Dan Verssen Games

New NFL Season Format

2010-12-21T02:09:00.000-08:00

My suggestions to the NFL...

- Drop the 4 pre-season games. Why risk player injuries during pointless games?

- Expand the season to 18 games. More football = more goodness.

DVG Free Holiday Gift!!

2010-12-20T00:13:00.000-08:00

THIS WEEK ON FACEBOOK: Join the DVG Group and post the HORNET LEADER box cover from the Photo section as your profile picture this week, and we'll send you a coupon code for a neat DVG gift!

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=348532516023

8 and 8

2010-11-21T15:11:00.000-08:00

Wow, settling for an 8 and 8 Viking season isn't looking so bad right now.

Vendetta

2010-11-08T19:57:00.000-08:00

I want to take this chance to tell you about Vendetta. Vendetta is a fun family card I’ve designed where each player gets to be a New York mob boss fighting to build his mob empire and control the city.

Do you like the Godfather or Soprano’s? If you do, I think you’ll really like this game.

Here’s where I need your help. To make this game a reality, we need money to pay the printer before they start printing.

To make the money-part fun for everyone, we’re offering some great incentives through a promotional web site called Kickstarter.

If you contribute to the project, you can get your name in the game, on a card, or even have a mob boss named for you.

We have a great video on Kickstarter explaining all the game and money details.

Have a look, contribute if you’re interested, and please pass the information along to your friends!

Favre!

2010-08-18T15:47:00.000-07:00

With Brett's announcement, the Vikings just went from an 8 and 8 season to a shot at the Super Bowl!

Time to start growing out the hair for the end of season Viking horns!

Hornet Banners

2010-06-13T02:21:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the banners I've designed for Hornet...

Air Leader

2010-05-22T10:45:00.000-07:00

The Air Leader Series - Past, Present, and Future

The Air Leader series of games started back in 1991 with the release of Hornet Leader. The solitaire game placed the player in the role of a squadron commander for the US Navy’s FA-18 Hornet strike fighters.

Whenever I’d tell people about the game, they’d always ask, “Is it a card game, board game…?” and I’d respond with, “Well…”

Hornet was a new kind of game. It used cards to hold data, but you didn’t hold the cards in your hand. Nor did you play them. The cards were used to generate missions and to represent your pilots and aircraft. The game did use a board and counters, but most of the counters were used to represent weapons and pilot status. Also, because each pilot had his own unique set of skills, and could gain experience and improve, the game also had a mild role-playing element. All in all, it was a difficult game to describe. Twenty years later, I still have a hard time describing Hornet, but luckily, we now have google for those who are new to the series.

I designed Thunderbolt+Apache Leader a year or two later. The core concept was the same: solitaire, command a squadron, manage your pilots, blow-up the bad guys, but the details of how the two games worked were very different. For you TAL fans out there, yes, we plan of revising and releasing TAL. Hopefully in 2011.

Skip ahead 10 years. I dusted off Hornet to re-release it in Vassal/PDF format, and found the old game somewhat lacking. While a solid design, if had not aged well. It was too complex, had too many procedures, and had far too many die roll modifiers.

For any one taking notes on game design philosophy, die roll modifiers always seem like a great idea during the design stage, but they are the best way to kill the feel and flavor of a game. Here’s why. People use the emotional side of their brains to feel and become connected to a story, which is what a game is. When you force their brain to do math, they switch the logical side of their brain, and you suppress their feelings and emotions. This instantly turns an exciting mission deep into enemy territory into a mathematical exercise with little pictures of airplanes.

Anyway… I revised Hornet Leader and named it Hornet Leader II. I know, very creative. I streamlined the mechanics and simplified the game while keeping all the core concepts of flying over other people’s countries and blowing stuff up. Over the course of 3 expansions, I added new types of aircraft like F-14 Tomcats, A-6 Intruders, AV-8B Harriers, etc. Overall, I was very happy with the design.

Flash forward to 2010 and the release of Phantom Leader. Phantom built on the HLII design and took it a step farther. The game added some very cool new options for spending Special Option points that changed mission planning on a high level. Phantom also incorporated the Politics track to capture the politically imposed limitations of the Vietnam Air War.

This brings us to Hornet Leader – Carrier Air Operations, our newest game in the Air Leader series.

The original plan for HL-CAO was simple: gather the components from HLII and its 3 expansions, replace all the art, and release it as a printed game with high quality components. Then I started looking at the games. They were good, but not perfect. As time passed, I revised a rule here, and added a new one there, until we’re at where we are now, with a highly updated game.

Here’s a list of the major changes to date. During the next few weeks, I’ll detail each of them (and probably add to the list):

Situational Awareness

Target Traits

Campaign Skill Levels

Bad Event XP

New Special Option point Scale

Stand-Off Range Band

F-35 Stealth

Reworked Ordnance Counters

Situational Awareness

This is a new pilot skill. The skill range is 0 to 3, with most pilots having a 0 most of the time. As with most skills, a pilot gets more of them as he progresses in experience. A pilot gets 1 Situational Awareness counter each mission for each point of skill he has.

A Fast pilot may discard a counter during a Slow step to attack. A Slow pilot may discard a counter during a Fast step to attack. This attack is in addition to the pilot’s normal attack that turn.

At the start of each mission, you get to select the most experienced pilot flying the mission to be your Flight Leader. The Flight Leader can use each of his counters as normal, or expend them for other pilots during the mission as you see fit.

The E-2C Hawkeye support aircraft have a built-in ability. They can always expend their counters for other pilots.

This new skill adds a great deal of flexibility and decision-making to pilot selection, arming, and Over Target tactics.

Guns Blazing!

2010-04-16T05:52:00.000-07:00

Holly and I have devoted the past month to several games, with the focus being on Guns Blazing. We are on schedule to send the files to the printer at the end of this month.

Guns Blazing is a stand-alone WWII dogfighting game and the second game in our Down In Flames series of card games. The great thing about the system is you can play an exciting dogfight in 15 minutes.

Thanks Wan for the great Guns Blazing box cover!

We’ve also been working on Field Commander Napoleon, Vendetta, and Hornet Leader.

Game Over Man! Game Over!

2010-03-01T14:03:00.000-08:00

For those of you who don’t know how NFL overtime rules work, consider yourselves lucky. Briefly: If the game ends in a tie, they flip a coin, and the winner gets the ball. The first team to score wins.

This means that a team may never get possession of the ball in overtime before they lose. Kind of like a baseball game going to extra innings. If the visiting team scores a run, they win. The home team gets an at bat.

As a game designer and a Vikings fan, I have a suggestion for the NFL…

New Overtime Rule:

They play until Team “A” scores. Team “B” then receives a kick-off. During its possession, Team “B” will either:

A) Not score points, or score fewer points than Team “A” = Team “B” loses

B) Score points equal to Team “A” = Reset, do it again

C) Score more points than Team “A” = Team “B” wins

Vikings Fan

2010-01-19T22:01:00.000-08:00

It’s a good year to be a Minnesota Vikings’ fan. Most years you figure on the team going 8 and 8, or maybe lucking into a play-off spot. Like I said, it’s been a good year.

I’ve been a fan since I was about 5 years old. My family lived in Bellflower, CA where my dad owned an Arco gas station. The company was called Richfield back then. One of his customer’s was the Yary family. Their son, Ron, played football at Bellflower High School. He later played as on offensive lineman at USC. He was the first draft pick of the Minnesota Vikings in 1968.

