Dan Verssen Games

Soon to be famous Photo

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Verssen) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 18:52:00 +0000

Army Reserve Staff Sgt. Brett Bennethum was preparing to depart from Fort Dix, N.J., for Iraq. Paige Bennethum, 4, holds her daddy's hand as he lines up in formation. Photo Credit: Abby Bennethum

Dan's prediction: Ten, twenty years from now when we think back on this period in our nation's history, this will be the photo we remember.

When Its Done!

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Verssen) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 05:29:00 +0000

I’ve gotten some emails asking when Frontline and Phantom will be done. People have correctly said, “Hey, you said they would be done months ago…” And they’re right. I did. Here’s the problem.

They’re not done yet.

Months ago, both games were good. All modesty aside, I would even say they were great. But, they weren’t perfect, which is our design standard.

Both Frontline and Phantom are hugely important games for DVG. We hope that Frontline will be the cornerstone of a whole series of WWII tactical card games, and we hope Phantom will relaunch the Air Leader series that has lain stagnate for 15 years.

This all brings up one of the biggest bonuses to producing our own games. When we designed for other companies, there were always deadline clauses built-in to the contracts. Those game designs had to be turned-in on time or bad legal things could happen. As our lawyer has told us many times, “Contracts are signed on sunny days, but they’re only pulled out of the file cabinet on rainy days.”

The bad news is, they’re close to done, but they’re not done yet.

The really good news is, when they’re done, they will be wonders to behold.

Now, back to my game polishing…

"Them" Tax

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Verssen) — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 23:24:00 +0000

The government has figured out a great new tax system. It’s a tax on “them.” After all, people don’t complain when someone else is paying taxes.

Here’s how it works…

If you tax a lot of people, they get upset and vote you out of office.

If you tax very few people, you don’t get enough revenue to make it worthwhile.

The sweet spot seems to be about 20% of the people

Tax 20% of the people and you rake in the bucks, but you don’t upset the masses.

Examples…

Tax on smoking

Tax on alcohol

Tax on SUVs

Proposed tax on sodas

Proposed tax on people without health insurance

Am I right? Let’s test the theory. Look through the above list. If I’m right, only 1, maybe 2, of the taxes will apply to you.

How does all this relate to game designs?

Nothing direct, but as a game designer, I need to be able to quickly spot trends or DVG would need to spend even more time testing games. I mention this taxing trend because I think it is something we should all be aware of.

15 + 15 + 15... Minutes of Fame

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Verssen) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 03:26:00 +0000

Step 1: Yell something inappropriate in Congress, Beat-up your famous girlfriend, Interrupt an awards ceremony, etc

Step 2: Gain notoriety

Step 3: Issue a “heartfelt” public apology

Step 4: Gain more notoriety

Step 5: Issue a “private” apology and notify the media

Step 6: Gain even more notoriety

Step 7: Play down the event as being no big deal, on national TV

Step 8+: Milk it, milk it, milk it…

Moving Forward

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Verssen) — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 00:28:00 +0000

Things are moving along very nicely on Frontline and Phantom Leader. Phantom is almost done, and then we will turn our full attention to Frontline, which is pretty much done.

We’ll be updating the DVG site with new cards and rules in a day or two.

Once the press is done, we’ll launch Field Commander Napoleon for pre-orders.

Lieutenant Commander Michael “Scott” Speicher

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Verssen) — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 08:01:00 +0000

I remember the first night of Desert Storm in 1991. Holly and I were working on Hornet Leader, and I was still living with my dad.

On that first night, one US pilot was shot down, Lieutenant Commander Michael “Scott” Speicher. He was flying an FA-18 Hornet. Because of the association with the game, his shoot down stuck in my brain all these years. It was unknown if he was captured or killed. Searchers found the Hornet’s wreckage, but no parachute or body. His fate remained unknown all these years.

Until today.

A local Iraqi led US troops to a grave containing skeletal remains. By using dental records, they were able confirm they were the remains of Lieutenant Commander Speicher.

