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?

New Contract

I signed a new contract this week with Minion Games. We are still hashing out all the details of the game and knocking off rough edges, but it looks like we will end up with something really nice in the near future. More info as the project gets closer to the finish line.

Theme Players

I did quite a bit of frantic work on a design for Minion Games this week. The only problem? My game does not have quite enough theme. This isn't the first time I've encountered this comment. As I was showing off two prototypes for Jay of Rio Grande, he also thought my games were just not getting the theme right. What? My games have tons of theme! Don't they? I was confused.

Then I had an epiphany while discussing the MG game with my buddy, Michael, at Thirdfloorgamers. He also had mentioned that the theme needed work. So I asked, "How big a part of a game is the theme?" He told me that in his club (middle school group), he found some people who are Math Players--they don't really care about the theme at all. Space, Vikings, Ninjas, whatever. Just show me the numbers and let me figure out how to min/max this game and win.

On the other side of the spectrum, he notices the Theme Player. These guys (and girls) really care about the theme. If the theme isn't happening, the game isn't going to be played. I don't want to just move little bits around on the board, I want to be the Governor (or Captain, or Spider Monkey, etc.). And then you have lots of people at various points in between. Most people like good mechanics and a nice theme.

During this discussion, it became very obvious to me that I am very close to the Math Player side of the scale. It also became apparent that Michael is very close to the Theme Player side. This was a real chocolate-in-my-peanut-butter moment for me (apologies to those not alive in the 80s). Suddenly, I understood why I missed what Jay was telling me. He started our session by saying, "What are we doing?" That's a textbook Theme Player statement. Jay is a Theme Player. No wonder we had trouble communicating! I've also had trouble understanding Michael's helpful comments at times. Now I know why!

This also explains why space-themed games sometimes struggle--people just can't get into the theme as easily. Unless you're doing something in the Star Wars universe, you don't really know what you're doing.

This time, I decided to listen like a Theme Player. Michael had come up with several amazing ways to add theme to the game while making excellent use of the mechanics. James from Minion Games has been generating new ideas at Protospiel all weekend (even playing the game with Randy from SJG!), so I don't know if everything will make it into the final version, but I feel much better about the theme now.

In closing here are some good Theme Player questions to ask: What are we doing? If I am X, what would I expect to be doing even before I see the game? If I am X, what else should I be able to do or need to worry about in this game? What happens in this game that just doesn't make sense if I am X?

And here are some good Math Player questions: Is this game balanced? What is each resource worth? What is each move in the game worth? Is there an interesting dilemma? These all look absurdly obvious to me because I am hard-wired to think like this automatically. So which kind of player are you?