Around 1974 we moved away from the area and lost touch with the Yarys, but I continued being a Vikings fan.

Tonight, in a burst of Viking’s support, I decided to shave two Viking horns into my hair. I copied the helmet art from online graphics, printed a few to get the sizing right for my head, then cut-out a template. Holly then traced the templates on my head with a magic marker, and then cranked-up the electric hair trimmer. An hour later, I was the proud owner of Viking horns!

Kevin and Kira also helped with the shaving. Just the other day, Kira was saying how we should have more family time. So it worked out well for everyone. Actually, both kids are mortified and have insisted only Holly pick them up from school until the hair grows back. Riiiight!

Here's hoping the Vikings defeat the Saints, then go on to win the final battle - Super Bowl XLIV - RAGNAROK!

Hornet Leader Has Launched!

2010-01-18T22:37:00.000-08:00

Hornet Leader is in the air! We just launched our new mega-boxed game Hornet Leader – Carrier Air Operations for pre-order.

This game is huge! It includes 330 cards, 2 counter sheets, an 11” x 17” mounted Tactical Display, Player Aid Sheets, Rulebook, and a die.

With this one game, you have all the material you need to replay US Navy strike missions throughout the service life of the Hornet, from 1983 to present day, and beyond.

This game is perfect for newbie pilots as well as you old hands who have been there and seen that.

Visit our web site to see artwork, details, and pre-order!

http://www.dvg.com/

3 New Games!

2010-01-12T17:00:00.000-08:00

Since the new year, we’ve been busy bouncing between three games: Field Commander Napoleon, Hornet Leader – Carrier Air Operations, and Vendetta – New York Style.

We’ll have the games ready for pre-order in the upcoming weeks.

Napoleon is the third game in our solitaire Field Commander series. It’s looking to be 6 mounted maps and 2 or 3 counter sheets. A huge game of Imperial fun.

Hornet Leader is also looking to be a monster game with 330 cards, a mounted tactical map, campaigns maps, counters, etc. The game will include all the material you need to strike targets around the world with your naval fighter squadrons.

Vendetta is a “family” card game of mob warfare in New York. Each player plays a mob boss vying for the top spot. The players take control of business to gain cards and cash, and send their wise guys out to whack opposition. The first player to whack a boss or control three of the five Boroughs wins.

Dan's Top 7 Predictions for 2010

2010-01-01T03:28:00.000-08:00

The DJIA will end the year between 12,000 and 12,500.

The housing market will bottom-out, and start a nice recovery.

National unemployment will top out at 10.5% then decline to 8.5% by year-end.

US troop levels in Iraq will remain the same. US troop levels in Afghanistan will significantly increase. By year-end, neither region will be any more stable than it is now.

Yemen will emerge as the new “bad guy” country.

North Korea and Iran will further their nuclear ambitions. There will be much condemnation and sanctions, but nothing significant.

Credit and bank loans will remain tight throughout the year.

Cutting Your Losses

2009-12-15T02:20:00.000-08:00

Another key lesson learned from games is cutting your losses.

There are times in a game when your chosen strategy just isn’t working. Maybe another player is farther along the path you’ve chosen, an unforeseen event has popped-up, etc. In these situations, you need to re-evaluate and change course or you are going to lose. Giving up on a partial plan is painful, but you must do it, or you will lose, which is even more painful.

This applies to real life choices like the Tiger Woods situation as well.

I think the marriage is over in all but name. The wife has been humiliated in front of the world, and I’ve got to believe she is out to cause maximum pain and grab as much of his money as she can get her hands on. Today. Tomorrow. Forever.

So, while it might be painful for Tiger to change course today, it is the best thing for him to do in the long run.

It seems like Tiger really likes to play golf and meet women (plural). So, his best course of action is to file for divorce, pay out the hundreds of millions, and get back to the golf and ladies. He will re-earn the money in a few years, and he won’t have the stress of keeping multiple relationships secret.

Risk/Reward

2009-12-12T15:11:00.000-08:00

Some advice for the rich and famous guys of the world.

When you design games, you need to understand human nature. The core of which is risk/reward. Which is to say, how much risk is someone willing to take for a given level of reward. Risk/reward is the core of games, and life.

Every time a player makes a purchasing decision, expends a resource, or commits forces to a battle, it is an exercise in risk/reward. The player is weighing the risks in expending resource points, action points, movement points, etc. against the reward of moving closer to winning.

Which brings me to rich guys and extramarital affairs - another example of risk/reward.

The reward is kinda obvious, you get to have sex with many beautiful women. The reward is just as obvious. Your life gets ripped apart.

Fact, guys like to have sex with beautiful women. Notice that women is a plural word, as opposed to woman, which is a singular word.

Here’s the thing. If you’re a rich, good looking, famous guy who travels the world meeting women, you gotta realize that must stop when the ring slides on your finger. Think of it like Sauron’s ring, except you don’t get a volcano escape clause.

It don’t come off.

So here’s the advice. If you’re a rich, good looking, famous guy who travels the world meeting women… Do. Not. Get. Married.

Here’s the second piece of advice. If you’ve just gotta, gotta, gotta, marry a woman (singular), date her for a couple years. During that time, do not sleep with any other women. After two or three years, see if you still gotta, gotta, gotta marry her. If you do, great! But, if in those couple years, you’re still having fun on the side, then maybe marriage isn’t for you.

As for Tiger. Lots of bad stuff is being said about him, but there are some bright spots. Here’s a guy who’s married, earns millions of dollars each year playing golf, has 9(!) mistresses spread around the planet, and kept it secret for years. Talk about organized! If the US government were half as profitable and covert, it would be the envy of every other country on the planet.

Annabelle

2009-12-07T09:36:00.000-08:00

Annabelle is the newest addition to the DVG household!

She is a 9 week old Beagle puppy. She might have a bit of Basset also based on those ears!

Kira took this photo. No Photoshop involved. Annabelle really is this cute. :)

Down Time at DVG

2009-12-02T10:50:00.001-08:00

I saw the news story about the White House gatecrashers. Before long, I started thinking about national security, so I called a guy I know at the White House. I explained my concerns and asked to access past security footage of the President.

He replied that it is classified and not available to the public.

I reminded him that I’m a game designer.

An hour later, a black SUV rolled up to our front door. Two stern-faced guys in the black suits and sunglasses handed over an external hard disk. One hulk muttered. “You got 24 hours,” while the other checked his watch.

So, I finished Frontline, sent the game files to the printer, then plugged in the hard drive to have a look.

I found a couple interesting images. I think I managed to bring out the details with my limited photoshop skills. At the 23-hour mark, I called my friend with the news.

Of course, the White House wanted first access, but I cut a deal. Before I handed over the images, I got to post them here first…(click to enlarge)...

Why Holly gets nervous when I have free time. :)

Goin' to the Printer!

2009-11-19T00:50:00.000-08:00

Phantom Leader and Frontline are heading to the Printer!

Thank you WAN CHIU for the most awesomest box art EVER!

We’ll be sending the Phantom files in 24 hours, and the Frontline files about 7 days after that.

If you’d like to pre-order and get your name on the boxes, do it nowwwwwwww!!!

Go to the DVG site for pre-order and name info.

Also, DVG is Twittering! Check-out the exciting minute by minute details that go into the design and production of games!

http://twitter.com/danverssengames

Almost There...

