Hey Wheel Tree folks!

Hey Wheel Tree folks!

As I have mentioned other places on the Googles and on the Jank Cast, this community is the only place I’m going to be discussing my game designs that are in progress from now on. With that, I’ve also promised to be better at communicating what’s going on and where/how you can playtest them or otherwise check ’em out. So here’s the Wheel Tree round-up, for those that are interested:

Thing the first: as our Kickstarter backers already know via a recent update, Todd Nicholas and I had an interesting summer filled with cross-country moves, new careers starting and also some unfortunate health problems that needed dealing with. It delayed us a bit with our timetable for getting Time Cellist finished and out the door, but we are fully back on track. The finish line for the activity book is in sight and we’re also putting together the backer rewards for the higher tiers. We just finished up work on the custom cootie catcher for the TIME ANOMALY tier this afternoon, in fact.

Thing the second: Eric Ahlgren and I have moved forward with Greenlight and are currently working with Nathan Paoletta to create an alpha version of the game, which we will be making available for purchase as a print on demand card game via Drive Thru Cards. We’ve finalized the base game Property and Style decks; right now we’re working with Nathan on the design of the card backs and layout of the rules and card text. Our plan is to get the alpha version out there for people to play and enjoy (we are looking at you, David Miessler-Kubanek, and your Corridor Games on Demand peoples) and once we’ve found the right illustrator, we’ll do a beta version of the game that has fancier artwork and packaging.

Thing the third: I have a new game, currently under the working title “Pane”, that I will be making a more concentrated effort to be playtesting at conventions and game days in the coming months. The game takes place in the last second of a person’s life; players create a lifetime of memories by fusing and fracturing a metaphorical pane of glass which transforms from a blank slate into a unique mosiac. Sounds morbid, right? My experience in running it so far has actually been the opposite – the players become invested in the person they’ve created whole cloth, and it’s been kind of a cool celebration of life. I’m going to run a demo of this at ValorCon here in Chicago on Sunday, October 18th at 11am in their demo room of Block 37. We’ll also be doing a demo of Greenlight right after, so you can play ALL THE WHEEL TREE GAMES.

Thing the fourth: One of the cool opportunities we’ve been presented with via our globe trotting Squirrel, Scott Underwood, is the possibility of working with the Chinese based game group, Creative Tree, in bringing some games created by Chinese designers here to the States. Scott brought over an early playtest version of a card game based on the Chinese folk hero, Judge Bao, this summer for us to try. We’re looking forward to seeing how this game will continue to develop. Scott’s back in Chicago in a few months and we can’t wait to see what other goodies he brings from our friends at Creative Tree.

I don’t have a SCUPdate for you guys, but I’m sure Todd and Tom will chime in if there’s any news on that front.

Anyhoo, that’s where all our nuts are currently going. I have a few LARP projects on the back burner as well, including an update to my demented little hate monster, Sparkle Baby!, but nothing to report right now.

Your Squirrely Friend,

Megan