Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey, everyone.
[00:00:00] Speaker B: Jim Phoenix here. And today at Gen Con, I'm of Nick right now, and he did the Eldritch adamata. I can't see it.
[00:00:08] Speaker A: Yeah. Eldritch Eldridge automata. Eldritch automata. Whatever you want to say, it's perfect.
[00:00:12] Speaker B: Tell us a little bit about the game.
[00:00:14] Speaker A: Okay, so the short pitch is the game is about piloting a giant 80 meters tall mech, and you're fighting against Eldritch abominations that want to eat you, that are being controlled by angelic alien nightmares that won't enthrall you. Oh, and your mech is slowly killing you, but you need to use it, so you got no choice, right?
[00:00:33] Speaker B: So it's basically my. Yeah, I was like, that's my car. My first car was a mech, by the way. It slowly killed me through exhaust rooms coming up through it. So when you're doing this and this is your first gen con.
[00:00:44] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:00:45] Speaker B: What's the experience, like, seeing the gamers pop to your stubborn.
[00:00:48] Speaker A: You created, like, anytime we run, like, games at any sort of convention, it always is, like, kind of like an ethereal experience. Like, they come in, they're here for my game. I mean, especially at Gencom, like, they're paying money, they're buying tickets, you know, for my game, and then coming through and just, you know, I always end up having to kind of peek my head in, take a look, you know, give a gander. And most of the, you know, most of the reaction has been super positive, and it's a great experience. There's nothing left quite like it.
[00:01:18] Speaker B: No, the game sounded fantastic. Absolutely. I couldn't wait. Now, what made you think about the game? Well, how have you from creation, first thought until box.
[00:01:28] Speaker A: So the game creation started back in 2017. I was playing with an online group, and all we did was play like, you know, we were doing online games. We couldn't find anything physical, and we were very much into, like, the same spheres of things, like anime, action, a little bit of horror here and there. And so one of my greatest inspirations is I always loved things like Godzilla, and I always loved Evangelion and kind of trying to marry those two concepts together. It actually started as, like, an evangelion hack, and it was built in power by the apocalypse. So real, you know, that was, like, super popular at the time.
So built the kind of first draft in that ran it very janky, but I learned two things from that. One, it was that this was a cool idea and I should keep on it. And two is I needed to switch to a new system because combat was super important. And so kind of from there, I just started building it out, started scratching the cereals off of my favorite inspiration, started building lore, you know, every year I just add a little bit more. And then come about 2000 920 19, I bought alien rpg and I really liked the system. I was like, year zero. This is something super interesting. Yeah. But at that time they didn't have an open license yet, so I was still trying to, like, build it out in and be like, well, I'll just release this. That's like an unofficial, like, you know, third party supplement not selling really for free. And then 2022 came about and they released the first open license for it. And I said, you know, this is something that we can really do. So I brought the idea to my business partner, Ian with Gehenna gaming, and he looked at it. I had basically all the mechanics done.
[00:02:58] Speaker B: So cool.
[00:02:59] Speaker A: Yeah. And he was like, let's do this. The rest has been history.
[00:03:02] Speaker B: And that's the best thing, is that games can inspire other games. And your love and passion can make you meld something into something brand new. We teach a synthesis. You add this and this, you make it something your own. Now, what would you give budding gamers? Brand new people trying to get into game making. What kind of advice would you give them?
[00:03:20] Speaker A: So anyone that wants to get into game making, I would say play different systems. Play as much as you can of everything. And I mean, not just d 20 stuff, not just d six stuff, like play everything. Play the good, play the stuff that people will tell you is bad. Whatever your personal preference, even if it's not all great, it's all a lesson. And you're going to learn design things from there, like stuff that you like, stuff that you don't like, and kind of from there, you'll just Frankenstein and mish Mash into a new idea. And I kind of think that's how every game is approached nowadays.
[00:03:51] Speaker B: I think so, which is great. That's a great idea because a lot of people get into lane, like, I only do this deep, you know, fifth edition is all I do is this. But then you're missing out the entire world of gaming and you can get the mix and match. Now, one last thing. What online game were you playing?
[00:04:08] Speaker A: What? Online?
[00:04:09] Speaker B: Yeah, you said you were online gamer.
[00:04:11] Speaker A: Oh, like over ttrpg I'm playing right now. Or like what? Like video game?
[00:04:16] Speaker B: Whatever, whatever. You want to answer this?
[00:04:17] Speaker A: Okay, so video game, I'm still super into Final Fantasy 14. I've been. I play a shit ton of that. My partner just perfected Sardi Valley and we had an agreement that really could perfect Stardew Valley. I would have to start playing that. So I'm also playing Stardew Valley.
[00:04:32] Speaker B: Oh, my God.
[00:04:33] Speaker A: TTRPG next week when I were finally, you know, weekend. We're finally recovered from Gen Con. I have a home game. We're playing alien rpg. So, like, one of my favorite systems. Yeah. Awesome. And then hopefully going to see alien Romulus one of the next.
[00:04:46] Speaker B: That looks so good, by the way. Alan's got a VR game coming out soon. Yeah, it's re edge.
[00:04:51] Speaker A: I know, I love that. I remember trying to play isolation in VR. I was like, oh, my God, no.
[00:04:57] Speaker B: I can't wait to give myself power tech. Well, great. And guess what? If you miss Gen Con, there's always packs.
[00:05:03] Speaker A: Yep, packs you. It's a little bit smaller. You only got three days versus four, but pretty much a lot of the same things. Just personable. And, you know, I'm a little biased, but it's in the winter, you know, it's a little bit cooler. Not like you're not sweating yourself while you're in here.
[00:05:18] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:05:18] Speaker A: And it's in my favorite city, my hometown, Philadelphia.
[00:05:21] Speaker B: Really nice.
[00:05:22] Speaker A: East coast, born and raised.
[00:05:23] Speaker B: Nicely done.
[00:05:25] Speaker A: So very excited. Love packs. You will be there and definitely much more official capacity. We'll have a booth and everything, so come play out if you want.
[00:05:34] Speaker B: Awesome. You know, I will be there, too. And we can't wait. Thanks, Nick.
[00:05:37] Speaker A: Yeah, thank you.