2009-11-11T17:15:00.001-08:00

We are (finally) wrapping-up design for Frontline and Phantom Leader! The files will go to the printer in a week or two. We’ll take a day or two off, and then on to the next games!

If you are new to DVG, we offer a unique feature in the gaming industry. If you pre-order one of our games through our web site, you get your name printed on all the game boxes. All you have to do is pre-order, and then send us an email saying it’s okay to print your name on the boxes.

Very easy!

If you’d like to pre-order more than one copy, you get a name for each game you pre-order.

Here’s the back cover of the Phantom Leader box to show you how it looks…

Phantom

Here’s our web site…

DVG

Soon to be famous Photo

2009-10-08T11:52:00.000-07:00

Army Reserve Staff Sgt. Brett Bennethum was preparing to depart from Fort Dix, N.J., for Iraq. Paige Bennethum, 4, holds her daddy's hand as he lines up in formation. Photo Credit: Abby Bennethum

Dan's prediction: Ten, twenty years from now when we think back on this period in our nation's history, this will be the photo we remember.

When Its Done!

2009-10-03T22:29:00.000-07:00

I’ve gotten some emails asking when Frontline and Phantom will be done. People have correctly said, “Hey, you said they would be done months ago…” And they’re right. I did. Here’s the problem.

They’re not done yet.

Months ago, both games were good. All modesty aside, I would even say they were great. But, they weren’t perfect, which is our design standard.

Both Frontline and Phantom are hugely important games for DVG. We hope that Frontline will be the cornerstone of a whole series of WWII tactical card games, and we hope Phantom will relaunch the Air Leader series that has lain stagnate for 15 years.

This all brings up one of the biggest bonuses to producing our own games. When we designed for other companies, there were always deadline clauses built-in to the contracts. Those game designs had to be turned-in on time or bad legal things could happen. As our lawyer has told us many times, “Contracts are signed on sunny days, but they’re only pulled out of the file cabinet on rainy days.”

The bad news is, they’re close to done, but they’re not done yet.

The really good news is, when they’re done, they will be wonders to behold.

Now, back to my game polishing…

"Them" Tax

2009-09-19T16:24:00.000-07:00

The government has figured out a great new tax system. It’s a tax on “them.” After all, people don’t complain when someone else is paying taxes.

Here’s how it works…

If you tax a lot of people, they get upset and vote you out of office.

If you tax very few people, you don’t get enough revenue to make it worthwhile.

The sweet spot seems to be about 20% of the people

Tax 20% of the people and you rake in the bucks, but you don’t upset the masses.

Examples…

Tax on smoking

Tax on alcohol

Tax on SUVs

Proposed tax on sodas

Proposed tax on people without health insurance

Am I right? Let’s test the theory. Look through the above list. If I’m right, only 1, maybe 2, of the taxes will apply to you.

How does all this relate to game designs?

Nothing direct, but as a game designer, I need to be able to quickly spot trends or DVG would need to spend even more time testing games. I mention this taxing trend because I think it is something we should all be aware of.

15 + 15 + 15... Minutes of Fame

2009-09-15T20:26:00.000-07:00

Step 1: Yell something inappropriate in Congress, Beat-up your famous girlfriend, Interrupt an awards ceremony, etc

Step 2: Gain notoriety

Step 3: Issue a “heartfelt” public apology

Step 4: Gain more notoriety

Step 5: Issue a “private” apology and notify the media

Step 6: Gain even more notoriety

Step 7: Play down the event as being no big deal, on national TV

Step 8+: Milk it, milk it, milk it…

Moving Forward

2009-08-27T17:28:00.001-07:00

Things are moving along very nicely on Frontline and Phantom Leader. Phantom is almost done, and then we will turn our full attention to Frontline, which is pretty much done.

We’ll be updating the DVG site with new cards and rules in a day or two.

Once the press is done, we’ll launch Field Commander Napoleon for pre-orders.

Lieutenant Commander Michael “Scott” Speicher

2009-08-03T01:01:00.001-07:00

I remember the first night of Desert Storm in 1991. Holly and I were working on Hornet Leader, and I was still living with my dad.

On that first night, one US pilot was shot down, Lieutenant Commander Michael “Scott” Speicher. He was flying an FA-18 Hornet. Because of the association with the game, his shoot down stuck in my brain all these years. It was unknown if he was captured or killed. Searchers found the Hornet’s wreckage, but no parachute or body. His fate remained unknown all these years.

Until today.

A local Iraqi led US troops to a grave containing skeletal remains. By using dental records, they were able confirm they were the remains of Lieutenant Commander Speicher.

After all these years, Scott is finally coming home.

Bundle Takes Static For The Win

2009-07-21T14:24:00.000-07:00

It’s been a month and a half since the TV static descended. They will be remembered as quiet, but happy times. There we were, sailing happily over the static seas with no TV when IT appeared.

It came out of the mailbox like a hellish kraken from the depths. As soon as I saw it, I knew we were doomed. For the wife can do math too.

As it entered the house, its battle cry rocked the walls. “TV! – PHONE! – INTERNET! – BUNDLE!”

The Beast had found our weakness. Unlike Smaug’s moth-eaten chainmail, the gap in our armor is over the wallet.

As feared, the wife did the math, and rose up in all her fierce glory. The static could not stand against her when armed with a bundle that combined TV, Phone, and Internet into a single monthly charge that was less than what we were paying for just Phone and a (lower-speed) Internet. She wielded her dollar-tipped spear and jammed it straight into the static’s guts. Conan could have done no finer job of slaying. The static died between one heart beat and the next. All it has to do now is topple to the ground.

Which it will do on Thursday between 1pm and 4pm when the cable guy arrives.

Cheesy Terminators

2009-07-14T07:34:00.000-07:00

Two unrelated parts of my world slammed together this week: Terminators and cheesy WWII flavor Text.

As you might know, I was a huge fan of the Sarah Connor Chronicles TV show. It was cancelled recently.

I’m also designing Frontline, a WWII infantry combat card game.

Let’s start with Frontline. The game really gets you down in the mud with the guys. Each card is one soldier. This is pretty unique for wargames. Most of the time, a card or counter is a 100, or a 1000, or 10,000 guys. So, I figured it would be cool to personalized each card with a guy’s name and a sentence or two of flavor text to bring out his personality. I wanted to give the game a Band of Brothers feel where these aren’t just nameless guys with guns, these are your men that you live with and command in battle.

Everything was going great. I had created about 50 of the 70 soldier cards, and I had been posting samples on various websites for months. Then someone posted that he hated the cheesy flavor text quotes. Yes, they used the word cheesy. Then another person said the same thing, and another, and another… You get the idea.

I had a choice. I could stick to my guns and leave the flavor text in, because it was an important part of my overall vision, or I could rip it out to satisfy the game’s future players.

Normally, it would have been a tough decision, but I had been giving some thought to the Sarah Connor show. I was trying to figure out why it failed. Notice, I don’t say why was it cancelled. I know why it was cancelled. It was cancelled because it failed. So why did it fail and what did it fail at?

It failed to connect with a wide audience, which resulted in it having very poor ratings, which got it cancelled. Now, just to be clear, I loved the show. But, most of my friends are sci-fi and Terminator fans, and NONE of them watched the show. NONE?! Yep. None.

Well, no.

