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So, as things often go with me, I skipped a week of this 'weekly update' thing. Yeah. I'm great at this, aren't I? Do I have a good reason? Well, not really, no. Last week was busy. Work was busy, life was busy, and I really didn't do much design or testing work... well... that's a lie actually and I'll tell you why.
Vic Venture
So, the weekend of the 15th, I was feeling pretty ill. I've been dealing with something in my sinuses for about a month now and it's really getting aggravating. While lounging around the house, I needed a project. I haven't had many new ideas lately, and I've put Dead End on hold for a while. I started thinking about my next Cardboard Arcade game a bit, and then I got the bug. I decided it was time to resurrect an old design and get working on it.
In 2009 I started working on an adventure game. There was a flash game on Discovery.com that was about taking an African safari and it used a dice mechanic which, of course, was instantly appealing to us gamers. Someone talked about it on boardgamegeek and lots of people played and discussed it. I was inspired to create something similar, but different... I wanted to make a cool dice-based solitaire that had an explorer theme... something almost Indiana Jones.
I made up a prototype and spent some time developing it. I talked about it openly on BGG and got lots of others involved. There was a bit of excitement for it and I spent a lot of time working on card art and layout. When I sent it to blind testers, it fell a bit flat. It needed something and I was not prepared at that time to figure out what it was. I packed it away in my files of prototypes and moved on.
Now, it's back. I touched up a few little details, fleshed the rules out some and was able to attract some testers almost immediately. Which is awesome. The feedback has been great and I have put together a few ideas that I am really excited about! I think I'll open-beta the next version. It's going to be fun.
Moving
But... this week, I'm moving. We have been working on purchasing a new house for around 5 months and it's finally going to happen. I'm excited, nervous, stressed, and relieved all at once. I've been living in my old house, that we sold 2 months ago, and that is not a happy situation. Lucky for us, my brother-in-law bought it, so it's not a huge deal... but it still sucks to live in someone else's house!
So... I'll be a bit silent for a while. I'm not sure when we will have Internet turned back on or when I'll get my office set up... so this next week or two might not be extremely productive for me. I'll have my phone, so I won't be abandoning Twitter or anything drastic like that... but design wise, I'm not sure I'll get a whole lot done... then again, I'm off work all week and there may be a bunch of downtime for me to get all sorts of stuff done!
Paper Route
Paper Route has been selling well! I've had lots of fun talking to others about it. I was really nervous that it would not be well received, but I am hyper-critical of my work. I have heard nothing but positive comments from others and I'm sure they aren't just trying to make me feel better. I'll share actual sales figures and talk a bit about the Game Crafter experience soon. I'm going to do a few write ups about all that.
Paper Route also received an unexpected review from the Games and Grub blog. I was completely floored by his remarks!
If you are near the Morgantown, WV area, I will be showing Paper Route at the first annual PopCon next weekend, October 6 and 7! It's going to be a blast. I've got a booth and I'll be demoing Paper Route and Scallywags... I even have Scallywags for sale! I may have a prototype or two with me if anyone is interested in playtesting...
Scallywags
Speaking of Scallywags, John Moller of UnPub.net and cartrunk.net wrote an awesome review last week. It was Talk Like a Pirate Day on the 19th and he picked that as a fitting time to promote the game! Perfect if you ask me! We did a bunch of Scallywags giveaways in celebration of our favorite holiday and I had a blast doing that. Thank you everyone that participated! It made that week very special to me.
I'll see you on the other side of my move!