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SJG Week 5: Assorted little insights... »
For a large portion of my third and fourth week at SJG, most of the people I interact with on a daily basis weren’t there. They were off at GTS 2010 and the inaugural PAX East event. So it was up to me to keep myself busy. A large portion of this invloved working on and familarizing myself with the games in the queue. More than a little bit of my time was taken up in receiving and compiling playtest data from MIBs from all over for a pending release. One specific part of this involved applying one of my favorite maxims: “Treat others the way you would like to be treated.” Let’s talk about that a bit…
There are games in the queue. Many of them were designed by designers who are not SJG employees. I’m not sure when the last time they were contacted by the company was. I’ve sent my games to companies before (at their request), then not heard from them. That’s disappointing, to say the least. Now I’m in a position where I can take direct action to improve the experience for board game designers with projects in the queue at SJG. I get to treat people the way I would want to be treated. So I’ve started writing introductory emails to designers. It’s been very interesting. Normally, this would be a difficult email to write. I’ spend a lot of time agonizing over what to say, how to say it, how to introduce myself, and so on. In this case I simply thought, “What would I want to see in an email from a publisher whom I’d submitted a game to?” It was an oddly fun experience. I still have many more contacts to make, but it’s a good start.
Something funny happened on the way to the Origins Awards…
AEG licensed and published my cooperative adventure game: The Isle of Doctor Necreaux. Doctor Necreaux is nominated for an Origins Award. This is pretty aewsome. In fact, I’d had that as a goal for many years. There are several amusing things about this nomination:
1) I’d stopped thinking about it, and now it’s happened. It’s like watching a pot of water on the stove – it won’t boil ‘till you stop looking.
2) AEG’s Thunderstone is also nominated in the same category. Thunderstone has sold better for AEG, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they promote it more heavily than Necreaux. After all, both games can’t win the Card Game award.
3) Steve Jackson Games’ The Stars Are Right is also nominated in the same category. Earlier this week, Paul asked me to write an article about TSAR to help promote it on the SJG website. Later that day, I intervewed our resident TSAR expert, wrote the article, and got it to Paul. It’s so odd to be responsible for writing ad copy that indirectly opposes your desire for success of an alternate project.
— Jonathan A Leistiko :: gaming
December Game of the Month:
For a large portion of my third and fourth week at SJG, most of the people I interact with on a daily basis weren’t there. They were off at GTS 2010 and the inaugural PAX East event. So it was up to me to keep myself busy. A large portion of this invloved working on and familarizing myself with the games in the queue. More than a little bit of my time was taken up in receiving and compiling playtest data from MIBs from all over for a pending release. One specific part of this involved applying one of my favorite maxims: “Treat others the way you would like to be treated.” Let’s talk about that a bit…
There are games in the queue. Many of them were designed by designers who are not SJG employees. I’m not sure when the last time they were contacted by the company was. I’ve sent my games to companies before (at their request), then not heard from them. That’s disappointing, to say the least. Now I’m in a position where I can take direct action to improve the experience for board game designers with projects in the queue at SJG. I get to treat people the way I would want to be treated. So I’ve started writing introductory emails to designers. It’s been very interesting. Normally, this would be a difficult email to write. I’ spend a lot of time agonizing over what to say, how to say it, how to introduce myself, and so on. In this case I simply thought, “What would I want to see in an email from a publisher whom I’d submitted a game to?” It was an oddly fun experience. I still have many more contacts to make, but it’s a good start.
Something funny happened on the way to the Origins Awards…
AEG licensed and published my cooperative adventure game: The Isle of Doctor Necreaux. Doctor Necreaux is nominated for an Origins Award. This is pretty aewsome. In fact, I’d had that as a goal for many years. There are several amusing things about this nomination:
1) I’d stopped thinking about it, and now it’s happened. It’s like watching a pot of water on the stove – it won’t boil ‘till you stop looking.
2) AEG’s Thunderstone is also nominated in the same category. Thunderstone has sold better for AEG, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they promote it more heavily than Necreaux. After all, both games can’t win the Card Game award.
3) Steve Jackson Games’ The Stars Are Right is also nominated in the same category. Earlier this week, Paul asked me to write an article about TSAR to help promote it on the SJG website. Later that day, I intervewed our resident TSAR expert, wrote the article, and got it to Paul. It’s so odd to be responsible for writing ad copy that indirectly opposes your desire for success of an alternate project.
— Jonathan A Leistiko :: gaming
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.