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Funding Successful
This project successfully raised its funding goal on January 8.
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▂▃▅▇ FOUNDERS KEEPERS ▇▅▃▂ Permanent “FOUNDER” status on your Puzzle Clubhouse profile + three cool limited edition desktop backgrounds: one featuring the Puzzle Clubhouse characters, one by Kyle Gabler, and one from the Extra Credits team. You'll also get our hearty thanks and a salute to you for your support.
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___▂▃▅▇ PUZZLE PAL ▇▅▃▂___ You get the above + a one year membership in Puzzle Clubhouse (est. value $20) + a set of limited edition Puzzle Clubhouse Postcards mailed to you + a free download of Triazzle Island by Schell Games for PC or Mac.
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_▂▃▅▇ SUPER PUZZLE PAL ▇▅▃▂_ You get the above + Lifetime Membership in Puzzle Clubhouse (est. value $50) for you + a one year gift membership for a friend + the full unlocked version of InnerCube by Schell Games (for PC or Mac) + a Puzzle Clubhouse T-Shirt mailed to you. And we'll make a YouTube video with Puzzle Clubhouse characters talking about how cool you are!
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▃▅▇ FOUNDING OVERLORD ▇▅▃ You get the above + permanent “OVERLORD” status on your Puzzle Clubhouse profile + a lifetime gift membership for a friend + we mail you a Deck of Lenses signed by Jesse Schell and inscribed to you.
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▒██ JIM RUGG FANBOY SPECIAL ██▒ Everything in the FOUNDING OVERLORD package + a signed book or print (first come, first served!) from Jim Rugg, FoPC (Friend of Puzzle Clubhouse) and comic artist extraordinaire!
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▒██ KYLE GABLER SPECIAL ██▒ Everything in the FOUNDING OVERLORD package + a signed print from Kyle Gabler (Friend of Puzzle Clubhouse) game designer (World of Goo) and artist par excellence!
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▒██ EXTRA CREDITS SPECIAL ██▒ Everything in the FOUNDING OVERLORD package + a signed print from the Extra Credits team (FoPC)!
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▒██ STAR WARS SPECIAL ██▒ Everything in the FOUNDING OVERLORD package + a special C-3PO minature, signed by Anthony Daniels! (Friend of Puzzle Clubhouse)
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▀██ GAME DESIGNER PACKAGE ██▀ OK- this is where it starts to get crazy! --- You get everything in the FOUNDING OVERLORD package + four more lifetime gift memberships for your friends + You become part of the game design team for the first six episodes! We’ll include you on phone conferences and emails, so you’ll get a backstage look at the magic of game development, and you can weigh in with your genius ideas + we mail you a copy of The Art of Game Design signed by Jesse Schell and dedicated to you!
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▀█ SUPER SPONSOR PACKAGE █▀ Everything from the GAME DESIGNER PACKAGE + Sponsorship of one of the first six episodes, in which all players will see a “Brought to you by <your awesome name>”. You’ll be, like, famous!
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▀█ LUDOLOGIST’S DELIGHT █▀ Everything from the GAME DESIGNER PACKAGE + The complete collection of 17 game design related books from ETC Press (several signed by authors!) + a signed and inscribed copy of Gender Inclusive Game Design by Sheri Graner Ray + a signed and inscribed copy of Interactive Storytelling for Videogames by Chris Klug + a signed copy of A Theory of Fun by Raph Koster + a signed copy of Reality Is Broken by Jane McGonigal. (For more about these authors, check out the reward section to the left.)
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▀█ GET YOURSELF IN THE GAME █▀ Ready for a makeover? You get everything from the LUDOLOGIST’S DELIGHT + We create a new character for Puzzle Clubhouse based on *you*! It’s the person you would be... if you were a famous cartoon character!
