Your 168 Hours

I just finished reading a great time-management book called 168 Hours by Laura Vanderkam. It turns out that we all have 168 hours every week (24x7). As a game designer, assistant pastor and homeschooling father of 3 (4 in mere days), my schedule can get a bit hectic and disorganized. Vanderkam urges her readers to reevaluate their priorities and restructure their lives to accomplish what they truly want rather than just taking the path of least resistance.

I followed along by keeping a spreadsheet time diary, logging each activity and how long I spent doing it. I feared discovering 168 hours packed with wasted time and useless web-surfing. I discovered that I sleep about 8 hours a night (the average/recommended amount) and that I work 30-40 hours a week. This week I also spent over 15 hours reading (more than I intended, but it could be worse). I spent about 10-12 hours interacting with my family and about 8 hours attending church and related events (some of this counted as work). I spent 10 hours watching TV with my wife (this number could be a bit lower). One obvious area in need of improvement: 0 hours spent exercising.

Overall, I discovered that things are going better than I thought. The book had many other great ideas for tweaking your schedule to get the most out of life. I definitely felt more intentional about my time when I had to keep a log. That step alone might help you get control of your life. So, are you really doing everything you want to be doing with your 168 hours?

Cincinnati Comic Expo

Today I attended the first Cincinnati Comic Expo held at the Cintas Center. Next year the event will be moving to the Duke Energy Convention Center downtown. Terrible parking but much more space. Anyway, this year's expo seemed to be well-attended. I had a table in the board game room, courtesy of Yottaquest. Naturally, I was running demos of Revolution: The Palace.

Several other designers/entrepreneurs had tables, including the Spelman's with Jukem Football
 

and Joe & Dave Herbert of Doritos Superbowl 2009 ad fame with Triviathon.

The Revolution table stayed hot all day with barely enough time in-between rounds to grab a pretzel and Reese's Cups (the lunch of champions). All told, I held five full demos including 4-6 new people each time. BTW, I played in four games winning one, losing two (but coming up a close second) and dramatically tying 181-181 in the other! Must I brag about winning my own game? Yep. Here are a few shots of the games:

The guy with the rockin' hair (Mike) is a true fan. He interviewed me on his camcorder (I'll link to it when it gets posted), bought my game and had me sign it. In fact, so many people bought my game, it sold out--all four copies!

I'll close with a couple of Star Wars costumes. There were many, many costumes I failed to photograph or else did so poorly. And, for the record, The Predator guy got robbed at the contest. Just sayin'.

Revolution: The Palace

...has arrived! I'm doing a promo event this weekend (Cincinnati Comic Expo), so I got the SJG guys to send me some material. They also sent a hot-out-of-the-box copy of the Revolution! expansion. It's designed as a hanging bag for stores rather than a box. They've gone this route before, so maybe that's okay. All the bits will fit nicely into the main box, so you don't really need a new box anyway. Here are some pics:



The package includes: a new building for the center of the board (called, *gasp*, The Palace), a rules page, 2 new bidding screens (in purple and orange), 6 new expanded bidding boards (featuring four new spaces), purple and orange cubes, scoring tokens, high-score scoring tokens (200/300) for all colors, and more currency tokens--just in case!

BTW, it's also extremely fun--SJG really made this one shine! Thanks to all those who helped playtest the expansion. Special apologies to Thirdfloor Gamers and Xenia Gamers--I tried to get you playtester credits, but it didn't happen. I'll try harder next time! The game should be available in just a few weeks.

Update: Rolling Along

Despite the lack of posting here, I have been doing a lot of game-related stuff lately.

1. My "really cool" game is entering v2.0 and starting to come together. Still lots of possibility here . . .
2. Zev of Z-man games called tonight asking for a rules clarification. That has to be a positive sign. So now that he's played it, the question is: Does he like it? Stay tuned . . .
3. Minion Games is still looking for an artist to do my game about King Solomon. We are looking for someone who can do more of a traditional, serious look reminiscent of oil painting--someone very talented and able to keep the budget on track. Or even somebody close to this description. Recommendations welcomed.
4. Jolly Rogers is still waiting for quotes.
5. Wattsalpoag is currently working through a recent deluge of work and will talk to me sometime next month. I know that feeling!
6. Child #4 is due in less than a month! All of them are girls. And I'm cool with that. I didn't even want a boy until I saw Tom Vasel's cool "Life Changing Announcement" video this week. Man, is he excited. It's really a must-see!

So that's where things are in my gaming world. Two other items of note: I got a smoking-fast new computer and Adobe CS5 Standard is on the way next week. Dominion: Prosperity will follow soon after. I hope. Man, why didn't I buy that at GenCon? Why!?!

Games played this week:

And 2 Secret Prototypes!

New Look!

So what do you think of the new look? You'll notice I'm also using my swank new domain name. I'll probably be monkeying around with things over the next few weeks. Stay tuned!

GenCon 2010

Here are a few pictures and some commentary from my whirlwind trip to GenCon Friday:

This is the Steve Jackson Games booth. They also had a prominent display in the main board gaming area. Nice.

My job was to demo Revolution: The Palace. Many people were surprised to learn that this was my first time playing the official version. I've played my own versions many times, but not the official one. I found it to be an amazing experience! The SJG guys really did a nice job on the expansion--it works well with 4-6 players and takes the game to a new level.

Here's Paul teaching the game to some guys. You can just see Randy in his too-cool jacket at the left. Fun fact: He's the only person to have played Revolution! more times than me!

Here's the door I couldn't get into. Then the SJG folks brought me my badge and all was well.

The FF guys were there en mass, walking around in their blue shirts like they owned the place--which they pretty much did.

The ubiquitous shot of a guy in a kilt buying 20-sided dice--no con is complete without it! And here are some other cool and/or geeky pictures I took:

I also got a chance to touch base with several of the people who are currently considering my prototypes. Looks like everything is still in play. And I got to do some playtesting with Minion Games--that one is nearing the finish line! Thanks to everybody who came by the booth and said nice things about my game. It was a blast!

GenCon Approaches!

This week, I am gearing up to attend at least one day of GenCon Indy. I plan to be helping demo Revolution! and The Palace Expansion for Steve Jackson Games on Friday. Stop by booth #1321 and say hi! I will also be meeting with Minion Games about an upcoming release as well as meeting with Jolly Rogers Games about the Europe version of a game they may be doing soon (if they are coming). I may also get a chance to check with Wattsalpoag and Z-man about prototypes they took from Origins. And will Dominion: Prosperity be on the menu?