After all these years, Scott is finally coming home.

Bundle Takes Static For The Win

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Verssen) — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 21:24:00 +0000

It’s been a month and a half since the TV static descended. They will be remembered as quiet, but happy times. There we were, sailing happily over the static seas with no TV when IT appeared.

It came out of the mailbox like a hellish kraken from the depths. As soon as I saw it, I knew we were doomed. For the wife can do math too.

As it entered the house, its battle cry rocked the walls. “TV! – PHONE! – INTERNET! – BUNDLE!”

The Beast had found our weakness. Unlike Smaug’s moth-eaten chainmail, the gap in our armor is over the wallet.

As feared, the wife did the math, and rose up in all her fierce glory. The static could not stand against her when armed with a bundle that combined TV, Phone, and Internet into a single monthly charge that was less than what we were paying for just Phone and a (lower-speed) Internet. She wielded her dollar-tipped spear and jammed it straight into the static’s guts. Conan could have done no finer job of slaying. The static died between one heart beat and the next. All it has to do now is topple to the ground.

Which it will do on Thursday between 1pm and 4pm when the cable guy arrives.

Cheesy Terminators

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Verssen) — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 14:34:00 +0000

Two unrelated parts of my world slammed together this week: Terminators and cheesy WWII flavor Text.

As you might know, I was a huge fan of the Sarah Connor Chronicles TV show. It was cancelled recently.

I’m also designing Frontline, a WWII infantry combat card game.

Let’s start with Frontline. The game really gets you down in the mud with the guys. Each card is one soldier. This is pretty unique for wargames. Most of the time, a card or counter is a 100, or a 1000, or 10,000 guys. So, I figured it would be cool to personalized each card with a guy’s name and a sentence or two of flavor text to bring out his personality. I wanted to give the game a Band of Brothers feel where these aren’t just nameless guys with guns, these are your men that you live with and command in battle.

Everything was going great. I had created about 50 of the 70 soldier cards, and I had been posting samples on various websites for months. Then someone posted that he hated the cheesy flavor text quotes. Yes, they used the word cheesy. Then another person said the same thing, and another, and another… You get the idea.

I had a choice. I could stick to my guns and leave the flavor text in, because it was an important part of my overall vision, or I could rip it out to satisfy the game’s future players.

Normally, it would have been a tough decision, but I had been giving some thought to the Sarah Connor show. I was trying to figure out why it failed. Notice, I don’t say why was it cancelled. I know why it was cancelled. It was cancelled because it failed. So why did it fail and what did it fail at?

It failed to connect with a wide audience, which resulted in it having very poor ratings, which got it cancelled. Now, just to be clear, I loved the show. But, most of my friends are sci-fi and Terminator fans, and NONE of them watched the show. NONE?! Yep. None.

Well, no.

One guy watched a couple episodes, but didn’t like it.

Why did it fail?

I think it failed because it didn’t give the audience the story it wanted to see. Anything connected with Terminator must focus on well, Terminators.

The show had an awesome Terminator with Summer Glau’s character, Cameron. But she didn’t do much. When she was on screen doing something, it was great. One episode focused on her and a guy in a library. Great episode. One of my favorites. I wonder what the show’s creator’s were thinking? You’ve got Summer Glau. You’ve got sexy outfits for her to wear. You’ve got guns. Why not turn her loose and start killing stuff?

Another great character was Derek Reese. Derek was a well-written character and a great performance was turned in by Brian Austin Green. The guy had an intensity to get things done and not let laws or morality get in the way. He had a war to stop and if a few people died along the way, no problem.

As you can guess, I loved the scenes with Cameron and Derek.

Two more great characters: FBI Agent Ellis and T1000 in disguise Catherine Weaver. Agent Ellis’ character traced a wonderful arc from everyday non-believing guy to being on the inside and shaping the future. His religious angle on life was very cool. To see him imparting Old Testament morality to John Henry (a reborn Terminator) was awesome.

