This week, Kristian and Tracy are joined by the amazing Karl Keesler. Karl is a graphic designer by trade, and has been the designer for several PInnacle Entertainment books for Savage Worlds, including Pinebox Middle School, Lost Colony, Holler, Deadlands, the companions and many more. He also created the trade dress for Han Cluster, and for Kristian and Jen's upcoming Campaign Cartomancy. We talk to Karl about the purpose and importance of creating a cohesive look for your product, how to approach and communicate with a graphic designer, and a few other tricks and tidbits.

Join our discord!: https://discord.gg/Bc9dvuzZYJ
The Han Cluster® Role Playing Game Website: https://hancluster.com [https://hancluster.com/]
Immaterial Plane: https://immaterialplane.com/

Problem #34: Graphic Design

This week, Darrell Hayhurst joins Kristian and Tracy once again, this time to talk about creating archetypes for your setting. Who are the characters who inhabit and accomplish things in your setting? How do they do it? And why? Archetypes can jumpstart a player's immersion into your world, and doing it well takes a number of sometimes conflicting factors into account.

Join our discord!: https://discord.gg/Bc9dvuzZYJ
The Han Cluster® Role Playing Game Website: https://hancluster.com [https://hancluster.com/]
Immaterial Plane: https://immaterialplane.com/

Problem #33: Creating Archetypes

Kristian and Tracy are joined by Darrell Hayhurst in what will be two sister episodes. This week we talk about tailoring your rules to your setting. How to make them work together, compliment each other, and reinforce the intent and theme of the game. The rules of the setting can make a GMs life easier, while also immersing players into a particular world simply by interacting with what the rules of the world encourage them to do. Most of all, we talk about how to make them fun. Next week we'll continue the discussion as we explore the creation of archetypes.

Join our discord!: https://discord.gg/Bc9dvuzZYJ
The Han Cluster® Role Playing Game Website: https://hancluster.com [https://hancluster.com/]
Immaterial Plane: https://immaterialplane.com/

Problem #32: The Rules of the Setting

Tracy and Kristian tackle the daunting problem of getting your project to the finish line. Executing that last 10% is many ways harder than the first 90%, and this is just as true in game production as it is in project management or engineering. After discussing the problem in depth, Tracy and Kristian have some valuable tips you can employ that can help make that final 10% easier.

Join our discord!: https://discord.gg/Bc9dvuzZYJ
The Han Cluster® Role Playing Game Website: https://hancluster.com [https://hancluster.com/]
Immaterial Plane: https://immaterialplane.com/

Problem #31: The Final 10%

This week Kristian takes center stage as he and Tracy talk about creating a web presence for your brand. Tracy admits all her failings in this regard, and Kristian gets on his soapbox about not using social media as your company's primary residence on the web. We offer some tips and action items to provide focus to your efforts and maybe make this difficult endeavor a TAD less daunting... but no promises!

Problem #30: Caught in a Web

This week, Kristian an Tracy follow on from last episode and talk about playtesting your game. When do you start? What does "fail faster" mean? What is most and least valuable about the process, when is it best to participate yourself, and when should you just shut up and watch? Everyone does it differently, but this is a look at the subject with no assumptions and fresh eyes as we try to justify our answers with real-world experience.

Problem #29: Playtesting

This week, Kristian and Tracy discuss the sometimes (but not always) contradictory goals of creating a game that we think will sell, versus creating the game we want to play. It's a nuanced topic and in our weird industry of creating "experiences," trying to find a balance between these two goals sometimes leads to difficult and risky decisions.

The Han Cluster PreOrder Store! - https://han-cluster.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders

Join our discord!: https://discord.gg/Bc9dvuzZYJ
The Han Cluster® Role Playing Game Website: https://hancluster.com [https://hancluster.com/]
Immaterial Plane: https://immaterialplane.com/

Problem #28: A Game to Play or a Game to Sell?

This week, Tracy and Kristian deep dive into the seemingly endless decisions leading up to and during crowdfunding. Tracy discusses the Han Cluster BackerKit campaign in terms of everything from choosing the platform, to deciding on the offering, to setting funding goals, to creating pledge tiers, and much more.  There's multiple reasons behind EVERY decision, and this is just an introduction to some of them.

Join our discord!: https://discord.gg/Bc9dvuzZYJ
The Han Cluster® Role Playing Game Website: https://hancluster.com [https://hancluster.com/]
Immaterial Plane: https://immaterialplane.com/

Problem #27: Crowdfunding Decisions

This week, Tracy and Kristian Tracy talk about what SHE experienced BEHIND THE SCENES leading up to and during her crowdfunding campaign for Han Cluster, including the breaking out of a full-blown trade war in the middle of the funding period. We pull back the curtain completely on some of the most difficult and stressful aspects of bringing a design project to the marketplace. This is the moment when time, money, sweat and tears all come together in a culmination of discovery: Do we have viable product or don't we? There is no easy way to go through this, especially as a new creator, and since this podcast aims be honest and inform, we wanted to give a fair warning about how difficult this can become so that you can go in with your eyes wide open. At the same time, since we want to inspire as well, we also want to impress that there IS a payoff to all this, you just have to take the leap to get to it.

Join our discord!: https://discord.gg/Bc9dvuzZYJ
The Han Cluster® Role Playing Game Website: https://hancluster.com [https://hancluster.com/]
Immaterial Plane: https://immaterialplane.com/

Problem #26: Facing Hard Realities

Tracy and Kristian finally get into some of the nitty gritty of laying out your book and other products for an audience to consume. Though this is primarily a high level overview of how layout programs (like InDeisgn and Affinity) work and "think," it's also a dense exploration of everything from basic concepts to best-practices as you move from the word-processor or note-taking ecosystem into the the brave new world of product layout (or you just start there, like Tracy, cuz she's "crazy!"). This is an episode you might revisit multiple times as you level up your game, and we'll definitely revisit the topic in the future.

Join our discord!: https://discord.gg/Bc9dvuzZYJ
The Han Cluster® Role Playing Game Website: https://hancluster.com [https://hancluster.com/]
Immaterial Plane: https://immaterialplane.com/

Problem #25: The Basics of Layout

Hosts Kristian Serrano and Tracy Sizemore explore the ins and outs of RPG design, production and publishing. We cover the entire process from the creative woes of working on your own game or setting, to your decision to share it with the world, to the details of layout, working with artists and running a crowdfunding campaign.

Designing Problems