What's in a Name?

For many years I've been referring to new games by a codename that stands as a working title while the game is in development. It's Alive! was Codename: Monster, Carpe Astra was Codename: Network and Sumeria was Codename: Ancient before their official names were chosen or announced. And now I'm working on Codename: Vacuum.

If I decide to hawk it to publishers, job done, I can send it with the codename, since the publisher will almost certainly want to chose the name (and the artist and tweak the rules) themselves. However, if I decide I self publish again I'll need a real name for it at some point.

I've been toying with a couple of ideas (one of which I posited here to a conspicuous silence!), and it got me thinking about what makes a good game name.

Lots of euro games go for the place name option, e.g.: Goa, Macao, Cuba, Santiago, Puerto Rico; while more themed games chose something a bit more involved: e.g.: Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition, Race for the Galaxy, Space Hulk.

I would want something that gives you a flavour of the game, but it also needs to meet certain criteria:

• There can't be an existing game with the same or a similar name
• It's got to Google well
• Ideally there's not a book/film/computer game with the same name
• It's got to sound enticing
• It ought to evoke the gameplay or setting

So Race for the Galaxy is out (taken) and Race for the Solar System is out (too similar). Sol is out (taken by a 2011 game, a forthcoming film plus brings back hundreds of BGG hits). Empire of the Sun is a film and book, Solar Empire is a 2012 game. So you can see there's a lot of competition!

Making up a word works in a lot of ways (it should be unique in the BGG database and should Google well), but it be awkward for searchers to guess the 'correct' spelling, plus it's difficult to evoke the theme, concept or mechanics of a game with a word that by definition doesn't mean anything.

I've been thinking about 'Full Steam to the Stars' or 'Steam to the Stars' for Codename: Vacuum. They both have a few things going for them:

• No competition: a BGG search of 'steam stars' brings back no hits and Google doesn't find anything with that phrase in the first page
• They both evoke the Steampunk initial setting of the game and the sci-fi finish with a sense of the transition in between
• Full Steam gives a hint of the race to ensure that your target victory conditions are ones that get scored

Of course, the downside is that I'm too close to them so I've no idea whether they sound rubbish or not. The name has to be interesting enough that if you saw it on a shelf you'd pick up the box or if you saw it in the BGG Hotness you'd click the link. I'm not sure either of those have that kind of appeal.

For Carpe Astra I ran a BGG competition to choose a name (the winner got a mention in the rules and, I think, a free copy of the game). I could do the same thing here, but it's a bit of a wasted effort if I hawk it to publishers and they call it something else.

What do you all think of (Full) Steam to the Stars? Got any better ideas?

Codename: Monster Is Go!

I've been blogging for a while now about Codename: Monster a submission I received from another designer. Yesterday I received from that designer a signed copy of the contract I had sent him a couple of weeks ago, so now it's game on.

The designer is Yehuda Berlinger one of the most prolific board games bloggers, and the submission was The Menorah Game a set collection and auction game themed around collecting candles to light a menorah. While I liked the theme and loved the game I didn't think that the theme would help me sell the game in the UK (where most of my customers are), which is a largely secular country and where Jews are in a minority.

I played around with the game for a while and came up with a different theme which I thought would be more appealing to the UK market: It's Alive! - collecting body parts to build a monster that you are trying to bring to life. It's pretty macabre. After play-testing it quite a lot and getting Yehuda's permission to re-theme it we're now go for launch.

I'm hoping to have it ready for early June, but that may change as I have to do the graphic design, get the artwork done by the artist and gather a bit more cash from Border Reivers sales first. Anyway, it's available to pre-order now, from my website.

Those of you who have played it please rate it on the Geek, but as ever, please do it fairly - I'd rather have a mediocre rating than an obviously biased one than people will ignore.

This is a big step for me, from board games designer, self-publishing his own game to board games publisher, publishing on behalf of someone else. Exciting times - here's hoping it works out...

