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After extensive deliberation [designer] Klaus [Teuber], Sebastian [Rapp from Kosmos Verlag], and I as well as the rest of the Catan team agreed that The Settlers of Catan is extremely well suited for a Star Trek license edition. To put it in a nutshell: Catan epitomizes constructiveness and cooperation, where often the journey is the destination and, in many cases, you can only win if you make amicable arrangements with the opponents. And that's extremely compatible with what Star Trek also stands for.
We thought that to allow both Catan fans and Star Trek fans relatively intuitive access to each other's universes, a complex, stand-alone Catan scenario in the fashion of The Starfarers of Catan would be rather unsuitable. The starting point, therefore, was my Settlers of Catan adaptation "Space Settlers," whose unchanged game mechanics also worked well visually. We "only" had to transfer it from its generic, public-domain context I intentionally had given it back then, to the Star Trek universe.
• In their "From Inspiration to Publication" blog, designers Jay Cormier and Sen-Foong Lim offer advice to new (and existing) designers on how to promote your games. I was name checked in the post, so I feel obligated to read the piece and pass it on. Self-promotion achieved!We thought that to allow both Catan fans and Star Trek fans relatively intuitive access to each other's universes, a complex, stand-alone Catan scenario in the fashion of The Starfarers of Catan would be rather unsuitable. The starting point, therefore, was my Settlers of Catan adaptation "Space Settlers," whose unchanged game mechanics also worked well visually. We "only" had to transfer it from its generic, public-domain context I intentionally had given it back then, to the Star Trek universe.
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• On Gamehead, Michael Bahr – who describes himself as "managing partner of Desert Sky Games LLC, which will open its flagship store [in Q3 2012] in Gilbert, Arizona" and someone who has "had an ownership stake in five game stores since 1997, some successful, others disastrous" – catalogs five mistakes that people make when opening game stores. An excerpt:
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A good back-of-the-envelope rule is that you need in liquid cash at least fifty times the square footage figure of the location you plan to rent. Desert Sky Games is opening in a 2500-square-foot suite in a three-year-old building, and raised $110,000 in capital.
Where does all this money go? About a quarter to a third to initial inventory, some to provide a few months' operating expenses, and the rest to development of the store – and that is where most owners miss the boat. Most owners allocate adequate cash to trading card game inventory, and the fast turn rate of those products helps the store's bottom line look good in the early going. Often this means they won't see how they undercapitalized elsewhere until it's too late.
And then there's this pearl of wisdom: "Many stores rent somewhere cheap so they can use a 'light box' marquee sign at a cost of around $1000. However, no location worth opening a game store in will allow light boxes." Ah, yes, I remember the good ol' days at Iron Vic Comics in Poughkeepsie, New York, with the owner doing everything possible not to spend a dime on anything he could get away with, the light box shining down on the flighty Vassar College students, the air conditioner doing little more than pushing hot air around during the summer, the carpet threadbare and developing long wounds from all who trudged in all winter with gravel and sand on their feet. Cheapness abounded in all ways...Where does all this money go? About a quarter to a third to initial inventory, some to provide a few months' operating expenses, and the rest to development of the store – and that is where most owners miss the boat. Most owners allocate adequate cash to trading card game inventory, and the fast turn rate of those products helps the store's bottom line look good in the early going. Often this means they won't see how they undercapitalized elsewhere until it's too late.
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