Free time, what's that? Oh, yeah...

Heh. So I've got some spare time for a spell. Forgot what that's like.

Okay, so updates for lots of things.

First, I didn't win in Milwaukee. Another game was chosen there. I didn't win in Chicago, either, but I really wasn't expecting much there. On the bright side, one (well, two, technically) of my friends is getting published. Congratulations Steve Bennett and Judy Martin! Look for Judy Martin's Quilt Show (not sure if the name will be the same) next year.

My first semester on the path to my graphic design degree is finished. Between that and everything else I was working on over the past three months, I'm definitely ready for a short respite. After conferencing with my advisor and my girlfriend (my other advisor), I decided to pursue a minor in computer science instead of a certificate of entrepreneurship. I'm still glad I took the one entrepreneurship class--I learned some important things. Nonetheless, I needed to take into consideration the goal of going back to school (make myself valuable in a new field), and minoring in computer science works better toward that end than learning about entrepreneurship.

Christmas is right around the corner, and I will be driving back to Nebraska soon--assuming the weather cooperates. Right now, it's not looking very promising. I hope I don't have to miss out on Christmas!

In other news, my bartender job just keeps getting more interesting by the week. Business opportunities that the owner is blazing keep popping up. First I became a distributor for karaoke machines about a month ago. Then came news that they're starting an ink supply company with cheap ink and cool machines. Now they are working on cell phone plans. I haven't seen any benefits from these yet (the karaoke machines are a hard sell in Nebraska--my area--and I've only tried once over Thanksgiving break so far; and the other two businesses haven't actually started yet). I am cautiously optimistic that these new endeavors could pay my college tuition or, better yet, turn into long-term cash cows.

Let's see if I get around to posting again this month...

Work to do

I got reviews for Itsy Bitsy Spiders from Memphis, which was completely blind playtesting. Apparently, my rules weren't clear enough. My mom, God bless her, said it was because they have "itsy bitsy brains."

Even if that's true, it is my responsibility to get through to them. That's one thing I need to get done.

In other news, I hastily put together another game (Avast!) to compete in Chicago. Next month I will find out how that does.

I should find out at the end of this weekend how Itsy Bitsy Spiders did in Milwaukee. There I was able to run games last month (but not this month). This is my best chance to have that 30 minutes with Jay.

Gotta get to class...

Hopes and Fears

So I have one of my games, Itsy Bitsy Spiders, entered in the Rio Grande design competition. It is a very solid game that is fun and easy to learn (and cheap to make). I have yet to receive a review that even comes close to negative. When I went to Milwaukee, I often had players asking to play it again immediately after the first game was over! That's a really good feeling, let me tell you. That means I've struck something good.

That's the good news. The bad news is that I keep hearing people say that my game might not be a "Rio Grande game".

A little info on my game is needed at this point. Itsy Bitsy Spiders is a quick, push-your-luck racing game that has never taken more than 30 minutes to play. It is pretty light on strategy, but in an enjoyable way. My target audience could be anyone, since everyone likes it (even hardcore gamers who typically opt for the brain-melters), but for a more specific target, I would say making it a "family game" would be the most lucrative. It is also a great filler game.

This is why people don't think it's really a Rio Grande-type game, though. When most gamers think of Rio Grande, they think of Race for the Galaxy, Puerto Rico, Power Grid, and El Grande. That is what I thought of, as well. However, just to double-check, I went to the Rio Grande website. As it turns out, they also make games such as Coloretto (a filler/family card game) and Ra (a more complex, but still fairly simple, push-your-luck game). In fact, Rio Grande appears to straddle about every genre of games out there--including party games--so I don't think I have anything to worry about.

The only thing left to worry about in the contest, then, is if the people judging the contest think IBS isn't a Rio Grande game and take that into account when they are voting. If that's the case, I could still be in trouble. Barring that, though, I think I should be getting a free entry to CHI-TAG.

Even if I don't, I have gained a lot. I've made contacts and, more importantly, I have supreme confidence in my game. I don't just THINK my game is good anymore. I KNOW that any game company that passes on it is missing out. Knowing that, I am more than ready to slog it out the old fashioned way if this competition doesn't pan out.

Windstorm of Activity

Wow, am I busy. School started last week, so I've got classes. I've also been working almost 30-hour weeks lately. I'm putting an end to that after this week, though--aiming for around 20. Then there's that blasted thesis that I don't really have time for anymore, and somehow I've got to work in time for game design for the Rio Grande competition! I wanted to submit two different games, but it's going to be hard enough to round out Itsy Bitsy Spiders for competition. Back to work...

Quick Update

Apparently getting stuff patented and copyrighted is considered being 'paranoid' (at least for game designers), so that means I will be skipping a step or two in the process of developing games, which is good in that it expedites the process a bit, but I always feel better doing things with legal protection. Oh, well.

