I’ve Moved!

Hello blog readers! After a period of inactivity, I’ve revived my blog at the slightly modified address of blog.claygardner.com. Please update your links and subscriptions. Thank you!

Happy Birthday, Game Boy!

Today marks the 25th anniversary of the venerable Game Boy console. Despite its pokey processor and unbacklit monochrome screen, I'll always remember the time I spent with it fondly. Whether I was climbing a mysterious tower in search of a fabled paradise in Final Fantasy Legend or tossing a pokeball at Mewtwo in Pokémon, the Game Boy always felt like a console that embraced its limitations instead of being bound by them.

So here's to you, Game Boy! I'll play a few 8-bit soundtracks on loop in your honor. I also made this info graphic—my first—to celebrate the occasion. For such an antiquated piece of technology, the Game Boy sure had staying power!

By the way, if anyone's curious what font Nintendo used for the Game Boy logo, it's Gill Sans. I also used a font called Early Gameboy for the pixelly parts.

Kickstarter Roundup 11-21-13

Where-in I pick through Kickstarter for the projects that most catch my fancy.

Bubblegum Crisis Ultimate Edition Blu-Ray Set

WHAT IT IS: A definitive Blu-Ray release of the classic cyberpunk anime.

WHY YOU SHOULD CARE: Come on, it's Bubblegum Crisis. On Blu-Ray. Do you really need a reason? Okay, okay...Bubblegum Crisis was one of the first unedited, subtitled anime releases in North America, making for a watershed moment and a title a lot of tried and true anime fans are nostalgic for. It's also being released by the original licensee, and your backing dollar supports a smaller company putting out high-quality releases.

WHAT YOU SHOULD GET: $50 Basic. The physical Blu-Ray disc, postcards, commemorative coin, and involvement in the design process of the Blu-Ray itself.

RELEVANT LINKS: @animeigo | www.animeigo.com | Facebook Page

 

Hana Doki Kira

WHAT IT IS: A shoujo-inspired comic/illustration anthology lovingly designed and printed.

WHY YOU SHOULD CARE: There's a lot to like here, great artwork, the promise of great shoujo tales...but I'll be honest. What sold me is the brilliant use of the seafoam spot color. (Even the project page is adorned in nothing but head-to-toe.) Two-tone printing seems to be a lost art form as full-color has become ubiquitous, but you can do some really special things with it and use shades that simply aren't reproducible in CMYK. 

WHAT YOU SHOULD GET: $25 Doki Doki Deluxe Pre-Order. The book, the PDF, and a set of postcards. Higher pledges feature sketches, commissions, tote bags, and other premiums that might strike your fancy.

RELEVANT LINKS: Tumblr | Facebook

 

Sega Mega Drive/Genesis: Collected Works

WHAT IT IS: An incredible retrospective of an incredible console. SEEEE-GAAA!

WHY YOU SHOULD CARE: First off. The cover. Just look at it. That's a glorious cover, is it not? But this project is more than a pretty face. Exclusive interviews with a veritable who's-who of Sega's 16-bit history, myriad production images of both the console and classic games, 300 pages of cover-to-cover nostalgia awesome, and did I mention how amazing that cover looks?

WHAT YOU SHOULD GET: £30 (roughly $48) The Book. A physical copy of the book and your name immortalized in its pages. No blue hedgehog included unless you go for the $400 hyper-limited edition.

RELEVANT LINKS:  @romalerts | www.readonlymemory.vg

 

Board Games That Tell Stories

WHAT IT IS: A collection of 35 fan-favorite articles from the game blog of the same name.

WHY YOU SHOULD CARE: It's not often you can get material written about game design (or tabletop games in general) packaged in a nice hardcover. When it's written by the designer of many great board games, like Neuroshima Hex, it's even better. Admittedly, the text suffers a bit from English being Trzewiczek's second language, but there's still loads of insight and fun humor here. And the cover looks nice.

WHAT YOU SHOULD GET: $26 Hardcover. Nets you a signed hardcover version of the book. But if you poke around the add-ons you can get one of Trzewiczek's great games.

RELEVANT LINKS: http://www.BoardGamesThatTellStories.com/

Kickstarter Roundup 10-11-13

Where-in I pick through Kickstarter for the projects that most catch my fancy.

Hyper Light Drifter

WHAT IT IS: Gorgeous 2D Action RPG with lovingly pixelated sprite graphics and captivating artwork with a real style of its own.

WHY YOU SHOULD CARE: People's fondness for pixelated gaming is not a secret, and it seems any indie effort is as likely to sport blocky graphics as it is "HD." Those jagged edges invoke feelings of nostalgia for the games of yesteryear, and in many cases go a long way in demonstrating what kind of game you are about to play. But sometimes a game is more than that, a real statement of beauty like Sword & Sworcery was. Hyper Light Drifter is one of those games.

WHAT YOU SHOULD GET: $40. Digital versions of the game, manual, soundtrack, and artbook. You also get some other digital bonuses (like a new "sprite.") and a second key for the game, so you can actually take advantage of all those additional platforms from the stretch goals.

RELEVANT LINKS: @HeartMachineZ | www.heart-machine.com | Facebook Page

Akiba Anime Art Magazine

WHAT IT IS: A new magazine straight from Japan, featuring many talented Japanese artists and articles about Otaku culture.

WHY YOU SHOULD CARE: Japan is putting its foot into the Kickstarter ring with successful projects like Little Witch Academia and the enormously popular Mighty No. 9. By continuing to support Japanese efforts, that means we'll get to see even more of it! Besides, Akiba is a book full of lovely Japanese art, printed with a special wide gamut process that results in much brighter images than with traditional CMYK.

WHAT YOU SHOULD GET: $18 Otaku. A copy of the magazine and all of the various stretch goals that have accrued over the campaign.

RELEVANT LINKS: jhlab.jp

Game Cave Vol. 1

WHAT IT IS: A loveletter to the gaming magazines of decades gone by, rife with exciting layouts, new artwork, and a sense of humor.

