A Walk in the Dark A look in to the mind of an RPG designer

About

THE AUTHOR

So who am I?

My name is David Flor, and I've been known online under the handle "Nighthawk" for quite some time. By day I am a Software Developer, and have been a programmer for almost 40 years (I started around the age of 10... You do the math).

My hobby, so to speak, is game design and development, and I think I've covered it all in one way or another.

• Video Game Design: I was the lead programmer of "The Opera", an add-on for Half-Life, that was released in 2001 and got half a million downloads. And there was a time I was quite active in this area: was almost recruited by some of the bigger game companies (Valve, Raven, id, Digital Extremes, Westwood and others), and I went to the E3 Expo during the time that it actually was something special.
• Alternate Reality Game Design: I am President of Darklight Interactive, a "media agency" that strives to create alternate reality games and viral marketing experiences. So far we have one successful game (Looking Glass Laboratories) and another in active development (Rachel's Walk).

Most recently, I was introduced to the Dungeons and Dragons 4e rule set, and I've been quite absorbed by it. So I had set out to create a rather massive campaign for the 4e system tentatively called The Coming Dark (which is now slated for D&D 5th Edition, or "DnD Next" as it were), which is loosely based on an alternate reality game I currently have in development. In the meantime I've been working on other adventures, maps and whatever else I could think of.

THE BLOG

So what is this blog about?

I've tried to maintain a blog before, but it's no easy task for me. I spent too much time working and doing active development, so much so that I considered it an unnecessary diversion and a burden to blog about it. Well, I'm hoping to change that with this blog.

This blog has a few purposes:

• To talk about the development of the D&D 4th Edition adventures and content I'm working on, and openly discuss my train of thought on certain aspects of it and the D&D mechanic.
• To talk about game design in general. This blog may not always be limited to D&D... I might talk video games, ARGs and other things.
• As an outlet for whatever other banter I choose to write about.

So I hope I don't scare you off.

Tnx & Rgds...
David "Nighthawk" Flor

Page updated May 18th, 2012