One guy watched a couple episodes, but didn’t like it.

Why did it fail?

I think it failed because it didn’t give the audience the story it wanted to see. Anything connected with Terminator must focus on well, Terminators.

The show had an awesome Terminator with Summer Glau’s character, Cameron. But she didn’t do much. When she was on screen doing something, it was great. One episode focused on her and a guy in a library. Great episode. One of my favorites. I wonder what the show’s creator’s were thinking? You’ve got Summer Glau. You’ve got sexy outfits for her to wear. You’ve got guns. Why not turn her loose and start killing stuff?

Another great character was Derek Reese. Derek was a well-written character and a great performance was turned in by Brian Austin Green. The guy had an intensity to get things done and not let laws or morality get in the way. He had a war to stop and if a few people died along the way, no problem.

As you can guess, I loved the scenes with Cameron and Derek.

Two more great characters: FBI Agent Ellis and T1000 in disguise Catherine Weaver. Agent Ellis’ character traced a wonderful arc from everyday non-believing guy to being on the inside and shaping the future. His religious angle on life was very cool. To see him imparting Old Testament morality to John Henry (a reborn Terminator) was awesome.

As you can guess, I loved the scenes with Ellis, Weaver, and John Henry.

There you have it. A great show with 5 great characters. Most shows don’t even have 1 great character, and this one had 5!

Hmm, but something’s missing… Why did it fail?

Oh yeah.

The 2 stars of the show John and Sarah Connor.

I think Thomas Dekker (John) and Lena Headey (Sarah) did great in their roles. But the characters didn’t do anything. They did a lot of research. They did some emoting. But they didn’t do much doing. They had a war to stop, access to guns, lots of money, a big black pick-up truck, a Terminator, a hardened warrior from the future, and what did they do with all those resources? Not much. In fact, less than much.

Sarah’s biggest concern seemed to be keeping an eye on Cameron and Derek to make sure they “didn’t do something.” Which is strange, because everyone on this side of the TV screen was watching them HOPING they’d do something.

John, on the other hand, was going through teen angst and trying to make his girlfriend happy. Not bad character goals if you’re the star of a teen drama series, but when you’re JOHN CONNOR FUTURE DUDE WHO SAVES HUMANITY FROM THE MACHINES, maybe other life goals should take priority?

So, the lesson I took away from all this is, give your audience what they want.

Oh, and the Frontline flavor text? Yeah, those are sooo gone.

Summer Schedule

2009-07-09T02:16:00.000-07:00

So, I got a call from a friend at 10:30 last night. He apologized for calling so late. I said that it wasn’t a problem because DVG is on a summer schedule since the kids are on summer vacation.

He paused to ask. “What’s the summer schedule?”

“We all just wake up, and go to bed whenever. I went to bed at 5 in the morning and woke up at noon. Holly went to bed at 10 at night and woke up 4 in the morning. Kevin stayed up until 2 in the afternoon and is asleep. Kira just woke up a couple hours ago.”

“That’s not a schedule! That’s chaos!”

I thought about it. “Yeah, you might be right. The local grocery store is only closed from 1 in the morning until 6 in the morning, yet it’s amazing how often that’s inconvenient.”

Frontline and Phantom Follow-Up

2009-06-30T20:33:00.000-07:00

The response to the Frontline and Phantom AARs has been wonderful!

We have received extremely positive feedback and the pre-orders for both games have jumped!

Next week, we’ll upload 2 more. Frontline will include a look at vehicles, and Phantom will cover a US Navy strike mission.

Frontline and Phantom

2009-06-29T05:51:00.001-07:00

The AARs for Phantom Leader and Frontline are up on the DVG site!

For me, these two games cover some interesting ground in gaming that has only been rarely touched upon…

FRONTLINE (1 to 4 players) – A WWII tactical infantry combat game. Tactical, means small in size. In this case each card is one soldier. Here’s what makes the game unique. There are a lot of WWII land combat board games. Most however, look at the battles on a much larger scale. In those games, each piece represents hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands of soldiers. Rarely do games get down to the individual soldier level.

Another unique aspect is I’ve drawn on my CCG design experience to make each soldier card an individual with personality worked into the cards through game stats and flavor text. For example, your riflemen are not all the same. They have different skills, and you can get a feel for their story and personality from the flavor text. This gives the game a strong Band of Brothers feel.

We have also refined the design to be quick playing and action-packed. Most tactical games are slow moving, with lots of complicated rules. Just the opposite of what you’d expect from such a game, but there it is. Frontline can be played in under an hour. For tabletop gaming of a tactical situation, this is huge!

Finally, the art is amazing! Wan has done a great job of capturing the style and period of WWII.

PHANTOM LEADER (1 player) – This is a solitaire game that places you in command of a squadron of US jet fighters flying missions during the Vietnam War. First, Vietnam is kind of a forgotten war in gaming. Yes, there are a few games, but not very many.

Phantom is also designed to let you get to know your pilots. Each pilot has unique skills and handles the stress of combat differently. As you fly missions they build-up experience, which will improve their skills. This puts you in a position to make some tough choices. Do you keep flying your good guys, until they’re too shaken to fly? Or, do you give your new guys a chance, rest the good guys, but have a harder time completing missions?

Phantom also takes into account the political supervision of the war. During the war, the military leaders had their planning dictated by political issues back home in the US. They were not free to attack whichever targets made the most military sense if it would hurt the political situation. This made their missions tougher because enemy defenses that could have been destroyed were left intact. High value targets were ignored, while low value targets were attacked. Frustrating? Yes! But, this was part of the war, so it is part of the game. As a side note, some of the young officers who endured this in Vietnam later went on to be some of the US’s greatest commanders during Desert Storm in 1991.

Okay, on to the pre-ordering pitch...

Pre-order now! I want to get these games printed and share them with the world, but the only way to do it is to get about 60-70 more pre-orders for each game. This is a small number of pre-orders, and these are some of the best games to come out of our company.

If you'd like to see more info and art on either of these games, their titles above will take you to their pages on our web site.

AARs

2009-06-23T20:03:00.000-07:00

In a day or two we’ll add AARs (After Action Reports) of a Frontline battle and a Phantom Leader mission to the DVG web site. We’re planning the AARs looking very cool with graphics of cards, counters, etc.

If you have any interest in air combat or ground combat games, please take a look. Both games can be pre-ordered now. By pre-ordering, you get a 20% discount, and we have a special promotion where you get your name printed on all the boxes.

Phantom is a solitaire game and Frontline is for 1 to 4 players. Both can be played in an hour.

Cyberpunk

2009-06-23T05:49:00.000-07:00

One of my all-time favorite books is Neuromancer by William Gibson. In 1984 Gibson invented “cyberpunk”. He dreamt up the internet when there was none, and populated it with cyber cowboys cruising dataspace to earn enough creds to buy their ramin noodles at the corner kiosk.

Wiki Neuromancer

Anyway, I bring this up because, as I remember it, the first line of the book goes something like, “The sky was the color of television tuned to a dead channel.”

Well, it’s been 11 days since our TV took on that dead channel look. I must admit, I miss it. I didn’t think I would, but I do. I was never a big TV person, but I’d watch for a few minutes here and there, just to break up the day.

Hey Mr. Gibson, if you’re out there, thanks for an epic creation!

...And Static They Ate

2009-06-15T16:55:00.000-07:00

June 11th came and TV died.