Publishing Progress

I've not been blogging as much recently in an effort to free up some time for construction and spending with The Wife. It doesn't help that my new job has been taking up more of my free time with overnight trips to London, Paris (this morning!) and San Francisco. However, I have been managing to make a reasonable amount of progress - I just haven't been reporting it very well.

Border Reivers construction has continued when I've been able to sneak some time. None the weekend before last, since my parents were visiting, but I had to take a day off work mid-week to get the car fixed, and I had some time on Sunday while The Wife went to work :-(. I'm also got to get a chance to do some last night while The Wife was visiting friends and I've got some time this morning before I go to get my train to Paris mid-morning. I've managed to get positive stock again, and I've nearly finished that last batch of five and started another. I've also been considering ways to advertise it better without spending any money. Paul suggested I contact a local magazine, which apparently helped some people in a similar position a few months ago. I've emailed them, we'll have to wait and see if they get back to me.

Codename: Monster is edging ever closer to the start line. The designer has posted me a signed contract, which all being well will arrive in a week or so, have to see how it goes. As soon as that arrives I need to start the artist off, as I'm hoping to have it ready for a convention, and timing is a bit tight.

Finally two other things. I still haven't got around to testing Dave's suggestion for Jorvik, though the idea has really re-invigorated me on Jorvik. I was feeling like it needed to be shelved, now I think it's got legs again. Also, I had an idea for a theme based on a series of books I'm reading, I know the sort of things I want in the game, now I just need to come up with some mechanics...

Session Report: Dinner & Games at Paul's

Last night we went round to Paul and Lisa's for dinner, and both adult games (not as dodgy as it sounds) and kids games with their daughter, Ellie. After playing shop with Ellie and the most amazing toy cash register imaginable, a fantastic feast for dinner and bedtime stories we settled down to some adult games.

I'd brought Codename: Monster on the off chance someone would want to play it and both The Wife and Paul were keen. So we set it up and I explained the game to Lisa who hadn't played it before. The first game was won by Lisa, while the second was won by The Wife. Final scores: Lisa 51, The Wife 44, me 43, Paul 37 and The Wife 57, me 45, Paul 38, Lisa 34. In both cases the person who completed their set won, which is not always the case.

Next up was Carcassonne, The Wife was keen to play, both Paul and I consider it our favourite game and Lisa had never played with four and was keen to try a more populous game. We played vanilla Carcassonne, and with the official farmer scoring rules (I usually play the rules in my edition which are wacky and involve 4 points per). I got off to a very slow start (I was on 7 points about three-quarters of the way through the game), while the others raced ahead, with The Wife getting to 50 points before the final pieces were scored. Fortunately I acquitted myself much better in the final reckoning, but not well enough to win. Final scores: Paul & The Wife 59, me 56, Lisa 53.

We had time for a few more short games so we chose to introduce The Wife to Diamant and Guillotine - both favourites at Paul's Monday night games. First up was Diamant, which we played a couple of times. The Wife and I were scarily in tune - both running away fairly early to capitalise on left-over jewels, while Paul and Lisa both brazened it out to the bitter end. We had lots of runs during the two games where all five disasters came out very early on which makes for risky play. Final scores: Lisa 42, The Wife 39, Paul 35, me 25 and Paul 28, Lisa 23, The Wife and me 20. My tactics again fail to work for me. Must get some balls.

We ended the night with a couple of games of Guillotine. It was my destiny to get sorely creamed it seems. After failing to win a game all evening I was utterly lamped at Guillotine. Still, I really enjoyed it - that's my only real criterion for game quality, if I get crushed and still enjoy it's a good game. Final scores: Paul 27, Lisa 18, The Wife 17, me 9 and Paul 20, The Wife and Lisa 17, me 11.

It was a great evening - thanks Paul and Lisa.

Codename: Monster Update

Here's a quick update on how things are going with Codename: Monster - my first submission from another designer.

