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Links: Uwe Eickert and Jerry Hawthorne Talk About What They Do, How to Fix Origins & The Long View

Links: Uwe Eickert and Jerry Hawthorne Talk About What They Do, How to Fix Origins & The Long View
Board Game Publisher: Academy Games, Inc.
• Uwe Eickert of Academy Games was interviewed in late May 2012 on The Wargamer. An excerpt: "We have a unique [design] process, I believe, based on our engineering backgrounds. Every game must begin with a solid game engine – the mechanics that make it run. This is the most important part of the game and has nothing to do with the game theme. Only after the engine is solid do we add the game theme on top of this. Then we begin the refinement process." Who knew that theme was pasted onto designs at Academy Games?

Eickert is incredibly excited about Gettysburg: The Bloody Crossroads, due out October 2012, and gives a quick overview of the game. Best of all is his answer to this question:

Quote:
10.) In closing, what can Academy Games offer to the wargaming market that other developers cannot?

Nothing. We are part of a very creative, diverse, and growing market segment. Other developers are publishing incredible games that I love to play and often recommend to others. What Academy Games can offer is to be part of the driving force that is expanding this wonderful hobby of ours.
Modesty and truthfulness combined – very classy, Mr. Eickert!

Board Game: Mice and Mystics
• Designer Jerry Hawthorne talks about Mice and Mystics in an interview conducted by BGG user "dustinthewind". Here's Hawthorne explaining the origins of the game: "A couple of years ago, my daughter was struggling with learning to read. I was convinced that she just didn't understand how imaginative books could be. Her reading was labored and robotic. I wanted to create an activity to accompany reading that would help her somehow. At the time, mice were her most favoritest of all animals. I started working on a story that could be played like a game. Later we discovered that she has a learning disorder similar to dyslexia, but the game had already taken on a life of its own."

• If you're interested in the "Voice of Experience" game review challenge being run on BGG, you might want to check out "The Long View", a new podcast on 2D6.org that "is designed to provide a critical and in depth look at a specific game each episode", according to podcast host Geof Gambill. "The games we feature in our discussions will be more than just a few months old! Many will have been released in the past one to three years. New enough to not be old, but not old enough to have already been designated as classic or clunker."

As Joel Eddy notes in the comments section of The Long View's first podcast, which covers Thunderstone, the guest panel will vary each episode depending on the game being discussed.

From gallery of W Eric Martin
• In a timely post – well, timely for preparations in 2013 – someone at the Games & Grub blog asks "Can Origins be fixed? Does it need to be?" An (edited) excerpt:

Quote:
GAMA's use of web 2.0 and social media is simply laughable. The Facebook page was updated at the beginning of the month (May 5th), but its Twitter account hasn't been updated since Summer of 2011. Gen Con, in comparison has a BOT account dedicated to retweeting anything with #GenCon. The official Gen Con Twitter account also updates almost daily. Gen Con also works with the surrounding businesses, frequently tweeting and providing information about hotels, restaurants, etc. in the area. They are a well oiled machine. And it isn't just Gen Con who has a significant voice on social media. ForgeCon, a first-time convention taking place in May is quite active on Twitter, as are lesser known cons such as NeonCon, Denver ComiCon, etc. I don't know if Origins thinks something like this is out of their budget or if it's simply unneeded, but they're shooting themselves in the proverbial foot every day they don't proactively interact with fans and potential customers.
• If you're a publisher who used Kickstarter – or just a curious fan who likes to poke your nose into various things – check out Kicktraq.com. You can paste in a Kickstarter URL and see the number of backers and amount of funds gained each day during a project, as well as the projected total for the project based on current projections. Did you know that the Ogre Kickstarter project picked up $200k in its final two days? Or that the gobsmackingly stupid STAX, marketed by showing headless women and their cleavage, is trending toward a two-month total of $610? Well now you do.

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