Beware! The NaGaDeMon is right around the corner!

snake2 A couple of my friends are currently preparing for the NaNoWriMo, the National Novel Writing Month. The idea is that you challenge yourself to write a 50,000-word novel during the month of November.

In 2011 Nathan Russel had the idea to initiate the first NaGaDeMon or National Game Design Month. You can “win” the NaGaDeMon challenge by creating a game (a roleplaying game, boardgame, computer game, etc.) during the month of November, finishing it (no handwaving allowed), playing it at least once and – this is the most important part – talking about it.

Last year I wanted to contribute something to NaGaDeMon by creating Astronauts, a near future, hard science fiction roleplaying game. Alas this project never saw the light of day. I also recently decided to work on an expanded and revised edition of Arcane Heroes, so I might not work on a separate NaGaDeMon project this year, but still I think NaGaDeMon is a fun idea and if you are interested in game design, you really should think about joining the fun! Check out the official NaGaDeMon site for more information.

By the way, if you plan to work on a roleplaying game, check out Rob Lang’s posts about how to write a free roleplaying game, it contains a lot of great advice!

Michael Wolf is a German games designer and enthusiast best known for his English language role-playing games blog, Stargazer's World, and for creating the free rules-light medieval fantasy adventure game Warrior, Rogue & Mage. He has also worked as an English translator on the German-language Dungeonslayers role-playing game and was part of its editorial team. In addition to his work on Warrior, Rogue & Mage and Dungeonslayers, he has created several self-published games and also performed layout services and published other independent role-playing games such as A Wanderer's Romance, Badass, and the Wyrm System derivative Resolute, Adventurer & Genius, all released through his imprint Stargazer Games. Professionally, he works as a video technician and information technologies specialist. Stargazer's World was started by Michael in August 2008.

3 comments

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shortymonster

This is my first encounter with this event. I was just wondering about some issues. I started designing a game about a month back, and after a couple of play tests have realised that I need to effectively recreate it from (almost) scratch. Will this mean That if I hold off on those changes until November, I will be able to join in?

    comments user
    Stargazer

    I guess so.

comments user
Nathan Russell

Thanks for the shoutout Michael! Shortymonster, by all means get involved! Even if you don’t hold off until November! Just finish that game and tell the world all about your experiences! Now, that is quite enough exclamation marks from me!