Things have been very busy the last couple of weeks trying to get things organised for Monster. As I had said a while ago I was keen to have 'comic'-style artwork for the game (as it would suit the theme I had given the game perfectly). I contacted a local professional artist (Flameboy), and met him to show him the game. He was very helpful, and was keen to work on the project, but when push came to shove he needed to make a living doing this and was going to be a bit too expensive - more than my fledgling business could afford. However, The Wife (star that she is) suggested a friend of ours who is currently studying for a Illustration degree and used to be an artist for a computer games studio. He was also interested, and was significantly cheaper - plus the samples he sent me were fantastic. You can see some of his artwork at: www.RHAidley.com.

I've been aiming to release Monster at a forthcoming UK convention, and if I'm to do that I need to get cracking - trying to get everything ready in time. I can't start anything until I've got a contract in place - so I've been to-ing and fro-ing with the designer try to negotiate a contract we're both happy with.

We reached agreement last week, and on Saturday I posted two signed copies to the designer via airmail. Assuming nothing goes wrong, I should get one back in a couple of weeks time signed by him, and once that happens it's all systems go. I'll not make any official annoucements until then (mustn't count my chickens before they hatch), but hopefully you should hear something soon.

In other news, I'd like to thank everyone who has helped me play-test it so far, plus my parents placed the first order for it yesterday, as they were up visiting for the weekend. One down...

Session Report: My Games Night

On Saturday I hosted another games night at my house. We seem to have got a good list of attendees, as even with a few last minute cancellations we still had plenty of people for games.

Karen and Jochen were the first to arrive, and while we were waiting for others to arrive we started a game of vanilla Carcassonne. I usually get stuck into the farming early on, but this time I didn't and as expected the fields all filled up quite quickly. In my experience the farming is claimed very quickly, especially with more players, and once I was a couple of meeples behind I couldn't be bothered to get into the escalation game of continually raising the number of farmers you've got. Karen and Jochen both farmed quite hard, with Karen left without meeples to place on a few occasions later in the game. I did quite well with cloisters, and alright with cities, but come the end the farmers carried it with Karen winning, Jochen coming second, me third and The Wife last.

While we played Carcasonne, Dave and Pip had arrived, and they had a quick game of Lost Cities while waiting for a few others to arrive. After we'd finished Carcassonne, we set up a game of Ticket to Ride, which I'm beginning to lose a bit of interest in. I loved it the first time I played, and I've played it a lot since, but now it's beginning to pale on me - I'm not sure why. Anyway Karen, Jochen and The Wife were keen, so we set it up. I chose to keep two of my initial tickets (Los Angeles - Miami and Portland - Phoenix), and started trying to connect along the bottom of the map. The Wife and I fought a bit, firstly with me blocking a route she needed, and then she returned the favour. I got both routes completed by about two-thirds of the way through the game, and at around this point both Karen and Jochen went for extra tickets. Karen and The Wife were competing over the longest route, while I was just trying to claim some of the longer sections for the extra points. I managed to end the game, and I'd caught everyone by surprise, so they weren't really able to use their last turns effectively. In the end I won, since I'd managed to sneak the longest route, and I'd completed two expensive tickets. Karen and Jochen cames second and third, with The Wife bringing up the rear. This wasn't like her at all - she usually trounces me!

While we'd been playing Ticket to Ride, Paul and Rebecca had arrived and played Carcassonne with Dave and Pip, and now we were all finished we swapped around a bit. Dave and Paul wanted to play Border Reivers, so we set that up, while The Wife requested Codename: Monster, so the others played that 5-player.

Border Reivers started off badly for me with Dave winning a free army on his first turn, and then choosing not to spend money on reinforcements. I spent heavily (as is my usual strategy) and was largely unsuccessful at the beginning. Dave managed to get the mine, while Paul fortified his area of the board. I found myself in a position that several people have emailed me about - how to beat someone who saves rather than spends. I've always maintained that a saver is vulnerable to a spender as the spender will get more reinforcements and can attack with cards and armies. Which I did. I attacked Dave at the mine and managed to wrest it from him, and simultaneously used Insurrection to attack one of his cities. With Dave on the back foot I started looking North to Paul. Paul had been spending too, though he was less lucky on the dice rolls, so I didn't have to worry so much about him from an economic victory point of view. I started saving, and attacked Paul's border forcing him to spend more. In the end I won an ecomonic victory. The boys seemed to enjoy the game too.