I also recorded my first song in ages. Actually, it's just me doing vocals over some guitar work by a friend of mine and his dad from a while back, but it's still recording original material! I finally got Sonar to recognize the sound card input, which is what enabled me to do this. I ran into a few other major snags in the process of recording, but I finally got it done. I'm not sure how I feel about some parts. The intro I'm actually kind of put off by the more I listen to it. I'm hoping to get feedback from people, but haven't heard anything from anyone, despite shouting to the world on Facebook and Twitter about it. And no one reads this blog, that I know of, so talking about it here doesn't do me much good. Just in case, though, if anyone is interested, look up Artist Unknown on Facebook and listen to "One Day". Alternatively, try this link to get you there: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Artist-Unknown/15885189286?ref=search

Reset Button Pushed

So last week I officially registered for my first semester of classes toward my new life as a graphic designer. In addition to being a more attractive professional field for me than history, graphic design will also dovetail nicely with my interests of game design and music.

Who knows? With an extensive background in history, and soon in graphic design (I'll be working on learning some programming languages, too) I could be an attractive candidate for work with a board or video game design company.

In other news, my newest game, titled "Itsy Bitsy Spiders", was a big hit at the game days on Saturday and Wednesday. Counting the initial positive reception a month ago, that's an overwhelming thumbs up from every playtester, with only slight adjustments to the game at each stage. I am putting this game on the fast-track to development. Just a few more tests and, assuming no major changes are needed, I can move on to copyrighting and sending to publishers! As excited as everyone who played it was with IBS's prospects, I am now super pumped.

Strike while the iron is hot!

The only thing really holding me back from devoting even more time to this is my thesis, which is a painfully slow process, especially when I don't here from my advisor for weeks at a time.... Bleh.

Aaaah!

Well, it's been a busy three weeks since my last post.

What have I been up to? Let's see, here... I picked up a little work, just doing yard word for a guy, mostly mulching, for a few hours a week. I've been to a few job interviews, additionally, but haven't heard from any of them. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

On the game front, I've continued going to Wednesday game nights at Critical Hit Games. I got to try out my newest (and probably lightest) creation a couple weeks ago. On June 20, I also attended a big get-together of gamers at Thies' house. In addition to playing a bunch of published games, I sprung one of my games on a group of 5, and I got to try out someone else's prototype, as well! It was fun.

On a side note, Thies' dog ate a banana that I had brought--and he was working on my orange before someone took it away from him!

I am officially admitted to the University of Iowa now. The remaining major goals I have for this summer are to apply for whatever funding I can, get a decent job for the school year, and finish my blasted thesis! On the bright side, I feel I am at a point where it may actually be kind of downhill on the thesis work--of course, I've thought that before...

I've done nothing with music this month, really. That's okay, for now. I need to focus on my other projects.

Luckily, one of my other sources of occassional headaches (my house in Lincoln) has been quiet on the western front. The bad news is that Zillow inexplicably dropped the purported value of my house 15%. I haven't a clue why this happened. Throughout the whole housing and credit crisis my house's value had remained pretty stable on Zillow, since it's in a Midwestern college town, then this happens out of nowhere?! My best guess is that Zillow is doing some reconfiguring on how it calculates a house's value. This would make sense, since Zillow's estimates always have been comparatively high, but that doesn't help the big minus sign next to the change in value of my house!!!

I was considering putting the house up for sale in a month or two, but this--and the fact that we are probably another year from the recession fully ending--is giving me pause. I will probably wait until a year and a half from now. It can't get much worse, can it (knock on wood)?

Pushing the Reset Button

I am doing something that is at once terrifying and liberating, shameful yet practical. It is terrifying because I may for the first time really go into debt in the process, and I don't really know if the monetary benefit in the end will be worth it, but it is liberating because I don't have to follow the path that I have unwittingly laid for myself--one which does not suit my personality or desires. It is shameful because I am doing this now and not ten years ago, but if I am right about everything, it is really the only practical thing for me to do.

As you know, I need to finish my thesis, and then I will have an M.A. in History (assuming my committee finds it acceptable this time). This POS is quite possibly the biggest drag on my life/soul at the moment. Add to that the fact that I am jobless and still have money owed to me from previous tenants, and my precarious career and overall financial situation is nearly unbearable. Yet, it is at this point in my life that I am choosing to re-set, and I am going back to get another undergraduate degree (the first time around I got a B.A. in International Studies and History). This time I am going into graphic design.

This time I am also going to have to pay the tuition myself. I could ask my parents for help, but I'm too ashamed to do that. Instead, I will work whatever job(s) I can find to pay for my studies, and get financial aid of some sort if I can.

