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)?