Around this time last week, we learned that
Fluxx and Aquarius
are up against each other for Best Traditional Card Game in this
year's Origins
Awards. Naturally this has gotten us very excited about attending
Origins, but it's also served as a wake-up call, since Origins
is now just 5 weeks away and we have a lot to do in order to
get ready for it.
As we did last year, we'll be getting a double-sized booth
at the show. But where last year's booth was focused on the launch
of our new game Aquarius, this year we will be debuting ContagiousDreams.com.
We're planning a booth given over primarily to gaming space,
with a couple of open tables and access to the library of games
we sell through our new online store. Here we'll provide on-going
demos of all the games we sell, hopefully with the help of other
dreamers who may be attending the convention, since it's always
fun to learn the game from the person who actually invented it.
We'll be posting a demo schedule at the booth, once we work it
all out.
But while the main focus of our booth will be Contagious Dreams,
we also want to promote our own games at Origins, particularly
given their new nominee status. And so, we got the idea of doing
promo cards.
Back in the days of the First Edition of Fluxx, we did a couple
of promo cards and
they were a very popular, so the idea of doing a new round of
promos seemed like a good one. We came up with a plan to make
one new card for each game: a new goal for Fluxx called Caffeine
(Coffee + Brain) and a totally new kind of card for Aquarius:
a wild card.
 It
seems so obvious now: a panel that can be treated as any of the
5 elements, at any time. I don't know why I never thought of
it, but as soon as Alison
suggested it, Kristin made a prototype and we started playtesting.
It plays great! By Monday I'd created the artwork and Kristin
was on the horn to card printers.
Unfortunately, ideas sometimes come too late. There's not
enough time between now and Origins to get onto Carta Mundi's
schedule, and no one else we've talked to has been able to promise
us promo cards in time, at least not at anything like a price
we can currently afford. (The trick that made promo cards affordable
in '97 was the fact that they were one-color printing onto existing
blanks, by a local printer.) So it currently looks like the Aquarius
promotional wild card idea will be stuck on the back burner for
awhile, until our next big card printing project, when we can
sneak the extra cards onto the sheet with something else. But
in the meantime, I figured I might as well share the artwork
with you, since it looks so cool.
As for promoting our games at Origins, we went back to the
drawing board and formulated some new ideas, chiefly involving
T-shirts... but I'll tell you about those some other time.
While I'm on the subject, Origins will also be home to the
Tenth International Icehouse Tournament,
organized this year by Jake.
Potential competitors and Icehouse fans alike are invited to
cast their vote in Dan's medallion
design contest. The polls close on the first of June. Also,
residents of the San Jose area are reminded that the BayCon Icehouse
tourney
is this Sunday.
Updating recent stories...
- The Perl programming I've
been doing has consumed most of my time this week, but it has
also greatly improved our order fulfillment process.
- The deck refit is almost complete;
the trellises are installed and the cat-proofing seems solid.
We spent much of Saturday enjoying the new space with Alison's
friend Suzyn,
who was in town from Boston.
- The attic improvements are
also coming along nicely... Alison rescued a bunch of carpet
from her parent's soon-to-be-remodeled townhouse, and has been
installing it over the new low-grade floor that Ed
installed. (It's amazing how quickly a few boards and some carpet
can make a horrible place like our attic habitable, even cozy.)
- My roadrash is healing nicely
but my wrist still hurts. I guess I must have sprained it; this
week I've been keeping it wrapped in an ACE bandage.
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Comments?
After
many months of negotiations, a contract between ICE and a 
The cheapness
of Cracker Jack prizes has sunk to a new low since my most recent
Cracker Jack consuming experience, several years ago.
There
are things, like highway wrecks and half-healed scrapes, that
are so awful you feel compelled to take a good hard look at them.
I feel this same urge whenever I see one of those ads for Old
Navy brand clothing on TV. (On the other hand,
I really dig the groovy new ads for toaster pastries that use
the slogan "As you go through life, don't forget to stop
and taste the Pop Tarts.")
