Over the past few months, I have been slowly growing my design portfolio and have been doing freelance graphic design work. One of the areas where I am actively trying to push myself into is book design, both for print and eBooks. One of the projects I have worked on, is now up for sale, and that is an omnibus novel The Double Spiral War Trilogy.

The novel has been released and you can see a sample of my work here.

I did the cover design, page design, book and eBook design. This was the first novel I’ve laid out, and I am pretty proud of the work I’ve done. I have some more work on tap with the publisher (Battlefield Press) but I hope to do more novels.

Tags: Book Design, eBook Design

Been a busy few days. A lot of projects filling my plate, and when I add in the start of a new quarter at school, this is going to be a long month. Why so busy? Here’s the rundown.

• Doing a freelance assignment for Gameplaywrite Press. Said assignment is a eBook project. More on this when it is ready. I will say that to date, this is the most challenging eBook design I have done. There are a lot of moving pieces in it, and I really am stretching what the standard can do.
• Doing a freelance assignment for Battlfield Press. This assignment is a layout and eBook project. Though it is a bit easy, when compared to what I am doing for Gameplaywrite Press it is still fun, and I am coming up with a nice clean look.
• Over the weekend finished a small project for Knightvision Games. This project was a small graphic design assignment and will be used for a adventure they are publishing. First time I have worked with Jim, and it was great. Good direction, knows what he wanted, and more importunely, knows what he likes. Looking forward to doing more with them.

The above is freelance. When it comes to Rogue Games, there is a lot going on right now. A mental block I had for the past few months finally cleared, and I am returning to the projects that sort of just laid there.

Tags: Graphic Design, Current Work, Finished Work

As of today we have lunched a Kickstarter Project in the hopes that we can produce the following:

"At the present moment in world history nearly every nation must choose between alternative ways of life. The choice is too often not a free one.

One way of life is based upon the will of the majority, and is distinguished by free institutions, representative government, free elections, guarantees of individual liberty, freedom of speech and religion, and freedom from political oppression.

The second way of life is based upon the will of a minority forcibly imposed upon the majority. It relies upon terror and oppression, a controlled press and radio; fixed elections, and the suppression of personal freedoms.

I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.

I believe that we must assist free peoples to work out their own destinies in their own way."

-- President Harry S Truman, Speech to a Joint Session of the United States Congress (12 March 1947)

The Second World War has ended and a war for the world has begun, a war fought not with armies and fleets but in the shadows and whose battle lines are not clearly drawn. Two years ago, Germany and Japan were the enemies and the USSR an ally, but times change and the West now turns to former Nazis and their expertise in a bid to stop the red tide of Communism from washing across the world.

Containment is an espionage roleplaying game set at the dawn of the Cold War, with players assuming the roles of American, British, or French espionage agents as they grapple not just with Communist infiltration but with the dark legacies of Nazism -- including black magic and super-science. Flexibly designed, Containment supports play either as a straight-up historical espionage RPG covering the years 1947-1953 or as a game of occult conspiracy in the aftermath of World War II.

Written and designed by Richard Iorio II (Colonial Gothic & Shadow, Sword & Spell) and James Maliszewski (Thousand Suns), Containment harkens back not just to an earlier time in world history but also to an earlier time in the roleplaying hobby, when games came complete and ready-to-play in a single box. Containment therefore includes the following:

• Rulebook: All the rules needed for play.
• Gamemaster’s Book: Everything the GM needs for play: world background, campaign advice, character advancement rules, adventure creation guidelines, and sample threats.
• 2 Adventures (one a straight up espionage adventure, and the other set in the occult conspiracy)
• Dice

If this Kickstarter project succeeds, Rogue Games will not only publish this boxed set, but keep it in print for others to enjoy. Further support for the game, in the form of sourcebooks and adventures, may appear in the future, if there is sufficient interest. If successful, Containment will be released in the following formats:

• Boxed Set (includes everything mentioned above)
• PDF version (includes everything but the dice)
• eBook version of the game (includes everything but the dice)

Here is a breakdown of the proposed budget for the project:

• Printing is the estimated cost of printing approximately 500 copies of the boxed set.
• Shipping and Handling is the expected total cost of packing, shipping, and handling to send the boxed set to supporters, based on past sales and fundraisers.
• Writing & Graphic Design goes to Richard & James (the writers) and Richard (Graphic Designer), to pay them for work they have done, and continue to do, in creating the games Rogue Games publishes.

Rogue Games believes that a complete, boxed roleplaying game is neither a thing of the past nor an expensive pipe dream and asks your help in making Containment possible.

To help us make this possible, visit here to see the reward levels.

In the days to come, James and I will have more information and be vocal during the design process. This is something that we have always wanted to do, a box set, so this is our chance to make this happen.

To back the project visit http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ri2/containment-the-rpg.

Tags: Games, Rogue Games

So I have been slowly building a freelance graphic design business. It has started out slow, but I have been getting more and more work. Last week I finished a logo design for Bedrock Games for a new title they have coming out next year. I will be designing the cover as well as doing the layout, but the logo, for anything, is the most important thing you need to design. It helps set the tone of whatever you are doing, regardless if it is a roleplaying game or a business.

Usually, when I design a logo, I do a number of rough sketches. For this one, I sort of new what I wanted to do after talking with Brendan of Bedrock Games we were on the same page. So I sat down at the computer and came up with a font that fit the tone. I also needed a background that worked. The fonts and title portion I did in Illustrator and exported it to Photoshop, where I placed it on top of the background I built from scratch. The result? I knocked it out of the part with Brendan. Take a look:

The interior of this book is a little ways off, but I know where I am going to go with it. I plan on making some roughs over the next few weeks.

Tags: design, logos, Bedrock Games