It's my last day at work tomorrow. One more day before I'm a professional board game publisher. Exciting! I've been getting as much stuff ready as I can, I want to be busy next week, rather than just sat around twiddling my thumbs.
Here's my todo list:
- First pass through my submission list. Since my request for submissions last night I've had around forty. They've been coming so thick and fast that I've not really had time to look at them. One of my first jobs is to go through the list as a first pass, asking for rules to the ones I'm interested in.
- Codename: Network. I need to start publicising this. The steps are: choose a name, list it on BoardGameGeek, nail down the rules and components, get a quote for manufacturing, start a pre-order list and start recruiting shops and distributors to stock it.
- Make the last copies of the It's Alive! handmade limited edition, and sell them.
- Meet with the small business advisor, my new bank manager and the sales guy from the manufacturer.
That's enough to be getting on with. The submissions alone will take a decent chunk of time. As for Network, the names I'm leaning towards are: Web of Stars (nicely captures the network aspect), Carpe Astri (latin for Seize the Stars) and Power Vacuum (space = vacuum geddit?). I'm going to ask for The Wife and the designer's input before I make a decision.
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9 comments:
I like the Latin one. Although without seeing the game it's an uneducated guess. The latin one would definitely appeal to the Eurogame fan. Set one aside for me. I'll take a chance without even seeing it!
Hiya Bobby,
Thanks for your input (and the pre-order!). I should make a decision in the next day or two. In other news I played Meepile last night - good fun!
Cheers,
Jack
Oh, man, Power Vacuum is GENIUS! How many games have the word vacuum in their title? You'd have Google (and the BGG search facility) all wrapped up! Plus, provided the box is designed appropriately, there'd be no problem with people misinterpreting the theme when it's sat on the shelf.
Web of Stars, on the other hand, makes me think more of Saturday night TV and Stars in Their Eyes - not a useful association. But then a box design could help out there too.
Personally, I'm not too keen on Carpe Astri, but if Bobby reckons it would go down well, fair enough. I wonder whether it would get a different reaction in the US compared to Europe?
I suggested "Web of Stars", which of course I like - for some reason it makes me think of the part in 2001 where Dave says "My God, it's full of stars!" - but I also like "Carpe Astri". The latter title has the benefit of having the fewest existing Google hits amongst the three contenders ("Power Vacuum" - 389,000; "Web of Stars" - 4470; "Carpe Astri"-3) and all of those hits are associated with your forum post and this post here. So one point in favour of the name "Carpe Astri" is that it won't get lost in the noise when someone tries to search for your game.
Hiya Mal & Sean,
Thanks very much for your input, I'd tried a google search (without the quotes) and checked there weren't any games (board or otherwise) in the top couple of pages, I didn't think to check the total number of hits for the exact name.
Cheers,
Jack
I tried to follow the forum topic where you requested name suggestions, but gave up after three or four pages, it was good to see so many people contributing. It's much easier to comment on a smaller sample, and although you didn't strictly ask for it in your post - I certainly think that Carpe Astri is the winner of these three.
Hey Matt,
Thanks for your vote! Hope you, Rach & Dylan are all well.
Cheers,
Jack
Jack, So you played Meepile? That is so cool. I didn't know there was one in your neighborhood. I think there were only 2 packages that have been sent to the UK so far. It's so light weight and small that it's cheap to mail just about anywhere. Now if I could just make a much more significant game be that light weight...
Hiya Bobby,
My friend Paul, who I play games with once or twice a week bought a copy, it's been out as an opener several times recently.
Cheers,
Jack
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