Recently, I was lucky enough to win a Google Wave invitation through a contest aimed at getting Dungeon Masters running D&D 4e games over Google Wave, pitching a game called ‘The Breath of Heroes’.  The idea is not a new one, I had already seen an article on Gameplaywright called Playing on a Wave about using Google Wave for games using the Gumshoe system, but I always find that I can get my head around things more easily by getting hands-on with them; I suspect it is a result of my engineering degree.

One of my other ideas about the Wave system was that games companies end up with a fair number of living ‘bible’ documents (story bibles, art bibles, game bibles, style guides, the GDD)  and the collaborative real-time nature of Google Wave, together with the playback option, might make it easier for teams to work concurrently on these documents without endlessly stepping on each other’s toes.  After the acclimatisation phase, which would probably be about as damaging to productivity as the day Microsoft added solitaire to Windows, I wondered if it might usher in a new era of interactive working.

Well, I have been experimenting for a few days and I have to say that I am optimistic, but still unsure of the whole thing.  I have been toying with it in short bursts, having injured myself during the week, but I can see some potential there.  In the coming weeks, I hope to gain more insight and report on my successes and failures.  Until then, back on the painkillers.

For those of you on Wave, I am available at elaquine@googlewave.com and open to any advice or tips you may have.

Join me next time for Part 2