WHY YOU SHOULD CARE: One of the big things I really miss about magazines is the design of them. When you view an article online, you get all the text, all the photos, and even video clips you never could have back then, but never the lovingly defined spreads, crammed to the gills with artwork, screenshots exploding from detailed backgrounds, and maybe a line of crooked text or two. It's nice to see that again.

WHAT YOU SHOULD GET: $30 Physical Book Tier. A physical copy of the magazine—I mean come on, that's the whole point, right?—plus an art print and all the digital goods.

RELEVANT LINKS:  @sketchcraft | www.sketchcraft.com | Facebook

Dawning Star: Fate of Eos

WHAT IT IS: A reboot of the fan-favorite sci-fi RPG, rebuilt from the ground up using the excellent FATE Core system.

WHY YOU SHOULD CARE: FATE is a great system, as can be attested by its modestly successful Kickstarter. So if you want to take the game to task in a far-flung future of aliens and spaceships, then Dawning Star is a good place to find it. With a flexible setting that can be tailored from pulp to space opera to interstellar intrigue with ease, and a healthy fanbase from previous editions, it's hard to go wrong.

WHAT YOU SHOULD GET: $35 EOS Defense Force. A physical copy of the game and all the digital goodies.

RELEVANT LINKS:  @DawningStarRPG | www.dawningstar.com | Facebook

Destiny Fails Us

WHAT IT IS: An “Otome” Visual Novel, a Choose Your Own Adventure-esque game featuring a female protagonist and lots of potential male suitors.

WHY YOU SHOULD CARE: While the game's use of 3D anime-style models isn't as nice as traditionally rendered art, the look serves its needs, and what you have is a fun-looking take on the date-sim. I'm especially fond of your character's cellphone that you actually check for messages throughout the game.

WHAT YOU SHOULD GET: $10 Digital Download Pack. A download copy of the game and the usual digital extras.

RELEVANT LINKS: www.destinyfailsus.com | Facebook

Kickstarter Roundup 09-27-13

Where-in I pick through Kickstarter for the projects that most catch my fancy.

Battle Merchants

WHAT IT IS: A board game of weapon-selling economics set in a distant fantasy land. Where others see war and turmoil, you see profits, profits, profits!

WHY YOU SHOULD CARE: I love Euro games. I think the entire movement is bringing validity to tabletop gaming with its well-honed mechanics and involving gameplay. But let's be honest; a great deal of them have rather dry themes about this Pacific isle or that historical era—or some combination of the two. But Battle Merchants, with its colorful art and explicit fantasy themes of elves, dwarves, orcs, and hobgoblins, is a fun take on money-management.

WHAT YOU SHOULD GET: $48-58 Battle Master. This gets you a copy of the game at almost $10 off retail. But if you really like the art, there’s several pledges offering the artist’s original sketches that are pretty neat!

RELEVANT LINKS: @MinionGames | www.miniongames.com | Minion Games on Facebook

Mighty No. 9

WHAT IT IS: It's Mega Man by the creator of Mega Man with many of the developmental talents of past Mega Mans...but it's not Mega Man.

WHY YOU SHOULD CARE: With Capcom disappointing fans by repeatedly leaving poor Mega Man by the wayside in recent years, Mighty No. 9 is both an indulgent return-to-form and an excuse to revitalize the age-old Mega Man formula with some fresh ideas. Well, some fresh ideas...the fact that main characters Beck, Call, and Dr. White are about as dissimilar from Rock, Roll, and Dr. Light as a rock and a stone isn't lost on me.

WHAT YOU SHOULD GET: $60. Your name in the credits (and an OFFICIAL MIGHTY NUMBER), A copy of the game, its soundtrack, plus a retro-inspired physical gamebox and manual. Higher tiers include an artbook/strategy guide and various get your ______ in the game rewards, as well as dinner with the man Keiji Inafune.

RELEVANT LINKS: @MightyNo9 | Mighty No. 9 Facebook

Shantae: Half-Genie Hero

WHAT IT IS: A new HD sequel to the well-loved Shantae series, featuring a brand-new style on top of classic bellydancing, hair-whipping action.

WHY YOU SHOULD CARE: Way Forward mostly does contract work for various companies and their licenses, but when they manage to save enough, the work they do for themselves tends to be pretty special. Mighty Switch Force, Sigma Star Saga, and of course Shantae prove an excellent pedigree for gaming. Now with Kickstarter, we won't have to wait another decade for a proper sequel.

WHAT YOU SHOULD GET: $75 STANDARD EDITION. Your name in the credits, a copy of the game, a physical version of the soundtrack, and various digital bonuses like an artbook and an extra transformation for Shantae. Higher levels include a hardcover artbook, your face/art in the game, invitation to a wrap-party, and a rather high-priced package including the original (very rare) Shantae for Gameboy Color.

RELEVANT LINKS:  @wayforward | www.wayforward.com

Atama-ii: Multiple Path Stories in Easy English

WHAT IT IS: A new take on the Choose-Your-Own-Adventure series as full-color illustrated eBooks.

WHY YOU SHOULD CARE: Because CYOA are awesome, especially for your favorite young-reader. And while the reading level of these books is very easy, the content is not trite or boring, with tales of trips to mars, life as an immortal across the milennia, or—yes—zombies…in Tokyo! With great illustrations and a writing staff partially culled from previous CYOA efforts, it looks like a great try at reviving this unique brand of storytelling.

WHAT YOU SHOULD GET:  $20…or do you choose another pledge level? Turn to page 12! Includes all 10 eBooks in iBook or Kindle format. Higher levels include signed prints, limited edition hardcover copies, cameos, or even the power to direct your own book in the series.

RELEVANT LINKS:  www.atama-ii.com

Kickstarter Roundup 09-18-13

Since I spend way too much time browsing Kickstarter anyway, I've decided to share a weekly (semi-weekly?) roundup of notable finds on the world's biggest crowdfunding site.

