Development of this game felt like a fever dream. It came and went, start to finish, in two months. But I cannibalized elements for this from other games that I had been working on for several months. It was both a lengthy and brief process.
Let’s talk about it.
This is my first narrative-ish game
I’ve been wanting to get into more narrative and role play style games for a while, and this is my first step into onto the fields of storytellin’ games. I’m proud of it.
I had to make this game less game-y
I’ve only had experience designing games with strict mechanics, such as Color Space and Nine Muses — games with systems that interact and puzzles to solve, with a defined end and winner. This is not one of those games. There is no crowned champion in Thought Complex. The game ends when players want it to end. And it works. I think it does, at least.
During playtests the gentle mechanism that guides you and steers thoughtful conversation flowed nicely and didn’t feel restrictive. At the same time, Thought Complex sometimes gives you topics and questions that might be difficult to talk about, and pushes you to make the decision to open up about these things.
My number one design goal for this game was to give you ways to push the conversation in directions that are unexpected and personal.
Behold my art!
I experimented with a lot of styles when making the art for Thought Complex, and through this I developed a style that still nods to the old scifi movie posters, book covers, and comics that I consumed as a wee lad. Though, I will say that the style is more impressionistic than such media. This is contrasted with a more modern font style, made to emulate print outs from a portable label maker.
I’m proud of what I did here. This makes me feel like I’ve grown substantially as an artist. I’m excited to share it!
Check out a sample of this in my bluesky post below:
The game is complete!
The game has been recently delievered to my doorstep from Launch Tabletop. I’m going to write up another design journal entry to show off the physical look of the game and my experience with Launch Tabletop as a manufacturer. (Spoiler! The game looks fantastic. I love how it turned out!)
That’s all for now, until next time!
Mutant Pizza 