As you can guess, I loved the scenes with Ellis, Weaver, and John Henry.

There you have it. A great show with 5 great characters. Most shows don’t even have 1 great character, and this one had 5!

Hmm, but something’s missing… Why did it fail?

Oh yeah.

The 2 stars of the show John and Sarah Connor.

I think Thomas Dekker (John) and Lena Headey (Sarah) did great in their roles. But the characters didn’t do anything. They did a lot of research. They did some emoting. But they didn’t do much doing. They had a war to stop, access to guns, lots of money, a big black pick-up truck, a Terminator, a hardened warrior from the future, and what did they do with all those resources? Not much. In fact, less than much.

Sarah’s biggest concern seemed to be keeping an eye on Cameron and Derek to make sure they “didn’t do something.” Which is strange, because everyone on this side of the TV screen was watching them HOPING they’d do something.

John, on the other hand, was going through teen angst and trying to make his girlfriend happy. Not bad character goals if you’re the star of a teen drama series, but when you’re JOHN CONNOR FUTURE DUDE WHO SAVES HUMANITY FROM THE MACHINES, maybe other life goals should take priority?

So, the lesson I took away from all this is, give your audience what they want.

Oh, and the Frontline flavor text? Yeah, those are sooo gone.

Summer Schedule

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Verssen) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 09:16:00 +0000

So, I got a call from a friend at 10:30 last night. He apologized for calling so late. I said that it wasn’t a problem because DVG is on a summer schedule since the kids are on summer vacation.

He paused to ask. “What’s the summer schedule?”

“We all just wake up, and go to bed whenever. I went to bed at 5 in the morning and woke up at noon. Holly went to bed at 10 at night and woke up 4 in the morning. Kevin stayed up until 2 in the afternoon and is asleep. Kira just woke up a couple hours ago.”

“That’s not a schedule! That’s chaos!”

I thought about it. “Yeah, you might be right. The local grocery store is only closed from 1 in the morning until 6 in the morning, yet it’s amazing how often that’s inconvenient.”

Frontline and Phantom Follow-Up

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Verssen) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 03:33:00 +0000

The response to the Frontline and Phantom AARs has been wonderful!

We have received extremely positive feedback and the pre-orders for both games have jumped!

Next week, we’ll upload 2 more. Frontline will include a look at vehicles, and Phantom will cover a US Navy strike mission.

Frontline and Phantom

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Verssen) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 12:51:00 +0000

The AARs for Phantom Leader and Frontline are up on the DVG site!

For me, these two games cover some interesting ground in gaming that has only been rarely touched upon…

FRONTLINE (1 to 4 players) – A WWII tactical infantry combat game. Tactical, means small in size. In this case each card is one soldier. Here’s what makes the game unique. There are a lot of WWII land combat board games. Most however, look at the battles on a much larger scale. In those games, each piece represents hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands of soldiers. Rarely do games get down to the individual soldier level.

Another unique aspect is I’ve drawn on my CCG design experience to make each soldier card an individual with personality worked into the cards through game stats and flavor text. For example, your riflemen are not all the same. They have different skills, and you can get a feel for their story and personality from the flavor text. This gives the game a strong Band of Brothers feel.

We have also refined the design to be quick playing and action-packed. Most tactical games are slow moving, with lots of complicated rules. Just the opposite of what you’d expect from such a game, but there it is. Frontline can be played in under an hour. For tabletop gaming of a tactical situation, this is huge!

Finally, the art is amazing! Wan has done a great job of capturing the style and period of WWII.

PHANTOM LEADER (1 player) – This is a solitaire game that places you in command of a squadron of US jet fighters flying missions during the Vietnam War. First, Vietnam is kind of a forgotten war in gaming. Yes, there are a few games, but not very many.

Phantom is also designed to let you get to know your pilots. Each pilot has unique skills and handles the stress of combat differently. As you fly missions they build-up experience, which will improve their skills. This puts you in a position to make some tough choices. Do you keep flying your good guys, until they’re too shaken to fly? Or, do you give your new guys a chance, rest the good guys, but have a harder time completing missions?

