Weekend Gaming

TM, from Jewlicious, left me a comment on my previous post. This brings my readership to 21! Moving in the right direction!

This weekend was all about the continuing saga of My Game Prototype #1. Friday I picked up Saarya from his sleep-away school and headed to downtown Jerusalem to talk to a printer about creating 50 copies of my game.

First of all: why 50 copies? Because I want to send some to interested publishers, some to prominent game reviewers, some to give out/sell at BGG.com, and some more to give out/sell to people here who have already requested copies for themselves.

I was hoping to hear from a certain publisher in the U.S., but I'm still waiting. No sense not covering all bases.

Anyhoo, I already have complete mockups from the abortive attempt with the previous game company. I couldn't produce with their artwork, but I could use it to demonstrate what I am looking for in terms of components. Just swap out the art, keep the same pieces and proportions, and I should be good to go.

Even though I said I want minimal design, just enough to show people what the game is about without a particular theme, the printer still indicated that I was looking at something like $500 here, plus another $500 for printing on paper and gluing to some nice cardboard stock, and including boxes to go with it.

Too much for me, even though I've had offers for assistance. Anyway, I don't have much time, but I think I should at least get another price quote. Also, armed with Paint Shop Pro 8, I don't see why I can't create my own graphics. That should save $500, at least. I asked him to give me a firm quote on both design and printing and went home.

Dinner Friday night with Nadine, Rachel, and Saarya. Nadine is a marketer and game group regular. Nadine kept on insisting that I find a theme for the game, as this will make it more memorable to publishers. We rack our brains for things that come in groups of eight (the game is about collecting a set of eight objects) until I finally come up with 8 candles on a menorah.

Nadine and Rachel then explode in a frenzy of ideas: let's create 500 copies! Let's sell it in Israel! Let's get the Jerusalem Post to cover it as a new gift for Hanukkah! Let's call it "Light My Menorah" [as in "Come on Baby, ..."] We'll have eight different colored candles for the objects, gold candles for the wilds, and Antiochus and Greek soldiers for the hazard cards! Let's play again!

We played, and Rachel won (I played poorly - I'm better two player). Lots of talk. In the meantime, I now have to redo the graphics again with candles and I still have to find the right printer at a cheaper price.

Saturday lunch we had a family over, including a boy (15) who is a full time Halo player. He plays every evening and all night in Israel with his friends in the states. He doesn't go to school. He is so good at it, that he hoping for sponsorship to compete in a worldwide tournament for money, and expects that this is pretty likely.

I tried to convince him to play board games with me. Every time he raised an objection as to why he doesn't like board games, I told him that I feel the same way about board games, which is why I play good ones. "They're too much luck". Yes. "They're for kids". Yes. "They're too slow with lots of waiting". Yes. "They go on forever". Yes. Exactly what I don't like about board games, that's why you should play the new board games.

Eventually I convinced him that just like video games doesn't mean "Pong", board games doesn't mean "Monopoly". He consented to try my game prototype #1. After one game he asked to play again. And again. He lost each time, and still told me it was a great game. Nachas!

The guy spends all of his time at home without any local friends, I think. I hope I can convince him to come to the game group.

Yehuda