When I was young I used to design a lot of different games of different kinds. Board games, RPGs, wargames, etc. I cannot recall them all but the best game I ever designed in my opinion was a table game in which one player took on the role of a Naval Cruiser or Destroyer (a sub-hunter) and the other the role of a Killer sub or fast nuclear sub.
You had missions ranging from ship sinking, sub-hunting, fast-team deployment, and naval combat, to tactical nuclear strikes delivered by sub. The best thing about the game was that you had to plot three dimensional firing solutions using nothing more than information you heard called out from stations and positions you could obtain by knowing direction, speed, coordinates, etc of enemy vessels. It was played mostly in your head, like real submarine combat. I know technology greatly helps and enhances nowadays, but a boat captain still has to account for a lot of variables in his head, especially if simultaneously being chased or pinged by adversaries while under way and in action. The game was called "
The Solution."
Over a long period of time I developed these game variants, which we still play:
The Other World - part D&D and part historical wargame. Set in Constantinople, and basically designed on D&D but with a lot of setting/rules variations. Some people tell me it is a separate game, I think of it basically as a semi-historical D&D variant.
Spheres of Influence - A sort of hybrid between Star Fleet Battles and Traveler set in the Frontiers and in unknown space.
Over an almost equally long period of time I also designed and developed these original games which we still play:
Hammerstroke - a modern day Intel/espionage/military/law enforcement game. Based mostly on real experiences, and designed to play that way.
Enigma - a superhero game also set in our current era.
Outland Frontier - A pulp game set circa 1890-1920.
Artifice - a sci-fi game in which players take on the roles of artificially intelligent machines, non-biological life-forms, or IA (Intelligent Artifacts - usually alien). Based a personal theory I have about stages of technological development and what they eventually lead to.
Right now, in my spare time (I write games and that kind of thing as a hobby in my spare time), I am working on a new game for the
Conjunction contest called
Transformations. It is based on a modular approach and when I finished it I will revise the Other World and combine them into one game.
I am also writing a Parallel Reality Game called
Metamorphosis which is based on the historical development of my own city, and set in my home town, and it is viral in nature.
And currently I am writing and developing the video game script for a game I invented called,
Vadder. (Not Vader, it is about
Vadding. I
Vad and have since I was a kid. I often consider things like D&D "imaginary vadding" or "Vadding in your imagination" rather than for real.)
I have never sought professional publication for any of my game designs or developments (until recently I've never had the desire) but I suspect that will change in the next year to two years.
Professionally I occasionally develop Training Simulations or Case Study simulations for business, law enforcement, security, and the military. These aren't games so much as simulations with gaming elements, but I often think of them as professional games whose intent is to train the player for real world applications.