The first day was the hardest. TV was a handy companion. Bored? Turn it on, surf, see nothing of interest, forget you’re bored, turn it off, and wander away.

The kids took it a lot better than I thought. I call them Generation-S (for Stimulation). If a kid isn’t doing at least 2 things at once, they’re bored. In most case at least one of those things must be electronic. When *I* was a kid we were lucky to have even one thing to do. Of course, that’s when dinosaurs roamed the earth. But still.

In place of TV, they’ve renewed their interest in gymnastics and have even started learning Spanish. They google Spanish words several times a day and can even hear the pronunciation. The Spanish thing might be because the only channels we get are in Spanish, but I figure what the heck? Learning is learning. New words of the day…

Pero = Dog
Que = What?
Papa = Potato

"Let Them Eat Static!"

2009-06-06T15:38:00.000-07:00

Thanks Kahn for the intro!

In about a week, TV as we know it will end. By we, I mean our household. We have never had cable, and have made due with 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, and 13. True, there are a few UHF channels (I'm not even sure they’re still called “UHF”), but they are usually shows in other languages. The only channels of interest there are some Spanish shows. It seems like just about any show in Spanish is fair game for busty women in low cut tops, be it the News, talk shows, game shows, etc. So, while I don’t speak the language, I certainly enjoy watching the Spanish Weather Reports.

Anyway, our family is trying an experiment. When TV changes to digital we’re stepping off and waving good-bye. We’ll make due with NetFlix, online streaming formats of shows, and Xbox Live. We have looked at the options of getting a new TV or cable, and neither one is attractive. I’ve always been a fan of interactive entertainment such as socializing, games, etc. Having to pay money to get something I don’t want seems a bit odd.

To be honest, my interest in TV is very small anyway. I loved the Sarah Conner Terminator show, now cancelled, and I watch a couple Minnesota Vikings football games each year. Oh well, I’ll see you online Vikings.

Who knows, maybe in a couple weeks, we’ll be clawing our way toward a new TV or cable?

2009-06-05T21:40:00.000-07:00

Announcing June 6th, 2009 as being D(VG)-Day! June 6th, 1944 was one of the most important battles of WWII as 2 great armies met in combat. June 6th, 2009 starts the pre-order battle to send two great games to the printer: Frontline D-Day and Phantom Leader. Each week, we will release new information for these games until victory is assured and the printing presses are rolling!

The Frontline rules have gone through another generation of updates. They are still in rough outline form, but many more rules have been added to fill out the sections.

http://images.dvg.com/www.dvg.com/frontlinerules2.pdf

We’ve also updated the Frontline slideshow with new soldier and vehicle cards!

http://www.dvg.com/.sc/ms/dd/ee/26/Frontline%20-%20D-Day

Also added are the Phantom Leader rules. They are much farther along than the Frontline rules, but they still have a ways to go. There are still many blank spots where graphics will be added. http://images.dvg.com/www.dvg.com/phantomrules.pdf

Kevin's Journey to E3

2009-06-04T22:49:00.000-07:00

There are only a handful of days in a person’s life after age 5 when the world is a magical place. As the years go by, a person sees what there is to see, and does what there is to do, and at some point they realize there is very little newness left in the world. True, a person will find something kind of new from time to time, but rarely do they find something so totally new that it blows away everything they had previously seen.

My son Kevin just had his world opened up by going to the E3 video game convention here in Los Angeles. For those of you who have never been to E3, it is a wonder to behold. There are tens of thousands of people, millions of dollars in booths and equipment, and stadium-sized convention rooms, all devoted to video games.

It’s a wonder to behold.

For Kevin, it was earth shattering. He knew that people work at companies and make games, but to see the bigness of it all. In one place. At one time, changed his world. It was a very cool thing for Holly and I to be able to show him.

Jiggly Meat

2009-06-02T08:22:00.000-07:00

Holly found an email I sent earlier this year recounting one of our adventures. I share it with you now as a cautionary tale...

It has been tough.
It has been grueling.
Many friends, and a few enemies, were made along the way.

But today, I am proud to announce, the last tub of chopped ham HAS BEEN EATEN!

When I recall that fateful day 2 weeks ago, I shudder. Shudder, I tell you! There it lay, a 2 foot tube of chopped ham. 10 pounds of meat for 10 dollars! How could I go wrong? But wrong it was. Like so many before me, I flew too close to the budgetary sun only to find my wings were made of inferior meat byproducts.

On that first night, I tried frying it plain...
frying it with garlic...
with honey...
and with pepper...
I tried baking it...
As the days passed and its great pink mass continued to dominate our refrigerator, I even tried blendering it into paste and sneaking it into spaghetti sauce. All to no avail. It mocked me at every turn and with every gelatinous bite.

Here's a bit of wisdom for future generations... When all is said and done, you can flavor a rubbery piece of meat with mystery chunks however you like, and you still end up biting into rubbery meat with mystery chunks.

I would like to claim this accomplishment as my own, but I was greatly aided by two turns of good fortune. Good fortune for me at least. Not so good for the innocents who's lives were forever tainted.

First, our dog has an allergy. Twice a day I was able to hide his pills in chunks of this hellish pink flesh. I hope he can forgive me.

The second bit of luck was being able to smuggle several pounds of it into my in-laws refrigerator when they weren't looking. I left their house with a happy wave, saying "I left you a surprise!" That is the level of despair these unearthly slaughterhouse sweepings brought me to. What they ever did with it, I do not know. They stopped returning my phone calls within 24 hours of my delivery.

Being on the outside, you might wonder why I didn't just throw it away? I might have at the start, but as the days passed it became a test of wills, me vs. the jiggly meat.

I would not give in.

I could not!

In the end how could I hold my head up high, knowing I had been beaten by that wiggly mass?

While some might read this as a heroic tale of the struggle of one man against his gelatinous foe, please, read this as a cautionary tale of how all the good and noble things in life can be taken away, one quivering hunk at a time.

Conventions

2009-05-29T02:46:00.000-07:00

Game Convention Time!

Over Memorial Day weekend, Holly and I were at the GameX convention here in Los Angeles. I was honored to be the convention’s Guest of Honor, and we had a great time. I was also fortunate enough to participate in a podcast with Eric Burgess of Boardgame Babylon. Here’s the link to his post on boardgamegeek. LINK From that link you can either stream the interview, or download it. Here is a link to his site LINK

Here are a couple photos of our booth and the program cover…

We are proud to be represented by Jesse Cheng at the Consimworld game convention in Arizona this weekend. Jesse is in charge of our Demo Leader program and has also been representing DVG at conventions for the past year. If you’d like to be a Demo Team Leader, please email me dan (at) dvg (dot) com, and I’ll put you in contact with Jesse.

Here’s a photo of Jesse’s booth…

Along with running the booth, Jesse is also running demos of our games. Thank you Jesse!

Reprinting!

2009-04-29T11:04:00.001-07:00

I'd like to give a big “Thank you!” to everyone who has supported our games.

We’ve had a great response from gamers, distributors, and retail stores. It is because of you that we’re in the happy position of needing to order reprints for Field Commander Rommel, Down In Flames, and Field Commander Alexander this week! And a quick check of the inventory shows a Modern Naval Battles reprint isn’t far off.

Thank you also to the many people who have posted kind comments on the different gaming sites like consimworld and boardgamegeek. They are much appreciated and really help to spread the word.

