How and Why I Game (Part 0)

[edit: this post quickly changed tack into a thank you note for my father, hence Part 0. I'm not apologising for this, just informing you. Still has game stuff but more game stuff in parts 1 and 2 soon]

Firstly, these are posts about how and why *I* game. You may have entirely different methods and madness and find yourself thinking 'that's stupid!'; I don't mind, not that I'll know unless you tell me. But we all know that won't happen for at least two reasons. First: hardly anyone reads this. Second: internet people are too polite to tell others that their opinions are wrong-it simply doesn't happen!
Anyway, that *I* looks like some kind of suspect emoticon. I'm showing my age saying 'emoticon'.

So here's the Why. One of my earliest memories (preschool) is finding a chess set and a monopoly set whilst exploring at home. I opened them up and knew that they weren't just toys; there was some higher purpose to these collections of bits and pieces. The chess set was wooden pieces in a small wooden box which had been made by my grandfather. There were horses in pairs and castles in pairs and a two pieces that were taller than the others and lots of pieces that were shortest. And all of the black pieces had a matching white piece and vice versa. The other box didn't have the symmetry of the chess set; besides the bunch of wee houses there were only a few pieces and they didn't seem to be connected at all. But there were cards that matched the board and other cards that had their places, and … pretend money. Mum, dad, teach me! Now!

Please?

I got taught neither chess nor monopoly but draughts (checkers) and games like snakes and ladders. I got told that I could be taught chess once I started school (which was a few days before 5th birthday). Funnily enough, I seemed to be okay with that; maybe because draughts and dice games seemed exciting enough for now. True to their word though, I got taught chess etc at 5 (ish). Within a few years I also discovered that some other friends/classmates also knew how to play, and play we would (on rainy days).

When I was 11 dad brought me along to a chess club and asked if I could join. I was by far the youngest in the room (I don't think that anyone else was under 18) and I was only allowed to join if I was accompanied, so dad also joined. Dad did shift work, so was unable to attend some nights but a school friend (Paul) was also allowed to join and the club organisers had assessed both of us as being sensible enough to attend some nights without parental guidance. I guess we didn't dribble all over the pieces or throw them down the toilet or whatever normal preteens do, also Paul and I were good enough to sometimes beat some of the lower ranked players and we were improving. We got to know some of the 'old men' (some of whom would have been younger than my current age) and a few years later my high school maths teacher joined. I ended up playing him once in an epic 4 hour match. Despite being slightly distracted by the pulsing forehead vein, I ended up only just winning by having that 1 extra pawn in the endgame. I would have enjoyed the game even if I'd lost because it was tense and never certain until the end, when I managed to force a rook for rook exchange.
Anyway, dad continued to attend when he could and although I was thankful at the time, now that I'm a grown up and have a child and job etc, I appreciate much more what he did for me; as well as all the usual fatherly stuff, here's a breakdown of the board games-specific things:
*taught me and my sisters
*played with me and my sisters
*recognised my interest and slight ability
*encouraged (not in a pushy way at all) me to pursue my interest
*researched (pre-internet) and told me about an interest-related club
*attended club so that I too could attend and very probably had to do some negotiation re: shift work
*celebrated in my successes and encouraged me in my failures

Hmm, I removed board games from the above list and now it's more like a checklist for Things That A Good Dad Does. So there you go.
Thanks, dad.

If you've read this far, I don't apologise but I do promise that Parts 1 and 2 (the How and Why) will be more gamey.

September 12th: submission of abstract

So, a couple of weeks ago a friend Rob sent me a few takes of the video voice over. He did a few different styles and asked me to pick one for him to research and perfect. The styles were: old style BBC voice, hard man voice, Jeremy Clarkson imitation, and Hollywood action movie trailer voice (and an antipodean voice-over full of cussing).
Anyway, I went with hard man and used the first take, adding some images. The video isn't exactly going to win awards but Rob did a great job on the voice.

I then submitted the project to Kickstarter and waited. Next day, it was approved and I launched it! I then cooked dinner, ate dinner, bathed 2.5 year old and put him to bed. My phone was on silent, so I had no idea that there were several "new backer" emails awaiting me! All from people that I've never met and will probably never meet. I've backed projects on Kickstarter from people that I'll never meet, but it's quite a different experience being the backee. In a really good way.

August 24th: Game Theory & Displacement Vectors

Last weekend I competed in the British Transplant Games, held in Sheffield. Not many people know about these games (I didn't until I'd had a kidney transplant); they are held each year at a different UK venue and include track & field, team sports and individual sports. I entered the tennis (silver medal!), 5 a side soccer/football (gold medal!), 100m (last!), and 200m (not last!).

Anyway the whole point of the games is to raise awareness of both the benefits of transplants and the need for more donors. Several people die each day while waiting for a transplant. I was fortunate enough to have family who were willing and able to give me a kidney, but not everyone is so lucky.

I met a lot of people with a lot of different stories, some who are still going strong decades after transplants and others whose transplanted organs are beginning to fail or are having other health problems.

I enjoy the community aspect of the games, but for me the transplant has enabled me to get back to normality, though I have twice-daily anti-rejection medication to serve as a reminder.

Where was I? Oh yes, Vehicle Vendetta will be live soon! Right now I'm in Liverpool. Back to London on Monday.

August 1st: S. I. Units

Omg it's August!
Whilst naming this post, I realised that the date part of the post titles for July were, frankly, substandard.
Anyway, I've got to get a move on. Chat soon.
Todd

16th July: event horizon

All that's left to do for the Kickstarter project is the video. I need to spend about three sessions of five hours each at a computer to do them but time like that is at a premium. It seems that life has become so condensed that it is becoming increasingly difficult for any packets of time to escape. Well, I can't detect any such packets anyway; perhaps I need better instruments. Time will tell.

9th July 2013: wave particle duality

Last week I set up and used a simultaneous equation to calculate how many draw cards there should be and how many vehicles & upgrades should allow extra cards to be drawn. Who said maths has no use in the real world? Although, since this game isn't yet published, it could be argued that it still isn't in the real world.
I shall bore many students, colleagues and passersby with this anecdote. And now you.

May 2013: particle accelerator

I have no idea why I started using nuclear physics as a theme for my titles in this blog; it's becoming increasingly difficult to find suitable titles. Case in point: I used the word "particle" because it has "art" in it. I mean come on, really?

Anyway.
I had, once again, reduced, reused and recycled the game down. I'd started doing the artwork for the cards and quickly remembered that my illustrative skills suck. I tried finding images that fitted what I wanted, which I would then outline and modify using g.i.m.p. and then delete the initial layer. For individual images the results were ok, but the process was very time consuming. In addition, there was no consistency amongst the resulting images and no discernible style except "lack of". So, I enlisted the help of a friend, artist and graphic designer. Maybe I'll name and shame him next month, but for now let's call him C.

I told C about the game and gave him some card titles and taglines. Soon after, he sent me some sketches of ideas for them. Before this point I thought that I was clear in my mind about the style that I was after and the type of illustrations that would work. C's sketches blew all of that out of the water.
He had absolutely nailed the spirit of the game and produced some illustrations and ideas that I would never have thought of.

Many skype sessions and emails later, we had several finished cards of different types as templates for the rest of the game.
I was well chuffed, as they say.