Mercenaries is coming...

We feel like we are really starting to get close with Mercenaries and need some significant playing time to hammer out the last of the details for the rules.  We're looking to have some play time next Saturday at my house and we will likely have playtesting for Generals and a newer game as well.  I hope to have 2 prototype sets of Mercenaries to play for those who may want to join us since it's a much quicker game to play.
 With that news, as we have shared previously, Mark has sent us an update on the art that he has in progress and we would like to share that with followers as well.  We hope you are as impressed as we are with it:

For those who have playtested Generals for us, you may recognize some of the art on the board.  For those who are not you can look at previous posts or wait for Generals to get published in the future to see the references.  It's kind of funny to think that when it does get published that people will think we took art from Mercenaries and incorporated it into Generals when in fact it was the other way around.

Mercenaries Introduction

"Though officially denied, in desperate need to turn the tide of war, rogue mercenary teams are called upon to finish the job that official armed forces couldn't."
Thoughts on a better introductory line ofr Mercenaries of the Revolution?

New Game

Another game design has sprung up recently and we are trying to develop a prototype for playing a rough draft.  Something we are requesting help with is country names.  we are asking those who are willing to provide fictional names that we might be able to leverage at least temporarily to being playing the game.
Please leave comments with anything you have...

Artwork

For those who have been follwoing the blog since the beginning you might remember that a while back we were playing with the notion, based on expertise/input from Mark, of potentially commissioning some artwork from an artist known as Sketchbook on DeviantArt.com that had art very much tied in with what our vision for Generals would be.  It is something we are still very much interested in doing but with our budget and the hold on Generals it didn't make sense at this time to pursue it.
Since that time the concept has stayed with me and I started to look at other potential types of art for not only Generals but for Mercenaries and Snipers.  I came across another artist that I think would really capture the essence of what Mercenaries is intended to be and again the samples of art were found on DeviantArt.com.  The artists' nickname there is Ukitakumuki. Much of the art he (assuming he's male based on the type of art he tends to post) has posted is really close to what I would envision as part of Mercenaries.  I have posted a slideshow at the bottom to show his gallery.  The ones that stuck out to me were (in no particular order):

1. Into the Fray
2. Convoy
3. Op. Chastity: On the Prowl
4. Black Century
5. Rise and Shine

You'll likely get all his Star Wars and other types of art as well and will have to click through to see all of the ones I posted or you can do a search for tehm in DeviantArt.com and view the ones I have listed.
What do you think?

Mercenaries Game Artwork

We've been working with Mark Mahaffey again to get artwork for Mercenaries since much of our focus has now turned towards publishing that first. We've since shared the work he did for the title block and since then he made a minor revision (Blue Splash) which I tend to like for the most part.

We made a down payment towards game component artwork as well as the box for the game earlier this week and he has already presented us with a concept for the helicopters.

I am very pleased with what he has come up with and will likely request some additions to the concepts. I would like to hear what people think of these and people who have been following the blog for a while will likely recognize the logos from the artwork Mark created for Generals. This was done intientionally since the Revolution Series of games are meant to tie in. He is also working on a currency for Revolution as well and we look forward to the designs for the rest of the components.

Please feel free to post any comments.

Title Block for Mercenaries

We have a draft for Mercenaries of te Revolution Title.  What do you think?

Mercenaries of the Revolution Update

As most, if not all of you may know, we have turned our focus towards getting Mercenaries of the Revolution published. In order to do so we still know that we have several things to work out, not least among which are the rules, and we are looking for anyone interested in play testing for us.
We are confident that the playing pieces will not necessarily change much at this point and have started working with Mark at Mapology to begin artwork for the game components and title block.
We also plan to start on the Snipers of the Revolution title block so we can get it posted to our website.
We hope that you will take time to look at the website and offer suggestions on layout.  It needs a lot of work and until we can hire someone professional to do something about it we are looking for any help you are willing to offer.

Stats

Google recently added a Stats tab for seeing our blog traffic and, while we would like to see more of it, we are quite pleased with how it has been going considering we don't really advertise and don't really have much to offer yet.

It's a bit curious how the google map and the 2 at the bottom of our blog can turn out so different.  There have been times when I would see A new country pop up for the map that tracks daily at the bottom that never turn up on the other two maps.  Take Australia and Pakistan for instance.  Neither of which turn up on the map from google and it was only after the 2nd time that Australia got a hit that it finally showed up on the other map at the bottom.