Phantom also takes into account the political supervision of the war. During the war, the military leaders had their planning dictated by political issues back home in the US. They were not free to attack whichever targets made the most military sense if it would hurt the political situation. This made their missions tougher because enemy defenses that could have been destroyed were left intact. High value targets were ignored, while low value targets were attacked. Frustrating? Yes! But, this was part of the war, so it is part of the game. As a side note, some of the young officers who endured this in Vietnam later went on to be some of the US’s greatest commanders during Desert Storm in 1991.

Okay, on to the pre-ordering pitch...

Pre-order now! I want to get these games printed and share them with the world, but the only way to do it is to get about 60-70 more pre-orders for each game. This is a small number of pre-orders, and these are some of the best games to come out of our company.

If you'd like to see more info and art on either of these games, their titles above will take you to their pages on our web site.

AARs

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Verssen) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 03:03:00 +0000

In a day or two we’ll add AARs (After Action Reports) of a Frontline battle and a Phantom Leader mission to the DVG web site. We’re planning the AARs looking very cool with graphics of cards, counters, etc.

If you have any interest in air combat or ground combat games, please take a look. Both games can be pre-ordered now. By pre-ordering, you get a 20% discount, and we have a special promotion where you get your name printed on all the boxes.

Phantom is a solitaire game and Frontline is for 1 to 4 players. Both can be played in an hour.

Cyberpunk

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Verssen) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 12:49:00 +0000

One of my all-time favorite books is Neuromancer by William Gibson. In 1984 Gibson invented “cyberpunk”. He dreamt up the internet when there was none, and populated it with cyber cowboys cruising dataspace to earn enough creds to buy their ramin noodles at the corner kiosk.

Wiki Neuromancer

Anyway, I bring this up because, as I remember it, the first line of the book goes something like, “The sky was the color of television tuned to a dead channel.”

Well, it’s been 11 days since our TV took on that dead channel look. I must admit, I miss it. I didn’t think I would, but I do. I was never a big TV person, but I’d watch for a few minutes here and there, just to break up the day.

Hey Mr. Gibson, if you’re out there, thanks for an epic creation!

...And Static They Ate

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Verssen) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 23:55:00 +0000

June 11th came and TV died.

The first day was the hardest. TV was a handy companion. Bored? Turn it on, surf, see nothing of interest, forget you’re bored, turn it off, and wander away.

The kids took it a lot better than I thought. I call them Generation-S (for Stimulation). If a kid isn’t doing at least 2 things at once, they’re bored. In most case at least one of those things must be electronic. When *I* was a kid we were lucky to have even one thing to do. Of course, that’s when dinosaurs roamed the earth. But still.

In place of TV, they’ve renewed their interest in gymnastics and have even started learning Spanish. They google Spanish words several times a day and can even hear the pronunciation. The Spanish thing might be because the only channels we get are in Spanish, but I figure what the heck? Learning is learning. New words of the day…

Pero = Dog
Que = What?
Papa = Potato

"Let Them Eat Static!"

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Verssen) — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 22:38:00 +0000

Thanks Kahn for the intro!

In about a week, TV as we know it will end. By we, I mean our household. We have never had cable, and have made due with 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, and 13. True, there are a few UHF channels (I'm not even sure they’re still called “UHF”), but they are usually shows in other languages. The only channels of interest there are some Spanish shows. It seems like just about any show in Spanish is fair game for busty women in low cut tops, be it the News, talk shows, game shows, etc. So, while I don’t speak the language, I certainly enjoy watching the Spanish Weather Reports.

Anyway, our family is trying an experiment. When TV changes to digital we’re stepping off and waving good-bye. We’ll make due with NetFlix, online streaming formats of shows, and Xbox Live. We have looked at the options of getting a new TV or cable, and neither one is attractive. I’ve always been a fan of interactive entertainment such as socializing, games, etc. Having to pay money to get something I don’t want seems a bit odd.

