I Spilled a Drink in a Dive Bar

This past Saturday night a large group of us were at Tunnel Top in San Francisco to celebrate my girlfriend's birthday. Tunnel Top is a nice dive with a DJ, good drinks, and a bit of space so it doesn't get uncomfortably crowded.

I was standing downstairs chatting with a good friend, Ryan, and his girlfriend, Carly. I talk with my hands, especially when I've had a drink or two, and I accidentally smacked Carly's glass of wine. It splashed on the floor and we laughed, she gave me "go to hell" eyes, and we moved on.

About 5 minutes after the spill, the blonde in front of us turns around with a look of utter shock on her face. "

"What just happened?" she said, looking directly at Carly. "Did you just spill all over my shirt?"

I stepped in, apologized, and offered to buy them a drink. I even offered to pay to replace her shirt.  This odd social fencing match took longer than expected. Ryan and I were quietly quick to agree that neither of these girls were very attractive. Were we single and they better looking we may have capitalized on this bar faux paus.

But, we aren't, and they weren't.

Blonde kept re-stating that we spilled our drink on her. This was clearly accepted and understood by all involved. She also emphasized that her shirt may be ruined. We kept apologizing. This exchange on for about 4 minutes, which is about 3 minutes, 48 seconds too long.

Eventually the blonde and her friend, a fine schnauzer of a lass, seemed to have closure and they walked about 5 feet away.

Me, Ryan, and Carly continued our conversation.

But, closure was not had! Ryan and I noticed that Carly became increasingly more agitated and realized that blonde and her lap dog friend were giving Carly evil eyes. Carly threw up her arms in frustration "What do you want? It's a bar!" she shouted.

Blondie and Scooby came back.

"It's okay!" Blonde explained. "You spilled on us, but you know, you spilled everywhere." She pointed at the floor, in case we weren't aware of gravity's effect on airborne liquids.

"I'm sorry," I said. "I'll replace your shirt."

"No, it's okay! But you did spill on us. Look at what's on the floor." Yes, we know what's on the floor.

I turned to Ryan and asked him what was going on. He looked at me with wild eyes and stated simply that he had no clue. A foot away, Carly explained to them that sometimes drinks are spilled in a bar. She spoke very slowly, as if explaining quantum physics to a stupid child.

Alas, Blondie and Marmaduke kept re-living the most awkward and insignificant of bar encounters. Over. And over.

I double checked with Ryan once more to confirm that our earlier assessment of their attractiveness was accurate. He confirmed this for me. Ryan's a good man. It's important to note that by this point we no longer cared about being civil and were discussing this at full volume.

"Hey guys," I said, taking charge of the conversation. "We're sorry this happened. Why don't you let me buy your next round."

"Oh, that won't be necessary," blonde-a-saurus explained.

"Excellent!" I chimed. "Then why are you still talking to us?"

This went over about as well as expected and they left for good.

Farmageddon! On Sale!

My copy arrived in the mail. There was one tiny slip up with the currency, but other than that the print out was just fine. I've updated the game and it's now for sale here for only $14.99 (plus S&H). I am making less than $1 per game sold, so it is the lowest price I can push for the current publishing arrangement.

I also uploaded some more pictures to the Facebook page.

Give it a shot, tell your friends!

Farmageddon! Almost Live...

I am incredibly proud to share the Farmageddon! Facebook page. A real website would be preferred, but I'd rather not get ahead of myself. A Facebook page is free and is an easy way to get the word out.

Also, as of last night the game is ready for publication on The Game Crafter. I haven't flipped the switch for public purchase yet, but I bought the first copy for myself to make sure everything printed out okay and is ready to go. Hopefully around this time next week I can "open the flood gates."

This whole experience has been incredibly fun and rewarding. I created a game by myself, tested it, iterated upon it, and ultimately, created something fun, fast, and accessible. I hired an incredibly talented artist, Brett Bean, and worked with him to create an absolutely beautiful and charming game. If nothing else, the game looks fantastic.

Soon, I can start annoying friends and visiting board game stores to give out free copies and hopefully drive some interest. It's a long shot, but I'd love to get the game published by Gamewright or somebody else. Or, drive enough interest that I can recoup my art costs and develop a real website to sell Farmageddon! and other games. I'd love to take a crack to turn Space Encounters! and Walk in the Rain into something special and worth buying.

Almost 6 years ago I was able to walk into a Best Buy to see my first game, The Sims 2 Open for Business, on store shelves. That was amazing.

This is even cooler.

Evolution, Dinosaurs, and Cave Men

People always seem to be all or nothing when it comes to any debate. You can even see this on user reviews on iTunes or sites like Metacritic: "OMG THIS GAME IS AWESOME - 10/10" vs. "WTF NO OPTION TO PUT PANTS ON MY AVATAR - 0/10."

The game industry, its customers, and its developers are just as bad: PC Gaming is dead, console only. Digital is king, no more brick and mortar. Social is the death of traditional games. F2P will kill pay up front.

I just don't understand these sentiments, especially coming from so many otherwise intelligent people who have created these juggernaut, billion dollar industries. Humanity is highly nuanced. People want different things at different times. Sometimes, the same customer wants different things, much like how we don't eat fried chicken for every meal.

Black Prophecy Quick Thoughts

I play a ton of games and wanted to start writing about them more frequently. Probably won't be a lot of substance in these posts, but I'll try to make sure these amuse-bouches are fantastic. That's bouche, not douche.

Black Prophecy is a space dogfighting MMO. Sounds a bit like EVE Online, no? The key difference is that in EVE, you tell your ship where to go (i.e. orbit this celestial body at 10km at this speed, or approach this station at this speed). In Black Prophecy, you directly control the ship.

Some of the best games of all time have been space sims. Like TIE Fighter. Freespace 2. Even Freelancer did some brilliant things. When Black Prophecy finally released a North America beta client, I dove in.