Making Waves

In summer 2019, I made a deliberate decision to resign from my post as tenured professor of history at a small public college that I loved to diving deep into another passion, instructional design at a large research institution. I was terrified. I missed my students. It meant living apart from my spouse of 20 years except for holidays and weekends. What the heck had I done?

Turns out, it was the best move of my life. Once again, I was in my beloved Athens. My long-term friend Wayne and his wife Kim opened their home to me as family until I could find a rental. I gamed every week, something that had been elusive due to my long days teaching. I even picked up a new instrument (cello; I’m not good, but I’m getting better). And each day, I created some magic by designing thoughtful content and media for students. I joined an amazing team and learned things I could never have imagined (like video editing).

The only two blips in my life were, in March 2020, a recurrence of breast cancer from 2004, and, as you all know, Covid-19. In the hospital recovering from surgery, I watched as impending disaster loomed. Nurses understandably were getting folks out as quick as possible. They were frightened. None of us had any idea of what was to come. As our university went into emergency remote mode, instructional designers became quite popular. And though our in-person games ground to a halt, we had a grand time playing online, sometimes three nights a week.

Wayne and I had kicked the idea of Rustwater around starting in Fall 2019 (when we nicknamed it Redthorn). Thinking about Rustwater during the pandemic was a good thing for our brains. Wayne is an outgoing, social person, while I’m more introverted and (let’s admit it) a bit socially awkward. Having Rustwater and other games as a creative outlet, though, kept us both more sane than we’d have been otherwise.

This blog is a logical extension of our work as creators and designers of Rustwater. One game that we’ve recently played and enjoyed is Swords of the Serpentine. I loved how the writers dropped in sidebars to explain their game design choices. Think of this blog as precisely that—a way to connect to our audience, a channel to talk about game design, and on occasion, muse about the industry and how it’s changing.

As of this writing, it’s been about four years since the pandemic. We’re all back in person, and I’m happily in a home of my own with aforementioned spouse, 4 dogs, and a beautiful library cum music room. But Rustwater is still with us. As we complete final edits and look at building our network, we want to hear from you. How did you make it through the isolation of Covid-19? Was gaming a solace for you? Did you find new hobbies? Drop us a line! We want to hear from you as we try to make some waves with our game.