Only In the 21st Century

It's really cool to be alive in the future. At least that's how it seems sometimes. I participated in some remote playtesting tonight. I emailed some prototype files to a group in Minnesota. They printed them out and playtested it. Then we had a very insightful Skype session hashing things out. Maybe you do that all the time, but it was a first for me. Zero cost and lightning fast!

Also, Revolution! made two bid podcasts will I wasn't paying attention:

The Dice Tower (Ep. 157 @13:45) and
The Spiel (Ep. 89 @25:00 - this one is pretty long).

Both were very positive about the game. Thanks, guys!

Tom Vasel Reviews Revolution! -- He Likes It!

Here is the BBG thread for more.

BoardGameGeek.CON

The BoardGameGeek convention is going on this week in Dallas. I just read this statement on the official Twitter feed (geekdo): "I thought Revolution! was going to suck, but it ended up being better than Loyang, Greed Inc, or Automobile." That's what I like to hear! Maybe the SJG folks will take some pictures . . .

Also, I received my twelve contractually obligated promo copies of Revolution! the other day. All the playtesters also got a copy. For future reference: help me playtest and maybe you'll get a nice game out of it someday.

Speaking of which, I head up to Xenia tomorrow for some playtesting with a high school gaming club. They really helped me out last year. I have three more prototypes for them this year. I have two more just at the brink of being ready for other people to test, but there just wasn't time to get them ready. There is a small chance that I will have them ready for the great Thanksgiving family week. Maybe I'll even get them to the table if I keep reminding everybody about the free playtester copy they got the last time!

Meeting Yehuda

I meet board game designer and blogger Yehuda Berlinger tonight. We shared some interesting vegetarian Indian cuisine as well as much game-related discussion. We have a few acquaintances in common: David Miller (who helps him run Purple Pawn) and Jackson Pope (who publishes his game called It's Alive!). Check out his Jerusalem Gaming blog and account of our meeting.

The Independent's Essen Article

UK's The Independent recently did an interesting story about board games and Essen. Definitely worth the read. I have such a burning desire to attend Spiel at Essen as soon as possible. I suppose I'll have to design more games to make that happen. So be it.

Third Floor Gamers

I got to chat with the Third Floor Gamers via Skype today. It's a school-based group of nice kids just getting into gaming. Somehow, their fearless leader, Michael, stumbled onto my game and bought a stack of them for the club. He also did a cool video review on BGG. They seem to enjoy playing Revolution!--one of them had just scored over 350. Nice! Unfortunately, they couldn't hear me too well on their end, so I ended up having to do a lot of chat typing. I would have liked to say more but it was still fun. Some playtesting might be in their future . . . Thanks, guys!

BTW - I got my first royalty statement today! $$$ . . . well, maybe more like $ . . . still. :)

Revolution! At Essen

Unfortunately, the the Essen buzz for Revolution! is only an imperceptible whisper. This picture is the first documented evidence that it was even there. These nice Germans seem to be moderately amused. I understand that there is a lot of competition for people's attention there--lots of games everywhere. The ratings seem to be coming at a steady pace on BGG. Meanwhile, I've been working several other prototypes, getting them in front of publishers, testing others and making new ones. Once something breaks loose, I'll be sure to let you in on it.