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OK
Go - This Too Shall Pass
Ten Words
You Need To Stop Misspelling
"I gotta tell you: Your new packaging works. I've been
in the local gamestore dozens of times, seen your Fluxx game
in its older packaging many times, and just never even picked
it up. Last week, my two daughters were off school and I was
wondering how to entertain them. We stroll into the gamestore,
and here's the new, very-friendly looking box of 'Family Fluxx'.
Very bright; very colorful; not too expensive...ok, let's try
it. Andy, we are totally hooked. After a few games, I had to
rush back and get the Zombie and (most especially!) the Monty
Python versions and there was much rejoicing. I can't wait til
this weekend to try Chrononauts as well. Great games; nice artwork;
good gameplay: very nicely done. But quite honestly, I don't
think I would have tried the game in its older, original packaging.
We would have picked Uno or Skip-bo or some other game I know
well. I thought you might want to know about this. I doff my
horned helm to you!" -- A message written
on my FaceBook
wall by my friend Gary Peterson
Rash provides
another batch of links and commentary on topics including: what
happens when a sacred ginkgo tree falls in Japan; Four women
in space at the same time; Space Shuttle Launch seen from DisneyWorld;
Hollywood blockbuster-style NASA Mission Posters; Things that
are almost impossible to do with your body; Scrabble Trickster;
Asia's North Korean restaurant chain; Teal and Orange ("Stop
the Madness"); Stunning photos of sleeping insects covered
with early morning dew; Bulgarian postage & banknotes; a
Disney video mashup demonstrates their recycling; Angel Food,
Bacon and Chocolate On A Stick; Niagara Falls, illuminated; Shoes
that make everyone the same height; Recollections of A Mushroom
Cloud; a recent expedition out to the enormous rubbish-gyre in
the Pacific Ocean; McDonalds Japan's Big America Burgers; "Do
not allow anybody to steal your excitement about the future!";
Ten natural formations that might've been built by ancient aliens;
and the amazingly thorough set of comic book scans at htmlComics.com.
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GTS, Jessica, and [Still Classified] |
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 Hello
and Happy Springtime! A lot has happened lately. Right after
posting the previous update, we
left Robin and the temps behind
to run the company without us while Kristin, Alison, Jessica,
and I all flew to Las Vegas for the annual Game Manufacturers
Association (GAMA) Trade Show (GTS) and as usual, it was a great
event. We took lots of orders, had a lot of really good meetings
with important industry contacts, and generated a lot of interest
in our products.
GTS is a prime time for companies like ours to make big announcements
about upcoming releases, and since we're planning a big fall
release, we naturally wanted to tell everyone about it at the
show. And we did. But since, as I
mentioned last time, we are keeping this product officially
secret until we officially sign the official license agreement,
we didn't say anything about it in our printed materials and
we swore to secrecy everyone we showed my prototype to. But we
showed it to everyone who wanted to see it, and I spent many
hours playtesting it with game store owners, such as during the
event shown here, the PSI Game Night. Everyone I played it with
LOVED it. The store owners can't wait to start selling [Still
Classified]!
We were so eager to get the buzz going about the new secret
product that we even arranged to be one of a small group of manufacturers
who got a few minutes each to give presentations on their upcoming
releases to a captive audience of retailers attending a big free
dinner. In fact, we were the first ones to talk, and Jessica
did an awesome job of pitching not just our new secret product,
but everything we sell.
And what is that secret new product? I still can't say, but
I will say this: If you follow me on Twitter
or FaceBook,
you'll find out there just as soon as the news is official.
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Speaking of Jessica,
we are sorry to say that she's stepping down from her position
as Sales & Marketing Director. Jessica has been a great asset
to our team, and the work she's done this past year has been
extremely helpful for our long-term growth. Unfortunately, she
lives in Washington state and we live in the shadow of Washington
DC. We know from some experiences (such as with our programmer
dude Craig Forbes) that long-distance telecommuting can be very
successful, and indeed, we've been able to accomplish a lot with
Jessica despite the distance. That said, we've come to the painful
conclusion that we really need for the person running our Sales
Department to be local, as we need someone who can be on-site
to manage people as well as programs.
Sadly, Jessica simply cannot relocate at this time. Her husband
has a great job at Wizards of the Coast, which he understandably
doesn't want to leave, and in a story all too familiar for everyone
affected by the housing market crisis, it's just not possible
for them to sell their house. So, we're starting the search for
a new Sales Manager, and Jessica is looking for the start of
her next adventure. She will still be around for a while as we
sort through the transition.
Anyway, thanks again Jessica and good luck with whatever you
do next!
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 Thanks for reading -- I have to get back to work
on my secret new game now... |
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One of the highlights of the GTS trip for me was some time
I got to spend hanging out with fellow game designer James Ernest.
We played poker and talked shop, which is very cool for us both
since there really aren't that many other people we can do that
with, given the uncommon nature of our careers. He told me about
the webcomic he's been helping create, called Brian and John
(here's my favorite
installment) and I picked up a great expression from him,
coined by Harvard professor Lant Pritchett, about how really
revolutionary ideas are received over time: "It goes like
this: Crazy.
Crazy. Crazy. Obvious." |
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After pondering and debating the spoiler-ish question about
Back to the Future Part 3 (which I posed here
in early February), I think I've got it all figured out. Here's
my version of the Untold Story of How Doc Brown Got Back to the
Future from 1885, i.e. without Mr. Fusion or Plutonium. First,
he would have needed to accumulate a small fortune -- an easy
task for someone with his general knowledge of future events.
Then he'd have been able to finance the construction of a circular
section of railroad track on the top of a storm-prone mesa. After
that, all he'd have to do was wait for a big thunderstorm to
roll in, and then start driving his time engine around in circles,
at 88 MPH, until the lightning rod finally attracted a strike.
It's so simple! |
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I have bad news for phone book manufacturers: We no longer
have any uses for your product. In our household, they've started
going directly from receiving bin to recycling bin, like so much
other junk mail. Could I maybe just get you to stop sending them
to us? |
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