Cataphrak's List of Potential Future Games

Game Development
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So, coming off of the discussion in the “Dream Game” thread, I’ve decided to lay out all of my cards on the table, so I can get some feedback on what people want me to write next.

So here’s what I got planned right now:

Mecha Ace: Heroes of the Vedrian War
CoG Work-For-Hire
Status: In development, completion sometime in December 2013/January 2014
Features: Mecha, Romances, PCs can be L, G or B, and Male or Female.
Working on this right now, with the second act (out of three) almost finished.

Guns of Infinity
Hosted Work
Status: Pending, expected development period: February/March 2014- June 2014
Features: Sequel to Sabres of Infinity, imported saves, siege warfare, beginnings of romances, PCs can be G or B, Male only.
This is my next project (alongside with finishing MoF2) after I finish up Mecha Ace. That’s almost guaranteed.

Lords of Infinity
Hosted Work
Status: Pending, expected development period: November 2014- February 2015
Features: Sequel to Guns of Infinity, imported saves, administration, continuing romances/marriage, high-level intrigues. PCs can be G or B, Male only.
This is likely going to coincide with NaNoWriMo next year.

What I need is a project to take up the time between Guns and Lords. I’ve got a couple ideas bouncing around my head, some more well developed than others:

Path of the Duelist
Hosted Work or CoG official pitch
The Republic of Fiore is a city-state of contrasts: great wealth and crippling poverty, fervent piety and rampant corruption. You are a rogue, a hired killer, a sword-for-hire in the pay of one of the city’s great merchant houses. Distrusted and despised by high society, you have the chance to scheme, stab and bribe your way to respectability, wealth, power… perhaps even to rulership of the city yourself.
Features: Sword fighting, debauchery, intrigue and general skullduggery. PCs can be L, G, B, and/or T, as well as Male or Female.

REFORGER
Hosted Work
The year is 1976, and World War III is about to begin. Will you take command of the American V Corps, and stop the armoured spearheads of the Soviet advance? Or will you lead the Soviet 8th Guards Army through the Fulda Gap to the ultimate victory over NATO’s armies? Will you smash your enemies with cunning, meticulous planning and brute force, or will your actions lead to nuclear war, and the end of civilisation?
Features: High-level military command in the middle of the Cold War, PCs can be (closeted) G or B. Male only.

Short Story Anthology
Hosted Work
A collection of short (5k-25k word) stories from published Hosted Work Authors to introduce new people to their work. The Anthology would be offered for free, with each author contributing their own week’s (or so) worth of work.
I would be writing one of these stories, naturally: “The Fall of Noringia”.

So, what do you guys think of any of these ideas?

10 Likes
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I believe I specified the word “Wondrous”, as being in the title.

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All seem great, due you are a incredible writer but my heard goes to the rogue for hire in the renaissance, a duelist sounds good, but i being a woman i love start as a bard courtesan master in venecian daggers and poison. But all your proyects sounds cool is only renaissance is my favourite historical setting

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Looking forward to mecha and guns, my vote goes to duelist sounds the most interesting

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@Drazen
They aren’t particularly wondrous, I’m not *that* good of a writer.

@MaraJade
I’d expect the trifecta of tools at a well-rounded Bravo (or Brava)'s disposal to be something like the sword, seduction and poison.

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add a lute to my arsenal and i offered you my undying love @Cataphrak

1 Like
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Path of the Duelist sounds great (as do all of them, but this one particularly so)!

And if @Drazen calls your games “wondrous”, that’s good enough for me to think that they’ll be wondrous :slight_smile:

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@MaraJade
One lute? Why not three?

Get a crappy lute from a pawnbroker, commission a craftsman to make a decent one, or “inherit” a mastercrafted one from a famous minstrel after he dies “from a heart attack”.

1 Like
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Looking good, it’s pleasing to see some Infinity sequels on the table!
Path of the Duelist and the Anthology (especially) sound like great ideas and I’d love to see either one - I can’t imagine the latter will fill your gap as well though, as you’d likely be (personally) writing a lot less for that?

Oh, and what does MoF2 stand for?

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@CJW
Master of Fortresses 2, my non-CoG project which I still need to finish.

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Path of the duelist sounds intriguing, but with what you’ve got on your plate already aren’t you already overstretched as it is?

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@idontlikeusernames
Absolutely.

That’s why I wouldn’t be starting work on it until next summer.

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I’ll have to vote for Reforger because I’m a sucker for any type of alternate history, but Duelist also sounds interesting and with the fantastic job that you did with SoI either one would be aces in my book.

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@Cataphrak, Are all these projects of roughly the same length and depth/complexity of Sabres?
If so color me mighty impressed.

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@idontlikeusernames
That’s the plan.

@Iggles
If REFORGER doesn’t end up being the CoG community’s cup of tea, I could always make it as an iOS/Android game later down the line, in a couple years.

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All of the ideas sound great!

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“If REFORGER doesn’t end up being the CoG community’s cup of tea”

Balls to that. YOU are writing that game, and then I am changing my profile picture to Dr Strangelove.

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@Cataphrak

More or less what @Drazen said. Have more faith in yourself, you are amazing.

Personally, I don’t know what to pick. All of them sound amazing. The only thing I’d have an issue with in regards to Reforger is that I’m more of a 1950’s WWIII person, but that’s just me.

Personally, I’d say that Path of the Duelist and Reforger sound the most agreeable to me for a few different reasons.

One of those is that- like many- I don’t have Sabres yet though I would like to since I know how good it is. As a result, another game reliant on that would cut me and several others out, so I’m not exactly unbiased.

But even factoring that out, I do think it can help to shelve longstanding projects and go off and do something completely different before coming back. At least in my experience I think it helps keep one fresh and you can be amazed what you can apply to your old workhorse that you learned elsewhere. On top of that, games a wider audience can enjoy without having to “buy in” to another game can help you get more fans (like CoG started out by only releasing sequels and paid content after they got a few entry levels set up).

But in any event, so long as you make it I’d be happy to see.

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I’m greatly intrigued by the Short Story Anthology.

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Man out of all these interesting ideas, you are working on the one that I like the least! Oh well at least the rest of them sounds really good, especially REFORGER.