David Lebo

Where do I even begin? A Plumbum entry

First off, this is going to be a journey series, not a self-contained guide. I’m not writing any guides or advice any time soon, and hope people will provide their own once they read these entries. My hope in penning a blog post about this is not to share a wealth of knowledge of the subject, but rather to chronicle the path of mistakes I expect to make along the way to bringing my current full-time career field to a table. I expect it will be a long path, so it will give me plenty of time to figure out how to blog. I have absolutely zero business writing a blog about this, other than to have a way to look back in the coming years.

I guess in this first one, I’ll set myself some goals and expectations, and give an overview of the idea in my head, so anyone curious enough can see how it evolves with me!

First, I have no idea what I’m doing, and I have no idea why you’re reading this. If I were you, I wouldn’t be interested in me, but here we are, so let’s see what I come up with! I’ve never had an extended online presence, so this will be an adventure in accountability. If you’re expecting to see something and don’t, feel free to reach out to me to see what’s up and push me forward.

Second, goals. I guess as a good start, I’ll plan on writing 4 or 500 words over the weekend for the foreseeable future in an effort to document what I’ve done. I’ll try to focus on what games I’m playing (board and video), since I’m using that to glean mechanic inspiration, what I may have heard in a podcast that stood out to me and where it came from, and I’ll probably throw a screenshot of my design tracker from here on BGDL+ as proof/reference.

Third, I’m hoping for help I think. This thought just came to me as I was writing, but I’m going to talk about things that others have much more experience on. I look forward to hearing your thoughts and recommendations.

So… without further ado, my 60-second game pitch for Plumbum, a worker placement, resource management game that uses cards, a map and tokens to help 2-4 players wage a simultaneously competitive industry competition while simultaneously cooperating to fend off an aggressive corporation. For art theme, think a modern marvel-style comic book look, with heroic plumbers solving everyday problems as they fight the evil corporation. A little bit playing a straight topic a little comicky.

In Plumbum, you and up to three former coworkers show up to work one day to find out your company has been bought out by one of the largest hardware store chains. (Gotta come up with a name here that won’t get me sued) has a history of using cheap, poor quality workers to underbid licensed professionals and leave customers with shoddy homes they have to spend more money to fix in the future. Compete with your former coworkers to build your company to a level where it can withstand the corporate onslaught against your customers, and save the day for small businesses everywhere! However, competition drives the market, and the only way you will save your customers from poor work and equipment is by occasionally realizing that is in your best interest to take actions that favor not only the customer, but even your competitors!

Whoo! Gotta whittle that down, don’t we? But hey, it’s a start. Next week I’ll try to explain a little more about my desired audience and why I think this is a good time for this game. I might be wrong, but at least I have thoughts!

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