Words With Friends

I’m not done with writing. A bold claim, coming from the guy who hasn’t touched his new novel in over five months. On the contrary, my writing partner Aaron and I are still puttering away on our TV show. Someday we will shoot the pilot. Three other WIPs sit in my Drive, festering. Words are not done with me. My creative passion has not waned. For now, I’m focused on a different kind of storytelling.

In Germany, board game publishers credit their game designers as Authors. It’s a beautiful word choice, invoking a high, artful tradition and implying more intimate creative work than ‘Designer’. An author knows the hearts of their characters and the pulse of their plot, while a designer knows how a given output will engage a target audience.

I digress. Either title is fine by me, truly.

For several years I’ve tried to adapt improv warm-up exercises into party games. Warm-ups are simple and thrilling. Laughs come fast and easy. Recently, a few games (seemingly) inspired by improv have sold well in the party game market. Of particular note, The Mind is essentially a gamified version of improv’s classic counting game. I saw this success and determined that I, a seasoned gamer with a brown belt in improv comedy, could easily adapt such a game.

Turns out creating a simple party game ain’t easy. Fortunately, most of my attempts died in my brain. It’s easy enough to run thought experiments and conclude that a party game idea is bunk. For example, I once spent a few weeks trying to invent an adaptation for the improv warm-up ‘Busted Tees’, where you quickly caption imagined t-shirt graphics. I dreamed up clip art magnets for quick design combos. It was a non-starter. None of the adaptations could match the warm-up’s immediacy.

So, this latest creative turn isn’t a pivot. Now is simply the first time I have built a game worth sharing.

The game is called REDACTED and is now under contract with Skybound Entertainment! I’m thrilled to have found a publisher with the reach and vision to carry REDACTED to market. Hopefully the game will be published by REDACTED, 202X.

I’ll post again soon with a proper designer diary. This process has been fulfilling and lovely. Sometimes, inspiring someone else’s words in person is an equal authorship to penning thousands alone.