This is not my first project. A couple of years ago I worked on a game called Hero Within, but it self-imploded after changing my design goals. Lesson learned.

After taking a break on game design, I decided to start working on my current project, Corrupted Frontier. Seven-ish months of work and it’s in a playable state. 

What is Corrupted Frontier

To put it simply, it’s the Wild West meets cosmic horror. Or at least my take on it. Taking a gunslinger and having them face off against unspeakable horrors and attempting to hang onto their humanity.

It’s been a lot of fun, creating this world and all the monsters within it. Mainly when creating Corrupted Frontier I wanted to be the pure opposite of my last project. Going from a superhero power fantasy to a grim dark weird West.

I wanted to make something that uses classes, with dangerous combat, but mainly I wanted to have a system where players can be mutated by the cosmic core elements. I love the idea of your character being mutated, but if they mutate too much they die.

What is Done

A lot of the core of the game is done, but still needs to be playtested. There are 8 fully formed classes with a ninth one I’m debating on putting it into the game.

then there is the I guess you would call defining feature called the Corruption limit. That’s that feature. I talked about earlier where players can mutate their characters if they’re not careful. 

Combat in my game is made to be dangerous with fixed damage numbers from weapons. I went with an AP system. I didn’t wanna overwhelm players for choices, but still give them a couple options to fight or run.

My end goal is to have a few premade adventures. An easy way for people to quickly pick up and play with friends. That’s why I have one, but like everything so far it’s all good in theory.

Much of the core game loop has been designed. He leaves a lot of the areas playable, but needs to be expanded upon.

Where I’m At

With all of that, I am now in the playtesting phase. I have very little time and know very few people that I can test the game with. Nothing worse than feeling like your game is in playtesting limbo.

Still trying to figure out that part. A cloning machine would be so handy right now. If you do want to playtest Corrupted frontier you can go to Projects. Completing the playtest form will label you as a playtester in the final product.

Mainly, I’ve been working on lore elements, premade adventures, and planning for the final format. I’ve been stuck between going for the classic big book with two columns and the smaller book with one column pages.

Once playtesting happens, I’ll be able to expand upon the other features of the game. One of the reasons why my first project failed as I was making guess changes instead of getting proper playtesting feedback on features. Learn from my mistakes, always playtest then make changes.

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