To be honest, my interest in TV is very small anyway. I loved the Sarah Conner Terminator show, now cancelled, and I watch a couple Minnesota Vikings football games each year. Oh well, I’ll see you online Vikings.

Who knows, maybe in a couple weeks, we’ll be clawing our way toward a new TV or cable?

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Verssen) — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 04:40:00 +0000

Announcing June 6th, 2009 as being D(VG)-Day! June 6th, 1944 was one of the most important battles of WWII as 2 great armies met in combat. June 6th, 2009 starts the pre-order battle to send two great games to the printer: Frontline D-Day and Phantom Leader. Each week, we will release new information for these games until victory is assured and the printing presses are rolling!

The Frontline rules have gone through another generation of updates. They are still in rough outline form, but many more rules have been added to fill out the sections.

http://images.dvg.com/www.dvg.com/frontlinerules2.pdf

We’ve also updated the Frontline slideshow with new soldier and vehicle cards!

http://www.dvg.com/.sc/ms/dd/ee/26/Frontline%20-%20D-Day

Also added are the Phantom Leader rules. They are much farther along than the Frontline rules, but they still have a ways to go. There are still many blank spots where graphics will be added. http://images.dvg.com/www.dvg.com/phantomrules.pdf

Kevin's Journey to E3

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Verssen) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 05:49:00 +0000

There are only a handful of days in a person’s life after age 5 when the world is a magical place. As the years go by, a person sees what there is to see, and does what there is to do, and at some point they realize there is very little newness left in the world. True, a person will find something kind of new from time to time, but rarely do they find something so totally new that it blows away everything they had previously seen.

My son Kevin just had his world opened up by going to the E3 video game convention here in Los Angeles. For those of you who have never been to E3, it is a wonder to behold. There are tens of thousands of people, millions of dollars in booths and equipment, and stadium-sized convention rooms, all devoted to video games.

It’s a wonder to behold.

For Kevin, it was earth shattering. He knew that people work at companies and make games, but to see the bigness of it all. In one place. At one time, changed his world. It was a very cool thing for Holly and I to be able to show him.

Jiggly Meat

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Verssen) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 15:22:00 +0000

Holly found an email I sent earlier this year recounting one of our adventures. I share it with you now as a cautionary tale...

It has been tough.
It has been grueling.
Many friends, and a few enemies, were made along the way.

But today, I am proud to announce, the last tub of chopped ham HAS BEEN EATEN!

When I recall that fateful day 2 weeks ago, I shudder. Shudder, I tell you! There it lay, a 2 foot tube of chopped ham. 10 pounds of meat for 10 dollars! How could I go wrong? But wrong it was. Like so many before me, I flew too close to the budgetary sun only to find my wings were made of inferior meat byproducts.

On that first night, I tried frying it plain...
frying it with garlic...
with honey...
and with pepper...
I tried baking it...
As the days passed and its great pink mass continued to dominate our refrigerator, I even tried blendering it into paste and sneaking it into spaghetti sauce. All to no avail. It mocked me at every turn and with every gelatinous bite.

Here's a bit of wisdom for future generations... When all is said and done, you can flavor a rubbery piece of meat with mystery chunks however you like, and you still end up biting into rubbery meat with mystery chunks.

I would like to claim this accomplishment as my own, but I was greatly aided by two turns of good fortune. Good fortune for me at least. Not so good for the innocents who's lives were forever tainted.

First, our dog has an allergy. Twice a day I was able to hide his pills in chunks of this hellish pink flesh. I hope he can forgive me.

The second bit of luck was being able to smuggle several pounds of it into my in-laws refrigerator when they weren't looking. I left their house with a happy wave, saying "I left you a surprise!" That is the level of despair these unearthly slaughterhouse sweepings brought me to. What they ever did with it, I do not know. They stopped returning my phone calls within 24 hours of my delivery.