Still it's good to see that we're getting some traffic and welcome people to make comments and suggestions.

Update on our last two posts

As mentioned previously we were planning a post on boardgamegeek.com and recently received approval.  You can see the post for Prodigy Game Works at http://www....boardgamegeek.com/boardgamepublisher/13266/prodigy-game-works as well as for Generals of the Revolution http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/75281/generals-of-the-revolution
Also, we asked Mark for a couple minor revisions to the player aid card and are very pleased with how it turned out.

Boardgamegeek.com

We will soon have a post on Boardgamegeek.com for Generals of the Revolution which, as I understand it, also allows Prodigy Game Works to show up as well.  I attempted, feebly, to post something a while back, but really had little idea what I was doing and didn't try to spend the time to understand it more.  As part of completing most of the artwork for Generals of the Revolution, Mark asked if he could set something up for the game on BGG and I was more than happy to let him help us out.  Like many of the other things we've had going on Mark had to spark me to move.
Thanks once again Mark!
We hope that you will check out the site for your gaming needs and we will keep everyone posted when we actually have the post up.

Final Artwork

We're very excited to have artwork for Generals of the Revolution complete.  The player aid card was the last piece:

That said there is still a lot of work to get done, but for what Mark committed it is complete.  Given a bigger budget, we will have him do more in the future I'm sure, but with the refocus on Mercenaries of the Revolution due to manufacturing we're pretty much done for a while.  That said I don't want it to sound like we've been waiting on Mark.  It's been very much the contrary and if not for Mark pushing a little he would probably still be waiting for me to get him what he needed to complete the project.  I look forward to having him do the rest in the future and can't wait to see what he produces for Mercenaries.
Thanks Mark for the efforts!

Website Development

Though there is still much work to be done, our website is now up and running.  We also have workable email accounts for Prodigy Game Works.  If you would like to get on our distribution for email alerts about Prodigy Game Works activities and progress you are welcome to contact us via the website at ProdigyGameWorks.com.  If you click on the Contact Tab and then type in the appropriate information we will add you to future email distributions.

Long Game Weekend

We're planning a BIG weekend for Labor Day.  We're planning various war game playing for Saturday and Monday in Mesa, AZ. over the long weekend and have confirmations from many people for one day or the other and some for both.  We're inviting anyone that wants to join us to post a comment and let us know what days you are available and what games you would like to play.
So far we know we'll have the 2 Prodigy Game Works prototypes (Generals of the Revolution & Mercenaries of the Revolution) as well as the old standbys like Risk, Fortress America, and Memoir '44.  We welcome any games, especially war games, that you may want to remind us about or introduce us to as well.
Let us know and we'll make sure to make arrangements to accommodate you as best as we are able to do so.  If you want to provide us your email address to receive a schedule of games or for future reference you can also contact me at JBiggs@ProdigyGameWorks.com.
We look forward to seeing you!
PLAY!

Generals game

We invited the Call family to come over and play Generals of the Revolution last night.  They already had an idea of how to play since I had given them one of the prototype games with a set of rules quite some time ago.  They indicated that some of them had played it 3 times and had some questions about some of the rules.  I knew going into it that the rules would need some more work based on pictures Aaron had posted on Facebook.  We played and talked for about 3.5 hours and got as far as you see below.  Had we stayed focused on the game we probably would have gotten much further but there were questions that I had for them and ones they had for me, and then the occasional girls camp song since Jess recently got back from girls camp. :)

This is probably my favorite board setup that I have played and I wish we could have played longer but it was late and we were all a bit tired.  One thing that would have made the game better was a 4th player to even out the board, but it was great nonetheless and I appreciated the input and time we had playing.

I'm excited about the opportunity to play games on Labor Day weekend and the Calls have commented that they look forward to it as well.

RandomCon

Jay and I had the excellent opportunity to attend RandomCon July 9th and 10th and exhibit our games, meet other game designers, and best of all interact with other gamers.  I say other gamers and while I consider myself a game player I am nowehere near the gamer of people we were abel to meet.  On Saturday Jay and I played a 2 player game of Generals of the Revolution.  Jay beat me fairly handily as you might be able to tell by the finsihed game below.

Then we had some others join in the playing.  They both appeared to enjoy the game and have even started following us on Facebook as well.

