NaGa DeMon – National Game Design Month

Nathan Russell put forth the challenge on his site to make November National Game Design Month, or NaGa DeMon. Similar to NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, the idea behind NaGa DeMon is to design and play a new game during the month. Unlike NaNoWriMo, there is no specific length or scope to the projects. Furthermore, the projects can be of a variety of genres including “board game, RPG, flash computer game, choose-your-own-adventure book, war game, card game or other distracting novelty.”

courtesy of NathanRussell.net

My wife has participated in NaNoWriMo the last few years, with varying degrees of success. I tried it once, and failed utterly. We both agree that it is a really valuable creative exercise and that no matter how close you got to 50,000 words, it was fun to be part of a community all striving in creative endeavors.

I think the concept behind NaGa DeMon is brilliant! I plan on convening the high council of Skyland Games (we have one of those, right?), and determining a good candidate for a November prototype. Recently, we have tested a few mini-games within our regular 4e DnD campaign for both a naval battle system, and a large-scale battle system, and they may be able to stand on their own. We have a pirate campaign on the horizon, so taking a closer look at naval battle mechanics could be time well spent. The large-scale battle system was really fun, because our PCs all became generals of different units as we battled to repel an undead horde. I’m sure we’ll have something put together by the end of the month, with a few play test reports.

Do you plan on participating? I can’t wait to see what folks come up with!