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♦♠♥♣// EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR \\♣♥♠♦ Believe it! You get everything in the SUPER SPONSOR PACKAGE + You get to direct an entire episode of Puzzle Clubhouse! Pick the theme! The story! Help write the script! Guide the artists and animators! Force the game designers to carry out your bizarre wishes! Get the community to contribute whatever it is you think would be coolest! Put your pets in it! Schell Games is your genie -- make a wish**! We’ll fly* you (and a friend) to Schell Games for a kick off meeting and grand tour of Schell Games. We’ll also take you to lunch and dinner, you’ll get personal juggling lessons from Jesse Schell, and afterwards, you’ll stay in close touch with the team to make the episode come out just how you want! (*U.S. domestic flights, **subject to reality, decency, legality, and common sense.)
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♦♠♥♣// PCH BOOKMARK EXTREME \\♣♥♠♦ Everything in the EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR PACKAGE + a Puzzle Clubhouse bookmark!
Project By
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Schell Games is an independent game studio founded in 2002 by one of the world's top game designers and renowned author Jesse Schell, and is made up of passionate, talented artists, programmers, producers, and game designers.
We create memorable experiences through online games, interactive theme park attractions, console and handheld games, internet-enabled toys, and virtual worlds.
Good thoughts, Steve! We'll add ""PCHousepoints" to the list! As for your other questions
1) We haven't decided what is up with Fishy Business yet, but I suspect either we will put out a call for actual fish hats, and make it episode 1 (launch episode) or we will do another episode as episode one, and do it as episode 2 or 3 -- we're focusing mainly on website and voting design at the moment -- we'll get to episode design soon!
2) We don't have exact dates for episode 1 development yet -- it will depend on some staffing issues here at the studio. But our plan is to launch the site before June 20, so, at the very latest, episode 1 development will begin then. But I'm hoping it's sooner!
3) Yes -- it's true that 3 week intervals may be a little hard to predict in your head. This is a little bit of a prejudice because Schell Games tends to use a 3 week sprint system across all projects -- if PCH adheres to that, it lets us more easily move staff on and off the project. Also, it means we can do 17 games a year, not just 12, which we thought would be more fun. However, it is possible, as we shake things out, that we might need the extra time, and it would be cool for the world to know that "on the first of the month, there is always a new PCH game!" We are making a note of your suggestion... and will keep you posted about new information we get about what staffing and scheduling is possible.
And of course, if other people have opinions about the above, we'd love to hear them!
Surprised to find the comments section empty of PCH currency suggestions this morning, so just to kick things off (and make sure I've understood the directions):
"PCHousepoints"
Great to see the development being discussed/roadmap. Exciting. Few questions:
Was fish-slapping episode 0?
What's the current intended start date/month for Episode 1 development?
Depending on your marketing plans, 3 week intervals could give some random dates if the releases aren't held up. Might be nicer to have the community looking for the next update on a set day of each month? Not major - just saying.
Hi palenoue-
Thanks for clarifying these points. We are in the process of getting a full-time web designer put on the project -- when we do, I'll point him or her towards your helpful notes here. That should be happening soon!
The board designs and larger artwork requirements could have thumbnails in the text boxes so when you click on them you get a larger image that fills the browser window and allows you to zoom in. Or you could link a png thumbnail to a SketchUp 3D figure, or a video on youtube, or a slideshow on flickr, etc.
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As for scalability it shouldn't be a problem if you only show the text boxes linked to the one you've highlighted. For example, if you've clicked on a box in the middle of the thread it shows you the box it links from and the column it links to, all other text boxes disappear because they're not relevant. You can scroll up and down the next column to read all the entries and when you select one all the other boxes disappear and then it shows you all of the boxes linked to that one in the next column. This method will let you focus on the thread that looks most interesting to you while showing you all of the options to come. Does this make sense or would you like me to illustrate it like I did the main idea? I know how this should work, and I kind of know how it should be programmed, but I'm just too much of a Javascript n00b to code it.
