The Last Safe Town

One day, not too long ago, something big went down a few states over. Some said it was a nuke, some said an act of God. Whatever it was, it was big, and nothing's been the same since. A weird, hot snow fell across the whole county. You presume it fell everywhere, but you can't be sure, since there's been no reliable contact with anyone more than a couple dozen miles from town. But whatever that snow touched, it changed. Plants, Animals, Things, even People became strange, mutated monsters. The further you go from the safety of town, the more hostile and alien the countryside becomes. And the closer you get to the ruins of The Big City to the north, the less likely you are to come back.

The crisis: After months of struggle, things in town have finally begun to settle down. That is... until people begin disappearing. You hear about a theater on the edge of The Big City that's been turned into some kind of cult compound, and when you get there to investigate, what you find is almost too horrible to believe.

This game is a combination shoot-em-up and detective/mystery game, built on the UZDoom engine, based in part on FreeDoom. This started as a Doom mapping project, but it became clear that in terms of scripting the behavior I wanted, and customizing all the resources I'd need, that I'm basically building a whole new game on the bones of the UZDoom engine. Currently I'm learning ACS and ZScript scripting to monkey around with the gameplay, and when the game is in a state where it's more than just a janky Doom WAD file, it'll be posted here. Also: I'm looking for pixel/sprite artists with a horror bent who can help me with this project. I can kinda do some pixel art if I've got something to start with... but free-forming it, or keeping on-model over big tasks? I wish!

Parabellum inc.

In a future far too near to the present, in a place too familiar for comfort, you have been given an opportunity few achieve. Your employer, the Parabellum PMC, has assigned you to manage an expeditionary force in the aftermath of a governmental shake-up. Parabellum has customers in the area, they require security in the face of total anarchy. Parabellum has other customers in the area too, and they have ambitions. Combat strategy, with an eagle eye on your supplies and budget are your ticket to fabulous success. But remember, both the battlefield and the boardroom are incredibly treacherous for you. If the investers don't get their returns, your plane ticket home might get written off as an unnecessary expense.

In a game of Parabellum Inc. your task is to direct company assets to achieve military objectives sent down by The Board of Directors. You are given a meager budget by The Board with which to purchase, supply, and maintain the assets under your command. There's nowhere near enough money to go around however, and you must use sucesses on the battlefield to both impress The Board and attract Business Partners to fund your operation. But be careful: money from outside the company comes with strings attached, and if the debts come due when you can't pay, The Board isn't going to be happy.

Parabellum inc. is a tabletop strategy game, played with dice, miniatures, paper maps, and cards that represent units on the field. Battles are decided with opposed dice rolls, units can move and act in various ways during a turn. However, unlike most strategy games, the flow of money is king. It costs to get units on the board, it costs to keep them there, it costs to attack, it costs to retreat. Supplying your units with fuel and ammunition is a task unto itself, and those supply lines are vulnerable, so guard them carefully or your men will be stranded out in no-man's-land. At the end of each turn, if you had any kind of success on the battlefield, you get to draw from a deck of "Business Opportunities." These cards can be kept in reserve, or played to provide you the funding you need to keep your soldiers going. Many of these "Opportunities" come with conditions however. Some are loans, with interest. Some are sponsorships that require particular outcomes in combat. Some are investers, expecting a cut of your fees or battlefield plunder. And if you run out of money to keep these "opportunities" coming... it's GAME OVER!!!

I completed a prototype of the game some time ago. Spent months making all the pieces and doing the layout, used placeholder art and everything. I roped a few friends into playtesting it, and realized a few things... First: Never spend months making nice, fancy-looking pieces before you've settled on the design for the game. Second: The rules were way too obtuse, and needed some serious trimming down. Third: The game didn't deliver the frantic I've gotta do this, to get more opportunity cards, to pay off the opportunity cards I've already used, but then I'll have to... fantasy I was looking for. Fourth: The combat was pretty fun. Finally: I ain't getting four friends to read a ten-page rulebook for love, nor money.

In any case, the game's undergoing some major changes. For instance, the "Business opportunity" cards went from an "after-battle" thing, to an "every-turn" thing. The supply truck went from a unit on the field, to an abstract idea represented by tokens. and so on, so forth. I'll probably share the next playtest version on here. Also: I'm on the lookout for an artist who likes gritty, distopian stuff and might like to ilustrate some of this stuff once the game itself is pretty much settled.