Formaldehyde

2009-04-03T17:01:00.000-07:00

So, Kira comes home from a school field trip to a farm. During the trip, she’d bought a fluffy rabbit skin bag.

I took a sniff and said, “Wow, smells like formaldehyde.”

Kevin was standing next to me and asked, “What kind of animal is a formalda?”

T-Cat

2009-03-22T11:29:00.000-07:00

A sad day.

Last night a car hit our family cat. His name was Timothy and he meant the world to my daughter Kira.

Timothy’s story begins with two rabbits last July. At the time, Holly was working in an office and one of her co-workers had accepted a one-year contract working in Kuwait. The only problem was, she didn’t have anyone to take care of her rabbits. Holly volunteered because she saw a friend in need. None of us knew anything about caring for rabbits, but we figured it was better for us to try than to have them put to sleep.

We soon discovered that rabbits need hay as part of their diet. Holly called around and found a local feed and grain store. They told us Timothy Hay is the best kind, so we bought a bundle. The store also had a cage with several cats and a ‘free to good home’ sign.

Kira had wanted a cat for months, but it was just never the right time. On that day, she convinced the store clerk to let her take a tiny black kitten out to the car to show me. The cat was only several weeks old and the size of my hand. As soon as I held him his whole body rumbled with purrs. We had a new cat. It seemed obvious to name him Timothy.

We kept him inside for months until he grew. Even after we let him go outside, we watched to make sure he knew how to find his way home. As time passed, we gave him several nick-names “Tim”, “Timmers”, and “T-Cat”.

Eventually, he became a full-grown cat and came and went as cats do. He never lost his playfulness. Given half a chance, he’d always attack a passing ankle. He also loved playing with rubber bands. Most of all, he loved printers. Every time we printed a page on the laser printer or inkjet printer, he’d leap on the table, stare intently as the printer made noises, and then try to shred the paper as it emerged. Many pages had to be printed more than once. We would joke that Hewlett-Packard needed to develop a cat guard for its printers.

RIP T-Cat.

Airplanes

2009-03-17T01:39:00.000-07:00

I’d like to share some wonderfully good news about our small company. First, we used to be a tiny company, but our upgrade just came in. :-)

More importantly, we have finalized an agreement with Decision Games to regain the rights to two of my favorite games series: Air Leader and Down In Flames Jets.

The Air Leader series are solitaire board games that place the player in command of a squadron of fighter planes in a strategic campaign. The player gets to make both tactical and strategic decisions. The series started way back in 1991 with the release of Hornet Leader. Since then, we have released several Vassal/PDF games in the series, but now we can offer the newest game, Phantom Leader, for pre-order and have it printed!

Down In Flames Jets is the modern day version of our Down In Flames WWII card game series. The jets game was designed, but never released. The DIF games put the player in the cockpit to make extremely tactical decisions. DIF-Jets is going to make an excellent addition to the series. It has all the fun of the WWII games, plus missiles! If you ever wanted to play an air combat game but were put off by the complex rules, DIF is the game for you. You can be up and flying in 15 minutes and most dogfights take only 15 minutes to resolve.

Side Note…

Hmm... a weird thing. The first time I tried to post a comment, it asked me to verify some letters - but didn't display any letters. So I typed in some random letters.It gave a failure message.I tried submitting the comment a second time, and it displayed the verification letters. I typed them in, and it worked fine.

...End Note

I’m off to put together some airplane cards and continue the Napoleon research…

Turing Test

2009-03-08T09:51:00.000-07:00

I just watched the most recent Sarah Conner episode (where Riley dies). Spoiler Alert. I started thinking about Cameron and her relationship with John. Here’s the thought process…

Cameron is a machine.
Machines can’t have emotions.
Love is an emotion.
Therefore, Cameron can’t love John.

Simple enough. Cameron can’t love John.

But wait.

There’s a concept called the “Turing Test”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_test

Basically, it says, if you talk with a machine for a prolonged period of time, and cannot tell whether you are talking to a human or a machine, the machine is considered intelligent. Now, that takes the hugely complex world of artificial intelligence (AI) and reduces it to one sentence, so a lot is lost along the way. But you get the idea.

Cameron has been programmed with vast amounts of information on humans, human emotions, human interaction, human psychology and physiology. True, she doesn’t “feel” any of these things, but from an outward observer she can mimic being a human very well.

Cameron says all the things a person in love says, does all the things, and reacts in the right ways, including internal conflicts leading to a twitchy hand. In short, there is no way to tell she is not in love. Is she considered to be in love?

Summer

2009-03-05T18:11:00.000-08:00

As weeks go, it’s been a good one. We haven’t got much done the last few days on game designs, but sales through the web site and through distribution have been brisk. Considering the state of the economy, we feel very fortunate. Thank you to everyone who has purchased our games!

Fortunate.

For those who don’t know, I’m a huge Terminator fan. Yeah, I know T2 had a mega budget and amazing stunts, but I prefer the original. Watch it again sometime. The script is amazing. Virtually every line of dialog is crafted to convey some vital bit of information about the world or characters. When I design a game, I strive for this same level of excellence. Nothing is wasted. I’m also a big fan of the TV show. Josh Friedman has done a great job of making an episodic story out of one-off movie storylines. Of course, having Summer Glau looking beautiful as she walks around blasting stuff doesn’t hurt either.

Nothing is wasted.

I had a chance to meet up with John Wick at a recent Los Angeles game convention. John and I worked together at AEG on the 7th Sea CCG about 10 years ago. John is a gifted storyteller. Had he been born a few hundred years ago, he’d have been the king’s bard, telling tales of heroic battles, tragic romances, and vengeance carried out most cunning.

Telling tales.

So you might be wondering if there’s a point to all this. I’ve wanted to be a game designer for decades, and now it looks like it’s coming together as a way of making a living. I view games as a means of telling a story where the players get to control the tale.

Fortunate. Nothing is wasted. Telling Tales.

Marengo

2009-02-27T02:22:00.000-08:00

Most of the past few days have been devoted to Modern Land Battles. The game is doing okay for pre-orders but it will take one more big push to gather in the last of the orders needed for printing.

For those of you unfamiliar with the pre-order process, it works like this. I get the major portion of a design worked out and tested, along with some initial artwork, and place the game on the DVG site for pre-order. People then get to pre-order the game at a reduced price. As a game gathers pre-orders, the final bits of game development and artwork are finalized. When enough pre-orders are collected to pay the printing bill, pre-order credit cards get charged, and the game is sent to the printer.

I’ll soon be able to post new cards, a rulebook outline, and sample of play on the web site. Hopefully, this will generate player interest, and the final batch of pre-orders.

Wan also sent me a first look at the Napoleon cover, and it is looking great! I sent him some Napoleonic paintings and quotes to add to the sides of the box. We’ll hopefully have something to place on the site in a week or two.

I finished reading the Napoleon book. Talk about a busy guy! From the time he took command, rarely a year went by that he wasn’t at war with somebody.

On the topic of horse trivia, the name of Napoleon’s horse at the Battle of Waterloo was “Marengo.”

I now have 6 Napoleonic campaign maps outlined. The next step is to create playtest versions of the maps. To do this, I’ll start by dividing them into historical territories, placing important cities and battle sites, and creating the Set-Up list of forces and rules. Soon after that comes the victory conditions and the rules specific to each campaign. Once the entire campaign is in place, we work on the playtesting and balancing. This is the trickiest and most time consuming step of the process. This is the part where Holly really shines. By the time a game goes the printer, she has played it at least 100 times. The hardest part is keeping track of “today’s rules”. As she finds problems, rules, numbers, and charts change day by day.

