Pre-Essen Update

That title sort of makes it sound like I'm heading out to Essen soon. Sadly, I am not. However, I do have another game being released there! AEG will be launching Canalis, the next game in the Tempest series. My designer diary was recently featured on BoardGameNews. The rules can be found on AEG's site.

In other news, I signed two more contracts in the past month. APE Games will be publishing my rice game, Spirits of the Rice Paddy. It's the most complex game I've ever designed--a 90-120 minute euro about growing rice. I'm very excited to see how this one is received by the gamer community.

Also, my hastily-conceived Battlecruiser game was signed by ??? I'm not sure when/if there will be an official announcement, especially since one of the prototypes was recently stolen from the co-publisher's house! I'm guessing he's been pretty busy with life at the moment.

Finally, the art team (yes, there's a whole team) for Skyway Robbery continues to turn in amazing work. Little bits of the elaborate backstory (a novel is in the works) are woven into many of the card images. It's a little insane--and a lot mind-blowing! Can't wait to start showing this off!

GenCon Wrapup

Now that everyone's back from GenCon, I'll add my recap to the mix. Unfortunately, I don't have many helpful tips or interesting pictures to share. Just a recap of my one busy day (Friday).

7:30 - Left the house and headed to Indy. Caught The Secret Cabal Gaming Podcast's GenCon preview show, Part 1. It's a crossover with the Dice Tower crew, who have Part 2 (August 6) on their site. Good way to kill the drive time.

9:30 - Swooped into the mall parking area. Had to drive straight to the top.

10:00 - Got my badge (thanks, Edward), said hi to a few friends and then rendezvoused with Jason Kotarski in advance of our publisher meeting. Got to see half the exhibit hall--quickly.

11:00 - Pitch to a publisher. Jason and I are working on a game called Fidelitas. They didn't hate it, but didn't love it either. We're a little bummed, but maybe we can take the criticisms and use them to make a better game in the end.

11:45 - Meeting with another publisher about . . . stuff.

12:10 - Arrive ten minutes late to my demo of Skyway Robbery. Even so, the three players are eager to begin despite the unfinished-looking prototype and the cost of $2 each. It goes well--I need to get better about explaining it. Made some good notes for slight improvements. This game is supposed to be Kickstarting in a few weeks.

2:00 - Pitched Battlecruiser to a publisher even though I had made it only seven days before. The pitch lasted about four minutes. He liked it and took it with him. :)

2:30 - Met Jason and his wife for lunch at Noodles & Co. Those guys are on the ball in there! We discussed the game and some ways to make it work. Things are positive.

4:00 - Demo of Chief Inspector. This is another game in the Skyway Robbery/Ruse universe (called Gaslight Empire). I hadn't played this game in about two years, so it was interesting. But it worked well and the players enjoyed it. More notes.

5:00 - Got to see the other half of the exhibit hall. Purchased one game during the con, Dominion: Guilds. We have since played it. Very nice conclusion to the series.

7:00 - Met with another publisher to discuss my rice game. We are close to a deal. His playtesting buds were there, too, and we came up with some ways to improve the game. Can't wait to try them. I also showed him some work on the PC game he'd asked me to think about making a board game of. Once we get the green light from the publishers, it's a go. I'm looking forward to it.

8:00 - Headed over to the AEG Big Game Night event. It was packed. It was crazy. There were even a few people playing Courtier (50% of them were from Nevermore Games). I also got to see the proofs for Canalis, coming in October. Everything looks very sharp.

9:00 - Found James Mathe's designer mixer at the Hyatt. I got a chance to chat with Dan Yarington of Game Salute about the current state of things and future plans. Then Dan wanted a milkshake, so a few of us (plus about 150 other gamers) packed into the poor little Steak & Shake. The wait time is pretty bad, but the shakes are almost worth it.

11:00 - I drive back to Cincinnati without falling asleep.

All in all, it was a good con for me. I hate having to rush away from everyone and not getting to play games I didn't design, but maybe I'll get to stay longer next time. It was great getting to see so many friends and making a few new ones!

GenCon 2013!

Could not help adding this in!

It's that time again! It's time to prepare for GenCon. This year I will be attending Friday only. While I have several meetings, I can be tracked down at the following times and places:

12:00 (noon): Demo of Skyway Robbery at the Game Salute area in Hall E next to Mayfair.
4:00: Demo of Chief Inspector (small deduction card game set in the same universe) also at Game Salute in Hall E.
8:00 and beyond: I plan to check in on the designers' meetup at the Hyatt (rooms A&B), and I will also try to make AEG's Big Game Night (not sure where that is exactly).

As for my previous challenge of making 3 games in 3 weeks, I've made FOUR games in the last 2.5 weeks. Two of which are not quite ready for prime time, but the unexpected addition to the party is Battlecruiser. I made even more cards Saturday and we tested them some today. Things are working quite well. I'll definitely try to show this one off some during the con!