Belle of the Ball

WHAT IT IS: A card game where players become party hosts, each trying their best to put on the most talked-about get-together by carefully managing the guests they invite…or snub.

WHY YOU SHOULD CARE: With Daniel Solis as both Game Designer and Graphic Designer for the project, you know it’s a game that will play as good as it looks. He also designs all his games “in the open” on his blog, so it’s nice to support a designer who shares so much for free. (And I do mean so much, I swear Daniel tilts his head a little too far and game ideas come pouring out…possibly from his hair, though this is a mystery.)

WHAT YOU SHOULD GET: $25 House Party. The Belle of the Ball Kickstarter is light on exclusive extras, so there’s not a lot to choose from besides a copy of the game. Still, if you’re interested in reprints of some of Dice Hate Me’s (the publisher for the BotB) other offerings, there’s plenty of higher tiers that will oblige your interest.

RELEVANT LINKS: @DanielSolis | www.danielsolis.com, @DiceHatMe | www.dicehatemegames.com

Calcula’s LVL UP!

WHAT IT IS: A collected volume of Fred Perry’s online Final Fantasy XI “doujin” comic, LVL UP!

WHY YOU SHOULD CARE: If you’re a fan of the artist’s previous works, like Gold Digger, then you probably don’t need any convincing. But LVL Up itself is a charming comic with a lot of heart, and any fan of Final Fantasy XI should get quite a few smiles out of it. Perry will not be publishing the book through normal distribution channels, so this will be your only chance to get your greedy Galka gloves on a print copy.

WHAT YOU SHOULD GET: $50 LVL THREE Support. The doujin signed and with a sketch of the eponymous Calcula on the dust jacket. Can you say no to Calcula? Can you?

RELEVANT LINKS: www.gd-tangent.com

Icebound: A Visual Novel

WHAT IT IS: A visual novel set in a steampunk/dark-fantasy world in a frozen age.

WHY YOU SHOULD CARE: Visual novels can’t seem to get a fair shake in the American market, and Kickstarter hasn’t been much kinder (unless you count Megatokyo…). Somewhere between text adventure and novel, VNs imbue good stories with just enough visuals, music, and choices to make them fun to play. Icebound features beautiful backdrops, a nice premise, and a few mini-game bells and whistles to break up the walls of text that are the trademark of the genre. It’s as good an entry as any to what can be a really compelling medium for storytelling, and the more people aware of visual novels, the better.

WHAT YOU SHOULD GET: $25 Citizen. A copy of the game, the soundtrack, some wallpapers, and your name in the credits.

RELEVANT LINKS:  @vnwriter | www.fastermind.net

Pixel Star - 01

WHAT IT IS: A retro-inspired space-shooter with groovy 8-bit tunes and aesthetics

WHY YOU SHOULD CARE: While there’s nothing about the mechanics or aesthetics you probably haven’t seen before—especially if you have as much of a penchant for exploring such things on iOS as I do—the Jetpack Joyride meets Space Invaders: Infinity Gene 8-bit beat fest that is Pixel Star - 01 offers a competent-looking take on the casual retro game with a compelling design sense, all by a 16-year-old aspiring programmer.

WHAT YOU SHOULD GET:  $5 PC, Mac, iOS, or Android version. The pledge list is unfortunately a muddled collection of different packages, with each not being terribly clear of what it offers, but $5 gets you the game and supports a kid making his dreams come true.

Kickstarting Kickstarter

Those of you who follow this blog (or my twitter account) are probably aware I recently ran a Kickstarter for my anime-inspired role-playing game, OVA. My experience with crowd-funding only bolsters my belief that we are on the verge of a real paradigm shift in how we create our content, interact with our supporters, and make things happen.

But Kickstarter isn't a magical push button for success. It’s a lot of work—I’m working on content to send to my backers as I write this—and for all the ways Kickstarter makes things easier, there are pitfalls that are just as easy to fall into. While I only have one project so far, I have been an active part of Kickstarters for Minion Games, Jolly Roger Games, Asmadi Games, and maybe a few other companies that end in "Games," and I’ve gotten to know my way around the most popular crowd-funding platform. It seems only fair to share some of the things I’ve learned along the way. Looking to start a project of your own? Read on, Macduff.

You may have read a few articles about Kickstarter to prepare yourself for the task ahead. Maybe you’ve read a lot of them. Apparently, you’re reading at least one—this one—and that’s good! The fact you’re not jumping into your first project believing it an autonomous money-making machine is certainly a proper first step. You may think the next one involves planning your pledge levels, writing your pitch, or setting up your marketing engine. But my first and most important piece of advice actually has nothing to do with your project at all.

BACK A PROJECT (OR THREE)

Before setting off on this adventure, it’s imperative that you actually try it out for yourself. While any project will do, finding a few somewhat similar to your own would be most ideal. You should back a project because no amount of research will teach you more about how Kickstarter works.

You understand your backers because you are a backer. You see firsthand what excites you in a project, what bores you, what annoys you. You understand what makes you want to pledge and at what levels. You get a feel for the kind and number of updates that neither feel too pushy or too sparse. You realize the questions you want answered by the project creators.

You understand Kickstarter because you see the process firsthand. You experience the ebb and flow of the campaign, the aftermath, the surveys, the private message system. You see inventive ways people modify the Kickstarter ecosystem with add-ons and stretch goals. You experience how Kickstarter notifies you throughout the campaign.

You instill confidence in your potential backers because you have been one of them. You show you believe in this whole crowd-funding thing, that you’re not just dropping in for an “easy” paycheck. People do care, and I’ve received several messages from people who greatly appreciated that I gave to a lot of other projects before I launched my own.

And come on, you get cool stuff. Why wouldn’t you?

