Writing Process and Tools
I always find it fascinating to learn about how people work, especially for creative endeavors such as design and writing. I'm not sure I've ever read about how RPG game designers actually work.
1) What tools do you use to craft a game? Word, Markdown, Scrivener? (Mac or Windows?
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2) How do you get inspired? Do you have to be in a specific place to design/write? Or do you find the distraction of a coffee shop/others working in your studio a spark? Group discussions with notes sprawling a page or whiteboard?
3) Do you outline, or just spew words on a page and then clean up until what's left is your game?
4) Considering your books arguably have the highest production quality in the industry, how long does layout take? What tool(s) do you use for such things? Outsourced or do you oversee every illustration and punctuation detail? Someone else on staff who oversees that?
5) Probably goes without saying that it's awesome that Bruce, a childhood friend, is working with you, but how do you guys handle disagreements in game design?
6) While it's certainly in the purview of MCG to charge for 3rd party licenses, why charge for fan created items since you undoubtedly don't make that much money from that channel? To keep the barrier of entry and therefore production values higher? (This is arguably the strategy that Apple uses for apps.)
I've definitely used up my allotment. Love the games so far. One regret is not backing the box. Any chance of a French version similar to the Italian version?