Each campaign must be difficult to win, but not impossible. It must also present the player with different choices. Players are very smart and quickly figure out the best way to win a campaign. This means there must be changing conditions in the campaign to prevent a “best” strategy. The hard part is to install changing conditions that do not make the campaign more or less difficult to win. It is also important that any events outside the player’s control do not affect the chance of him winning. It’s no fun to play for an hour, roll a die, and realize that even though you had control over the die, you just lost. Therefore, random events must offer variety in affect while being equal in power. Very tricky to do.

Once a map has solidified, the final artwork is created.

I’m also starting to get the next wave of work done on our Frontline game. That is another game available for pre-order.

At any given time we have about 5 games that we’re working on. At this time, there are a couple more games in the works, but we need to make a bit more progress before talking about them!

Rabbits

2009-02-22T02:49:00.000-08:00

Success!

After 2 visits to new bookstores and 2 visits to used bookstores, I turned to the friendly neighborhood library. I found several books that gave a nicely detailed account of Napoleon’s exploits, including the location of battles, challenges he faced, and the types of troops he fought against. The library also had a special room to make photocopies, which was very handy since some of the books could not be checked-out.

I have dived into the books, taking notes, marking-up maps in Photoshop, and getting a feel for his campaigns.

In a side story, Napoleon was invited to the estate of a French noble for a rabbit hunt. The noble wanted to make sure Napoleon bagged as many rabbits as possible, so he had the estate stocked with domesticated rabbits several weeks before the hunt. This was all kept under the tightest of security. After all, if Napoleon found out he was hunting tame rabbits, the noble might well lose his head to pay for Napoleon’s embarrassment.

So, the big day arrives, and Napoleon pulls up in his carriage for the grand hunt. The carriage stops on the road running next to the forest, and the noble and servants fall breathless in anticipation. Napoleon’s servants open the door and Napoleon emerges. There is much bowing and pleasantry. As they prepare for the hunt, they hear a rustling sound coming from the forest. Within seconds hundreds of rabbits erupt from the trees and run straight for Napoleon. In panic, he retreats to his carriage, slams the door, and orders the driver to leave with all haste. As the carriage pulls away, Napoleon can be seen tossing rabbits out the carriage windows.

It turns out the domesticated rabbits didn’t know how to survive on their own and had to be fed daily to keep them alive. Each day, a carriage (looking much like Napoleon’s) full of rabbit food was dispatched to feed them.

Max's Rock

2009-02-20T03:35:00.000-08:00

Let’s talk about designing a game. In fact, we’ll start with the design of Field Commander Napoleon, the third in our Field Commander series. The first game was Rommel. The second game is Alexander the Great.

Which reminds me, we just received the printer samples for Alexander and they look fabulous! People have been saying how nice our newly released Down In Flames card game looks, and Alexander lives up to this new high level of expectation. The maps are mounted and linen covered. The counters are thick and look amazing. The box is thick and weighty. You could easily smack down a few zombies with one of these game boxes. People are going to be very happy with Alexander!

Anyway, enough about zombies, let’s talk Napoleonics…

Things I knew about Napoleon as of a couple weeks ago: He was a French leader from a couple hundred years ago. He fought wars across Europe and Russia. Unlike Alexander, I wasn’t sure if Napoleon had a favorite horse, or what its name was.

The cores of our Field Commander (FC) games are the game maps. Rommel had 3 maps, Alexander has 4 maps, and Napoleon will probably have 5. All the game counters are placed on the maps and you move them around as you try and capture enemy territories and accomplish your victory condition.

So I started looking for strategic level maps of Napoleon’s campaigns. Nothing complicated. I’m just trying to see where his forces started, where the big battles took place, and where he was trying to capture to declare victory. Finding such maps has proven to be very difficult. I’m still looking. I’ve looked online and at the bookstore. Next stop will be the library.

My research has taken some interesting turns however. I received a phone call early one morning from Nick, someone I’d never met before. The first words he said were “Hey Dan! Great to talk with you. I see you’re doing a game on Napoleon. I’ve been researching him for years…” Nick and I then talked for an hour on Napoleon, which was great, because I was starting at zero. Everything he had to say was news to me.

Last week we had an exhibitor’s booth at a game convention by Los Angeles International Airport. I got to talk with the gentleman in the next booth. It turns out he is a big Napoleon fan. He’s very much into the battles and tactics, which was something Nick and I never talked about. After a few minutes, I dashed off, grabbed a notepad and started writing. I now have a notepad full of notes on infantry, cavalry, guards, leaders, cannons, tactics, and forts.

The lesson I learned here is to talk with people. You never know what people know.

I also traded a few games with the gentleman at the convention. He now has a shiny new copy of Rommel and I have a cool new naval miniatures game.

In researching Napoleon, I have so far divided his career into 5 maps:

#1 - Italy 1796, 1800
#2 - Egypt 1798
#3 - Central Europe 1805, 1806-1807, 1809
#4 - Russia 1812
#5 - Central Europe 1813, France and Belgium 1814, 1815

This may or may not change as the design advances, but it seems to work for now to cover all his campaigns and keep them on 5 maps.

I have also talked with Wan Chui and Clara Cheang, the amazing artists who created the art for Alexander. They have agreed to create the artwork for Napoleon. I’m sure it will be stunning! A funny story… The first time Wan came by to talk about an art project, our dog Max, a large German Shepard, started batting a rock around the living room floor with his front paws. The rock is the size of a softball and weighs a couple pounds. As Wan looked at Max playing with his rock, I explained that it was Max’s favorite toy and he’d been playing with it for years. Wan shook his head and said, “Wow, you guys are cheap!”

As we speak, Wan and Clara are working on the Napoleon box cover.

Holly found a great book on Napoleon and has been filling me in on details of his early life. One fact I liked was from an early age Napoleon started creating detailed plans to overthrow the French government. Now, you would think that he would have kept such plans written in a secret code, and then buried them under a rock deep in the forest. Not Napoleon. He carried the plans around in 29 notebooks.

Block Dropping

2009-02-18T03:14:00.000-08:00

Note to self: Before posting birthing stories on the Internet, consult with wife.

Here’s a little background on the research that goes into a game…

Military history is a huge subject. I know some stuff about it, but very little when compared to how much there is to know. I’ll give you a couple examples. When I started working on the Field Commander Rommel design I knew very little about Rommel. I knew: He was a WWII German general. He was respected by both Axis and Allied leaders. He was known for his legendary command of German forces in Africa. He came up with dashing battle plans. And that’s about all I knew.

I then dove into researching him online, at the library, and the local bookstores. I started by learning the big facts, like the campaigns he lead outside of Africa, the problems he had getting enough supplies for his troops, and the enormous challenge he faced by the unending stream of Allied men and material. He was always outnumbered and outgunned, and had to rely on strategy rather than brute force to accomplish his objectives. At the end of 6 months of research and game design, I had a much deeper understanding of the man.

The same cycle applies to our recently completed Field Commander Alexander. At the start I knew he was from Macedon and conquered a lot of territory. Not much to start with.

