Brevity is the Soul of Wit

[Solecismic]

Hamlet, Act II, Scene II.

http://www.frontofficegames.com

[st.cronin]

http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/5834/jimqm9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

jim gindin

[azjoe_02]

I am not sure how to react to this news....But none the less, I hope you do well with it Jim!

[Raiders Army]

Nice. I will send in some stuff.

[Celeval]

Interesting. Assuming it's 2-player playable, I'll play it.

[Nogram]

Jim,

My wife is a highschool english teacher (here in Canada), with the Shakespeare theme, there may be some educational opportunities here. I am sure to pick up a game and will try it out with her.

Cheers

Nogram

[Dutch]

I'm certain this will be out of my realm of interest, but I wish you the best.

[Ben E Lou]

From earlier posts, I would think that this is a football card game, but the page on your site doesn't specify if it's a football card game or not. Is it?

[Dutch]

It's a card game, with a bit of a Shakespearean theme. We are looking for small head shots of women, who will "play" Shakespearean characters within the game. Nothing fancy.


Unless they are cheerleaders, I doubt it.

[Northwood_DK]

I'm certain this will be out of my realm of interest, but I wish you the best.

+1 :(

[Ben E Lou]

Right. That was the reason for that question. I'd have more interest in a new card game--something that might be fun to do with other couples--than a football dice-and-cards game.

[Ben E Lou]

Dola: That was in response to Dutch...

[Dutch]

Card game to play with couples...

Well, at least we all still have each other! :)

[Ben E Lou]

Card game to play with couples...

Well, at least we all still have each other! :)

I'm not following you...

[Dutch]

I'm not following you...

I was alluding to the possible demise of FOF.

[MizzouRah]

Dear Jim,

For Christmas I want TCY 2.


Thank you,

Little Todd

[Solecismic]

I was alluding to the possible demise of FOF.

Why? I thought I made it clear on the site that this was not the case.

The card game does not have anything to do with football. I've just always wanted to write one.

[Dutch]

Why? I thought I made it clear on the site that this was not the case.

The card game does not have anything to do with football. I've just always wanted to write one.

Possible demise of FOF? Too dramatic, probably hit the brain when I read your note not to worry. This doesn't really make me believe FOF and TCY won't be revisited.

I think the card game just signifies 9 long years of dealing with FOF, TCY, and the same old yahoos. A break is warranted, no doubt.

[Nogram]

I think that if Jim can come out with a successful card game, especially if it has an educational component, there could be more financial gain than putting out any text based computer football game.

I will be interested to see how this plays out.

Nogram.

[Shkspr]

Pumpy in a wig.

[Icy]

I'm certain this will be out of my realm of interest, but I wish you the best.

+1 :(

+2 :(

[Icy]

Why? I thought I made it clear on the site that this was not the case.

The card game does not have anything to do with football. I've just always wanted to write one.

Probably just miscommunication (i must admit English not being my primary lang doesn't help), but this phrase made me think that you are not working right now in a football game, while i thought and had the egoist hope that you would.

"It's just a very bad time for PC simulations, and we're waiting for the market to recover before we release any new football products"

I also think that the PC game market won't every recover, and even less if no games are released waiting for it to recover by itself. For niche games like text sims, i think there must be a non stop release of new games to keep the interest alive, it would mean in your case, a TCY/FOF version every other year (and there are tons of things that still can be added or improved in both games to allow a bi-yearly release).

Of course just my opinion and i know you have expressed in the past that it's not your way of running your business, that is fine for me. I just expressed my egoist and delusional thought when i read that phrase as an avid text sims consumer that would buy every new version if released every year.

[Izulde]

Card game eh?

What type of card game are we talking about here?

Like an M:tG type card game?

[revrew]

Fascinating. I couldn't help but notice the Shakespearean connection. This past year I wrote a play for community theaters spoofing Shakespeare's work. A nearby theater chose to perform it and asked me to direct it. Three of my own children were cast in it, and we just finished up our debut performances in November.