We look forward to attending again next year and anticipate having Mercenaries of the Revolution published and ready for play.  We enjoyed mingling with the game players there.

We like the look of the game with the actual art on the board and cards.  It will only be better when it goes to actual production.

New Name

Jay and I had the opportunity to attend RandomCon and share our game concepts with Gamers.  During the course of sharing the game there was another game developer that took interest in the game and as often is the case there was the comment that the Troop Rockers looked like Jacks.  They, to be brutally honest, do remind one of those play toys.  But then he made the comment that they reminded him of Caltrops and when asked told us what a caltrop was and I thought, "What a potentially interesting name for the playing piece."
Todd has always laughed that I used the name Troop Rocker and suggested I find a new shorter name for the piece.
So, I now put the question out to our followers and ask, "What do you think of the name change to Caltrops?"

Revised Artwork

We received the updated art for the hexes from Mark and he also sent the cards. You can see that we decided to go with the blank look for the board pieces and the cards were with the "reapers" (a name Mark came up with and I liked it) and I am really impressed with the one for fuel. Don't get me wrong - I like them all but the fuel caught my eye.

What do you think?

Mark is working on the Water and we expect updates later in the week.

Generals Game Art

We received the first round of Game Board hexes design from Mapology and will be providing feedback for future revision.  We appreciate any input on what you might think of the designs.
We're discussing whether to leave the words on the pieces (for additional reference), whether to use the blank style (as shown on the hexes to the left) or the futuristic mining style (like the pieces on the right), and whether or not to insert a place for teh number disks.
Let us know what you think of the artwork so far...

Making it official

In order to make Prodigy Game Works LLC official the AZ Corporation Commission requires us to post in a reputable periodical in the county that the business resides in.  We decided to post in the Arizona Business Gazette.

We anticipate having some posts soon about artwork for Generals as Mark closes first revisions and beyond.  Stay tuned!

Piece Redesign

Well, we knew this day would most likely come and we are now redesigning many of the pieces for the game to actually now make them produceable.  Many of the pieces we used for the prototype games aren't terribly friendly to the injection molding world and some that are will terribly expensive to manufacture in volume.  Hopefully we can keep much of the essence and for the most part it won't be too drastic, but some of the pieces will make some big changes.  Stay tuned over the next week or two as we post some of the changes.

RandomCon

We've been given a table to show off our game ideas at RandomCon this year.  It will be July 9-11, but we only plan to attend the 9th and 10th.  We hope to be able to share our game with people who are really into games.

Generals of the Revolution

The government has become corrupt, repressing, and enslaving the people, ruling with iron fist. The world has been tossed into turmoil. But amidst the upheaval, leaders are being made; heroes with their own agendas. As they gather more followers, they are creating armies to take down the Global Government and anyone else who may stand in their way. Competing ideological federations are battling for control to unify the world under their principles one nation at a time.
As General of a federation, you are to leverage your innate capabilities to master the market, leverage trades, and then develop and command your military to conquer provinces.

How's that for an Introduction?!
Thanks Hollie!

Mercenaries

As mentioned in previous posts, Mercenaries is nearly complete. The printing of the final components is mostly complete and we look forward to more playtesting in the very near future.

I look forward to actual artist renderings for the components and, as far as planning goes right now, we would like to stay with Mark. For now you will get an initial look at the prototype pieces of the game. The actual army pieces will probably look very familiar to anyone who has followed the blog at all. Some of the components still need to be cut out, one set of cards is incomplete and one set will complete printing tomorrow.

MERCENARIES of the REVOLUTION

IT'S READY! We have developed Mercenaries of the Revolution to a point where we think it's time for playtesting. So now it's time to request people who would like to act as playtesters. This game is not nearly as long to play as Generals, but it may fuel more discussion about the play and mechanics initially. We may leverage family members to play in the coming months during Sunday dinners.
Mercenaries will be cheaper to make and quicker to play and may actually end up being the game we bring to market first. I'm printing many of the components this weekend and everything else is pretty much complete. It's probably to a point where we may be comfortable having Mark quote us on the artwork. I just need to find the many to be able to pay him. I would definitely prefer to have a package deal where the games are similar to each other and help form the Prodigy Game Works brand.
We expect communication back from the corporation commission any day now to make it official and eagerly await the good news. And the website should start progressing soon as well.
Stay tuned for more to come in the near future.

