Thursday, May 27, 2010

Mormon Game Design 101: Episode 02

This is the 2nd video in the Armor of God Jr series. In it I cover prototyping the game. Enjoy!



The two sites I mention in the video are:
Children's Bible Studies: here
Free LDS Art: here

I wanted to give a big thanks to them for having those sites up for us to find and use.
Stayed tuned. The next episode will cover how to play the game. I'll also have a document up that describes the rules and I'll be asking for some feedback from any and all who want to give the game a try. Remember, it's aimed at kids, ages 4 and up, so I'm sure that the older crowd won't be too motivated to give this a play.

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Monday, May 24, 2010

Hagoth on Google Maps

9:27 AM by Mike · 0 comments
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I was just introduced to setting up my own Google Map. So, there is now a map where anyone and everyone can add places where Hagoth: Builder of Ships is available for purchase or yourself if you own the game, you know, those kinds of things. Just in case anyone wants to find it in a retail store nearby or find some stranger that lives near you who you could contact to get in a play of Hagoth!!


View Hagoth : Builder of Ships in a larger map

Feel free to add yourself or a nearby store! The more the merrier!

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Monday, May 17, 2010

Top Selling LDS-themed Games

I went into a Seagull Book this afternoon. I always look at the games that are available. I must say that they do sell everything for less than Deseret Book. And I was interested to find, after doing a quick search (check this link), that the church owns both Deseret Book and Seagull Book. Anyway, I saw that It Came to Pass (here) had a little note on the package declaring that over 40,000 copies had been sold!!! This blew me away! I can't believe that so many copies of the game have sold.

This made me want to figure out the top selling LDS-themed games. So, according to what I've been able to find out this is a list of the top 3 selling games of all time:




1. It Came to Pass
Over 40,000 copies sold!!











2. Settlers of Zarahemla
Over 30,000 copies sold!!








3. Book of Mormon Battles
Over 20,000 copies sold!!




This is great news in my mind. I mean, these games are specifically published for members of the church and that many copies have sold!! I think there is a great market here, with great potential. I'm hoping to see Hagoth sell even a fraction of that many copies!!

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Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Hagoth on Board Game News!


For a while now I've been wanting to put down on paper the story of Hagoth and how the whole game came to be. Well, a few days ago, Eric from Board Game News (here) asked me if I would be interested in writing a Designers Diary article for his website. So, there was the slight push to get this put together. He just posted the write up (here) for anyone who may be interested in how the game design happened and how it came to be published by Mayday Games and ready for purchase (here).



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Monday, May 10, 2010

Recap of Hagoth Release Event

9:39 AM by Mike · 0 comments
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I figured I'd post this link to Game Night Games (here) that gives a short recap of the release event. There are some nice pictures of the game and of several people playing!

It was a lot of fun! It was great to see other people playing the game and enjoying it. Hopefully we'll be able to set up a few more events like this in an attempt to spread the word a bit more. I would especially like to get one going up here in Logan, but we'll see how that goes.


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Friday, May 7, 2010

Hagoth in the News!

9:26 AM by Mike · 0 comments
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Several really cool things have happened in the news with Hagoth recently.

Yesterday morning on KJZZ tv around 9:45 am or so, Mike Compton from Game Night Games was on for a few minutes and had a copy of the game to show off!! I couldn't watch so if anyone happened to record that short 3 or 4 minutes I would love to see it.

Deseret News posted a nice article yesterday afternoon with a couple pictures of the game, Seth and I (here).

This morning that same article was run in the print edition of the Deseret News!!

Needless to say, I am super excited about all this press. I hope that it helps the sales increase exponentially!!

Don't forget about the release event that will take place tomorrow from noon to four at Game Night Games in Salt Lake City. We'll have copies out for everyone to play and you'll get a 10% discount on the purchase of the game!

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Monday, May 3, 2010

Book of Jer3miah

3:15 PM by Mike · 0 comments
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Two BYU professors and an on campus club wrote and produced an online video series called the Book of Jer3miah (here). The first season is cut up into 20 online episodes that last anywhere from 4 to 14 minutes. The series has quite an interesting storyline: a cool, mysterious little box is given to Jeremiah, who must protect it and not let it fall into the wrong hands. As the episodes progress viewers learn all sorts of new things about Jeremiah, his past, and his future.

It's received several accolades, such as "A tight, suspenseful series..." from the New York Times; selection as one of the official honorees for the 2010 Webby Awards.

So, at this point you may be asking yourself, "how does this fit into LDS themed games?" This is the coolest part of the series: they wanted to provide viewers with not only an interesting story to watch, but they also wanted to provide a sort of alternate reality gaming experience! So, there are clues given throughout the first season that lead viewers to, among other things, places on BYU campus. There's a Professor Davenport character included in the episodes and to go along with that there is a website: The Davenport Papers (here). This is a place for viewers to congregate and share their insights and ideas about the series and the clues.

Also, the supposed "evil" people in the series are part of what is called Zooby News. There is also a website associated with that (here), where you can watch special, extra interviews and things that provide more clues. The season 1 finale was posted to the website in the middle of last year, so things have died down, but there is still hope of there being a 2nd season. I wish I had known about this as it was being released (not that that would have changed much for me, as I live in Logan and don't have an easy way of getting to BYU to search for clues), but it's still fun to go back and see what kinds of things people were finding.

This, in my opinion, is a great thing for LDS film and I hope to see more things like this in the future, not to mention seeing a second season of the Book of Jer3miah!

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