Lee has done a bunch of cool air games for us since 2004, when we published Downtown, Lee’s outstanding game on the operational air war in Vietnam. Ten years and several games later, he’s working on a series that has captured my imagination more than any of the rest – Wing Leader. The initial design work we’ve seen to date looks amazing, so we’re really anxious to see this one progress, both design-wise and on our P500 list (451 orders in just a few months on the list). Lee has also created a terrific video promo for Wing Leader. If you haven’t seen it yet, check it out here for more info on the series and a good laugh!  – Gene

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Today I start a vacation. Or it should more properly be called a staycation, as I’m locked to my desk at home, working on content for my Wing Leader game.

Like a certain game about squads and leaders, much of what makes Wing Leader great is in the scenario creation. There’s latitude for riffing on a number of simple themes and I’m looking to build a suite of scenarios that are fun, touch upon a lot of different moments in history, and deliver a variety of experience.

In my day job, building content for video games, you go through the early stages of a project trying to nail the basic stuff. You explore what the game is about and construct game worlds that support the core gameplay. Only once you understand the basics can you begin to stretch the content in different directions.

So it is with Wing Leader. Early scenarios focussed on basic building blocks. They attempted to define what a scenario looked like on the page, what the basic grammar of a scenario was. Now we have learned the basics we can start to play about, do some more sophisticated stuff. And we are almost at the place where we have a first draft of all the content.

It’s an important time. Knowing the scenario content allows me to lock down what the asset requirements are for the game. How many counters of each aircraft type do I need? How many aircraft data cards are required? I have estimates of all of these, but I now need to nail down precise numbers.

However, having a first draft, and having developed a working knowledge of the game and scenario creation, we can begin to tweak the stuff we have. We can take those early basic scenarios and buff them up, adding the spice and playful stuff we learned along the way.

I’ve tentatively pencilled in the autumn for the start of beta testing, which will permit some of you to take a look at the game and the content for the first time. It’ll be good to get fresh eyes on this. I’m not taking any newcomers just yet, so keep your eyes peeled for the bat-signal!

Author: Lee Brimmicombe-Wood