PEOPLE JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER

Despite the age-old axiom imploring you to do the opposite, people can and will judge your project by the face you put forward. It’s not only what catches (and hopefully holds) their attention, it’s an indication of what the finished product will be.

Now I know you’re launching a Kickstarter to make money, but you have to show that you’re making the effort, too. If you throw up a project that hasn't had a cent put into it, your campaign will look like a panhandle instead of your personal dream. Take the time. Save the money. Make sure you have a compelling and eye-catching thumbnail. Show at least one example of your final product, whether it's an interior spread, a fan of cards, or even just a selection of illustrations. Everything doesn't have to be polished, and don't feel you can't show prototype or in-progress items. But make sure your backers know exactly how great a product they will be getting when they back.

Your video is another matter of great importance. And by that I don’t mean you have to have a video. It helps, of course, but if your options are a great thumbnail and no video, or a video that is painful and annoying to sit through, you are much better off with no trailer at all.

I'm not saying you have to go blow your budget hiring James Cameron. While a really awesome video will certainly help, you can do just fine with less. The important thing is to never look careless. Don't upload a handheld selfie you took amid the din of the commuter car while heading to work. Don't ramble on for ten minutes about your project without direction or forethought. Make sure your product appears in the video, preferably upfront. If you aren't able to edit the video in a way to show off your art, assets, and components digitally, have a convincing prototype built and film it in lighting where it’s easily visible. If you have trouble speaking clearly or charismatically, consider hiring a voiceover.

REDUCE YOUR BARRIER TO ENTRY

People are busy, and they may be cramming their Kickstarter browsing in between all matters of multitasking. Don’t make it difficult to throw money at you. Limit the number of pledge levels as much as possible to eliminate backing confusion and paralysis. Detail what each of them include in the body of your project, with images if possible. Pitch the crux of what makes your project special early on in your video and on your page, not after a detailed history of your toils. If you can, offer a demo, quick-start, or print & play version of your game so potential backers can weigh first hand if the project is one they want to back.

There’s also one more barrier to entry to consider, and it’s an easy one to forget. “Why should I back now?” If you don’t give compelling answer to this, whether through exclusive content or cool bonuses, a lot of your fans will just buy your product when it’s available later...and after distributors, storefronts, and others have taken a substantial slice out of your profits.

DON'T SET YOUR GOAL TOO HIGH

Kickstarter is as much powered by psychology as it is by the content it purveys. The entire experience, from the personal appeal to help achieve dreams, to the limited window to support a project and receive its rewards, to even the Trivial Pursuit-esque backed project wheel, plays on human nature to maximize the desire to give money now instead of buying a given thing later.

With all that  working in your favor, you very much don’t want to shoot yourself in the foot by setting your goal too high. When you’re sitting on a campaign that’s half over and not anywhere close to its goal, it becomes an intense disincentive to backers. If it’s not going to fund anyway, why bother? Don’t underestimate how powerful this impression can be. I’ve seen time and time again great projects fail miserably because they set their goal too high, only to relaunch with a more modest target and make exponentially more money than their goal the first time!

So how high is too high? Projects differ so widely that what works for your five pound box of miniatures is not appropriate for your lightweight RPG. Just take a look at similar projects and see what seems to be a typical successful baseline. My personal rule of thumb is to cover your production and fulfillment costs, but leave out (at least a good portion of) your art and design budget. In other words, the stuff that hasn’t happened at the time of your Kickstarter. Of course, the minimum needs to be whatever you can afford to finish off the project, so this advice may not be appropriate. But as I mentioned earlier, you should try to cover some of your costs yourself, as a show of good faith and belief in your own project, if nothing else.

YOU CAN'T LET KICKSTARTER DO ALL THE WORK

Finally, just remember this is still your project, and you have to put in the time, too. Looking at OVA's stats, only 50% of the money pledged came directly from Kickstarter’s ecosystem. The rest was through my own efforts with social media, word of mouth, and the contacts I have built over time. But hey, that’s pretty empowering that Kickstarter can double your efforts, right? It’s a great time to make things, so go out there and do it!

OVA: The Anime Role-Playing Game Kickstarter is Live!

The day is finally here! After much tireless effort, OVA: The Anime Role-Playing Game's Kickstarter is live! You can check on its progress to the right, or click the link below to find out more.

I want to thank all of you who supported a little anime-inspired game I made 8 years ago. I hope you find the new version was worth the wait!

Somebody Set Up Us the Bomb

MINION MONDAY

 
Of all the games I’ve worked on for Minion Games, The Manhattan Project was by far the largest undertaking. There were plenty of cards, boards, tokens, and funny little men to fashion for sure, but more than that, capturing the zeitgeist of World War II era propaganda and aesthetics was a deeply involving process. Instead of purely abstract spaces, The Manhattan Project is full of papers and posters, cards and envelopes, flyers and ephemera of a bygone day. Not only the design of these had to be right, but I wanted them to look old, like this box was a relic found stowed in the recesses of an attic.

CLICK TO BLOW UP

James Mathe, Minion Games whipcracker and all-around nice guy, was a stalwart ally in this cause. Throughout the process, he was always quick with an old 50s newspaper ad, vintage sales receipt, or a clever idea. Really, I can’t express enough it's worth your time to research materials in the theme you want to recreate! As much as you think you know a given look, there's nothing like a small period detail that can make a design sing.

The game’s main board was the bulk of the work. Since I wanted to convey a messy engineer’s desk, each element had to have its own design. I’m not fond of repurposing other’s stock images, so most everything had to be painted from scratch, from the weathered plastic frame of the cork board to the dingy ash tray that serves as the game’s “Bribe Pile.”

While the idea of a mess of papers was fun, I still wanted each piece to make logical sense. The spy track as film on a top secret file folder, the factories on an inventory receipt, and the university diploma all reinforce the idea of the what a given space you can place your hard-working workers is for.

