"I'm afraid I CAN do that Dave..."

 

AI Rendered Gruin "Cardinalsar."

I played around with the paid version of ChatGPT earlier this week, having it write some boilerplate letters and resume outlines for my ongoing job hunt. But I got to thinking today... What if I tried to get it to write a little WarStrike fluff?

The process was interesting...

Re-Illustrating WarStrike With An A.I.

This job market isn't as easy to find employment in as the media lets on. Not by a long shot. But I've managed to establish myself as a graphic/programming freelancer with a couple of good clients.

Fortunately, because I'm now a full-time contractor, there's no limits on what I can create and sell outside of work. So I've cracked open WarStrike's rulebook, and am currently working on upgrading my often so-so stock art collages with much better images generated by an AI. Which has been an interesting experience.

The State of The Game

Believe it or not, a computer created this image from a text prompt.

Welp... It's been almost three and a half years since my last update. So for whoever is still interested (because I do get asked about the game from time to time) here's an update on where things currently stand, and what has to happen to move this project forward again.

And... We're On Facebook Now!

Just a quick update to say that we're on Facebook now, under the name "@WarStrikeM42".

I've not been posting much to the blog because so much of the work I'm doing now is little edits that would take longer to write a post about than the changes themselves. Facebook is a better place for quick updates that aren't limited to a small paragraph (like Twitter). Plus I'm planning on doing some videos going forward, and that's a better place to reach people with them.

All that said, I will be posting a summary to the blog of what I've been up to in the last month later this week.

Thoughts?

Gencon Playtesting Results

That's Farmpunk in the white hat, he came by to watch for a bit between Flames of War tournaments. 😀

Whew! That was an exhausting week! So were the weeks of work leading up to it! But in terms of Playtesting WarStrike, our Gencon adventure was VERY productive! We only found a few minor potential rules bugs, and two of the test groups had some very interesting feedback about how we might appeal to a wider audience than we had originally planned for.

Demo Minis Are Ready!

It was a slog, and I'll be doing a little more work on these after Gencon to brighten them up for use in the rulebook. But I got 49 test minis, for two opposing test forces, done to better-than-tabletop quality in just 10 days. With fully flocked (and bottom-felted) solid-resin bases that aren't going to slip off of whatever terrain they're placed on.

Our Gencon Demo Times Have Been Finalized

Our demo times for the First Exposure Playtest Hall have been finalized. There were no changes, so the times that I reported before are the same as on this screen graphic that I provided to the organizers.

Quick Update: Rules Done, Speed Painting Underway

We're now at the week-and-a-half mark before Gencon. I finished up the rules for the next pre-alpha last Wednesday, but I'm holding back on releasing it for now. First because I'm busy painting up minis and terrain for GenCon, and second because I want to work up some generic unit and weapon stat-lines for the major factions. Since some of you have commented that you can't test the rules with the models you have. That's fair.

Our First Exposure Demo Times At Gencon

Gencon's just 3 weeks away! 

Here's the time slots that we have reserved in the First Exposure Playtest Hall:

Thursday August 2nd: 4PM - 6PM

Thursday August 2nd: 8PM - 10PM 

Friday August 3rd: 4PM - 6PM

Friday August 3rd: 8PM - 10PM 

Saturday August 4th: 12PM - 2PM

Saturday August 4th: 4PM - 6PM

Saturday August 4th: 8PM - 12PM

Sunday August 5th: 10AM - 12PM

See you there!

Rolling Right Along...

Three pages. I had just three pages left in the Action Phase to revise and I thought I was done. Then, like a Rubik's Cube when you can't get the last 2 squares to line up right, I found myself revising parts of other rules sections so that I can come back to the Action Phase.

Why?