I Hate It When

. . . this happens.

You design a game (or at least come up with a cool new idea), and then someone else beats you to the punch. Keep in mind, I'm not accusing anyone of theft or anything. I believe this is a total coincidence, but enough of a coincidence that I wanted to share it with you.

I have been shopping around a game I call Square Off for a couple of years now. The other day, I learned of a new product from Gamewright called City Square Off. The games are nothing alike--it's only the names (and logos) that are similar. Or is it just me?

Anyway, it's just weird. Now to think up a new name.

Checking In

In case you haven't noticed by my total lack of posting, I've been swamped lately! A combination of substitute teaching, family projects and some fresh design work as kept my nose firmly against the grindstone. So, here are a few random and/or interesting bits of news:

I helped organize a program for Nation Game Day at my local library. Unfortunately, only one kid showed up! :( I'm choosing to put the blame for this squarely on the lack of advertising by the library and the insanely beautiful Saturday afternoon weather.

Saturday, Isabel and I participated in a little Dominion  tournament at Gateway Games. Isabel had a better score than I did and just missed second place by a few points. Very nice time regardless!

Also, BGG.con just wrapped up down in Texas. James of Minion Games was able to attend and gave me a good report of the demos he ran of Kingdom of Solomon. However, we recently learned that Ludofact will not be able to ship all our games (my game and two others have to be shipped in the same load) for a bit longer. This means the boat will be a bit later and then US distribution will be a bit later. Right now it's looking more like January or even February before the games make it to local stores and people's doorsteps. We are so sorry to be missing the holiday season--and extremely sorry to disappoint anyone's gift-giving plans.

Let me leave you with something nice: I have become a diehard fan of the Ludology podcast. These guys do the Game Tech feature on the Dice Tower podcast. The show is fantastic--you almost need to take notes! If you're a game designer, or just curious about game mechanics, give it a listen.

The Essen Aftermath

So Essen has come and gone. And I didn't get to go--but enough whining! Kingdom of Solomon had a very nice debut. From the pictures and personal accounts it looked like the demo table saw non-stop action (and with people waiting). Sales were acceptable-to-good, and the game made #15 on the Medium Traffic column of GeekBuzz! Not too shabby with all the fierce competition and fatter marketing budgets at the show.

The next stage involves snagging some reviews followed by US distribution. The boat will soon be on it's way, so we're looking at only a few short weeks before the first US copies make it over--including mine! Kickstarters will be first in line once our ship comes in. If you got a copy at Essen, we need you to rate it and maybe write a brief review or session report on BGG. Every little bit helps!

One final note today. The final version seems to contain only 10 of the 16 Temple Tokens that ideally should be in there. They did put in 16 white cubes (Temple Blocks) to track the progress of the Temple, but we don't have 16 of the tokens (featuring the High Priest). This really does not affect the game much at all--many games will not even require all 16 tokens, as players often chose the VPs over the token. Even so, we apologize for this oversight. See the ongoing BGG thread for more info.

Since it will be impossible for us to provide extras at this time, this leaves you with a few options. You can simply limit the tokens to 10. Or you can use tokens from another game, pennies, etc. Or you can print a few more using this high-res official PDF. My preference and intention was and is to make 16 tokens available. Again, we are very sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

Thanks for your continuing interest in Kingdom of Solomon! We are looking forward to introducing more and more gamers to this great new experience. And look for even more new-game-related news coming in the next few months!

The Emotional Roller Coaster of Game Design

Minion Games is reporting significant sales of Kingdom of Solomon at Essen. Woo-hoo! Looks like the booth is getting a lot of traffic. FYI, KoS should be in the USA at the end of November/beginning of December, just in time for a certain major holiday . . . All this brings to my mind the wild ride often involved in game design.

At the start, excitement is high--you've just had an amazing flash of brilliance! Then comes the first prototype. Blah--it doesn't really work. But there's still something there . . .

Next you work and work to smooth rough edges and get the game into a somewhat playable state. Finally, you can play the game from start to finish! Now the real playtesting begins.

People give you "constructive" criticism. Yuck. Like bad-tasting medicine, it must be endured for healthy design. And your game gets better. Now to find a publisher.

