New photos
There's loads of new photos over in the photo album from this year. Feel free to head over there and take a look :-)
Tuesday, 5 January 2010
New Year
Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Good christmas and new year all round really.
Had some time off work and mostly relaxed. Christmas day was by far the best we've had in years with no stress and a wicked dinner.
I've made no further progress on the game. The key to the redesign still eludes me and until it clicks I'll just have to keep thinking about it.
In the last few weeks things have been as good as they have been in a long long time between me and laura. There's still a long way to go but I'm happier now than I have been in a while which is all good.
Anya lost her first tooth and after a visit from the tooth fairy she had a pound to spend on sweets. She went to the shop and came away spending half the money on some mints for me and the other half on something she could share 50/50 with Cerys. It was one of those moments that remind you why being a parent is so awesome :-)
Had some time off work and mostly relaxed. Christmas day was by far the best we've had in years with no stress and a wicked dinner.
I've made no further progress on the game. The key to the redesign still eludes me and until it clicks I'll just have to keep thinking about it.
In the last few weeks things have been as good as they have been in a long long time between me and laura. There's still a long way to go but I'm happier now than I have been in a while which is all good.
Anya lost her first tooth and after a visit from the tooth fairy she had a pound to spend on sweets. She went to the shop and came away spending half the money on some mints for me and the other half on something she could share 50/50 with Cerys. It was one of those moments that remind you why being a parent is so awesome :-)
Monday, 21 December 2009
Unsure
For the first time since I started developing my game I'm really starting to doubt the mechanics of it. I was always unsure about the fiddly multiplying of scores at the end based on whether you choose to play at easy, medium or hard difficulty and after a consideration of the game ending at a certain number of points (based on the player's chosen difficulty) rather than after a fixed number of turns I'm even more unsure.
The whole idea of players competing against each other but at different difficulty levels doesn't make a whole lot of sense anyway but it seemed from the start like one of the key choices a player had to make.
I was always concerned about the lack of interaction between players since the sport my game is based on is one in which competitors don't directly compete rather its just who does the best.
It seems to be glaringly obvious that I've thrown aside the main way in which players could interact - cooperatively. The sport itself is cooperative and it seems silly to throw that away.
This does of course mean a complete redesign of the entire game but at this point I think it's well worth pursuing as an idea....
The whole idea of players competing against each other but at different difficulty levels doesn't make a whole lot of sense anyway but it seemed from the start like one of the key choices a player had to make.
I was always concerned about the lack of interaction between players since the sport my game is based on is one in which competitors don't directly compete rather its just who does the best.
It seems to be glaringly obvious that I've thrown aside the main way in which players could interact - cooperatively. The sport itself is cooperative and it seems silly to throw that away.
This does of course mean a complete redesign of the entire game but at this point I think it's well worth pursuing as an idea....
Friday, 18 December 2009
Meh+1
I'm just looking through my email and the India one is definitely the most appealing at the moment. At about £1.50 per deck they're half the price of cartamundi. It's risk but they seem legit and when you times by 1000 copies, there's a significant difference between £3000 and £1500......
Meh
So the cartamundi quote came in and as I suspected, the confusing quote was hiding the total amount. They've come in at just under £3 per deck which is slightly better than before but still isn't rocking my world.
I'm still waiting to hear back from ludofact (in germany) who seem to be a major player and well used by gamers so hopefully they'll be competitive.
My only other options are the place in India which I'm reluctant to go with just because of geography or JKLM games who I'm reluctant to go with since they aren't an actual printer which means they're basically passing the work onto someone else and (presumably) taking a cut. Nevertheless they are the cheapest European quote so far.
I've amended the cards as per my specialist consultation and I'm hoping to play a game with Inky and Cathy tonight which will give me an idea of what a gamer and a non-gamer think of it so far.
I'm still waiting to hear back from ludofact (in germany) who seem to be a major player and well used by gamers so hopefully they'll be competitive.
My only other options are the place in India which I'm reluctant to go with just because of geography or JKLM games who I'm reluctant to go with since they aren't an actual printer which means they're basically passing the work onto someone else and (presumably) taking a cut. Nevertheless they are the cheapest European quote so far.
I've amended the cards as per my specialist consultation and I'm hoping to play a game with Inky and Cathy tonight which will give me an idea of what a gamer and a non-gamer think of it so far.
Thursday, 17 December 2009
Specialist help
Met up with "The Specialist" last night and got the points for the card game in order.
I'll put it together as soon as I can and then I can start the proper play testing :-)
I'm thinking once I've done some testing I'll get a POD copy sorted out just to do further testing with rather than using my pencil on blank cards thing.
We also came up with the idea of selling advertising space since 72 cards is the golden number for the printer. My main deck is 50 cards and the side deck is 20 cards which leaves 2 cards for adverts. Could be a good way to offset the printing costs.
I got a decent quote from cartamundi yesterday after a comedy of errors. I'm inclined to go with them due to their world wide presence - it'll make it easier to go overseas with the game. I'm waiting to hear back on an actual total price though since the quote was a little confusing.
I'll put it together as soon as I can and then I can start the proper play testing :-)
I'm thinking once I've done some testing I'll get a POD copy sorted out just to do further testing with rather than using my pencil on blank cards thing.
We also came up with the idea of selling advertising space since 72 cards is the golden number for the printer. My main deck is 50 cards and the side deck is 20 cards which leaves 2 cards for adverts. Could be a good way to offset the printing costs.
I got a decent quote from cartamundi yesterday after a comedy of errors. I'm inclined to go with them due to their world wide presence - it'll make it easier to go overseas with the game. I'm waiting to hear back on an actual total price though since the quote was a little confusing.
Tuesday, 15 December 2009
Getting older
I certainly wouldn't say that I'm worried about my age yet but I have some concerns about some things. I'm worried about the amount of hair that seems to be growing from my ears, nose and eyebrows - regular maintenance is needed. Certainly my eyebrows grow to extreme lengths if left unchecked.
I set myself some random targets a few years ago of things I would like to do before turning 30. One of them was creating a game - at the time I was referring to a pc game that myself and Russ were making but I'd be happy to replace that idea with the one for a card game.
Another was to hold a charity auction. I'm no closer to doing that than the day I came up with the idea except that it'd probably be more of a fundraising auction for our cheerleading team now.
I have a feeling that a third idea I had was to film a cult tv quiz show but again, I'm no closer than when I came up with the idea.
It's funny how quickly life passes you by - I still have a year and a half until I turn 30 but I remember when I set those targets it seemed like I had a lifetime to sort them out. If I can get a game into print next year and maybe even sort out a fundraising auction then I'll be very happy. I guess the quiz show can wait until the year after ;-)
I set myself some random targets a few years ago of things I would like to do before turning 30. One of them was creating a game - at the time I was referring to a pc game that myself and Russ were making but I'd be happy to replace that idea with the one for a card game.
Another was to hold a charity auction. I'm no closer to doing that than the day I came up with the idea except that it'd probably be more of a fundraising auction for our cheerleading team now.
I have a feeling that a third idea I had was to film a cult tv quiz show but again, I'm no closer than when I came up with the idea.
It's funny how quickly life passes you by - I still have a year and a half until I turn 30 but I remember when I set those targets it seemed like I had a lifetime to sort them out. If I can get a game into print next year and maybe even sort out a fundraising auction then I'll be very happy. I guess the quiz show can wait until the year after ;-)