For the cards, I wanted to reference the propaganda posters that are so defining of the time period. Bold but limited palettes, period fonts, and a good coat of wear and tear fleshed out the look. Instead of the standard white or black border, I placed the key elements on an actual poster shape, complete with tattered edges and a shadow to give that poorly pasted on effect.

FontBook, an iPad app I mentioned in a previous entry, was a great resource for font selection, with its ability to sort typefaces by the year they were created. Exploring these mid century fonts was a real joy.

The original Manhattan Project sold through its print run almost immediately on release, but fret not! Minion Games has launched a new Kickstarter. Not only can you get the original game, but a “Mega Expansion,” containing new bombs, buildings, nations, rockets, and famous people of the era, is up for grabs. You can even get this T-Shirt I designed exclusive to project backers!

Just in Case...

It’s no secret I’m really fond of Apple’s various iOS devices. Ever since I got the original iPod touch, it’s become an integral part of the way I work, consume, and interact with the bits and bytes I love.

Something I’m less fond of is Apple’s penchant for cladding its iPods in a stainless steel back. Oh, it’s beautiful for sure, but it’s a malicious and ephemeral sort of beauty, the kind of mirror finish that attracts scratches if you so much as look at it the wrong way. It’s a lesson I learned quickly with that first iPod touch, and one I rectified out-of-the-box when I replaced it with the fourth-generation model some years later. I chose the case from SwitchEasy because it advertised itself as the thinnest case on the market. Having been used to using my previous one naked for all these years, I really wanted the case to be as unobtrusive as possible.

It certainly was thin, and unobtrusive, but it was also a fragile thing, and after a year of use it began to fracture in the corners. I guess there’s a reason other cases weren’t this thin.

So long story short, I needed a new case, pronto. But I wanted it to last, so my preference for a barely-there case was no longer a top requirement. And if I’m wanting it to last...well! I better make it something I want to look at, right?

So that’s how this came to be:

Uncommon prints custom made-to-order cases based on whatever art you send them (like this great combined effort with Niko Geyer). The price may be a bit on the high side, but they take great strides to treat your order as a premium product. The case ships in a nice resealable bag, along with an Uncommon sticker and two $5 discount cards for future orders.

The case itself is definitely tough. It's a solid piece of plastic that won't flex under pressure and just feels solid in the hands. Maybe a little too solid. A thin case it’s not, and it takes the iPod touch’s almost impossible thinness and converts it to a heft more akin to the iPhone line of products. But we saw what thin got me, so I'll give it a pass in this regard.

This is the "capsule" case with a design that separates into two parts. This is ostensibly for easy docking in any matter of peripherals you might own that don't support the case, but doing so casually isn't really possible. Rubber-like strips on the inside of the case hold it firmly in place, making removing either portion a bit of a work out. At least you don’t have to worry about your case coming off accidentally!

Most importantly though the art looks great, with a few caveats. Lines aren't as sharp as they could be, with a ever-so-slight fuzziness to everything. This is almost certainly due to Uncommon’s much-advertised 3D-Tatt® technology. So while you may sacrifice a bit of clarity, the art is embedded deep into the plastic, making it impervious to flaking, surface scrapes, or other things you might normally expect from a printed surface. The art is there for the duration!

The colors are also off a bit, in general having a more yellow cast. Karis's hair also came out an almost bubblegum pink shade. But the colors are close enough that you probably won’t notice without a direct comparison.

That nitpicking aside, I’m really pleased with it. Having a customized case makes it really feel like your own, and I’m infinitely happier with it than a generic solid or pre-printed pattern.

An interesting aside is that the case is completely odorless. Most people probably don’t get what I’m saying here, but for those of you that are starkly aware of every new piece of electronics they buy, the Uncommon case is a pleasant surprise. I really expected a real painty-smell from the custom ink process, but really, there’s nothing. Even the flimsy SwitchEasy case (which was clear) had a stark plastic scent that lasted for a month — even transfers to your hands. It’s a small note, but a real exception to the rule in products like this.

As a final footnote, Uncommon's customer service is great. I was always able to get a live person on the phone, and they adeptly answered questions I had about bleed and such without having to play telephone relay with me. And when my first case shipped with the art between the halves not aligned, it only took a quick email to rectify the issue. I received a nigh-immediate response assuring me this was a rare error and a new one was shipped to me immediately. No returns. No additional shipping costs. Just a very pleasant experience.

I'd recommend Uncommon if you have an iOS device you want covered. In fact, remember those $5 discount cards I mentioned? I’m willing to give one away! Just leave a reply with the kind of case you want to make, and I'll send one lucky person the code. Feel free to pass along this post to anyone you think might be interested!

Get your Kicks on Route 6d6

Hey, everybody. If you can’t tell by the title graphic above, here’s another update on OVA’s eventual Kickstarter.

If you follow the forums on RPG.net, you may have come across a thread where I have been discussing the final pledge tiers. For those of you who don’t — or simply missed the exchange — I’m including it here:

$15. A copy of the PDF, as well as an advance look at the game before its public release.
$30. The above, and a copy of the full-color printed book.
$50. The above, and your name printed as a patron in the book. You will also have access to a special playtest forum with the opportunity to have your voice heard and help shape the final product.
$75. The above, except your full-color book is upgraded to one of one-hundred limited box sets, each numbered and including: A copy of the printed book, your name listed as a patron, Quick-Start Player Books, a pack of character sheets, a set of trading cards, and a set of dice.
$100 The above, and a special hand-crafted OVA Dice Bag by Dragon Chow Dice Bags.
$250 The above, and a custom character sheet featuring an illustration of your character by the official OVA artist. 

Since that thread, I’ve been researching the cost of the various pledge premiums, and I've found it’s very difficult to get a box produced in any quantity less than 500, and even then it’s almost as cost-effective to get 1000. I have found an option at Superior PoD with very reasonable rates for small numbers, but the box itself looks a little flimsy. Here, take a look.

