It’s time for me to put the game operations on pause until after the New Year. I’ll likely still be on Twitter and Facebook during the next couple of weeks, but I don’t plan on doing much with moving my game designs forward, or posting about things until we’re into 2014.
So, it seems like a perfect time to look back at the fun and excitement that’s been had over the past year, and to mention a few things that I see coming up in the near future.
Let’s start with a walk through the 2013 calendar.
JANUARY … I started the year with an update to this website, and excitement over a handful of new game designs — including King of Danger and Sharkbait — along with a few other reworkings of existing games.
February brought a couple more new designs — Cosmic Critters and For Goods and Honor — and more specific information around new versions of a couple of my flagships — Castle Danger and Jump Gate. I also attended Con of the North, in St. Paul, playing a lot of cool games and seeing people that I really enjoy.
March included one of my more favorite events of the year — Protospiel-Milwaukee! I was able to see some of my favorite game design friends, meet a handful of new friends, and got both Magistrate and For Goods and Honor to the table.
In May, I teamed-up with designer friends Grant Rodiek, AJ Porfirio, and Chevee Dodd, to run something we called “FreeStarter.” It was a fun conversation and game-give-away with the intention to increase each of our web and Twitter audiences. We all had a blast, and I think the folks who played along did to.
During the drive home from the Milwaukee Protospiel back in March, I began thoughts around a brand new game set in the Jump Gate universe. In June, I posted the first information about Thunder Run to Gratis-3, as I was targeting a design contest ran by TheGameCrafter.com. I had a really good time on the design, and I like the game that came out of it … but I didn’t have everything ready by the contest deadline and wasn’t able to submit it. Still … this one is on my radar for the future — expect to hear about it again in the coming year.
July included something very special to me — my release of Jump Gate, 3rd Edition, on TheGameCrafter.com (shop page). Not only do I love how it looks, and how it’s packaged in TGC’s sexy little “small pro box,” but the game is just so much better with the rules tweaks that were included. I’m extremely proud of this game, and plan to continue promoting it as a flagship product, with follow-on games based in this universe.
August has quickly become my favorite month of the year when it comes to my gaming stuff. GenCon Indy, held each year in Indianapolis, has become the place where I get to see nearly everyone in my game game design life that I really enjoy, and expect to meet scores of new favorite people each year. This year, I brought along a number of my games to test with friends and to show off to publishers. I also roomed with the 3 guys from the “FreeStarter” event and played more games this year than any of the previous — I really love how this is trending!
I did, however, take some time following GenCon to think about how I wanted to approach my designs going forward. This lead to some “pruning” and redirection. I’m still working on the results of this thought-adjustment, but I expect to make some progress on it in 2014.
On the “real life” front, September included leaving the company I had worked at for the past 10 years to start a new adventure in a completely different market space. So far, so good.
October brought some great news, as two more of my games — Subtilla and Blaster Waves — were listed in this year’s GAMES 100 list. I need to keep sending new games in that direction! 🙂
And now in November, I announced that For Goods and Honor was picked up by Happy Mitten Games, as I signed a contract with them and expect to see fun things come about with that in 2014.
I also introduced a new design — Move the Chains, a card game about football — and updated Dicey Curves to new cool-looking race car pawns, while planning to repackage that game in the near future.
And now, since the start of December, I’ve been spending most of my focus on getting Magistrate finalized and ready for testing early in the new year … with hopes for landing a publisher on this one.
So, now as I pause for the holidays, I have a few more things in the works that should play out early in the new year:
- Some very exciting news about Jump Gate, 3rd Edition … something new that’s been in the works for a few months, and I can’t wait to announce … but, for now, it has to wait until it’s ready. 😉
- New material in the Castle Danger storyline … as in an actual background story/setting, and at least 2 new games set in that line.
- A re-focus on the next games in the Jump Gate line.
- Further development of Move the Chains, and at least 1 more new design aimed at finding a publisher.
That’s it for now … see you on the other side! 😀
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