With the other table all gamed out, we pinched Monster back, and played a couple of games of that, with Paul winning both.

Another successful games night!

Busy Weekend Again

The Wife was away this weekend, so I've been amusing myself. I went up to Newcastle after work on Friday to hang out with my old work mates which was great, and then on Saturday morning before heading back, I played a couple of games of Codename:Monster with Linz (who really got into the spirit of the auctioning) and Mal who had played before. They both enjoyed it, and I'm still pretty keen to publish it, here's hoping I can jump through the last few hoops and get enough cash together to make a go of it.

A couple of people have recently mentioned to me that they think Reiver Games would make a good investment, and while I think I'm a bit too green to be messing around with other people's money I'm flattered that they think I'm not.

After getting back from Newcastle on Saturday afternoon, I spent lots of time on more Border Reivers construction. After the rush of sales the week before I went to San Francisco I'd fallen behind on construction, and this was coupled with receiving a couple more sales on the weekend - I had three outstanding orders and no completed stock. I spent a while making decks of cards and then went round to a friend's house to do some more tile-gluing in their garage. When I got back I did some more decks of cards until about one in the morning.

Today I've been to Vapnartak a local wargames convention. Though not selling Border Reivers sadly. After my initial attempts to sell without paying for a trader's stall were rebuffed, my later requests, with different ideas were ignored. So instead I went along to help my local games club Beyond Monopoly out. We had five tables with a mixture of displays of games and their boxes and participation games. We seemed to garner a lot of interest despite not being heavily into wargames, so that was a day well spent. On returning home I've been doing more construction: finishing off the decks of cards, labelling boxes and cutting out tiles. By the time I call it a night tonight I hope to have the three outstanding orders completed, and just the tiles to do on the remaining three copies of the six copy batch I started two or three weeks ago.

And, as if all that games-related goodness wasn't enough, Dave has had a cracking idea to help reduce the two-people-playing-two-separate-games problem I'm experiencing with Codename: Jorvik. I'm really enthused about it, and I'm now keen to make another prototype and start testing it out.

January Report

Another mixed month. It got off to a great start, playing games with the in-laws over my extended Christmas holiday, and building up quite a stock of Border Reivers (I took a bunch of copies with me to do the tile-cutting down in Bristol). From a playing point of view it continued well, I got a trip to Beyond Monopoly in, went round to Paul's and Dave's for games, had Mal down for a weekend and hosted a games night at mine. From a creation point of view it was mixed, I've not touched Jorvik, Sennon or Artist really since the holidays, I've made some decent progress on Monster, and had an excellent week of Border Reivers sales after a slow start to the month.

Play

I had a good month of playing games, I played loads including quite a few new ones. At Paul's games night I was introduced to Falling an utterly chaotic game in which you have to play certain cards quickly on yourself and the other players, in a bid to be the last to hit the ground. Despite the madness of it all we played six games that night, so it was a bit of a hit. I went round to Dave's for games as well, and Dave introduced me to Memoir '44 (which I'd seen played loads of times before, but I'd never played myself. This one was good fun - nice and strategic, but with a healthy dose of luck and a quick play time. I definitely enjoyed it. That night we also played Railway Rivals a game where you draw your railway routes on a wipe-off board with a felt-tip pen. It was an interesting change from the handfull of other railway games I've played, and I like the two stages - build and then race. Also new to me in January was Villa Paletti, a very colourful dexterity game with some similarities to Jenga. My favourite new game was Memoir '44 I think, I really liked the speed and balance of strategy and luck. I can see why the Battlelore spin-off is generating so much interest.

The games I played the most this month are Pitch Car again, my new game which is getting a lot of table time, and Carcassonne (an old favourite).