The print quality looks great, and the build seems well put together with sharp corners. It’s something I wouldn’t bat an eye at if it were simply a container to hold a bunch of goodies. But my goal was to evoke the RPGs of yesteryear, and this isn't the thick cardboard heavy-duty box you may be used to. It's more like the boxes they use for "Collector's Edition" video games.

So what do you guys think? Would you still consider a box like this a decent collectable for high-pledge tiers? Or should I revise my pledge tiers and try something else entirely?

A God at Sea

MINION MONDAY

 
It’s time for another Minion Monday, and this time I’m going to show you Minion Games’ latest, Tahiti!

Yeah, yeah. Those of you well-versed in Euro-style board games will have seen countless iterations of the “manage some goods at an oceanic locale that also serves as the game’s name” schtick. But where theme often exists as a last-minute coat of paint, Tahiti fully avails itself of the lore surrounding its namesake island. The Tiki aesthetic throughout the game’s art and design is fun right out of the box, before you so much as place so much as a tile on the table. Little touches, like actually piloting a little canoe from island to island as you pick up and deliver goods, makes the specific Pacific choice of setting much more than an arbitrary skinning of the mechanics.

Minion Games once again teamed up with Chuck Whelon for the artwork. As he had for his work on Nile, Chuck really researched the source material for an authentic experience. Well...authentic to the Tiki aesthetic anyway, which like so many things has been host to a bevy of Western exaggerations and extrapolations. Still, any Tiki-head will be well at home at this gaming archipelago.

As we did for Kingdom of Solomon, Venture Forth, and The Manhattan Project, Minion Games is using crowd funding site Kickstarter to help offset costs and drum up interest in Tahiti. But those games were Kickstarted relatively early in their production cycles, with images and videos revealing great games sporting less-than-great prototype graphics. This time, I convinced James that we might have better success showing off a nearly complete product, one with care taken to present it in the best light. So a lot of my work this time around has been specifically for the Kickstarter effort: Custom text headers, fully-realized prototypes, and of course the box shot gracing the very top of the page.

Has it helped? It’s a bit too early to tell, but so far support has been great! The pledges over the first two days have been the best yet for Minion Games. If you would like to secure your own copy of Tahiti, get in your canoe and go! And if you’re at all like me and love to see unique premiums tied to a project, I designed a bag in conjunction with Dragon Chow only available to higher backers. It’s perfect for pulling out the games’ wooden cubes or nestling whatever you desire in Tiki goodness.

Not sure yet? When you back at the $1 level, you immediately receive a copy of the Print & Play version. If you like what you see, you can upgrade to any of the other great tiers, including a dinner with James Mathe — the perfect opportunity to pick his brain about the board game industry!

If nothing else, drop by for the video. Watching James juggle copies of our last two waves of board games is well worth the minute of your time.

Click here for the Tahiti Kickstarter

 “If game publishing doesn’t work out, at least I’ll have a career with Ringling!”

Judging a Book by Its (New) Cover

Those of you who have been waiting for a proper OVA update need wait no more. Here it is, the new cover! (Click to see it in its full-size glory.)

Even though this isn’t final, hopefully you all will find lots to love in the revised cover design. Like the rest of the book, the cover illustration is done by talented Niko Geyer, and you may even notice a new look for Wise Turtle Publishing itself!

The Kickstarter for OVA (previously mentioned here) is slated for late June/July, just in time for the game’s 7th anniversary. I’m still tinkering with the pledge premiums list, so if you have an opinion, be sure to let me hear about it! What sort of things would make you back at a higher level, and what would you pay for it? Gauging consumer interest will be very useful before jumping in the crowd-funding deep-end!

Keep checking by, as I will continue to post OVA updates leading up to the Kickstarter, including a look behind the curtains as I finalize the typesetting of the rules.

The Box and the Hare

Outside of a fleeting flirtation with popularity in the 1980s, rpgs have always been a niche product, a collection of tomes and boxes more likely to be squirreled away in the recesses of some specialized hobby shop than displayed front-and-center in your favorite department store. Still, you’ll see the bigger rpgs, like Dungeons & Dragons, show up in the big chain booksellers, and such games are never-the-less a prominent part of our cultural identity — even if everyone isn’t aware of exactly how to play one.

But in Japan, things are a little different. rpgs may have seen the same brief rise in visibility as they did in the west, with really awesome-looking versions of D&D, Battletech, and other standbys localized for a curious audience, but nowadays Japanese rpgs are lucky to have a tiny space of three or four books in stores. Polyhedral dice are a chore to get a hold of, and besides the venerable D&D, often eschewed in favor of the stalwart six-sider. Suffice it to say, it’s a niche of a niche, to the point where rpgs have to be referred to as “Table-Talk rpgs” to differentiate them from the grossly more popular video game variety.

That’s what makes a game like Golden Sky Stories all the more remarkable. There’s no thriving “story-gaming” culture there, not a slew of diceless rpgs to draw inspiration from, no new-fangled narrative rpgs to be influenced by. It’s a microcosm of rpgs, one largely still in the same boat as our games were 10 years ago. And you'd think a game developed for a much smaller audience may have hit-and-miss production values, especially when you consider that most Japanese webpages look like Geocities came by for a visit and then never left. That’s not the case. gSS is a lovely book, with big, expressive art that brings a rural Japanese town to life. So I’ve tried to be faithful to the original design of the book as I’ve gone about rebuilding it from scratch. (No source files here, folks!)

But still, there are some things throughout the design that seems a little out of place. For instance, the book is split into four parts, seasons, and each section is introduced by art and one of these symbols. You can see the very thematic, almost sumi-e looking paint job behind the character for Spring, right? Looks great!

However, throughout the book, these stark, austere-looking rounded boxes are used for notes and callouts. In a book otherwise so warm and comfy, it seemed inappropriate to me. So I did something about it! Drawing inspiration from the seasonal characters, all of the boxes, tables, and other details have swapped their old rounded-rectangle tool attire for newer threads with rough edges and a more painted look. I think the end result is much more in character with the book, and I can only hope Ryo Kamiya, the book's author, would approve!