Layout Change

I decided to change the layout of the Blog and eliminated the Followers section.  While I really liked seeing those who were following the blog, I decided that was best while I was at the Apple store yesterday getting my phone replaced and went to look at the site.  I got to thinking that if I ever did that and forgot to close it when I left that it would leave everyones identity out there and I wasn't comfortable with that.
We really do appreciate the few people who were followers of the blog and hope this makes you all more comfortable as well.  And as always we will look for new additions to our Followers list, they just won't be visible to anyone else.

Latest Meeting

During our latest meeting we took some time to discuss the Revolution Series of games and really started to hammer out the mechanics for the next game "Mercenaries".  We got much of the game figured out and are probably to a point that we should start playtesting as soon as we can get all the pieces printed, which we intend to do during the next week.  This should be a lower cost game that we may utilize to make our break into the market and the game should play out in much less time than Generals does.  We'll provide more details later but the interaction of the Series, as you can see from the pictures below, is starting to come together a little more.

We need to create the pieces that will go between the team pieces and determine how everything will come together, but feel like we have a good thing started.  We will probably shrink the board a bit as well.  We will continue to update this as it develops.

For those who may not have noticed yet...

Posted at the bottom of the blog is artwork from an artist suggested by the box designer.  The ones that caught my eye were "Reconquista" and "Cape Eden" if you are patient enough to scroll through them all.  Otherwise you can click on the link and look at them all at once.  I think, while the stories don't match, that one of those could look really good in the center of the box cover.
Needless to say I've enjoyed working with Mark thus far and he has been very helpful in getting to the next steps.

GENERALS of the REVOLUTION Box

The first revision of the Box cover is complete! I think Mark has done a fantastic job and only have a couple of things that I might want to see changed, but wanted to share with those that follow the blog...

FRONT COVER

BACK

The BOX

Federation/Faction Names

In our meeting yesterday we discussed several things, but one thing I wanted to start getting feedback on was something that Jay brought up.  Rather than just plain old colors we would like to have federation names.  If you have something good please comment and we will open a poll at some future time for voting.  We need 4 names and with your name please tell us your color alignmment (if it means something to you).
Also, we discussed the storyline behind the game a little.  The artist doing our box art asked if there was a storyline and we basically had to tell him what we had in the rules under the introduction and objective section.  That got us thinking and we are most likely going to up the amp it up a bit.  For this I requested my up and coming author Sister, Hollie, to come up with something. Excited to see what we end up with but she has already come up with a first revision to what we had.  The finished product will likely make a nice post in the future.

Global Revolution

We appreciate everyone that takes time to look at the blog and visit our page on Facebook.  It's great to see people around the world visit the site and it's very encouraging when some of those people return to see updates.
Please feel free to leave comments.  The only thing more encouraging than seeing the new red dots start to get bigger is seeing comments.
THANK YOU.

REVOLUTION SERIES of Games

We've been developing our second game (may turn out that it hits the market first). It looks like Mercenaries (actaully it will be called Mercenaries of the Revolution) will start to take shape soon to kick off the Revolution Series of an eventual series of three (and potentially more) game series to be introduced.
The thing that will make this interesting is that the games will be interlinked by a master board and teams can be developed to play a master game at different times and tracked for game play.  We hope to bring friends to the table with this concept rather than via online forums with little or no interaction.
The 3rd game in the series will be Snipers of the Revolution and their is a concept for a 4th game to be named later.
Most people following the blog know about Generals of the Revolution and the name of the fourth game will be first announced via the blog for loyal followers.

We're getting serious about this now...

Our facebook page is up now, but I would hardly call it running.   Talked with Christina today and sounds like email will most likely be ready be End of week.
Only a little over a week left for voting your color.