Being on the outside, you might wonder why I didn't just throw it away? I might have at the start, but as the days passed it became a test of wills, me vs. the jiggly meat.

I would not give in.

I could not!

In the end how could I hold my head up high, knowing I had been beaten by that wiggly mass?

While some might read this as a heroic tale of the struggle of one man against his gelatinous foe, please, read this as a cautionary tale of how all the good and noble things in life can be taken away, one quivering hunk at a time.

Conventions

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Verssen) — Fri, 29 May 2009 09:46:00 +0000

Game Convention Time!

Over Memorial Day weekend, Holly and I were at the GameX convention here in Los Angeles. I was honored to be the convention’s Guest of Honor, and we had a great time. I was also fortunate enough to participate in a podcast with Eric Burgess of Boardgame Babylon. Here’s the link to his post on boardgamegeek. LINK From that link you can either stream the interview, or download it. Here is a link to his site LINK

Here are a couple photos of our booth and the program cover…

We are proud to be represented by Jesse Cheng at the Consimworld game convention in Arizona this weekend. Jesse is in charge of our Demo Leader program and has also been representing DVG at conventions for the past year. If you’d like to be a Demo Team Leader, please email me dan (at) dvg (dot) com, and I’ll put you in contact with Jesse.

Here’s a photo of Jesse’s booth…

Along with running the booth, Jesse is also running demos of our games. Thank you Jesse!

Reprinting!

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Verssen) — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 18:04:00 +0000

I'd like to give a big “Thank you!” to everyone who has supported our games.

We’ve had a great response from gamers, distributors, and retail stores. It is because of you that we’re in the happy position of needing to order reprints for Field Commander Rommel, Down In Flames, and Field Commander Alexander this week! And a quick check of the inventory shows a Modern Naval Battles reprint isn’t far off.

Thank you also to the many people who have posted kind comments on the different gaming sites like consimworld and boardgamegeek. They are much appreciated and really help to spread the word.

Formaldehyde

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Verssen) — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 00:01:00 +0000

So, Kira comes home from a school field trip to a farm. During the trip, she’d bought a fluffy rabbit skin bag.

I took a sniff and said, “Wow, smells like formaldehyde.”

Kevin was standing next to me and asked, “What kind of animal is a formalda?”

T-Cat

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Verssen) — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 18:29:00 +0000

A sad day.

Last night a car hit our family cat. His name was Timothy and he meant the world to my daughter Kira.

Timothy’s story begins with two rabbits last July. At the time, Holly was working in an office and one of her co-workers had accepted a one-year contract working in Kuwait. The only problem was, she didn’t have anyone to take care of her rabbits. Holly volunteered because she saw a friend in need. None of us knew anything about caring for rabbits, but we figured it was better for us to try than to have them put to sleep.

We soon discovered that rabbits need hay as part of their diet. Holly called around and found a local feed and grain store. They told us Timothy Hay is the best kind, so we bought a bundle. The store also had a cage with several cats and a ‘free to good home’ sign.

Kira had wanted a cat for months, but it was just never the right time. On that day, she convinced the store clerk to let her take a tiny black kitten out to the car to show me. The cat was only several weeks old and the size of my hand. As soon as I held him his whole body rumbled with purrs. We had a new cat. It seemed obvious to name him Timothy.

We kept him inside for months until he grew. Even after we let him go outside, we watched to make sure he knew how to find his way home. As time passed, we gave him several nick-names “Tim”, “Timmers”, and “T-Cat”.

Eventually, he became a full-grown cat and came and went as cats do. He never lost his playfulness. Given half a chance, he’d always attack a passing ankle. He also loved playing with rubber bands. Most of all, he loved printers. Every time we printed a page on the laser printer or inkjet printer, he’d leap on the table, stare intently as the printer made noises, and then try to shred the paper as it emerged. Many pages had to be printed more than once. We would joke that Hewlett-Packard needed to develop a cat guard for its printers.

RIP T-Cat.

