Fall of the Republic:
Design Notes - Part 5: Public Affairs
By
Brian Weeks
I
can't believe that we've come full circle with this article series.
I hope you've enjoyed your tour of a behind the scenes look at
the development of the IDC expansion Fall of the Republic.
As you can tell, alot of people have put their heart, soul and
personal time into this project. Each of them need to be given
a big round of applause.
The
members of the IDC are producing these expansions for you, the
player, and because we love the game. We all hope that WOTC would
continue the game again (it would free up some of my time for
sure), but if not, I think the IDC will be here for several years.
But before we conclude this series, the Public Affairs Sub-committee
will present its insight into the development of the expansion.
Missing
Chairperson
With
about two months left before the scheduled release of Fall
of the Republic, the elected Chairperson of Public Affairs
stepped down due to personal issues. The void had to be filled...and
fast. After a few days of discussions, I stepped up to the plate.
After all the work the IDC had put into this project, I was not
about to let it come crashing down. I had to get approval from
the Board to be the temporary Chair of Public Affiars (remember,
at this time, I was still the Card Development Chair). After approval
by the IDC Board, I purchased the domain name www.skywlkr.net
and got to work. The site is paid out of my own pocket voluntarily.
Website
Development
While
not new to creating webpages, I hadn't produced a site of this
size before. Some forethought had to be given to the site look,
layout and organization. I also had to think ahead to prepare
for future expansions and make sure the site would be easy to
expand when the time came to update. I primarily use Dreamweaver
to create and update the site, but Fireworks sometimes
gets used as well. All banners and buttons were created in Photoshop.
As
you can tell from the recent Scum and Villainy articles,
I will be changing the look of the new article pages on the site
with each new expansion. Hopefully this will keep the site fresh
and new with each expansion. Some other new features may be coming
soon to the site, so keep checking back!
Promotional
In
addition to the pre-planned promo cards for Fall of the Republic,
I also created two promotional posters. Both were suitable for
printing and hanging at the local card shop. Similar in design
to the WOTC promo posters, they each teased five cards from the
upcoming expansion. Feedback and comments were very positive.
Discussions
in the forums on Rebelbasers.com reminded me of the "good
'ol days" when WOTC would preview some cards. I hope everybody
enjoyed them. Both were created in Photoshop. A special
thanks to F. May (Mixmaster), the former Graphic Design Chair
for creating some really excellent cards, for creating the package
art and for keeping me updated with any modified cards.
Articles
Another
"hat" worn by the Public Affairs Chair is that of Editor.
In addition to making sure that the FOTR card list was being reviewed
and approved by the various committees, I was also creating the
web pages, creating the promo posters and editing the various
articles I was receiving from the IDC members. Since late April,
for fifteen weeks, the IDC site has presented twenty-six different
articles, with one to two articles being presented every Friday
since the start of the website. I really feel the articles we've
presented have been varied, informative and entertaining. I hope
you've enjoyed them as much as I have.
Special
thanks to all that have contributed. If you would like to contribute
to the IDC site, please email us: idcadmin@skywlkr.net.
All
Good Things...
I
know, I know. It's a line from Star Trek. But I really think it
sums up why the IDC does what it does. We all love this game and
wouldn't be volunteering our time if we didn't. At the same time,
I have no delusions. Eventually this game will end. But we, of
the IDC, believe it ended before it should have. And that's why
we're here.
But,
this game won't continue through us alone. You must continue to
provide support by sharing the game. Show your friends how to
play. Print out the promo posters and hang them in your local
card shop (with permission of course). Thanks again for your support
to the IDC and if you get a chance, give an IDC member a pat on
the back. KEEP THE GAME ALIVE.
Thoughts
or comments? Visit the message board thread for this article here.
About
the Author
Brian Weeks (aka Skywlkr) has been playing the Star Wars TCG since
its introduction at Celebration 2 in 2002. After playing the demo
game and introducing it to RedneckJedi and Darthwalls, Team 'Dude
Where's My Card' was created. He competed in three qualifiers,
yet the closest he ever ranked was eighth. As a member on Rebelbasers,
SWDuelist and a writer for the now defunct Diehard Online, he
has tried to promote the game through information and interaction.
He is married, has a three year old son, is an architect, has been
the Treasurer and Newsletter Editor for five years for JediOKC (an Oklahoma
City based Star Wars Fan Club), was the IDC Card Development Chairperson
for Fall of the Republic and is now the IDC Public
Affairs Chairperson. Despite all that, he still has time to introduce
the game to new players…KEEP THE GAME ALIVE!