Prodigy Game Works Progress

It's almost official.  We will soon be an official LLC and work is in progress for our website and company emails should be active before long.  These are things that we have made priorities towards becoming a company and publishing by October 1, 2010.  It is our goal to not only publish by that time but also submit for an Origins Award for board games among others.
We appreciate all those who have helped get us to this point.  At risk of forgetting someone I will try and name those I can think of right now.  Probably foremost would be Rosie for her patience with a fanatical husband followed by Jay, Todd, Kendra, and Hollie.  They have been hugely instrumental in getting Prodigy Game Works to the point that it is and more importantly Generals of the Revolution.  I would be ungrateful if I didn't also thank Eddie and Danny Guerrero for the time they have given me with playtesting (I guess Nancy as well for letting me steal them on the weekends).    I need to recognize Christina as well for helping with guidance and her web support among other things.  I also want to thank my mom for the name of the game and use of her home for playtesting.
I also thank my dad for the experience he provided that pretty much prompted this whole activity as mentioned in previous emails.  I most certainly wish he were still around to see this. He and Mom have always been so supportive of most everything that I have done even when they didn't understand the motivation (i.e. College Football walk-on after quitting a great job at Delta Airlines).
Lastly, and probably most importantly, I recognize my Heavenly Father for the promptings and inspiration for much of the game mechanics.  Hollie always asks how this all came about because it seems so far-fetched, and I can only attribute it to the late night and early morning promptings that saw me at the computer or drawing up new ideas on a few hours sleep.  This, after all is said, is what keeps me trying.
THANK YOU to all who have helped.  Their are others who have given of their time to playtest and provide input as well.  I greatly appreciate all those who have made their way to read the blog as well.  That has been encouraging.  Especially when I see people around the world who look at it.

Prodigy Game Works Merchandise

In order to sort of help with raising money for molds for future game manufacturing, I've been thinking about getting hats and shirts printed to sell.  Is anyone interested in purchasing merchandise?  The colors that seem to be popular are Red, White, and Black with black logos for the red ones, red or black for the White ones, and red logos for the Black ones.  Let me know in the comments.
Hopefully soon we will have "Generals of the Revolution" ones made up too to go along with the Prodigy Game Works logos.

What Color Are You?

Currently the player colors for the game are Yellow for the government pieces, and then you have Red, Blue, White, and Black.  Not that I don't like those colors, but I thought putting out the option for other colors would be a good idea.  So I'm asking (see new poll posted), "What's your color?"
When you play a game, what color do you typically go for?

Final Logo Designs

As you may have guessed from the header the Logo designs are complete and we have a whole gallery of formats to choose from.  We're very happy with the items that we have recieved from the Curtis Design Group, LLC and look forward to many years of working with them on future items.  Hopefully, someday we will be big enough to actually afford to have them do more for us on the games.  We're getting business cards soon and now have the artwork to start our website.
We have been in contact with a couple of injection molding companies as well.  The quotes for game pieces have so far been a little disappointing but we're still working with them to see what we can do to bring the costs more in line with our expectations.
We have also started looking for graphic artists to produce some designs for game pieces (Asset Cards, Board tiles, and Occupancy Markers).  We have 2 designers for game pieces and 1 for the cover.  I'm excited about Mark Mahaffey doing the cover because he too is a game designer and has done some box covers already that I was impressed with.  I've been tempted to ask him to do the playing pieces as well, but I'm not sure we could afford that right now.  I may not have a choice in the end if I want a real quality, professional looking game, but I'm not sure that he does that stuff yet.
Stay posted and we hope you like the new look of the blog header.  Please let us know what you think in the comments.

Sea Unit Name

Doing more research...
I found more potential names for the Sea piece in the game and I have posted another poll with the names (Sorry Hollie, I'm still no fan of AquaPods).  Some of you may be able to tell I was thinking sharks with the names.

Please feel free to leave comments with other names you might come up with.  Voting on the right.

Air Unit Names

I owe Hollie a big apology for dismissing her air unit name (Fight Kites) so abruptly.  I've bee researching names and found that Kites are hawk-like birds of prey and, while I still wonder about the name a little, found that I like the name much more now.

Kites

With that, I have posted a new poll for the naming of the piece one more time and hope to get a better reponse.  I found some names of eagles that I thought would go well. 

Please see the poll to the left...
Also, A reminder for the poll on the right that is now counting down in hours.

New Logos

We've been talking with CDL and rev'd the logo ideas.  These are the result of the collaboration:

They don't show up nearly as well as the previous ones because I printed them on lower quality paper and CDL probably has a better printer than the one I used.  It should convey the idea.  I have a feeling that I know what most people will pick but I'll throw some voting buttons up anyway.

