ROCK & ROLL is a musical role-playing game about making the band of your dreams with your friends and experiencing all the highs and lows of life on-stage and off. Write music, play gigs, grow your fanbase, and see the world — no musical talent required.
Successfully Kickstarted in February of 2019, the game was released almost a year later on a budget of $1200 USD. We ended production with a net profit of $60.
Designed in a single month, I set out to make a game that was simple to play and evoked the feelings of playing in a band. I designed the core systems, did the majority of the copy writing, and created the trailer for the Kickstarter, for which I wrote several songs.
I also wrote a balance-testing program that allowed me to quickly check and tweak numbers.
The cover of the book, which is physically printed and available for free digitally
The program would test against a randomly rolled set of parameters based on the inputs. This allowed us to test level scaling, various "showtime" parameters, and stat rolls all at the same time, with optional condensed output that provided a quick and error-proof way to check the quality of balance changes in the system
The game is built on a D6 system, and its mechanics (other than dice rolling) are completely original. The game offers a delightfully playful take on stats, mechanics for writing and playing songs, and alternate rules for playing the game while actually playing music (and while drinking).
The artist on the project, Shea, did drawings of the three of us.
