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Waiting To Become My Future Self
I met myself once... a familiar stranger appeared at my home,
looking around nostalgically. "Invest in Microsoft,"
he advised. Then he explained that we'd meet a time traveler
someday, right here in this diner. So now I'm rich... but I can't
ever leave this restaurant! What if my ride shows up, and I'm
not here?
New this week:
The
Game Of Love
I'm lying in bed, more or less awake. I can hear
Gina and the upstairs neighbor Atticus outside having a conversation.
Sounds like Atticus is saying, "Oh yeah, they'll give you
anything you want!" Then he laughs.
lucubrate (loo'-kyuh-brate)
v. to stay up late to study (from L. lucubrare
to work at night by lamplight)
- X-Men :)
- True to the comic's
morality, theme, and hairstyles --
this film didn't suck!
 X-Men
I have to confess, I've never read any of
the X-Men comics and didn't really know who any of these characters
even were, other than Wolverine, who I recognized but had never
understood. But even without having seen the originals, this
seemed like an excellent adaptation to me.
 
Shadow Conventions
Quoteland
explodingdog
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Patent Submitted / Chrononauts
Beta 1.1 |
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Golly, there's so much to say!
For starters, let me apologize for being so late this week!
And that's not even the worst of it; since it's now Monday and
I'd have to start right away on the next update in order to get
that one done on time, we've decided to just go ahead and cancel
the next one right now, and just try to be on time for a change
when the August 10th issue rolls around. Sorry!
 As
I said in the "Update Delayed" note that I added last week, I had to put everything
on hold for a few days while I brushed up on my patent law and
wrote out an application for a method patent on the game I invented
last summer, IceTowers.
And I'm *very* happy to say that I got it done on time! (I had
to file within a year.) I think I have a pretty decent chance
of getting it, too. (Unless of course some other real-time stacking
game exists that I don't know about...) Last time I patented
a game (ten years ago!) it only took a few months for the patent
office to respond with an assessment (which isn't bad compared
to the delays required in some fields), so hopefully we'll find
out how this story will end in a similar timeframe!
If I'm awarded this patent, it'll be titled "Method of
Conducting Simultaneous Gameplay Using Stackable Game Pieces,"
and the drawing you see here (the primary patent drawing) will
be used on the front page to illustrate the invention. Alison
created this for me (thanks Alison!) along with a couple of the
other, much simpler drawings (10 total) that I needed for the
application. It went out on Friday afternoon, a day before the
deadline. Yay!
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The other big thing that's been dominating
my thoughts lately is the Chrononauts
playtest, which is going extremely well! We've gotten tons of
great feedback, lots of off-the-wall ideas, and an absolutely
delightful number of compliments. People are digging this game!
Sure, there've been a few concerns and complaints raised, and
I'm doing my best to address them (see the complete
report for the details). But the overwhelming message we've
been getting is that we have something really cool in the works
here. Chrononauts is gonna be a hit!
 And
while the game is testing about as well as I could ever really
wish for, the playtest itself is also totally proving its worth.
Doing a short run first, to really shake out the product before
printing up 10,000 copies, is allowing us to do a much broader
playtest than we've ever been able to conduct before, and the
end result is great: the flood of reactions has been almost overwhelming.
I've been sifting through the piles of comments and suggestions
just as fast as I can, and I've been doing a lot of thinking,
rapid-prototyping, and even some limited playtesting in between
everything else. And having made a few modifications to my deck
that I'm really quite happy with, I'm ready to let you guys begin
testing out the first official upgrade. It's a set of new cards
that rewrite or replace 11 from the deck, and it's available
for download as a PDF file, which you can print onto sticker
paper for an upgrade just like the one we're using here in the
Lab.
Here's the summary of changes I'm called Beta 1.1: Sell an
Artifact has been hamstrung; Fast Forward has been accelerated;
Hold an Auction has been withdrawn; 3 all-new cards have been
created, namely an Inverter called Restore History and 2 Actions,
Quick Trip into the Future and Perform a "Miracle";
and since the 135 card total is set in stone (we got a plain
white prototype of the tuckbox, rules, and display from Carta
Mundi just today in fact), 5 common cards have been dropped to
make room for them (3 Reverse Fates, 1 Rewind, and 1 Get There
First). In addition, I'm adding an Identity Mulligan rule, the
Universe Destruction Point has been changed again (to 13), and
I really like the rule someone suggested for that annoying "Can't
Play-Therefore-Must Discard" situation. But other than that,
and of course the color upgrade, we're not
changing the game very much. Despite some people's concerns
about controversial cards, we're not planning to change anything
on the TimeLine.
The changes we have decided to make are all typical post-playtest
tweaks; we're also not making any of the radical changes that
were tossed around on the mailing list, interesting though some
of those ideas were. But the new cards do seek to address and
incorporate many of the suggestions, concerns, and comments we've
been hearing, and I think they're gonna do a great job of tightening
things up. Give it a try and let us know!
Another thing that's already proving its worth is the new
MadLabRabbits.com
site, which toK did a great job of building (Thanks toK!) and
which Erskin is now helping us refine (Thanks Erskin!) We have
yet to receive a single playtest form on the actual paper we
included with the game sets... everyone is using the online system!
(Well, there was one fax.) And with over a hundred games now
in the database, we're starting to see statistics
on what really wins more often, and what less. And yes, some
Characters and Missions are easier than others, but I'm pleased
with the overall breakdown. In the first 100 games, character
went home in about half of all games, mission wins occurred about
a third of the time, and card wins took the final 20%. All in
all, that's just about right. (But it looks like we need to tweak
Günther and Renée...)
 Be
sure also to check out the Chrononauts Color
Redesign page, featuring samples of what the real cards will
be like. The cool new look, glimpsed here, was designed by Alison
right after she finished up my patent drawings. Neat, huh? Feedback,
as always, is welcomed.
Well, that ought to keep you-all busy for awhile. Remember,
no update this Thursday, but as always we'll be watching our
email (even though we can't always write back), so keep the feedback
coming. And thanks again to all of our playtesters, for taking
the time to provide us with their input!
 Remember
Peter
McWilliams!
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The new Fluxx decks arrived! 18,100 of them!
And they look beautiful, inside and out. Moreover, the timing
worked out perfectly... we've just finished selling the last
of the ICE edition decks! (We still had about a hundred left
when they arrived, the last of which shipped out today!) |
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We've had to raise a couple of our prices, notably
Fluxx, which is now $10. (But at least all our prices are nice
round numbers now!) |
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Ontario's highest court has declared the law
prohibiting the possession of marijuana unconstitutional! |
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