Unit Names

We had a great day of game play testing yesterday and the discussion turned to the naming of the pieces.  The question came up of why are the Troop Rockers called what they are and not infantry or soldiers when none of the other pieces have distinct names?
The answer is simple, I haven't come up with any names.  Todd named the Troop Rockers while designing them for me in SolidWorks (3D Modeling software).  I came up with ArmTechs for the armored units, but then found that it was a company name, so I then came up with ArmTors, but it hasn't really stuck.
This leads to where the discussion headed.  Kendra and Hollie then both thought it cute to say you should name the Troop Rockers, Soldiers; the armored units, Tanks; the Sea pieces, Boats; and the Air units Airplanes.  REAL CUTE.  Obviously, they were saying these things tongue in cheek (at least I hope they were), and then throughout the game Hollie kept throwing out names for all of the pieces.  Some of which were okay and others not so much.  All of this said, Hollie said that I should put up a survey with a list of names and let people pick.  I have posted a poll for Infantry names to the left and the rest on the right (Trying to balance the blog a little :)).  As the last option for all I have put Better in Comments- meaning that you can come up with something better than the available options and you have posted them in comments for this posting.
I very well hope that the last option wins for most if not all and I am excited to see what people can come up with.  I will then repost some polls in a week with a better list of options (ones left in comments) and open those up to opinions.
Thanks in advance for your postings!

New Game Name

I've been getting new names for the game tossed at me from different directions.  My mom came up with one yesterday that I really liked with a slight twist.  She said "Lords of the Revolution" and I'm thinking seriously about "GENERALS of the REVOLUTION" as the name for the game.
I've also recruited another fan that is willing to play this Saturday.  A long time friend who I talked to today about the idea while he was helping me with some ideas for taking credit cards on my website and while I'm out and about trying to sell the game asked about the details of the game and got interested.  Jeremy Goodman will most likely join us for some game play this weekend.  We should have at least 4 people there to play (Jay, John, Hollie, & now Jeremy) and if Eddie is able to make it as well then all the better.  I get really excited when people show interest in the game.  Hopefully it continues to garner support and excitement.
Also, I sent a message to the Scott Curtis about the company logo.  I opted for Concept 6 with some input to add a more professional version of a logo I came up with a few months ago. 

I'm excited to see what he comes back with.

Information

For all those who may come across this blog, are led to it, and especially those who have started to follow it, if you would like to get more information on playtesting dates or other information please feel free to leave your email address in the comments and I will add you to my distribution.  If you aren't comfortable doing so, you can always email me at prodigygameworks@gmail.com until I get the official website and emails up and running.
I'm going to try and get some play time in this Saturday  (tentatively set for 11am, but that can be changed)for those that are interested.  We can support up to 8 players and if we get enough interest I'm sure that I could get the pieces together that we used for past games to make a 3rd table.  If there is enough interest I may even buy some pizza for lunch for everyone that shows up.
Thanks!

Game Artist?

Do you know any really good artists?  I need to find one for some game pieces and ultimately a box cover.
I can't pay much, but am willing to pay.

New Game Name

Found out today that there is already a game that was published last year called Revolution.  Back to the drawing board for a name.  World (Global) Revolution maybe?
This kind of stinks!  One more hurdle.

One more thing...

If there is anything from this experience I've learned it is that there is a lot to learn.  And all of my weak spots are starting to really show.  The game idea is something that I've had in my head since my Dad (I remember watching him some evenings with his teachers quorum playing Risk and thinking I knew it well enought that I could play with them.  Probably where I got the bug from :)) bought Todd and I the Game Master series of games (I've mentioned this in past blogs), but the sales and marketing part of it is going to be tough.  This became even more evident over the past few weeks when I found out that much of my family didn't even know I started this blog.  I'm not terribly pushy, if at all, and I'm going to have to learn to put it in peoples faces a bit more I suppose.  Hopefully the convention in Las Vegas next month will help me.  I do have a strong passion for board gaming and especially REVOLUTION and I just hope it's enough to get me over my many weaknesses.
I would like to thank my wife and family for their patience and support while I've been trying to make a go of this thing.  They may never know what it means to me, especially right now when that learning curve is smacking me right in the nose.
Just a quick little reminder that we're going to try to get together this weekend for a game if anyone is interested.  I have two set all ready to be played or loaned out.
THANKS AGAIN TO EVERYONE!

Initial Logo Designs are in!!!

These are copies of the original revisions of concepts that have been presented by Curtis Design Group (in the order the designer presented them with corresponding numbers):

Mind you colors and things can change, but this is where we stand right now.  There are a few that I like and I think a hybrid of 2 or more of them is what I would propose and I would love to hear what everyone thinks that follows this blog.  Please feel free to post comments and vote using the buttons in the left column.