For your reading enjoyment, I’ve included an entire spread from the Powers section. The left-hand page features abilities all henge of a given type possess, while recto features optional ones. It’s a neat system, because in order to gain more powers, you have to take the corresponding weakness! The number in parenthesis indicates the amount of Wonder (a sort of story-telling currency) you spend to use that power.

Why the Rabbit, you ask? Well, it only seemed appropriate for today, right? Hope you all have a great Easter!

Nyan Cat: Rainbow Race

I’m ecstatic to reveal the box art for Minion Games’ next title. As a subject near and dear to my heart, I’m so excited we were able to procure the license bouncing off the success of the now sold-out Manhattan Project.

Nyan Cat: Rainbow Race is a “real-time” card game for 2-4 players based on the popular internet meme. Instead of taking turns, players can draw, discard, and play cards at any time. The deck consists of 6 colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple, which are shuffled and evenly divided among the players to become individual draw decks. When you draw a card, you may either place it in your hand or play it to your play area on the table. Cards played to the table are organized by color, and the goal is to create the biggest stack of a single color. Players may not have multiple stacks of the same color on the table in front of them at any point in the game. When players feels like their stack is big enough, they can take the whole stack and put it in their scoring pile. If a stack of that color already exists in the scoring pile, the new pile must be at least one larger, and the old pile is discarded.

There is also the Nyan Cat card. This special rare card can be played on top of anyone’s color stack, and that stack immediately goes to the Nyan Cat player’s scoring pile. Managing how big to make your color stacks — to maximize score value but hopefully not attract other players' desirous eyes! — is the core of the game.

Once all cards have been played or discarded, scoring is handled in traditional Knizian manner: The player with the most cards in their smallest color stack is the winner!

Once again, I can’t express how enthusiastic I am about this game. I designed it from the ground up with Nyan Cat in mind and to be accessible to younger players. I only hope the gaming public will find I’ve succeeded! Keep checking by in the coming months for updates as Nyan Cat: Rainbow Race goes through production!

Ode to a Grecian Game

MINION MONDAY

 
Greek mythology: A tried and true lore of ancient heroes, incomparable threats, and completely baffling logic that is the mainstay of our educational culture. But even if Zeus was found wanting of aspirin and birthed goddesses from his forehead in the driest way a textbook knew how, there’s still an ancient power to these myths, a strength derived from thousands of storytellers, each imparting a bit of their own life, and a bit of their own imperfections, as the tales found their way to the modern day. This is truer of nothing than the Greek's epic poetry, and no one has captured the rhythm and lifeblood of an ancient people as Robert Fagles.

I still remember his translation of the Iliad, an old hardback tome, perhaps then new, resting on the coffee table. The cover black, the top of the leaves painted red, if not for all those sturdy souls sent to House of Death, then for a really swell looking book. It was my mother’s, and where Mythology 101 might not have had any love for the Greek gods and goddesses of yore, she imparted a fascination with swift-footed Achilles and his unquellable rage, Lord of Men Agamemnon, Hector, Paris, Helen, and all the tragedies of the war on Troy.

Rage— Goddess, sing of the rage of Perseus’ son Achilles! Lines like this reverberated with me, and it inspired a adoration not just for Greek myth, but of all old epic poetry, from the alliterative Beowolf to the often very redundant Gilgamesh.

But for all its enduring imagery and epic tales, the world of Greek myth feels seldom acknowledged in the world of gaming. Sure, one could dig up that GURPS sourcebook or an aging board game of some nature, but for a mythology ripe with all the tropes we associate with the omnipresent medieval fantasy, it’s a missed opportunity for games both new and familiar.

So when Minion Games head honcho James Mathe first showed me Venture Forth, I was pretty enthusiastic. The bones were there for a game rife with the kind of magic I felt reading the epics, and maybe even such irreverent romps as the 1980s Clash of the Titans. But the prototype itself was bare of theme, a blank slate that could as easily been Tolkien as Homer. Time to crack those knuckles!

As I said, the game symbols used in the prototype given to me were all very generic affairs, with medieval chevron shields and golden trophies. I replaced them with Greek equivalents, sturdy round shields, gleaming gladii, and ancient urns. With proper icons in place, it seemed only fitting to use the most iconic of Greek contributions, the architecture of the period, as my inspiration for the card borders.

After completing the frames, I started to place the work by James Denton into my card sheets. The art was big and bold, maybe even a little over-the-top at times, which felt perfect for the sort of Greek high-adventure we were talking about. But inside my frames they felt encroached upon, constrained. One does not contain such gods of men and creatures of myth! It was then I decided to make the artwork “pop over” the edges. It made the monsters more daunting, the heroes more adventuresome, and all in all just seemed more exciting. Unfortunately, most of the artwork was provided without layers, so this effect took quite a bit of love and care. Zooming in at 600% helps as you're carefully trimming the art away from its original background. The end “coming out at you” result was worth the time. The tiny cards feel that much bigger for it.

For the card backs, I decided to make it stand out from the front art by using traditional “black-figure” imagery from Grecian urns. I drew it myself based on a particular urn featuring god of war Ares and surrounded it with the ornamental details that seemed fitting.

Venture Forth itself is a great game that takes the things you love about an adventure board game, leaves out the trite, trying stuff you don’t, and wraps it in a golden fleece of Euro-gaming standbys that together feels fresh and new. Helping your party of adventurers meet their fated ambitions instead of just killing monsters leads to a very Greek feeling tale, and the amount of depth provided by cultivating paths, hiring new heroes, and overcoming obstacles just makes for a very complete and satisfying package.

If that sounds like the kind of game for you, and you lack the ability to pop it fully-formed from your forehead, make Hermes-like haste to MinionGames.com and score yourself a copy. Ordering directly from us means more of your dollar goes to support the people who made the game possible! That, and you'll get this special Treasure Card, not available anywhere else!