The research followed the same course of online, library, and bookstores. Holly and I even watched several Alexander documentaries. As the data came together I learned of his mother, Olympias, who stopped at nothing to see her son on the throne. I learned of his father Philip II who was assassinated, thus clearing the way for Alexander to rule Macedon. There is more than one theory by the way that links Olympias to Philip’s untimely demise.

One of the things that most impressed me was Alexander’s sense of destiny. It seemed like he never doubted that he would do great things, and that others would follow him. Of all his conquests, his siege of the island of Tyre most impressed me. But, before we talk about Tyre, let’s look at how Alexander got started…

A while before Alexander’s time, the Persians attacked Greece and Alexander felt it was up to him to give some payback. But before he could deal with the Persians, he had some trouble at home to deal with. Alexander had no sooner taken the throne when the other Greek city-states start marching troops in his direction. He quickly defeated their armies with clever tactics and solidified his power base in Greece. He then lead his army out of Greece and into Asia to attack the PERSIAN EMPIRE.

Now, you gotta remember, Macedon was an okay sized country, but the Persian Empire was, well, an Empire. It was huge. They had millions of troops, dozens of mighty fortresses, and more gold than you can imagine. On the other hand, Alexander had 40,000 men, a pointy spear, and his trusty horse, Bucephalus. To most people this would have been a problem and they would have stayed at home. Not Alexander. He attacked the Persians and defeated them in several battles. When their king Darius III offered him riches to stop and go home, he attacked all the harder. When the dust settled, Alexander was sitting on the throne of the Persian Empire.

So anyway, getting back to Tyre. As if the millions of troops weren’t enough, the Persians also had a huge navy. Macedon had a small navy. This was a problem because Alexander needed access to the seas for his supply needs, fresh troops, and communications to make sure no one back home got too uppity.

So Alexander came up with a plan. Instead of sending his navy out to meet the Persian fleet in battle, and get quickly destroyed, he started capturing the Persian ports. He knew their navy needed its ports and would have to be pulled back as each port was captured. His plan worked great. He’d capture a port, and the Persians pulled back their navy. Everything was going fine, until he got to Tyre.

Tyre was an island about a half mile off the coast. A well fortified island with high walls and lots of siege engines. With two harbors and a big fleet of warships. Nobody messed with Tyre. You can’t conquer an island with an army. The Tyrians knew it. The Persians knew it. Pretty much everyone except Alexander knew it.

Alexander set-up camp in Old Tyre, an old stone city on the coast across from the island of Tyre. Things got off to a bad start when the Tyrians killed the two ambassadors Alexander sent over to talk, and then threw their bodies into the waves for Alexander and his army to see.

Instead of focusing on what he needed, but didn’t have, to crush Tyre, Alexander looked at the resources he had. He had a city made of stone blocks and 40,000 guys sitting around doing nothing. That would quickly change.

He ordered part of his army to start tearing the city apart block by block and dumping the blocks into the sea. As time passed the city of Old Tyre got smaller and a stone walkway, called a Mole started appearing out of the waves, extending block by block toward Tyre. This wasn’t some tiny walkway. The Mole was 300 feet wide. Before long, the Tyrians started to take notice and sent out ships to attack the men building the Mole. Alexander then put the remainder of his army to work lashing ships together to form the floating bases for huge siege towers. He sent these siege ships against the island’s wall to start battering them, and take the pressure off the Mole. With siege ships battering the walls, the Tyre navy had to divide its efforts and became far less effective.

After a few months of block dropping and wall pounding, the walls were breached, and Tyre was invaded. Things get kinda bloody at that point. Alexander had a long memory and he hadn’t forgotten the two slain ambassadors. Alexander then paraded his army across the Mole in triumph.

Cool end note to the island of Tyre. It’s not an island anymore. So much silt and debris was pushed by the current against Alexander’s Mole that the island is now connected to the coast and is a peninsula.

This brings us to the game we have just started working on, Field Commander Napoleon. We’ll start on that with the next entry!

Obvious

2009-02-17T00:51:00.000-08:00

From time to time I’m asked how we go about designing and developing games. After all, a game is like any other creative project, there isn’t an objective doneness to it. A game’s doneness is entirely feel-based. There is always something that can be added, removed, or changed.

A game starts with me putting together an initial design. Holly and I then sit down to play. Rarely does a game survive the first player turn, before huge problems are found. We talk about it and try to figure out how to keep the good while fixing the bad. Holly is great at dissecting a design.

This repeats dozens of times. An important point to mention is that a game’s design is not linear. At many points in the process, the design gets scrapped and a new design is started. I use the term scrapped intentionally, because we don’t just throw out the old design, but we carefully examine it to find the good, which gets transplanted into the new design.

Game designs evolve both evolutionarily and through random mutation. In many cases you can see how one version leads to the next, but sometimes there is a huge gap between one version and the next.

Anyway, we work on a game until it is “good”. Then we keep working on it until it is “great”. And finally, we keep working until it is “obvious”.

By “obvious,” I mean that when we show the game to a new person they look at the design and say, “Well of course that’s how the game works, it’s obvious that’s the best to have designed it.”

Although it’s completely subjective, it’s obvious when we’re done with a design.

Welcome to Our World!

2009-02-15T22:04:00.000-08:00

My name is Dan Verssen, and my wife Holly and I co-own "Dan Verssen Games (DVG)". We have been designing and developing tabletop games since 1989. Since then, we have had about 40 games published by different companies.

A couple years ago, Holly had the idea of publishing our own games. Side note: Holly is the one who usually comes up with all the big life changing ideas in our family.

At first I thought she’d finally lost all touch with reality, but then she went on to explain that we had worked on all the steps of game publication while designing games for other companies. At one time or another, not only had we designed the games, but also created the packaging, written the rules, handling marketing, prepped the files for printing, and everything else.

So, we launched the web site and put our first game up for pre-order “Field Commander Rommel”. She was right! Soon enough people started pre-ordering the game and within a few months we had enough pre-orders to pay the printing bill and start production.

We were a game company!

In the past six months we have sent three more games to print. We now have 3 games for sale, and the fourth will be delivered from the printer in early May.

All of our success is built on the faith and support of our pre-ordering customers. Without them, we couldn’t have started our business, and we never forget them. In fact, we’ve started a new thing in the gaming world. Every person who pre-orders one of our games gets to have their name printed on all the games boxes.

So, why start a blog?

A couple reasons. First, some friends, Kevin Carter and Mike Guadagnino suggested it as a cool way to talk back and forth with the world. Second, we have a regular “News” section on our web site, but we need to keep that formal and professional. We thought a blog would be a neat means of informal conversation.

Everyday in the world of game design is an adventure. You never know what new fortune or mishap is waiting with the morning email.

Reminds me of Sgt. Apone's pep talk in the movie Aliens... "All right, sweethearts, what are you waiting for? Breakfast in bed? Another glorious day in the Corps! A day in the Corps is like a day on the farm. Every meal's a banquet! Every paycheck a fortune! Every formation a parade! I LOVE the Corps!"

A side note of Aliens. When Holly was in the hospital giving birth the nurses asked if we wanted to watch a movie on their mobile TV system. I guess they were thinking of peaceful woodland scenes or something, but she wanted to watch Aliens. It wasn't long before the sounds of gunfire, and chest tearing screams, led the nurses to close our door. They said the other patients were finding the sounds "disturbing".

-Dan
www.dvg.com