Opie Games: 2014 Review

John Parker

Although I was working on my current game designs much earlier and planning for my foray into the industry, I essentially started Opie Games in January 2014 so it seems natural (in addition to the new year) to review what has been accomplished through Opie Games in 2014 now. As identified on the About page, “Opie Games is the home of table top game designs and musings by John Parker and links to resources that may be helpful to the beginning designer or the person with an affinity toward table top games. Hopefully, you find the content here interesting.”

We had a bit of a slow start in performing on this mission due to competing tasks and converting to a new website CMS. Eventually though, we made good progress in 2014. The corporate aspect of Opie Games is still largely left undone. There was no urgency to it until a greater presence has been established and a financial benefit can be realized. (Note: “financial benefit” does not mean “make loads of cash” but “the effort and expense of incorporating and maintaining Opie Games is worth it”). So a review of 2014 is mostly based on what was accomplished on the website.

  • Created over 80 pieces of content on the website. (Many of the first of these are structural in nature, but required writing and editing all the same).
    • 30 Book pages (which are the lengthiest and meatiest pieces of content).
    • 18  Blog posts
    • 10 Community resources highlighted with links to applicable sources.
  • Incorporated many features into the website: Blogs, Books, Topic Cloud, Recent and Popular Articles, Commenting, Twitter feed, Social Media Like/Share, Search, FAQ, Caching, etc.
  • Created identities in most common social media outlets and have participated in them where related to the hobby.
  • Tried, perhaps unsuccessfully, to manage the many objectives competing for time: Game design and development (that’s why we’re here right?), community involvement, and playing games. Historically, my personal priorities have been: Faith - Family - Community - Career. Although I have not made a conscious effort, the priority of community over career certainly is being expressed in Opie Games.
  • Although the site is highly functional, it still needs an identity. That will have to come as I develop the Opie Games brand, so plain Jane is OK for now.
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