Thursday, August 21, 2014

| And thus the age of Geek was begat

Thanks for doing the heavy lifting.  You need any graphics related stuff?  Logos, mascots (anime elf/cat girls), etc.

By the way, we got competition in Gen Con.  While I do like their sub-level with lights, I think ours has the better atmosphere (dark and dangerous)...  The fifth pic:

Impostors!!!!!

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Awesome! Got some ideas Bouncing around that I'll run by you soon.
Thanks for killing it on the backend.

| Electric Cardboard Mayhem - Under Constructions

Sup fellas.

So, Electric Cardboard Mayhem is live!  And by live I mean there is a hosting package that is currently hosting a website, but it is totally not ready for launch.

Learning how to make the Wordpress theme do what I want and learning about all the plugins, etc. has been challenging but fun.  I have some dummy posts, images, etc. up there just to learn how it all works and am still figuring out how I think it should all look/feel.  There's lots I can configure, I just need to figure out what it is we should do!

Please, have a look, give me some ideas and I'll do what I can to integrate, but I can't work magic and might not be able to figure out how to do it right now.

electriccardboardmayhem.com

To Do list:
 - Create tags
 - Play with different types of posts and plugins (ex. review plugin allows for star ratings, etc.)
 - create user accounts for everyone and upload pictures
 - figure out layout
 - about us page (which I would LOVE to have some sort of edit from jr0ns documentary, but I might just post the YouTube one Rude made?)
 - terms and services/privacy policy
 - Figure out how to overrule the fonts and play with them
 - mailing list
 - continue with post ideas

Done list:
 - hosting
 - domain name
 - twitter account (@cardboardmayhem)
 - dust off my twitter account (@biggdork)
 - pick a theme
 - started gathering affiliate programs (drivethrurpg, gog, amazon, funagaingames, nobleknight so far)
 - SEO process for postings
 - general SEO
 - google analytics
 - google adwords
 - the list goes on and on and on...

We're getting there!


Enron's at Disneyland today. Teacups all day every day.










Check out Escape from Tomorrow on Netflix because it was shot illegally at Disneyland and Disneyworld. Not the greatest movie ever, but pretty cool feat nonetheless.

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

My tiny contribution to Kickstarter gaming shipped today - Dragon Slayer dice game from Indie Boards & Cards. It's the game that won out to Jael and I's mining dice game! It'll be fun to compare it to what J and I had in mind. Hopefully it's good. That'll be my first review for our Bukkadicenews site.

Monday, August 18, 2014

It's not an especially great title. Actually, the fluff in general is a bit jargony.

There's no reason you couldn't break the information in the app out into cards, track the damage and all the effects physically, print a rulebook and play purely tabletop. Right now they have the ability to release errata and new scenarios straight into the app, so you'd need to start maintaining that separately. For the hardened tabletop wargamers, this might even be preferable. However I think the whole point of the enterprise is to streamline the wargame experience, so I doubt they'd support it. Maybe some crazed fan will do it (eyeballs Xander).

I think the game you must have been discussing was In Exilis, an experiment along similar lines that was a bust -- I don't know anyone that played it. Another experiment is FFG's upcoming XCOM board game which uses an app as the enemy AI player. It seems to function like a less berserk Space Alert. FFG has the dough to throw at experiments like this, so if XCOM is a hit I'm sure we'll start seeing more things along these lines.

Sorry about the travel woes Xander!
Even though I've never really been a big Star Wars guy, Armada looks awesome.  And Descent in Space looks nifty, but I'll play your copy.  :)

| My foot hurts

You know what really sucks?  Stubbing your toe so hard on your luggage for a trip you're about to take that you break it.  The toe, not the luggage.  Then what sucks even more?  Running the length of Schiphol airport to make your connection to Nairobi on said toe, only to be told that there's a problem with your ticket, and could you please hold on, meanwhile they're closing the gate and the plane is pulling away and the next flight is in 10 hours.  Oh, and sorry.  You're going to have to take that flight.  And the internet here is slow as balls on ice.  (that's slow, for those who don't know)


But damn I've got a gruesome blue-black toe with a vicious bruise inching its way up my foot.


My ridiculous 3-days-in-Africa for reeeelly important meetings trip just became even more ridiculous.  I am now spending almost exactly the same amount of time in transit as I am in meetings, and I'm missing the meeting I'm supposed to present at, compliments of KLM's incompetence. 


But hey, I got to see Hunger Games and the Lego Movie on the plane!
"Golem Arcana" almost sounds like a randomly generated engrish-for-gamers name. This will make smile and happy time, indeed. (We need something like that for the new site!)

That said, sounds like a cool idea for a game! I remember a few cons back Matt talked about a similar sounding game where you used the iPad to track stats and stuff with your minis. Do they give you the ability to play the game without the app? It would be nice if you could play the game analog as well.

Sunday, August 17, 2014

| Star Wars FFG Games

Armada: Looks awesome.

Imperial Assault: Looks pretty, BUT it's (exactly) Descent in Space, not sure I need that. Especially without solo rules! (Sad trombone.)

| Miniatures And Terrain Turbo Painter

Suddenly it all makes sense!

Anyway, got in a couple games down in LA this weekend:

- Cave Evil: vs my brother-in-law, who's pretty into metal and cheesy metal artwork and thus is the target market. Total unfair advantage Ameritrash game, lots of fun. But it definitely needs two things. a) more than two players; b) to be played without A.P. types. Playing it in an overly analytical manner would make it completely long and unfun.

- Golem Arcana: I got my kickstarter copy of this and played the tutorial games solo (sad trombone). It's a miniatures game, but all the rules tracking and number crunching are done on your tablet -- you tap the various pieces with a bluetooth enabled stylus, so for example I'd tap an attack option on Golem A, then tap his target, Golem B, and the app does the calculations, keeps track of ongoing effects, and so on. It's a surprisingly sophisticated minis game, kinda nice to just be able to blaze away without having to go through a thick rulebook to figure out how to work through an attack resolution or whatever. Downside: at least on my iPad3, there's enough delay in the communication between the stylus and the app to make me a little impatient. Not a total dealbreaker, but a bit annoying. Hopefully this can be cleaned up a bit in further app revisions.

- Finally, I got my steam key for the Warmachine Tactics video game. It's in beta. Still pretty rough around the edges with lots of UI work, polish etc required, but mechanically it seems solid and seems to hit a good middle ground of accurately modeling the tabletop game vs. being quick to play. It's basically Warmachine XCOM. Can't really recommend it in its current state, but hopefully it polishes up nice by release. Definitely can see this being fun to play with you guys.

| M.A.T.T.

Heya Matt!

Help us come up with a cool gaming related name for the new site/podcast/etc. You'd be surprised how almost every gaming-type phrases is already snagged up.