« Sharon J. Cichelli |
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Game Designer and ukelele player.
Jonathan’s “Us” statement for 2004:
So it’s been a while since I’ve written one of these, eh? Obviously, we’re still updating other parts of the site (like the Games District, Weblog, and Agora). Let’s pull out a quote from my 2001 statement:
So, where do I want to go from here with ICP? Well, I still want to see us produce and distribute at least one board game this year – ideally Inevitable, but I’d settle for getting Psycho Killer out by October ‘01 (but making that deadline would be problematic at best – I’m going to have to settle for an ‘02 release). Perhaps a retail copy of Run Hamster Run or RYB…
We still haven’t had a commercial release, but it’s by choice – not for lack of effort. We did the math and figured out that publishing a board game of the quality that we wanted would cost at least $20,000. That’s a lot of money to risk, whether it’s mine or someone else’s. If I’m making that kind of a gamble, I need to dedicate more than just my spare time to it. With my job at Apple, my other hobbies to keep me sane (Yes, I do things with my spare time other than making up games.), socializing with friends, maintaining my part of a happy and healthy marriage… There’s just not space in there to take the risks involved in starting a traditional commercial game publishing company.
The kicker there is the word traditional. Since the beginning, we’ve been anything but traditional. Our primary goals for now are:
Revamp the Site – Sharon is guiding us through setting up databases to make the Games and Zines Districts data-driven. You’ll be able to sort through the games by type, # of players, and lots of other criteria; Jeremy will be able to enter new zine reviews more easily. It’ll be great! We’re also working on a thematic redesign; inspired by SEPTA maps.
Make Merchandise Available – We’ve been building up readership since our launch in January of 2000, averaging about 200,000 hits from 12,400 unique visitors per month. Although a lot of traffic consists of ‘bots, I assume that we have at least a few fans out there. I’d like to make some products available to y’all. We’re assessing CafePress mug and T-shirt options (Bonus: They handle store and billing. Minus: Some people have voiced concerns about quality of product and profit margins.) and ideas for publishing short-run board games. There’s a few ideas on that path: Make the games by hand as they’re ordered out of good-quality parts (better than Cheapass Games, but not as good as Fantasy Flight Games); release exclusive games on CD with high-quality layout and art; license / sell our game designs to other publishers for release. We’ll see what happens…
Invisible City Productions is a collective of game designers, writers, and artists who provide this as a space for the creators of secret media to come together and touch antennae.