Someone please enlighten me: what is with indie game designers who come out with one visually pleasing game, then decide that they are the Lords of Game Design, with the authority to insist that every game must rely on visuals to communicate its underlying message?
Meaner enemy AI, sound effects, the finished GUI–in a few days, the first downloadable demo for Telepath RPG: Servants of God will be yours. Keep an eye out for it! 
I just received an email last night from Hasbro–apparently, I’ve been approved for a generous corporate grant to continue designing games full-time! In exchange, I need to do a little re-tooling of the Telepath RPG series. From now on, these games are Nerf RPG.
Most of the changes will be purely cosmetic. For instance, instead of using Mind Blast, characters will now shoot each other with Nerf darts. Also, instead of Scanning, characters will now beat each other with Nerf swords until they reveal what they’re thinking.
I know this might seem a little weird, and possibly a little “lame,” but trust me: this is going to be just fine. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go take a dip in my new swimming pool filled with money.
As a game designer, sometimes you receive news, and you’re not sure whether it’s good news or bad news. For example, Telepath: Psy Arena 2 has just received its most positive review yet! But it’s posted on a site called HarryBalls.com. Um, yeah.
From the review:
The care Sinister has put into this game is very clear, from the surprisingly good soundtrack, to the hilarious dialog, and the slick graphics, you can see the love behind this. I have been a fan of the genre for years, and after being disappointed with almost every offering the mainstream publisher’s has thrown up at us, It’s good to see that someone out there actually gives a crap about quality.
I guess it’s hard for me to ignore praise like that, even if it is on a website called HarryBalls.com.
I have to brag a little bit here. I was just comparing some graphics from TRPG2 side-by-side with some of the new-and-improved stuff from TSoG, and I must say, I have improved a lot. Just look at these shadowling dwellings, for instance:
It’s like the old one was made by some primordial, cave man version of myself. And check out The Great Forest:
I mean, geez. I don’t know whether to be proud of Current Me, or appalled at Past Me. One thing is for certain, though: the graphics are getting an upgrade.
Have you noticed anything that you think looks better in TSoG? Talk about it in the comments below!
Sinister Design now has a fan club on Facebook. Come join up and help spread the word! 
Telepath RPG: Servants of God has been updated with music! I’ve been writing a lot of music over the past few weeks to plug up some of the gaps in the game’s score, and I now feel like there’s enough there that I can comfortably release it with music. (In particular, check out the new Telepath RPG Theme! I just redid it this evening to make it sound even more awesome.)
I’ve temporarily gotten around the difficulty of increased build times from Flash compressing mp3s by having the game simply stream the music off the internet, much like the TSoG Music Player does. (Needless to say, in the finished game, they’ll just be part of the game, with no internet connection required and none of the occasional hang-ups that come with streaming audio.)
Anyway, the updated demo is online. As with everything, there will inevitably be bugs at first, which I will fix as soon as possible. Don’t forget to report any issues you have on the forums!
It’s finally here! I think you will all be pleased to know that Telepath RPG: Servants of God has been updated with a lovely, brand-new GUI that spans all areas of the game. The second crypt has been added as well, along with a few other goodies:
I’ll be fixing little kinks and problems with the new GUI over the coming days–any bugs you find, please report them on the forums and I’ll do my best to fix them quickly.
Avoiding the ghost patrol...
This topic has been addressed before by other people, but in light of recent news, I figured I’d compile a list that takes certain, ah, new factors into account.
So let’s say that you have some disposable income, and that you’re trying to decide whether to spend it on big studio games or indie RPGs. Here are the top 6 best reasons why you should spend at least some of it on indie RPGs.
I thought you might like to know that GameDevHub.com has published an interview with me about game development and Telepath RPG: Servants of God in particular. Here’s an excerpt:
GDH: When you begin development of a game, what area do you start with? For example, with the Telepath games, had you created the Cera Bella setting or was it constructed around the mechanics of the game?
Craig: It honestly depends on the game. It’s just a matter of what ideas I have going into it, and what area those ideas happen to reside in. With the Telepath games, I went in with a rather limited idea of the setting, and sort of built as I went. I come from a creative writing background, and I believe that as an author, it’s important for your understanding of story elements to arise organically. It doesn’t do to start off a game with hard-and-fast preconceptions, then try to shoehorn game elements to fit those preconceptions. That’s the sort of approach that leads to unconvincing plotlines, wooden dialog and flat characters.
For example, take character development. I learn more about my characters as development proceeds by thinking through the sort of conversations they would have with each other. I let the characters’ voices come through, and so I learn about them during the process of writing their dialog. That’s not something I can effectively plan ahead of time: the process is key. Cera Bella has been a lot like that: I learn about the world as I create it.
You can read the full interview here.