Feb 27, 2007 -
For this past Christmas, I promised Beth I would
get her a PSP. But she didn't want just any PSP, she wanted the
Ceramic White PSP. Well, they only make that one in Japan, so I
had to order it from Asia. We knew ahead of time that it would not be
able to play UMD movies made in the US (they are region coded like DVDs)
but
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that
US games, memory sticks, etc would be no problem. So, eventually I found a reputable dealer in Hong Kong with a reasonable price
in Play-Asia.com. In about a week and a half Beth had her shiny new Ceramic
White PSP. She was surprised to say the least. Incidentally, Play-Asia
also included a special extra super present! Some crazy Japanese fruit
snacks. They look Haribo.
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Feb
22, 2007 -
I'm getting even closer toward an actual
production of Gentry. I've been pricing equipment and materials, working on a
base price per copy, and coming up with "incidental costs" like setting up a business,
advertising, selling at game conventions, etc. Pretty much every game you buy
comes with a plastic tray
insert in the box. I was wondering, if I wanted to include one in my game,
where do they come from? The answer: vacuum
forming. Basically, you make a mold, heat up a big piece of plastic, stretch
it over the mold, and vacuum out the air so the plastic conforms to the shape
of the mold. They use this process on a lot of plastic products that don't need
any appreciably large thickness (in which case injection molding would be used).
For board games, the interesting thing is that although an insert goes a long
way toward making a game look professional, more often than not, the consumer
ends up throwing them away. The secondary option would be a printed, folded cardstock
insert like this one
which creates compartments in the bottom of the box. I don't know what I'll end
up using yet but it is interesting to know.
Feb
13, 2007 -
Work is going great so far. I've had compliments
on my work, I got some last minute stuff done on time with no problems, and I
get paid to make models and textures. I'm pretty happy. Beth is looking for a
new job, and we've started to look for a new apartment.
I've been working on Gentry some recently as well. I made what I think will be
a really good change ditiching the cards in favor of tiles drawn from a bag. I'm
going to start putting some feelers out to see if there is general interest among
boardgamers. I'm going to start sending out letters to publishers too, but I've
also been looking into self-publication. This
blog is all about how the designer of the game Viktory II produced it by himself.
It is a great insight into what is involved. Hopefully, I can make something come
of all the work I've put into Gentry.
Feb 01, 2007
-
Last night we played Arkham
Horror for the first time, and it was a lot of fun. I think my Troy friends
might like it a lot. It is entirely cooperative, played against the game and
accommodates up to eight players. Also, it is pretty difficult. In each game,
there is a different "big boss" called an Ancient One. I think the one we got
was probably one of the weakest, but he still managed to kill us, but after
all last night was basically just about getting the rules down. I also bought
Caylus, but we haven't
played it yet. I'm really looking forward to it, as it appears to be a very
tight Eurogame like Puerto
Rico. Beth also got into the board game purchasing mood, picking up Mission:
Red Planet and 1066:
End of the Dark Ages.
We're also now embroiled in the first turn of our Diplomacy game. Alliances are starting to form and the scheming is rampant. The game is pretty nerve wracking even though each of us only starts with three pieces (except Russia) which can only move one space each. I can't wait to see what happens.
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