I also quit that band that I tried out for a couple weeks ago. It was okay as long as I was given a say in what I sang and how I sang it, and as long as I wasn't completely cognizant of just how bad the financial situation is (I need to drive to Cedar Rapids for practice once a week, which is just one more thing to pay for). Well, it turns out that they pretty much lied to me when they said my opinion would matter, because they told me last week that they (the guitarist in particular--the one who wrote the songs) didn't want me to change anything of substance in the songs, at least not for now.

There are a couple things wrong with that. First, things are never just "for now." They may start out that way, but then they get ingrained, and it becomes harder by the day for things to change. I've been through this too many times to be naive enough to think otherwise. Second, the way it was put to me was as if I was being given such free range to do what I wanted, which is bullshit. The guitarist basically said, "I want you to use only the lyrics I gave you, and I want you to sing them in the rhythm/beat that they are on the recording. Besides that, you can do whatever you want with them!" He said that like it was such a great deal, like he was compromising with me. If you tell me I can't change the words, and I can't change the rhythm they're sung in, then all that is left is the notes and timbre! That's not much freedom at all. That is, in reality, being in a cover band which covers songs that I don't like and can't change.

Let's pause for a second and just consider how many possibilities for notes there really were for me. On the face of it, maybe it seems like there's lots of choices. After all, there are 12 notes in an octave, and my range of comfort is two octaves (rounding down). I can push the limits of my range on both ends to almost three octaves on a good day, but those notes are not in my comfort zone. Anyway, two octaves times 12 notes equals 24 possibilities. Obviously, there's already one note being sung at any one moment, so that's actually 23 possibilities for change. Well, only a few notes per octave actually sound good with each chord, etc. being played at the moment--we'll say four. That leaves seven possible options for changing the notes, one of which is just an octave higher or lower than the recorded note, which is hardly much of a change, but we'll still count it. Of course, I don't like to just sing the guitar part, and about half of the other notes just aren't going to sound right, even if they technically are the correct pitch to match the ones being played. So this leave me with, say, three possibilities to choose from at any one point.

Then, of course, you have to think about the flow of the notes together. What you would choose for flow depends to a large extent on the rhythm that you choose to sing the lyrics--both because moving the placement of the words could mean you are singing with different guitar notes, and because certain notes may sound better when sung quickly together but not stretched apart, for instance--and it even depends a bit on what words you use. This takes out another option or two, so that a typical singer is limited to two alternatives, at best, for singing a section with such limitations.

If any guitarists out there aren't understanding what the big deal is, imagine the singer gave you a bunch of songs he had made. He's a good singer, but his guitar riffs are typically uninspiring--even corny--and simplistic. Now, let's assume he tells you that you can do whatever you want with those songs, as long as you don't change the rhythm or the effects patches used. Do you feel liberated, like the sky's the limit? Or do you think to yourself, "Gee, that leaves me with changing which notes go in which places, and what techniques I use (palm muting, etc.)." You can't even change a whole note into four quarter notes. You can play a different note for that whole note, but not much else.

Wow, that was a long rant. I just don't understand how he could have thought that I would be okay with that, after I made a point of saying multiple times on the first night that it was important to me that I have a voice in decision-making (and yes, that meant over what I do with my own voice in the band, too!), especially since it shouldn't affect his playing, although when I asked him, he said it does (?).

Let's end on a good note, shall we? I have received money from two of the former tenants, which means I only have two left! Of course, the due date is tomorrow, so that makes me nervous.

I also created a new game. It is very light and simple, with lots of luck in it, but there is still enough strategy to make it an enjoyable play for any age. Because it is so light and simple, I'm think the target audience would most likely be young'uns. The tentative name is Itsy Bitsy Spiders, but when I looked on BGG, I found a few Itsy Bitsy Spider games. While my name is technically different (Spider is pluralized in mine), that's a little close for comfort--we'll see...

All's Well that Ends... Well

So yesterday was very busy.  First big event was the game extravaganza, which wasn't so much an extravaganza as a small get-together, as it turned out.  Counting a cute and intelligent 8-year-old girl, there was a total of 6 people who showed up.  We played a game, spent a long time organizing tubs of games and doing actual meeting stuff, then made hot dogs and ate, and finally played a couple more games.

After that, it was time for the dreaded singing tryout.  It wasn't nearly as bad as I feared.  Turns out that most of the songs that were sent to me--you know, the ones that sounded like they were transported from the '80s--were recorded in 1992-93.  So that explains that.  And most of those did indeed sound different when I was there--not a lot different, but enough.  I'm gonna give these guys a try.  We'll see what happens...