It's a good game, but no one has time or money to publish. So you try harder and finally get a bite. Hooray! If it's a smaller company, get ready for even more work--endless editing and revising. And it takes much longer than you think--seriously, when will the art be done!?!?

By the time all this is finished you are almost tired of looking at your game (almost). You start thinking that people don't care about your game or it's not as cool as the other new games (really people just don't know about your game--very different). But the game is published! People actually buy it! Happy times are here again!

Now you have to keep marketing and doing demos for people--more work, but it's cool. And so there it is, some days are good some are long and tedious. But if you keep working, one day you look up and it turns out you've come a long way--and that feels awesome!

Inspiring Reads

I've just finished several really great leadership and entrepreneur books. If you have any desire whatsoever to create products (games?) and/or start a business or even get a promotion, you should check some of these out.

The first was Good To Great by Jim Collins. This one is a little old (pre-2001), but still contains many timeless truths.

Next was EntreLeadership by Dave Ramsey. I'm a huge Dave Ramsey fan, and this book did not disappoint. It walks you through how to set up a business and lead with integrity and passion. Lots of great ideas even if you don't want to be a CEO.

Finally, I just finished The Other 8 Hours by Robert Pagliarini. This book encourages you to pursue a better life with the hours you normally spend watching American Idol and playing Minecraft (I only do one of those activities, BTW). He outlines several different ways to super-charge your income potential.

One very clever bit of advice from this book: how to get necessary services to move your business venture forward but without shelling out lots of money up front. Pagliarini gives the example of needing a new website. You find a great company, but they will charge you $5,000 to build the site. So instead of paying this large amount, you offer them $500 now plus 25% of all ad revenue up to the $18,000 level. This is worth exactly $4,500--the balance of the service. But then you also offer 15% of all ad revenue up to the $168,000, 10% up to $618,000, 5% up to $2,418,000, and 1% up to $15M. The deal is capped at this point.

What this means is that this web company gets $500 now, a great chance at getting all their money, plus a decent chance to make lots more. And a small chance to make a small fortune (possibly around $300K). You can see how this sort of thinking could be applied to all sorts of other business arrangements, both to hire new partners and to do work for others.

So what are your dreams? Turn those dreams into goals and get moving today!

Cincinnati Comic Con

I got to attend the second annual Cincinnati Comic Con this year at Duke Energy Center. Unfortunately, I only got to be there until noon, and my few pictures of the event were somehow erased from my camera (must have been that faulty restraining bolt). It seemed like lots of people were there--more than last year (when it was at the Cintas Center). The gaming area, sponsored by Yottaquest, was slightly easier to find, though still a bit out of the way. But it was much bigger, so that was good.

I got to show Kingdom of Solomon, Tiger Stripes and Revolution!, running one actual demo of the latter before I had to go. I was able to get one of the Yottaquest guys (Scott) to help demo for the rest of the day, but I haven't heard how this went yet. Also, I got to meet Katie Cook and see lots of cool comic-related stuff in the main hall. If you missed it, you should definitely think about stopping by next year!

Tweaking the Temple

Just days (hours) before the final printing, we have decided to make one final adjustment to Kingdom of Solomon. The Temple will now have six extra spaces to fill. During our demos at GenCon, we ran into a few people who got carried away with building the Temple even against their own interests. Just because it was there. This led to a shorter-than-expected game and an unsatisfying experience for all.

A quick recap: The game ends on the round when either all eleven building sites are filled, or when one player places all five of his buildings, or when the Temple is completed. Having the most Temple Tokens (gained by helping the build sections of the Temple) also gives a player control of the High Priest and 20 VP at the end. So rushing to complete the Temple might seem attractive, but is usually not best way to score points.

I'm still convinced that players would never repeat this mistake in subsequent games, but in this world of thousands of new games, one play might be all my game gets at some tables. Therefore, we added more spaces. Now even all the players working together cannot complete the Temple in fewer than four turns and are far more likely to have a "full" game experience.  This change will not necessarily add any extra length to the game, as the other two end triggers remain unchanged. Playing time will still normally fall into the 60-90 minutes range.

Also, checkout the new BGG microbadge!

One final note: If you will be attending Essen 2011 and would like to preorder KoS and pick it up at the show, use the code PICKUP11 at checkout and you will not be charged for shipping. The current preorder price is $44.99! Visit Minion Games for more details.