Entropy City: Making a Wargame

Edit: Wall of text incoming..

s 2024 comes to and end I’ve not been working on this game for 2.5 years and that of course doesn’t include the years of putting off and/or brainstorming prior to that.  And as much as this project blog may include a lot of the thoughts and work that’s gone into it this project still isn’t covering everything the thing I haven’t spoken on as much is my process and whether I’ve been enjoying the experience, would I still recommend it after all this time?

When I first started this project blog it was to prepare for a guest role on the Weekender XLBS an honour I still can’t believe I received and at that stage the process was extremely early in development it was largely theoretical I had ideas of how I wanted the game to work, I knew I wanted but how to achieve it was missing with the exception of the core elements, I hadn’t even tried my own solo testing if I’m remembering correctly (I could be mistaken).

Very very early in the process I knew that development was far more difficult than ANY of us truly understand but it wasn’t until at least 12 months later than I realised just how far in the deep end I had jumped in, now personally I don’t regret that because it’s the passion I had and the project I wanted to create but if you were tempted to try something I think starting smaller with some custom scenarios and altering a game to achieve something might be a smarter development process. A smaller board game or card game will help you develop skills you will want. Something to test and play to learn how that process can work on a small scale before moving into a larger one.

I always knew this was going to take a while because I just had never do E anything like it before but I always wanted to do my project with the vision I had in mind. I wanted a game where the motorbikes FELT like motorbikes, I wanted to use something other than d6s and I didn’t want to just steal a ruleset and make it my own but I wanted to develop a game that truly felt like it was mine, something I could genuinely look people in the eye and say “yes this is mine”. And I can say proudly that I’ve achieved that so far. It might not be finished and I might still have a LOT of play testing to do but what I have right now is completely my own. I’ve found inspirations but everything I’ve developed had been given my rework to work for my game. For me that was the important part.

In this coming year my goal is to reach a point where the balance for all 4 factions feel right and accurate enough that A character’s with individual stats can be implemented, skills can be tested in game and I have started genuinely looking at the points cost for the work I’ve done.

I’d like to have finished final faction logos created that are mine to use and not just placeholder materials to inspire. Will I achieve this? Who knows hope you will enjoy finding out.

First and foremost yes there is an Entropy City Facebook page, yes it’s controlled by me HOWEVER it’s a placeholder to ensure I didn’t lose it to someone stealing it away. There’s also a blue sky account and an Instagram as well.

I’ve created a Facebook group around 12 months ago where I am also sharing updates but I am trying not to just flood it with updates all of the time. Ideally I’d love for it to become the official group later when the game is complete and those people that joined early have that feeling of having been there from the start. This of course is a project I am always trying to keep updated as well. Ut the first place at least at this point for all updates remains the Getting Tables discord channel, there’s a private channel for our supporters. This isn’t because this is a Getting Tables product it’s mine however I wanted to share it with them first. That will eventually change as I feel I am approaching a complete state where marketing needs to begin but I don’t want to count my chickens a before they hatch.

And as always Id love to hear from you if you have questions or comments just reach out.