Airplanes

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Verssen) — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 08:39:00 +0000

I’d like to share some wonderfully good news about our small company. First, we used to be a tiny company, but our upgrade just came in. :-)

More importantly, we have finalized an agreement with Decision Games to regain the rights to two of my favorite games series: Air Leader and Down In Flames Jets.

The Air Leader series are solitaire board games that place the player in command of a squadron of fighter planes in a strategic campaign. The player gets to make both tactical and strategic decisions. The series started way back in 1991 with the release of Hornet Leader. Since then, we have released several Vassal/PDF games in the series, but now we can offer the newest game, Phantom Leader, for pre-order and have it printed!

Down In Flames Jets is the modern day version of our Down In Flames WWII card game series. The jets game was designed, but never released. The DIF games put the player in the cockpit to make extremely tactical decisions. DIF-Jets is going to make an excellent addition to the series. It has all the fun of the WWII games, plus missiles! If you ever wanted to play an air combat game but were put off by the complex rules, DIF is the game for you. You can be up and flying in 15 minutes and most dogfights take only 15 minutes to resolve.

Side Note…

Hmm... a weird thing. The first time I tried to post a comment, it asked me to verify some letters - but didn't display any letters. So I typed in some random letters.It gave a failure message.I tried submitting the comment a second time, and it displayed the verification letters. I typed them in, and it worked fine.

...End Note

I’m off to put together some airplane cards and continue the Napoleon research…

Turing Test

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Verssen) — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 16:51:00 +0000

I just watched the most recent Sarah Conner episode (where Riley dies). Spoiler Alert. I started thinking about Cameron and her relationship with John. Here’s the thought process…

Cameron is a machine.
Machines can’t have emotions.
Love is an emotion.
Therefore, Cameron can’t love John.

Simple enough. Cameron can’t love John.

But wait.

There’s a concept called the “Turing Test”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_test

Basically, it says, if you talk with a machine for a prolonged period of time, and cannot tell whether you are talking to a human or a machine, the machine is considered intelligent. Now, that takes the hugely complex world of artificial intelligence (AI) and reduces it to one sentence, so a lot is lost along the way. But you get the idea.

Cameron has been programmed with vast amounts of information on humans, human emotions, human interaction, human psychology and physiology. True, she doesn’t “feel” any of these things, but from an outward observer she can mimic being a human very well.

Cameron says all the things a person in love says, does all the things, and reacts in the right ways, including internal conflicts leading to a twitchy hand. In short, there is no way to tell she is not in love. Is she considered to be in love?

Summer

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Verssen) — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 02:11:00 +0000

As weeks go, it’s been a good one. We haven’t got much done the last few days on game designs, but sales through the web site and through distribution have been brisk. Considering the state of the economy, we feel very fortunate. Thank you to everyone who has purchased our games!

Fortunate.

For those who don’t know, I’m a huge Terminator fan. Yeah, I know T2 had a mega budget and amazing stunts, but I prefer the original. Watch it again sometime. The script is amazing. Virtually every line of dialog is crafted to convey some vital bit of information about the world or characters. When I design a game, I strive for this same level of excellence. Nothing is wasted. I’m also a big fan of the TV show. Josh Friedman has done a great job of making an episodic story out of one-off movie storylines. Of course, having Summer Glau looking beautiful as she walks around blasting stuff doesn’t hurt either.

Nothing is wasted.

I had a chance to meet up with John Wick at a recent Los Angeles game convention. John and I worked together at AEG on the 7th Sea CCG about 10 years ago. John is a gifted storyteller. Had he been born a few hundred years ago, he’d have been the king’s bard, telling tales of heroic battles, tragic romances, and vengeance carried out most cunning.

Telling tales.

So you might be wondering if there’s a point to all this. I’ve wanted to be a game designer for decades, and now it looks like it’s coming together as a way of making a living. I view games as a means of telling a story where the players get to control the tale.

Fortunate. Nothing is wasted. Telling Tales.