Life at the Beach

I am asked all the time about “The Plan”. If you read the previous blog you’ll see that I never intended to make a series of card games right out the gate, but then I did, and they did okay. More than anything though, life changed. 2011 has been a challenging year. And frankly there are days when I would rather just pack it all up and work at Starbucks. Full Deck Full Deck Solitaire and Full Deck Poker Solitaire have been pretty successful. Not in a way that brings in any money, but in a way that a lot of people are playing the games. On the desktop it’s been the number one card game for quite a few weeks now, and in top ten free downloads pretty much since it went free back in February. It’s been maintained, supported, and updated. My Sister in the UK has taken a lead role in testing the game and that has been incredible for me.
Full Deck is ongoing. Full Deck Poker is almost done. Full Deck Dominos isn’t far behind. We get lots of suggestions on what other card games to do, but the poker game has given me a good taste of just what a game with a lot of rules means. And I really want to get onto the game I originally wanted to make! That said, I’ve loved working on these with my family, and I will continue to do so and expand the Full Deck line of games. Super Unicorn Well, the cat came out the bag a little with an article in the press. But yes, I’m really excited about this game. I think as much as 7th Guest made something of CD-ROM that opportunity exists and is even stronger on the iPad. I’ve been working on this game for many years really in my head. Writing bits down here and there prior to working at Apple (some of which I posted to my website back in the day) and then since leaving have become intent on producing the real thing. A game that is like no other, but a game that makes you get up, go places, look, wonder, and experience an adventure on your own. I can continue to work on the unfunded version of this game for a long time, but I want to make it. I can hope you all go and download the card games but in reality I need to go out and seek funding for the sound / video production. It’s not cheap faking a moon landing! To that end I have been busy discovering Sand Hill Road.

G7 Not much to say on this one yet except that it extends out the challenge and turn based systems I’ve been working on with the Full Deck series into a social game experience aimed at teenagers and individualizing an experience then being able to share that.

More I have walls and walls of more ideas. I get a lot of people coming up with ideas, and that’s great, always happy to go over anyone’s idea with them and offer input, and plain listen. But I left Apple to work on my own ideas for a while and hopefully my track record gives me a little bit of leeway to do that. Because there’s always Starbucks.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011