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As for dozens of people leaving comments, that's the strength of this system, it's adaptable to any number of input and divergences. Let's say there's a game idea that's already ten steps into the design and you, as the moderator, post that everything looks good so far but how should the game handle combat. Any number from one to one thousand can post their ideas immediately linked after your request. You and anyone else interested in this game thread can scroll through them all, voting on which ideas you like, don't like or are ambivalent to. After a while you and your fellow programmers can check out the top ten combat ideas, highlight the one or more you find most promising, leave notes like "Too random" or "Too complex" and let the crowd follow up with more suggestions to answer your comments. Since they're just text boxes it should be easy to store server-side. It's like a regular forum but structured differently.
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You could also program the web site so the administrators can select the boxes in a thread and move them to their own page. This would be your way of saying "We like this game idea, let's focus on it." You could also delete dead threads that aren't seeing any action, or posts that are badly made, don't offer anything to the thread, or are at the bottom of the list.
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Hope this helps.
Hi Palenoue-
Your diagrams of how the system might work are very illustrative! I have some concerns about scalability of a system like that, since even a simple game can have hundreds of design bubbles like you describe. Further, dozens of people may leave comments. On top of all that, at some point, you need some level of diagrams -- game design via all text doesn't work that well. However -- the spirit of what you describe is awesome. We are considering making use of GetSatisfaction.com so that we don't have to do that level of web coding, and hopefully we can get some significant participation.
This will be great food for thought for the team here -- thanks for sharing it!
-Jesse
Congrats on getting funded! W00t!
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Crowdsourcing: I tried to make an interactive demo page in HTML5, but I'm still learning Javascript and can't get the interactivity to run right, so I made a static page to explain the idea. I think this will be more understandable than plain text typed up here:
http://palenoue.businesscatalyst.com/index.html
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Good points on board games. You'd want to cover all your bases here because there will be groups of friends who want to play at the same time (like we do twice a week for World of Warcraft), friends who want to play with asynchronous push notification, individuals who want two or more AI opponents, etc. This does require a lot of programming, but once you get it down it will be easier to make more board games in the future.
Thanks again for the insightful comments, palenoue. Our goal is to involve members as much as possible in the design and development. How much involvement is really possible, and will really work? We're not sure yet, but our goal is to be able to produce at least a game a month, and if we can do that, it will allow a lot of room for experimentation to see what works best.
Regarding multiplayer boardgames, it may be the case that it could even out -- the tricky part is usually building a lobby system that works well, and getting enough people to show up at once. It might be better to establish an asynchronous multiplayer system, so more people can play -- but, honestly, it will be a little while before we work up to that. One thing someone else suggested is the notion of physical card and board games produced through puzzle clubhouse, as well -- which could also be great fun!
We will have forums -- we are looking at integrating the GetSatisfaction (www.getsatisfaction.com) interface for the forums, but that's still exploratory. In the meantime, feel free to post your crowdsourcing thoughts here, or use the "contact us" box at www.puzzleclubhouse.com. One thing we are talking about is a "member backlog" that will allow members to submit new ideas, discuss them, and vote on which ideas are best, so we can always see what new ideas the community thinks are most important.
I look forward to your continued involvement!
-Jesse
PS -- keep spreading the word -- we still need to get 21% in the next 7 days!
Glad you're open to member game suggestions. Too many places brag about being different, only to produce nothing but clones while ignoring truly good ideas in their player forums. I hate that, it's so frustrating. Do you have a forum where we could discuss crowdsourcing methods? I've researched various methods but this isn't the place to list out a lot of text on the subject ;-)
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So if multiplayer games are 4x to 10x the work, but board and card games are simpler, does that even out? ;-)
Seriously though, even if you can't do multiplayer right away I'd still like to see some board and card games because: 1) they're fun, 2) you can play at your own pace, 3) they don't require the lightning-fast twitch reflexes of a 10-year-old chugging energy drinks, which I never had as a kid and sure don't have now that I'm old.