Good luck with the project! (Or, should I say, break a leg?)

[Uncle Chop Chop]

Dear Jim,

For Christmas I want TCY 2.


Thank you,

Little Todd

Jim,

I wish you luck with the card game mate, but I'm not going to lie to you I've waited all year for you to announce TCY 2. It's been 6 long years since TCY, c'mon man we need this. You could charge $200 and I'd still buy it.

[cuervo72]

Card games can be a blast - on lunch breaks at JHMI we'd play things like Honor of the Samurai - very good game. There were also some others, one that was a gangster game (Family Business?), another one where you bought art (Modern Art?). Very, very fun games, and there's definitely a market out there. Best of luck.

[Wudu44]

So is this going to be a physical card game with physical cards that you can hold in your hand....physically?

Or like a computer game card game?

[Buccaneer]

Am I the only one that doesn't know what the hell Jim is talking about?

[Anthony]

it's a Shakespearian-themed card game. what's so hard about that?

[theclassic]

I was hoping TCY 2 would be released. But I have been waiting five years. It's still my hope, but it's getting old.

Good luck Jim with the card game, and have fun with it.

[Joe]

it's a Shakespearian-themed card game. what's so hard about that?

everything?

[Dutch]

I was hoping TCY 2 would be released. But I have been waiting five years. It's still my hope, but it's getting old.

My primary long-term goal is to maintain the two football games, keeping them on the cutting edge for this type of career simulation.


I think Jim's decision to take time off from his goal of keeping both FOF and TCY on the cutting edge--to work on a drama based playing card game--is a mistake. I understand that he may need a break from a major project. If I were Jim, I would get TCY at least up to date before venturing forth on a new adventure. No need to start TCY2, but just get TCY back up to speed. I think that just makes good business sense. Again, I wish Jim well and good luck, but I'm not getting a good feeling about this one. Certainly not a good feeling for me, the customer, because my wait is extended indefinately...but I don't have a good warm fuzzy for the future of Solecismic either.

[1986 Giants]

Am I the only one that doesn't know what the hell Jim is talking about?

it's a Shakespearian-themed card game. what's so hard about that?
I'm confused. I come here with visions of men in jerseys, not tights! But, I have to admit to being intrigued. I will keep coming back until he does show us just what the heck he is talking about. :)

I was hoping TCY 2 would be released. But I have been waiting five years. It's still my hope, but it's getting old.

Good luck Jim with the card game, and have fun with it.
In the meantime, I echo both of these statements.

[Buccaneer]

Looking at his request for user pictures (small, 24-bit bmp images), I think he may be developing a "Go Fish" card game, only with Shakespearian characters ("Do you have a Romeo?"). Kinda reminds me of my son's project back in the 2nd grade where he had to cut out pictures from magazines and paste them into squares on a piece of paper (the point was to write an attribute of each, like "has brown hair").

Seriously, good luck, I'll wonder how one can develop an RPG card game using a world that many don't know about.

[Crim]

Now, this belongs in the OT subforum!

[Crim]

So is this going to be a physical card game with physical cards that you can hold in your hand....physically?

Or like a computer game card game?

This is a great post.

[marcmoustache]

Card games can be a blast - on lunch breaks at JHMI we'd play things like Honor of the Samurai - very good game. There were also some others, one that was a gangster game (Family Business?), another one where you bought art (Modern Art?). Very, very fun games, and there's definitely a market out there. Best of luck.

But aren't there a lot of these card type games, so the competition is severe? Also, would this not be a quite limited market - how many 40 years old play card games? How many 12 year olds will play card games and not playstation/xbox?

Best of luck with it but I think I'd view it this way:

There's a popular property development tv program in the UK (Property Ladder) where an experienced property developer watches, and advises at times, novices. In every program there is a moment when the presenter will say "Are you doing this to make money or develop a house the way you'd like it to be if you lived here?" (or words to that effect). They almost always say, "I know you're right that I don't need to spend £500 on taps, but they're sooo nice..."