The final breakdown is:

• Pitch Car: 13 plays
• Falling: 6 plays
• Carcassonne: 4 plays
• Border Reivers: 3 plays
• Villa Paletti: 2 plays
• Memoir '44: 2 plays
• Power Grid: 2 plays
• Lost Cities: 2 plays

And one each of: Railway Rivals and Diamant.

I still haven't managed to play Canal Mania, Space Dealer or Die Saulen Der Erde, maybe this month...

Creation

It's been a mixed month on the game creation front, some ups and downs, and some games I didn't do anything at all on. My new job at work involves a fair bit of travel, so I've had less time available.

Border Reivers

After a good start getting a load of tiles cut out in Bristol, I had a few quiet weeks of no sales and very little construction. That all changed when I offered free shipping to America for a limited number of people, racking up five sales in twelve hours - equalling my best ever week of sales at a convention! I went on to sell a few more copies that week setting a new record of eight. It's generating a bit more content on The Geek now, which is nice.

Monster

It's been a good month for Monster, I've been trying to price up components to see how much it would cost to make, and I'm strongly considering making a run of 300 copies. I've spoken to an artist about getting the artwork done, and started drafting a contract to offer the designer. I've played it now with up to five players and it still seems to work, but the designer played it with six and didn't like it, so I'm going to reduce the components and limit it to five players. Hopefully I'll have some news in a month or two...

Artist

I played Artist with Mal when he came down and I've got some ideas to improve it - I just need to find some time to make a new prototype.

Sennon & Jorvik

No progress on either of these this month.

This month I'd like to nail stuff down on Monster, and make a decision on whether or not to publish it, and I hope for another good month of sales on Border Reivers, building on January's strong sales.

A Very Busy Saturday

Saturday was a very busy day - and all of it games-related. First of all I had to post a copy of Border Reivers to a customer in the States who had missed the free shipping offer, which I did on the way to my local games club: Beyond Monopoly. At BM I arrived, dumped my stuff, said hello to a few people, and then looked for a game. Hugo of Bode Gueims was free, and a guy I'd not met called Peter was too. Peter didn't have a preference for what to play, and Hugo wanted to play Border Reivers (good man!), so we set up a three player game with the variant board layout.

Peter got off to a good start, and started building up a strong economy, both he and Hugo were playing defensively, so I took a risk and went for the mine, to supplement my meagre economy. With a bit more money coming in I could start to play a bit more aggressively, and I took the fight to Peter, who had decided to fall back so he had less land to defend. I destroyed one of his towns, and using the money I stole of him, got in a position where I thought I could win the game in a few turns. Hugo and Peter continued to spend heavily, but the left their counter-attacks too late (Hugo did manage to destroy my town in the final turn), and I ended up winning.

I had to leave early, as I was off to Leeds for a meeting at 3, so we decided to have a quick game of Villa Paletti with a young lad who's name I didn't catch joining in, which I hadn't played before. It was a fun dexterity game, with players trying to increase the height of a tower by moving pieces from lower down to the top until it eventually collapses, a bit like a very brightly coloured Jenga. The first game finished too early, so nobody won, so we had time for a quick second game. This won by someone, but I've forgotten who! Perhaps Hugo will fill in the blanks in the comments! I enjoyed Villa Paletti, it compares well with the other dexterity games I've been introduced to recently, but it's not as good as Pitch Car.

I then rushed out of Beyond Monopoly after only two and a half hours, and caught a bus to Leeds where I was meeting an artist (in the comic book vein), to get an idea about how much it would cost to get him to do the artwork for Monster. I met the artist in a cafe, got some coffees in, and started to explain the plan. First I showed him a copy of Border Reivers to show him I wasn't doing a crappy job at the production end. Then I explained the various components, and what I had in mind for artwork for each one. He seemed interested, and suggested some other ideas for the artwork in places, which was good, as a second opinion is always useful. After a long pause for another round of coffee, we played a game of Monster there in the cafe. Then came the crunch point. He said, that if he was doing this for a proper company, then the bill would come to around a grand, far more than I could afford to pay, but, he liked the game, loved the theme, and liked what I was trying to do with it. We discussed a bunch of things that could either reduce the price or act as sweeteners for him. The result? He's going to do a quick sketch of one of the components, and is definitely interested. Yeay!