Playtest Day

We're planning another playtest day for Feb. 20th.  If you're interested in joining us please let us know.

Revolution Update

The 3d Printer is expected to be back up and running next week and hopefully we will be able to print out the last few pieces to complete the armies for 3 prototype games.  We're willing to send a copy to anyone that will play at least once a month and provide feedback.  I'm going to put together a questionaire and completing it after each time it is played is the only requirement that I will give.  If the game isn't getting played I will ask for it back.
We are in the process of joining the GAMA (Game Manufacturers Association) and hopefully start the process of getting an effective network.
Stay Tuned.

Awaken & Arise my MINIONS!!!

GO FORTH AND CONQUER!!!
Okay, maybe I got a bit too excited, but I just can't help it when I see this.

We now have enough game pieces to have 2, and almost a 3rd, complete prototype games.  Like I said in my previous post we cut down on some of the playing pieces which really enabled much of this.
We anticipate new designs for a logo , business cards, Swag item (i.e. t-shirts), commmercial #10 envelopes, sales slicks, Powerpoint Template, Sales Slick, and letterhead.
We hope to schedule a couple more Playtesting dates in the near future as well.  So if you are interested in free lunch and playing Revolution.  Please let us know.

Three Player Playtest

Prodigy Game Works took another step closer towards production of Revolution.   Jay got his dad, Eddie, to play the game with us on Saturday and in 4 short hours we were able to play a large portion of a game before it was time to break up to go watch the Cardinals game.

We got some good ideas to help the game play along and ran into some scenarios that we had not yet thought of before.  We also felt fairly comfortable with cutting down the number of game pieces.

Here's a picture closer to the game board about an hour and a half into the game.

Next steps are to officially kick off the company and get a logo.  We have plans to meet with a Brand designer from Curtis Design Group LLC to begin working on a company logo.  Hopefully this will help give us some added legitimacy when we start meeting with people and creating a solid network.
We are planning a trip to Las Vegas for the GAMA Trade Show in March.

Games, Games, Games

As you can probably tell from the latest revision to the blog, the company name is going to be PRODIGY GAME WORKS.  A 2 year contract has been purchased for the site ProdigyGameWorks.com and .net and we eagerly look forward to the first revision of website in the near future.
We've started meeting more regularly now with the perception that the game is nearly complete.  We're looking for Game Playtesters in earnest now with 2 boards ready for play.  We're planning to do some playtesting this Saturday.  The time is still TBD, but we are anticipating some major breakthroughs during this round of playtesting as we hope to have a game where everyone has played before so we won't need to go over the rules much.
From our last meeting it was determined that a professional logo be created and John will start to work with companies to begin the branding of the company.
One major item is that 3 games are in work at different levels of development with REVOLUTION obviously the farthest along.  The other 2 are planned to be (at least for the moment) SNIPER and MERCENARIES pending more research.  The interesting thing that will come with teh developement of the two new games is that they will all be somewhat interactive.  The great thing about this will be that the games can be played independently or as a master game and they can be played as a two hour game or over a long period of time such as D&D which most people have heard of.
For anyone interested in becoming a play tester for us I will give a brief description of the game.  We think that people that love playing RISK and would like to take the next step in gaming evolution will love playing REVOLUTION.  It's a war game somewhat similar to the idea of Risk and global domination with more intricacies.  The board for the game is different every time you play (unless of course you want it to be the same) and sets up with 5 different Hexagonal tiles(similar to SETTLERS OF CATAN for those familiar with that game).  Unlike Risk; however, you have more than just 1 infantry type of battle piece.  There are Infantry (Troop Rockers), Armor, Sea, and Air pieces that possess different capabilities determined by the amount of training that you are willing to invest in them.  The capabilities are then directly correlated to the dice that you can roll for them in battle (4d, 6d, 8d, 10d).
Like Risk the die rolls determine winners and losers so obviously the higher die type you roll the greater the odds of victory.
By possessing land areas (the Hexagonal tiles) of Fuel, Metal, Mortar, and Lumber, you can obtain resources and money to build manufacturing facilities which then develop and train the different types of military troops.  You can see examples of the different pieces below.  Instructions come with the games but the fastest way to learn is to join us for playtesting and we can quickly explain the game and you can play with us.
If you are interested in playtesting for/with us or have any questions please feel free to leave a comment.