couple I did, during my final year of high school (1980-81), which I'd called "Gefooz" and "Muffins". Perhaps I'll port them to an up-to-date machine some day, just for yucks.
Interactive Literature games, also known as Live Action Role Playing (LARP) games, generally consume a full weekend and involve 30 to 80 players. They're kind of like the "Murder Mystery Dinner Party" things, but on a larger scale. I've been involved in some way with over 50 of these things to date; listed below are the ones that I was strongly involved in during the creation process. (These games are typically written by a team of several people.)
Reklone 1 (1983) - Aliens converge on a Sci-fi con; a sillier, more tongue in check version of Rekon-1, the first Interactive Literature game, run in Boston 6 months earlier. The second Interactive Literature game ever written.
Reklone 2 (1984) - First alien contact: 1 year later (a sequel to Reklone 1)
Reklone 3 (1985) - Time Travelers from throughout the past and the future converge on the present to repair a hole in the space/time continuum (rerun as "The Road to the Future" in 1986 and 1987)
Reklone X (1986) (Reklones 1 & 2 combined, improved, and expanded)
Reklone 4: Botany Bay (1987) - odd adventures on a prison colony where the natives have patterned their lives after 60's sitcoms they've seen by watching Earth's old TV transmissions
The Arabian Nights (1988) - For this game, I was involved only in the creation of small self contained adventures starting in and dealing with the hammam (public baths)
Takeover: The Game of Corporate Raiders (1989) - CEOs from giant corporations wheel and deal and attempt hostile takeovers, complete with a simulation of the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange
Jake's Saloon (written in 1993, not yet run) - An assortment of strange characters in a bar out in the middle of nowhere