As if that wasn't enough games-related goodness for the day, I'd arranged a games night for that evening. So I rushed home, did some tidying and cleaning up and then my guests started to arrive. Guy and I set up a game of Lost Cities while Dave, Pip, Paul G and Rebecca set up Ticket To Ride. Guy and I played and couple of games of Lost Cities, and just as we were finishing the second game Roman arrived. So the three of us set up Power Grid, as Roman wanted to play it again. Our 3-player went on for a while, so the others had a game or two of Carcassonne, trying to join up for a 7-player of Pitch Car. We played a few games of PitchCar, firstly with all seven, then with six as Guy went to look after the baby, then, after most people had left and The Wife had returned we had another four player with The Wife, Paul, Rebecca and I. Finally, Paul and I played a couple of games of Carcassonne with the Inns and Cathedrals expansion.

What a day. It was great to get to Beyond Monopoly again and get the rematch of Border Reivers in against Hugo. It went very well with the artist, and then a really good games night, with a whole bunch of friends, some of whom I'd not seen in ages. I need more days like that!

Wow! That's A Nice Surprise

So as you saw, I offered my American chums a special offer limited to the first five people to reply to a post on BoardGameGeek. This happened to coincide with Eric Martin of Board Game News writing an article about Border Reivers. Then I sat back, wondering if I'd get any takers.

I did.

Boy, Did I. Yesterday I sold six copies, including one to a friend of a friend who's played the game a fair bit and wanted a copy as a present. But the five free shipping copies disappeared in twelve hours. That's six copies in twelve hours. I keep track of my weekly sales, and yesterday was my best ever week of sales. In one day. Sweet!

The publicity is still paying off, I sold another copy today to the States, which means I've now sold out of the stock I made over Christmas. I really need to make some progress on the batch I started last week, I've been very busy, so they've been on the back burner. Now I really need them!

Tomorrow I'm going to Beyond Monopoly for a bit, then to Leeds to meet a potential artist for Codename: Monster, and then I'm having friends round for games in the evening! Busy day.

Paul's Games Night

Last night was Paul's second games night of 2007, but I missed the last one due to coming back from Bristol, so this was my first.

It was Paul, Andy, Greg and I with Lisa joining in for the first game of Diamant. Diamant was fun as usual, I tried my tried, tested and rarely successful technique of running away as soon as there were a decent number of gems left on cards, and this time it worked! I won the game of Diamant, while poor Greg and Paul didn't get any gems at all. I only had 19 though, so it was fairly low scoring.

During Diamant Spence arrived, and after Diamant Lisa left, so there were five of us again. I offered the boys the chance to play the Monster prototype which I was keen to test with more players (the original submission only supported 2-4 players - I've tweaked it to hopefully support up to 6, but I've not tested it with more than 4 yet though) the boys agreed so I set it up and explained the game to them.

I was surprised by how keen they were to pay over the odds for cards, while I played a more restrained game. It was fun, and despite me winning, the boys were up for a second game. I won that one too, but I got a good vibe from the boys, and some good advice about the design too, so it was definitely worth taking round.

I was three for three, and Paul suggested breaking out Falling, a card game he'd got from a friend over Christmas. Spence had heard of it before, so he was appointed Rules Monkey and he duly explained the game. There wasn't an awful lot to it, but the reading of the rules failed to communicate just how chaotic the game was. One player sat out each round, dealing the cards (a fairly complicated role in itself), while the others frantically played cards on themselves and others, or moved cards around in an attempt to be the last player to hit the ground. It was mad, with arms and cards flying all over the place, and after six games (of which I only won one), we couldn't decide whether we liked the game, though most of us agreed that it was fun. Which I suppose means we liked it in one way.

