-
singalong
Demolition Man :(
Maybe we're taking
apocalypse comedy
too seriously.
Coca-Cola
Happiness Factory
It's
a Geek Thing
"My friends and I, until recently, have played video
games when we get together. But we began to realize that, while
incredibly fun, there are only so many times one can play Mario
Party without getting a little bored. So, I suggested my Looney
Labs games (which, admittedly, haven't seen much play lately).
Imagine my surprise when they became an instant hit! So much
so, that we've begun almost exclusively playing LL games, because
they're so quick and easy and fun. I absolutely LOVE the Treehouse
design, it's so much better than the old stash concept. And we
can honestly say that we've forgotten how much fun traditional
games can be. Thanks, Looneys, for injecting a healthy dose of
fun into our once-ailing game nights." --
email from a fan named Andrew
No Hovering!
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- Sorry, no video this week, I spent all my time on 3HOUSE
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3HOUSE is at the Printers!
However... |
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 Well,
it's overdue by more than a year but I've finally finished this
booklet I've been working on for what feels like 20 years, called
3HOUSE.
The files have gone to the printer! Woo-hoo!
It's great to finally have this monkey off my back, and I'm
really pleased with the way the book has came together. I did
a lot of new
drawings and illustrations for it (including this Star Map
diagram for Homeworlds)
and I'm really excited about the
new game I designed just for this work. Best of all, getting
it sent to the printer today means we'll be able to have them
in time to be selling at Origins!!!
Yay!
But there's also bad news in the world of Icehouse pyramids:
We're raising the price. We've been running the numbers, and
we just can't afford to keep selling those pesky plastic pieces
at their current retail price. One of the many consequences of
the increase in gas prices over the past few years is that plastic
(a petroleum product) has also become a lot more expensive. The
costs we're facing for the next print run of Treehouse
sets makes it clear we're going to need to raise the price.
When will we be doing that next print run, and what's the
new price going to be?
These are excellent questions. Partly it will depend on how
quickly we sell
through our remaining stock from the last print run. It may depend
on how much more gas prices go up between now and then. But one
thing is certain: it's going up at least to $10 a tube, probably
more.
With that in mind, we're raising the price right now on our
remaining stash of Treehouse sets, to $10.
How long will those sets be available, and how long will
it be until you reprint?
Those are also excellent questions with difficult-to-predict
answers. Our current supplies are indeed running low, and probably
won't last more than another few months.
As for reprinting, that may take a while regardless of when
we sell out. Depending on how our search for capitalization goes
in the next couple of months, we might have the new sets before
the Holidays, or we might not. We are focusing on Zombie
Fluxx first, with our current available cash. We're more
committed to the Icehouse line than ever, but even so, we might
be out of them for a short while in the coming months.
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 Just
so you know...
Thanks for reading, and have a great week!
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| PS: Here's a big Thank You to everyone who helped
me get 3HOUSE done, in particular my proofreaders, including:
Russell Grieshop, James Hazelton, Tim Seiger, Karyn & Timothy
Hunt, JK Grence, Ross Andrews, Alex Yeager, Marc Hartstein, Andres
Marin, Pat Fuller, Adam Kopczenski, Jesse Welton, Janice Sellers,
Carl Worth, Rachelle Grein, Carlton Noles, Laura Marsh, Marcus
& Mario, and anyone else I've shown some version of this
document to during the past year. (I absorbed 25 pages of comments
into my final draft.) |
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 I'm seriously
bummed about the new Fantastic Four movie. What I had been looking
forward with great anticipation has instead become a sadness-maker
which I now don't even want to see. I've been both excited and
worried about it ever since I first heard the title, "Rise
of the Silver Surfer." I thought it should have been called
"The Coming of Galactus," since Galactus
is the real star of the story and is my favorite character in
all the Marvel Universe. But alas, my worst fears have been confirmed.
The Wikipedia
page about Galactus reveals that he won't be in the movie
at all: he's been reduced from a god-like being to a cosmic vortex.
It's particularly disappointing to learn this after seeing the
awesome-looking
image of Galactus currently featured on the Wikipedia page.
(It looks like a frame from the movie, but it actually comes
from a recent videogame.) |
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As I hear more and more about the honey
bee epidemic, I'm being reminded of the importance of bees
in nature. That said, I've also been noticing how important bees
are to the world of comedy. I was struck by this last Sunday
night, when wacky cartoon bees featured prominently on a couple
of Adult Swim shows on the Cartoon Network (The Venture Brothers
and Futurama were the main ones, but a talking bee on Family
Guy helped make the point). And just as I was thinking about
this, I read that day's Dilbert, which featured this line: "The
project is like a hundred drunken clowns with bees in their underpants."
Think of all the slapstick moments involving beehives and consider
what a loss it would be to world if there weren't any bees. |
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We had a big debate on the Icehouse list this week, about
the color mapping for playing Homeworlds
with Xeno colors. The mapping I'd come up with has Cyan being
equivalent to Green, but a lot of people thought it should have
been Blue instead, since the Light Blue = Dark Blue correlation
is so strong. But we decided my original plan was the best way
to go. Alan Anderson's message said it the best: "Just look
at transparent Rainbow plastic pyramids. What is it that makes
each one unique? Red is the warmest. Green is the coolest. Yellow
is the lightest. Blue is the darkest. Don't think about colors
in the abstract. Look at the actual pieces. To my eyes, Yellow
is too unsaturated to challenge Red for the title of warmest,
and Blue is entirely too dark to push Green aside as the coolest.
Now look at the corresponding transparent Xeno pieces. Orange
is the warmest. Cyan is the coolest. Clear is the lightest. Purple
is the darkest." |
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