INTENSE TIMES, PREPARING FOR THE ORIGINS GAME FAIR
Steve Cole reports:
It's been a pretty intense time for the last six weeks and the next two will be worse. The Origins Game Fair is the one thing on the schedule that won't move, so we have to have the products done or else.
The process began with getting the countersheets to MPS, our die cutter, which happened on May 18th. That was crazy, since we had to do the counters for four products (SFB R12, SFB Y3, FC War & Peace, Star Fleet Marines: Assault!). We had to fight like crazy to get the ship lists for Y3 and R12 done, since the ship codes must be on the counters. While the rules for SFM:A have been around for fifteen years, I was still tweeking them as the counters were sealed. War & Peace got crazy because I was coordinating two halves of the sheet (made in two different programs on two different computers by two different people) while the ship list was stabilized only at the last second.
Then we had to get Captain's Log #41 finished, which was a whirlwind of articles that had to be finished, edited, and formatted. Some were too long, some too short. We didn't know the precise mix of pages until the very end, when something turned up a page short and saved us from dropping a page we didn't want to have to drop. The page count cannot be increased because the price is based on it.
Now, Steven Petrick is doing the last parts of R12 (mostly editing stuff done long ago) while I finish up the War & Peace Ship Cards (which have to get to the staff today and be checked so they can go to press tomorrow). The covers for R12 and W&P also have to be finished soon and sent to press on Wednesday. Then, all I have to do is take all of those playtest drafts of W&P rules and all of those playtest reports and turn that into a book. THEN I have to round up the last of what has to be done to get ready for Origins.
Oh, and I forgot that we haven't done the Communique yet, or the press release for R12 and War & Peace.
It's been a pretty intense time for the last six weeks and the next two will be worse. The Origins Game Fair is the one thing on the schedule that won't move, so we have to have the products done or else.
The process began with getting the countersheets to MPS, our die cutter, which happened on May 18th. That was crazy, since we had to do the counters for four products (SFB R12, SFB Y3, FC War & Peace, Star Fleet Marines: Assault!). We had to fight like crazy to get the ship lists for Y3 and R12 done, since the ship codes must be on the counters. While the rules for SFM:A have been around for fifteen years, I was still tweeking them as the counters were sealed. War & Peace got crazy because I was coordinating two halves of the sheet (made in two different programs on two different computers by two different people) while the ship list was stabilized only at the last second.
Then we had to get Captain's Log #41 finished, which was a whirlwind of articles that had to be finished, edited, and formatted. Some were too long, some too short. We didn't know the precise mix of pages until the very end, when something turned up a page short and saved us from dropping a page we didn't want to have to drop. The page count cannot be increased because the price is based on it.
Now, Steven Petrick is doing the last parts of R12 (mostly editing stuff done long ago) while I finish up the War & Peace Ship Cards (which have to get to the staff today and be checked so they can go to press tomorrow). The covers for R12 and W&P also have to be finished soon and sent to press on Wednesday. Then, all I have to do is take all of those playtest drafts of W&P rules and all of those playtest reports and turn that into a book. THEN I have to round up the last of what has to be done to get ready for Origins.
Oh, and I forgot that we haven't done the Communique yet, or the press release for R12 and War & Peace.
posted by Federation Commander at 9:59 AM
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