Another great games night. I'm going to miss next week's as I'm in San Francisco, but I'm already looking forward to the one after than.

In other news, I'm now meeting the potential Monster artist on Saturday, rather than tomorrow evening - so I guess I'm going to have to cut my visit to Beyond Monopoly short :-(

Back In The Game

Now I'm back I'm trying to settle things down and get back to normal. So far I've had mixed results.

I've started another batch of six copies of Border Reivers, my aim at the moment is to get all the copies constructed as soon as possible, freeing up my time for other projects. I've also made another sale - this one to America again, which is nice, since it is very expensive for Americans because of the awful exchange rate. I need more sales, they've been almost non-existant for the last five or six weeks. Without more sales I'll not have enough money to make any of the other games I'm considering, as all the money has gone into Border Reivers production for now. I'm really hoping that I just need to get some more exposure, and that I've not reached a plateau where everyone who wants a copy has now bought one.

Regardless of my sales worries, I've been pushing on with Codename:Monster. I've been in discussion with the designer, who is going to try out the changes I've made, and I've also approached an artist for the artwork. I'm afraid I won't be able to come close to affording the artist, but we're hopefully meeting in a pub next week to discuss the project, and he does sound interested so far.

Border Reivers has been getting some attention on The Geek too, thanks to a couple of recent listings in Geeklists. One by Van Overbay, designer of Tranquility Base has got a lot of thumbs ups, and I've now got almost as many people on The Geek listed as wanting a copy as I have people listed as owning a copy. Sadly, most of those are in America or Canada, and doubtless won't be able to afford it. Ho hum.

I was also contacted on The Geek, by a fellow designer based in Australia who had found this blog to be a really useful resource, and had a couple more questions for me. Feedback like that is nice - it's good to know that the exercise of blogging here semi-regularly is of some use, and not just a vanity exercise.

Still no interest (at least from a sales or enquiries point of view) from the BBC MindGames review, though I'm not totally writing it off yet...

I'm Back

Well, I've spent two weeks in Bristol, with a brief jaunt to Amsterdam thrown in for good measure, and now I'm back at home. I've got the nine copies I took to Bristol finished, and I'm ready to start another batch.

The bad news? The review in BBC MindGames hasn't generated any interest at all yet, so lots of copies, no one to sell them to. D'oh!

In other news I've been putting a bit of effort into the submission (Codename: Monster), seeing as I had some spare time down at the in-laws. I've been pricing up components for runs of a few different sizes, and investigating artists. It's been fun, but what I really need to do now is sell some more copies of Border Reivers, and playtest Monster a lot more - so that I can make an informed go/no go decision on it.

Christmas Games

I love Christmas. It's the only time during the year that both my family and the in-laws all get together (though separately!). Plus presents :-) I'm also lucky that both my family and the in-laws are keen to play games over Christmas, yeay!

Christmas Day started well, with a copy of PitchCar from The Wife :-) I'd only played it once before, but I loved it, and I thought it would be good to have a dexterity game, as it's a genre that was un-represented in my games collection. I also managed to fob-off my copy of Munchkin Fu onto Matt, who loves it - I need to make room in my tiny flat for a new game.

Since I've arrived at the in-laws I've finished a new prototype version of the submission (currently known as Codename: Monster), which features a different theme, and more pieces allowing the game to be played with up to six players. I tried it out a couple of times on my own once two player and once three, but it's difficult to play a game that features hidden information when you're playing all the players! I've also done a little work on Codename: Sennon.

Christmas Day was spent at the in-laws, and we broke out PitchCar and had a few games of that, and then played Trivial Pursuit in the evening. It was a newer version of Trivial Pursuit which played a bit faster - still it's not a game I enjoy.

Boxing Day we went round to my family's house for more food and present-opening. I took PitchCar as I though it would go over well and it did - we played seven games during the day and evening. We also played three games of Codename: Monster which was very well received, despite only having very basic components with bits scribbled on in pencil and loose change for tokens.

Great stuff! Must play more games...