Long-winded analogy, but I think Jim wants to do this irrespective of whether it makes a lot of sense career and finance wise.

[Solecismic]

Don't read too much into it.

1) It's a relatively small time investment compared to an FOF release.

2) Once it's done, it may need some strategy tweaking once in a while, but it's there, and it will never need a full update or get old.

3) The idea is a little bit of revenue for a long time. A small investment in my future.

4) If it works, I can write more card games. If it doesn't, I don't have to.

5) It gives me something new to give to reviewers, however simple. Getting my name out there is important.

6) The demo alone will bring people to my web site who have never been there before. Just like the whole Football Frontier experiment.

7) I'm still a football game designer and developer. I always wanted to write a card game, and now I have. I will play the hell out of it myself.

8) Variety is the spice of life. This is the type of project that energizes me. Some day when I'm older and gray, if finances permit it, I'll probably take a year off to write a novel.

[Dutch]

Thanks for the clarification.

[marcmoustache]

Thanks for the clarification.

+1, plus it's your time so your decision, hopefully you regard the reaction as a compliment to the success of FOF and not a "what is Jim doing??" too much :D

[cuervo72]

But aren't there a lot of these card type games, so the competition is severe? Also, would this not be a quite limited market - how many 40 years old play card games? How many 12 year olds will play card games and not playstation/xbox?

You might be surprised, I think some of these games do pretty well. Overall, more people probably play games like this than computer games. At a wedding, my wife's 70+ year old aunt brought along a simple dice game (Left Center Right). I doubt if she'd play an XBOX. Card games are portable, relatively inexpensive, and you can get variety. If it's very popular, all sorts of types will pick it up. If it's niche, there are folks that have hundreds of these games. And in this case, a Shakespearian bent might interest women too (whereas the Samurai theme I mentioned earlier may not).

Like Jim says, the games don't need to be overly complicated (LCR is about as simple as you can get!). Nor do production qualities have to be stellar - check out http://www.cheapass.com/ .

2) Once it's done, it may need some strategy tweaking once in a while, but it's there, and it will never need a full update or get old.

Expansion packs. Think of all the mileage Settlers of Cataan had (not a card game, but an easy example).

[JeeberD]

My parents and grandparents both play the hell out of cards. I will have to see exactly what this game is, but I can imagine getting a set for both of them for Christmas/birthdays...

[Celeval]

Expansion packs. Think of all the mileage Settlers of Cataan had (not a card game, but an easy example).

Settlers of Catan has a card game version with expansions as well. ;)

And as for how well these games do... any of us who live near a reasonably-sized town or city probably has a local game shop that carries RPGs, board games, and card games. It's a huge market in Germany and much of Europe, and there's a solid (if somewhat niche) market here.

[Vinatieri for Prez]

Uno anyone?

[Front Office Midget]

Am I stupid for not being able to find anything on the site regarding a card game? Or Shakespeare?

[Eaglesfan27]

Am I stupid for not being able to find anything on the site regarding a card game? Or Shakespeare?

No, you are not. The page has changed in the last 24 hours and the information is no longer where it was.. I wonder what this means. Maybe just in the process of re-designing the site?

[QuikSand]

My best guess for the sort of "success model" that Jim may be after here is a game like The Great Dalmuti (http://www.funagain.com/control/product/~product_id=015177;jsessionid=EB96E0CCE41379101E37B2BE9F628092.jvm1). It's a very fun game, very approachable for just about anyone, built around a certain theme, and using custom cards. Sells at funagain for about $12, and I would guess that its designer does okay by it. (Which he no doubt doesn't even notice, since he also designed M:tG, but that's neither here nor there)

My guess is Jim's high-end hopes for this new game would be to fit into a similar niche.