Battlecruiser Playtest

I am looking for some super-quick playtesting of my new customizable mini-game. This game features 5-10 minutes of blazing space combat, trickery and cunning. I am looking to get some last-minute feedback before GenCon if possible--tough deadline, I know. Send me a message if you are interested and I'll send you a link to the files. Thanks!

Lessons Learned

You might notice a slight change in the appearance of this blog as well as a tweak to the domain name. I am now the proud owner of phantasiogames.net. I am also the foolish, bumbling loser of the domain name phantasiogames.com. :( That one is now owned by some dude in Japan. I have learned a few important lessons:

1. Auto-renew is your friend. Mine was turned off. Do not turn off auto-renew.

2. Moving and having a new baby at the same time will also turn off your brain for several months. Try to be a little more organized. HA HA HA HA HA! (That was a little inside joke for anyone who's ever moved and had a new baby in the same week before.)

3. When you discover something wrong with your blog, don't immediately jettison all the current settings without backing them up in a vain and fruitless effort to make the pain stop. Pain will just laugh at you.


4. Life will go on. Except for those people who type in the wrong address. They will be assaulted by Japanese techno-babble. Such as happened to my Mom (one of my four regular readers--wait, does my wife still read this?).

I have already endured changing my email address on everything (except for my domain registrar's increasingly urgent warnings), so why not change all my blog stuff too!? Let's make it a game. If you spot a link that sends you into Japan-induced confusion, drop me a line. If you find one, you are the winner. Thanks!

One more note. In the spirit of having my brain not quite firing on all cylinders and what with all the free time afforded by raising five children, I have set myself a colossal task: design and prototype three games in three weeks in preparation for GenCon! Game one is nearly ready to print . . . :)

Origins 2013 Recap

Another Origins has come and gone. I was only able to attend Saturday, but all the vendors said that traffic was up significantly from last year. Apparently, the dates matter. This year I got to take my daughter, Isabel (of Tiger Stripes fame). She got to meet lots of great folks.

One of the highlights was a demo game of King of Tokyo. Isabel managed to get about 12 points, then she acquired the card where you get 9 points for rolling one of each thing. Then she got the card that lets you change one die. And then she rolled one away from a straight for the win! A space penguin is on its way to her in the mail, compliments of Iello. We later bought the game and also got a nifty promo pack of extra cards. Sweet!

I got to talk shop with several publishers. I also got some design work done with Jason Kotarski (The Great Heartland Hauling Co.) on a new mini-game. More on this in future posts . . .

I got a copy of the mini-expansion for Kingdom of Solomon called Chronicles of the King, co-designed with Daniel McDairmant. It looks nice! Minion Games had several demos of KoS going during the show. AEG has many demos of Courtier going as well.

In other news, have I mentioned that I have a new Tempest game coming in time for Essen this year? Because that's happening. :)

A nice time was had by all. Isabel was amazed by how fast it flew by. Now to get to work designing more games!

Catching Up

My apologies for the long delay. Life has happened in a BIG way. First of all, our son Isaac was born on May 1st! That brings our kid total to FIVE. Mommy and baby are both doing quite well. He got his pacifier last night, and he loves it. And we love him not fussing as much. :)

 Second, we FINALLY closed on the sale of our house! Now, we just need another small miracle to find the perfect new house to buy. In the meantime, our rental house is proving to be cozy enough for us all. For future reference, I don't recommend moving and having a baby 2 days apart.

 As you might imagine, my game-playing and -making have taken a backseat for several weeks. But things have been slowly moving ahead on a number of fronts. Family Vacation did not make its funding goal on Kickstater. It seems that we missed our audience on this one. However, Jim at Jolly Roger Games is determined to fund the game through other means--if/when he can score a few wins on other projects. The saga continues.

 I am nearing completion of a design to be included in the upcoming Princess Bride mini-game collection from Game Salute. This game features card drafting, a la 7 Wonders, but with a reduced playing time (10 minutes) and some new twists and turns. Players will be making a miracle pill/potion for the Man in Black. They will need to collect and combine the right ingredients to succeed, occasionally having to destroy old cards to get new ones.

SR Sneak Peek!

Skyway Robbery and Tiger Stripes (by Isabel) are heading toward Kickstarter campaigns in the coming weeks/months. I've seen just a bit of the art, and both games are going to look amazing!

 Also, I found out yesterday that AEG will be producing my next Tempest game in time for Essen--IF the crazy amount of work can get done in the short time frame. I'm probably not allowed to say too much more about this one . . . If you would be interested in helping to playtest it, send me a message. We'd love some extra help!

One more important item to mention. A few weeks ago I was contacted by Daniel McDairmant, a Kingdom of Solomon fan, about a possible mini-expansion. In just a few weeks, we (and the folks from Minion Games) hammered out a great new set of cards to make the game even more exciting! The best part is, you can buy a copy today! Check out Chronicles of the King.

Right now I'm planning to attend Origins, but only on Saturday. Even this small trip is on shaky ground, but I hope it works out. Here's to hoping things settle back down for us in the coming weeks--or that we find an awesome place to call home and THEN settle down.