Ironwood Omnimedia

I honestly wish I had thought of doing this before. It would have been alot of fun keeping a log going while developing Fantasy Sagas and the Game Master Lodestar. There was a very rocky rollercoaster during those developments. We bounced around alot trying to determine the absolute best way to deliver our products and in what form. I think readers would have had an entertaining experience seeing what goes on behind the doors of an initial launch. There was alot of pressure to perform, and alot of uncharted territory that we were stepping into.

 But this is not really about what could have been. This is about the development of Modern Sagas. Truth is, Modern started around the same time as Fantasy. However, when we announced the release of Fantasy we thought we were doing pretty well. We actually anticipated moving forward with Modern and releasing it within months of Fantasy. That goes to show you how ignorant I really was back then. When we thought we had everything under control for Fantasy’s release we found we had actually very little control. I remember the last few weeks of getting things together as a hectic hodge-podge of new problems. There were a great many nights were I worked close to dawn to get that product ready to go. As a result, Modern got back-burnered until after the release.

Then the release had problems. Files got messed up and old files were put where new files were. Lulu had downtime, and our own host got wacky on us. Once we got those elements under control it was another rush to get back on our feet again and get the products fixed. All the while the follow up products (Prophecy and Paradigm) were found to have suffered a similar fate. We wound up having to rewrite everything all over again in many cases.

Again, modern gets pushed back.

So we move on. We got everything back up, problems fixed (we hope), and now we are back on track. The entire experience taught me something very important: I’m Always Worng!

Well, not always. But when assuming that everything was done I found out how badly I could be wrong. Paradigm and Prophecy came together much easier after starting over. So this told me that what I think I have ready with Modern was not really ready. I decided to play it safe, and make my life a bit harder initially, but ultimately easier. I would scrap what we had written for modern. We had tested it, and it was fine. What I wanted to scrap was the text, the actual printed page. I learned alot with Fantasy and I feel the best way to apply what I learned was to apply it from the very beginning.

So Modern has started over again. Not from a mechanics point of view, but from a content point of view. I deleted all the old text files, tuct away the statistical parts, and begain again with a brand new first page.

Now, I can’t compare it to the origional. It doesn’t exist anymore. But there is something deep inside that just says it is better. There is a huge comfort level in this effort. I feel more organized, more in control (I know that this is probably illusionary but I’m holding on to it). I look at this product as it starts to take on its own life and I am proud again. Its not the pride I felt when I got my first proof of Fantasy Sagas. Its different. There is no ego there, no “I did this!”. It is simply a matter of contentment in doing the job.

As I move forward with the develpment of Modern I will be posting not only what goes on in the development of the book, but what is happening to me. Alot of what happens in life will come through in your projects. I don’t really know if that is true, but it seems right. So if you read about this development, you will learn a few things about me.  I’ll try to keep this log updated weekly, or better. No promises though. Sometimes the creative juices escape for a bit, and thats to be expected.

 Anyways, until next time,

Ruel

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 14th, 2007 at 4:22 pm and is filed under Developer Blog, Modern Sagas Development Log. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.