Good Games - A 2017 Retrospective - Rising Phoenix Games

What motivates you?

motivation for good games — “Okay, your motivation is that you’re Death. Give me fear and finality!”

For me, all the things I’m interested in—game design, writing, programming, storytelling, art, model painting and sculpting, LEGO—all these passions are motivated by a burning need to be creative, to make something new, something fun.

Our motto—Tell Thrilling Tales—encompasses this to some degree. It’s also our way of saying that we want to help you, as a GM, to run better games. This year though, I’ve started adopting a new phrase:

Make Good Games

2017 was all about that, and we released a ton of content, including a load of adventures, 4 prototype video games, and a critically acclaimed mecha book. I’m not going to talk about those—there’s a full list of our titles at the end of this post, if you want to know more.

What I really want to talk about is motivation.

Making games is a dream job, and I’m lucky enough to spend most of my working day trying to bang out new titles. It’s not always easy though, and finding the motivation can be tough, especially when you’re working on a title that’s beset with frustrations.
Believing in a project, I’ve come to realize, makes all the difference. That’s why the “Make Good Games” line makes so much sense to me. Good games have value, and it’s motivating to know that a game I’m putting hours into has worth and will be something I’m proud of.

I was watching an interview (below) with Mike Pondsmith, creator of Cyberpunk 2020. How awesome is it that an RPG he designed is becoming this huge AAA video game? His passion for the game, for the setting, and for the genre is clear, and I’m pretty sure that’s going to make all the difference for Cyberpunk 2077 in the end. Mike believes in what he’s making.

To wrap up this year and this post; 2018 will be all about making good games, and less about all the other things that can so easily distract from that. Getting that right will be hard work, but 2017 taught me that we’re getting better and better at what we do. I hope you’ll join us for the ride!