Of course, without multiplayer you'll have to program AI opponents which makes it harder again. Even with multiplayer having AI opponents would be good to round out a game.
Oh, well, I'll just throw money at you, cross my fingers and hope for the best.
Hi Palenoue-
Great questions! To your first, absolutely, we want members to suggest games in the future. Coming up with voting and participation mechanisms that are both fair and interesting is tricky, and our plan is to start with details, and work our way up towards bigger and bigger decisions. Artwork is a good place to start, because games need a lot of it, and it is very concrete. "Game ideas" are trickier because they are abstract, and can be difficult to discuss. On top of that, we want to make games that can be created fairly quickly, so the players don't have to wait for months while the game gets put together. But that said, our goal is to gradually push the envelope, and have the members of Puzzle Clubhouse creating as much of the games as possible! Any thoughts on the best way to make this happen are very welcome!
As for your second question about multiplayer games, we would like to get to them at some point -- in our experience, though, multiplayer games are about 4x to 10x the work of single player games, due to the difficulty of coding them, and the difficulty of testing and debugging them. So -- we don't expect to do them right away, but we'd very much like to build up to them. Your suggestion about multiplayer board and card games is a great one - they are simpler to code than action games, and allow for a lot more customization. We'll definitely put that idea on the list.
Thanks again so much for your support and ideas!
Great idea, I look forward to being an active member.
Two questions:
1> Do you think you'll allow members to suggest games in the future? Right now you're only asking our opinion on elements of a game you created, but later on after you've made several games might you allow us members to create a game from scratch? I've given this concept a lot of thought, as I'm very interested in crowdsourcing projects, and I've looked into different ways to facilitate the decision-making process. I believe this is possible and could lead to very interesting and enjoyable games.
2> Are you going to make any multi-player games? While I enjoy solo puzzle games I do wish there were some good board or card games my friends and I could play online. Also, board and card games would allow members more opportunity to contribute. You could say you need ideas/art/sounds for 100 cards and let us go crazy with the puns ;-)
Showing a sample of two choices out of a larger set seems to "semi-simulate" ranking. It may work out closely to a Condorcet method, but I can't say for sure. It's hard for me to know since I haven't seen anyone evaluate this particular method. It certainly limits expressiveness by not letting users have an opinion about the other choices. It's probably both simpler and more accurate to show all the choices. Then let users pick as many as they want, or let them rate the choices on a scale. Both these methods are good at picking Condorcet winners when they exist anyway (if that was something you were shooting for).
Hi Aaron, thank you for insights into the most useful system to involve our players in the decision process. This is something we are really excited about and as such, we really want to get it right, so your thoughts are very appreciated.
One of the options we were thinking about was a system where we have a pool of six options, for example, and the player is shown at random two of those options and is asked to choose which is better. They do this a number of times, and we eventually have a winner based on those results.
As someone who pays a lot of attention to this type of issue, the idea of making sure the players are never limited in their choices sounds like the exact thing we want to ensure. Voting on a scale or allowing them to choose any many as they like will definitely work just as well.
Thanks again and don't hesitate to provide any more comments or questions you have about the project!
The collective decision making is an interesting element. As I'm sure you're aware, there are a lot of ways to approach collective choices. You can limit users to choosing one option. You can have users rank their options. You can have users select as many options as they want. Or you could have users rate all the options.
Just know that if you choose to limit users to one option that it can cause vote splitting and often select a poor winner. Rankings can get complicated and many of these systems choose poor winners as well. If you think users have the savvy to rate on a scale, then this is a good option. It's easy to calculate the winner (highest average). The other option to simply let users choose as many choices as they want also works well. It's simpler though slightly inferior (mathematically) to rating.
I'd recommend either letting users choose as many as they want or rating their choices. As a director of a nonprofit that focuses on voting theory, this is something I think a lot about. Good luck with your project. I wish you the best.