A Game of the Game of the Generals

I was speaking to a friend, the very talented Honoel, about board games when he brought up Game of the Generals. It was one he remembered fondly from his childhood, and the game was noteworthy for being native to his home in the Philippines. Both players had an army of plastic pieces, each unit labeled with a different rank. Each rank could capture any piece of those ranked under it, except the lowest rank, which could only capture the highest ranked piece in the game. This in itself could be a fun diversion, but the twist lay in that these ranks were only labeled on one side, keeping your troops a complete mystery to your opponent. The goal: protect your flag and capture the enemy’s! The game itself is over 40 years old, but I still managed to find a picture of it.

Okay, yes, as it turns out Game of the Generals is a thinly veiled copy of the classic Stratego. It’s not devoid of differences: The lakes that serve as a choke point are absent, the spy occupies the top rank instead of the bottom, and there are no mines or units to defuse them. The game also explicitly calls for an arbiter to decide conflicts instead of revealing both pieces after a capturing attempt. While the idea of sitting through a game doing nothing but comparing pieces for your friends sounds like a great way to spend an evening, I’d be surprised how often this actually happened. The most interesting change, though, is that your flag can move. Instead of being stuck in the space it started, forcing you to protect it and devise a red herring or two, it can navigate the board like any other unit. Moreover, if you manage to reach the farthest row with your flag, as one would promote a pawn in chess, you win the game. It’s not enough to regard Generals as much more than the Stratego-clone it is, yet I find it an interesting variation just the same.

But as I read about Game of the Generals and Stratego, I discovered there was yet another game that shared many of the same ideas. Luzhanqi, or The Army Game, features a similar hidden army you use to protect your flag and capture your opponent’s own. It even has the arbiter mechanic from Game of the Generals. But unlike Generals, it features enough differences that it can’t be wholly considered a carbon-copy. For one thing, there are numerous special spaces, like railroads that allow units to travel long distances in straight lines, and campsites, where no unit may be attacked. It also uses a series of circles and radials to place and move pieces instead of a square grid, even though the end effect is much the same.
While The Army Game's exact origin is unclear, copies from the 1950s prove that it’s at least a rough contemporary of the original Netherlands Stratego in 1949. (For the record, Stratego didn't reach America until 1961, and Game of the Generals was first released in 1970.)

So who copied who? With The Army Game’s history being so hopelessly obscure, it’s hard to say for sure. That is, if it weren’t for the fact another game predated them both. L’attaque was first published in France in 1910 with rules largely identical to Stratego. But what’s really interesting about L’attaque is that the creator is Mademoiselle Hermance Edan.

Yes, you saw that right. A lady. Creating a war game. In the early 1900s. When you consider how guy-centric the war-game and RPG industries were in the 70s and 80s, it’s a fun footnote that such an early example was designed by the fairer sex. Unfortunately, I could find little about her beyond the same handful of sentences regarding her patent filing in 1908, quoted pretty much everywhere that discusses the origin of L’attaque and Stratego.

So you’d think that would settle it. L’attaque and by extension Stratego came first, with The Army Game being a loose variant.

But if you continue digging, you’ll find that all of these games bear a striking similarity to another Chinese game, Dou Shou Qi. Known in English as Jungle or Animal Chess, it is a game that features the same piece hierarchy (albeit with animals instead of soldier ranks) and even two bodies of water similar to Stratego’s own. However, the identity of the pieces is public knowledge, and there are Den and Trap spaces (where pieces cannot be captured and any piece can capture any piece respectively) thrown into the mix. Still, it’s undeniable that this could be a clear influence on L’attaque and in turn Stratego, and many histories of the game state as much. In fact, the existence of Jungle makes it entirely plausible that The Army Game is instead an extrapolation of it and not an offshoot of Stratego at all. When you consider how many special areas The Army Game has, it’s not hard to see dens, traps, and animals evolving into the mechanics of its more modern brother.

Unfortunately, like with The Army Game, information on Jungle’s exact origins and date of inception are not to be found. Due to its fable-y charm with its animal pieces, many people assume it’s an ancient game. However, an exhaustive piece of research on Chinese games, penned by Professor Stewart Culin in the late 1890s, has no reference to Jungle whatsoever. So either the man left a rather glaring hole in his research, or Jungle isn’t nearly as old as it’s often given credit for. If we take for granted Culin didn’t pass out drunk on the fated Chinese Family Game Night where he would have played Jungle, this gives us a period from 1890 to 1910 for Jungle to be created and become popular enough to influence a French game-creator.

While rooting about the web did reveal references here and there to Jungle appearing in 1900, none of these cite any source for such a claim. The earliest concrete date I can find is the 1974 Four Generation's “Games of the World” series of board games. The text there describes Jungle as an “ancient game,” but it’s a statement again with skeptical veracity. While a game would likely exist in China long before showing up around the world, this lack of firm history damages any theory that it formed the basis of Stratego, or possibly even The Army Game.

That is, unless there wasn’t yet another Chinese game to consider. Xianqi, or Chinese Chess, really bears more similarity to traditional chess than Stratego or even Jungle. But, there is a body of water that divides the sides of the board. It only affects a few pieces, but it’s still reasonable to think that this could inspire the twin lakes of Stratego or the rivers of Jungle. But that’s admittedly a stretch —  More likely that Stratego and Jungle have more to do with each other than anything else.

The real answer of the origins of Stratego may be one lost to time. I would love to find hard evidence of a copy of Jungle existing in the early 1900s, but the scope of such research is outside of my ability. For now, I think due credit should be given to Edan and her little game of wars, L’attaque. There is no evidence I can find to support Jungle’s identity as an ancient Chinese game instead of a mid-twentieth-century knockoff, and I think crediting it as many Stratego histories do is a disservice to this female gaming pioneer.