Let's give it a shot

I've decided to go ahead with the try-out for the band.  The worst that can happen is I wasted a few hours practicing the songs and a few more singing with live instruments.  And the best is I might make some good connections or even join a decent band.  Who knows?

All I know is that I've got a full day of excitement ahead of me, from an all-afternoon game day extravaganza to band try-outs tonight.  I'll fill you in on how it all turns out!

And then there was music...

So I created an account with a site called BandMix about a month ago.  I contacted a couple people on there, asking if they needed a singer, but they never got back to me, which is slightly irritating.  If you say you are looking for a singer, after all, why wouldn't you try a guy out?  Or at least tell me, "Hey, we're not looking any more," or "We're not interested in you."  Something!

I'm not as bitter about it as that last paragraph makes me sound--just a bit of a pet peeve that I had to get off my chest.  Anyway, before I left for my trip to Lincoln and New York, I received an email from a guy who saw my profile on BandMix.  We spoke more after I got back, and I was excited to try out for these guys (a guitarist and drummer).  The guy I was talking to was the guitarist, and he kept talking about how they are different from everything else, how they want to go in a new direction, and how he shared some of the same contempts I have for many of the trends in music over the last decade.

Then last night he sent me some songs and lyrics that I'm supposed to learn for the tryout.  "Let down" is an understatement.  I'm really disappointed by what I heard, which didn't sound new or fresh in any way.  It was bland, slow-moving 80's hair metal.  The vocals were stereotypical in the same vein.  To be fair, he said they want the vocals to go in a different direction, but from what I understood, they were mostly fine with the music portion.  I have problems with that.

So now I am re-considering even trying out for them on Saturday night.  In order to really give it a go, I will have to put in at least a few hours of work learning those 5 songs that deaden me inside, actually sing those songs with them, and hope beyond hope that they are more than they sound like.

With my plate as full as it is, I don't know if it's worth the effort.  On the other hand, if I go, I might be able to at least network a bit--possibly find other musicians through them with whom I would actually like to do music.  But in order for me to become a valuable commodity on that market, I will need to put on a good show for these guys, and that means tormenting myself with their songs for the next few days.

We'll see...

Blink and you miss it

Wow, the last couple weeks have gone by fast!  I was a groomsman in a friend's wedding, sent out notices to my former tenants of the amount they owe me (and have subsequently been following up on that with the one that responded so far), traveled to New York for a few days, and got a couple playtesting games done in Lincoln while I was there for the wedding.

I REALLY need to find some gaming groups in the Iowa City area, by the way.  I've found a couple good possibilities (one of which I would have gone to if they hadn't scheduled their meeting for the same day as the wedding), but haven't been able to actually go to one yet.  The lack of playtesting is the main thing holding me back from finishing development of my two most complete games.  I have resorted to playing against myself once in a while with one of the game, but that's time-consuming and does not give a good play-test.

Anyway, I think I'll watch an episode of Terminator and head to bed.  Hopefully it won't be so long before I post again.

Eureka!

A new idea struck the other day while I was pondering some minor problems I had noticed in my primary game of invention (tentatively named "Path of Dominance").

Just to let you know what this game is, it is a turn-based strategy war game, along the same basic lines as Axis & Allies and the various Risk games, but with mechanics and strategies borrowed from games like Farlander, Race for the Galaxy, Settlers of Catan, and Puerto Rico--not to mention ideas all my own.  It is fully customizable for 2 to 8 players.  The possibility for the eighth player is part of the eureka! moment I had.  Now all I need to do is re-do the "board" (which I was going to do anyway) and test the new version.

Habits

Wow, it's hard to start a new habit like this.  I need to keep up the blogging.

So what's new?  Well, I had to deal with a turnover process at a rental house of mine over the weekend.  The exiting tenants left the place in an atrocious condition--so bad, in fact, that the thousand-dollar security deposit did not cover all the expenses for repairs and cleaning.  It'll be a joy working to get that money from them...

Because of that distraction, I haven't done much with music or games lately, except for play-testing one of my games on Saturday.  It was really fun, and the new mechanics that I introduced worked out really well.  Everyone likes the game even more than they did already.  I can't wait to try out the other ones that I put on hold (so I could judge each change on its own merits).

I really need to get to work on my Master's thesis, too.  It's taking me too long to finish it.  I hope to have it complete by the end of this month, so I can focus on my passions, and making some money.

First Post

Not much to say here--just an introduction of sorts.

This blog is going to be dedicated to two of my hobbies: music and games. I have done the band thing in the past, but now I just want to record music in my spare time. On the game front, I have been playing board games for quite some time now. Recently (over the last couple years), I started altering existing--and even creating my own--games.

I would like to network with anyone else involved in game creation, production, or playing, as well as anyone interested in music.

And if you just want to follow my progress, that's cool, too!