Postal rate hikes and Going Cardboard shipping rates

Hey all,

Just wanted to let you know that this week, postal rates went up by quite a lot for international shipping.  I sent copies of the film to Australia and Spain yesterday, and it cost $12.75 each.  I have raised the International shipping rate on the film at www.boardgamemovie.com to $9 from $7 to help compensate.  That still actually leaves me eating some shipping costs, not only from the post office, but packaging costs too.  However, I am cool with splitting the increase with you guys.  I just don't feel right going past the $10 mark for a product that costs $20.

I'm still working on digital options, but if you are on the fence, I would still recommend going with the physical version.  It's got 90 minutes of bonus clips and the Reiner Knizia game that the digital version will not offer.  I know this is the digital age, but in this case, there are a couple distinct advantages to going old school. :)

Happy board gaming everyone!  Looks like I'll be checking out Netrunner in the coming days.  I've told my husband I will play the role of the Corporation.  Looking forward to it.

- Lorien

Going Cardboard gets its first laurels

A few weeks ago, I reported that Going Cardboard had been accepted into the 2012 Gen Con Indy Film Festival. While that was exciting news to read, there's something about seeing the actual laurels that takes it up a knotch. :)

If you're attending Gen Con Indianapolis this August 16 - 19, look for Going Cardboard on the schedule!

More screenings

First, just wanted to make sure people were aware, I've added ConnectiCon to the screenings list, AAAAAAAND the film was just accepted into the GenCon Indy Film Festival, and will be showing at GenCon in Indianapolis, IN, August 16th - 19th. I'm certainly not done adding screening dates, so if you know of a con that could stand a screening, holler back! ;) Especially overseas cons, I don't have enough of those on the map.


View Going Cardboard Screenings in a larger map

And then there's this:

Catan short films

So suddenly we have not one, but two shorts covering the godfather of designer gateway games, The Settlers of Catan. This is great! 'The Politics of Competitive Board Gaming Amongst Friends,' a short documentary video about The Settlers of Catan. I read about it on slashfilm.com.



Very interesting to compare/contrast with the new Wil Wheaton web series about board games, especially given that the latest episode of that is about the very same Settlers of Catan.



My initial reaction to the Wheaton version was that the dialog felt forced. Others have commented about several rules mistakes in the play session. It's natural to be hyper-critical of something like this, so I'm trying to take it and appreciate the fact that someone with some serious celebrity status is bringing attention to tabletop gaming. That said, I think I like the Cheel effort better in this case. It might not do as smooth a job of recruiting new players, but it just felt more authentic to me.

Rumor has it, the CEO of my own company is a ruthless Catan player. I always wondered if it might be a career-limiting move for me to challenge him to a game...

PAX East

Just wanted to share a couple quick videos from PAX East.  It was a BLAST, though I was only there on Friday.  What a Friday it was, though.  For starters, at a convention with tens of thousands of people milling around, I bumped into Scott Nicholson almost immediately. :)  Board gaming ensued:



10 PM arrived before I knew it, and it was time to screen Going Cardboard!  It was so cool to actually be holding a panel event at this convention. There was a good-sized audience in attendance, and I couldn't help but capture a little of their reaction on my phone.

 

After the screening and a robust Q&A session, I was able to get in a couple games of Jungle Speed and Spot It! with the Geek Nights guys and their splinter cell of board gamers. Both of those were must-have titles!

Boston Globe looks at designer gaming

It's been a crazy few weeks, but I wanted to give you all a heads-up on an article coming out in this Sunday's Boston Globe. It's about designer gaming, and it's a much lengthier treatment than is typically seen by the mainstream press. The author, Leon, really did his homework and spoke with many designers and publishers, both established and indie, as well as watching my documentary.

I was really impressed with the amount of research time he put into this. I would encourage everyone to share this article. Let's send a message that the topic has value and the attention was well-warranted.

Going Cardboard has launched

It's been one hell of a week, but the long-awaited day has arrived.  Going Cardboard is completed, in stock, and available for sale!  You can purchase the film either directly at www.goingcardboard.com, or, if you are putting together a combo gift, you could order a board game along with it via GameSalute.com, our partner distributor.

As Kickstarter backers started to receive their copies this week, I held my breath. Would they like it? What would the feedback be like? The designer board gaming crowd can be quite critical about their hobby, and I was really hoping the film would live up to expectations, and be worth the wait.

It appears that so far, they like it. They really like it!

Here are a couple initial reviews:

A Kickstarter Christmas: Going Cardboard — a documentary about board games

and a video review!



New screenings continue to pop up, and I've just added 3 new dates to the screenings schedule - two in Nashville (one's coming right up, March 9), and one in St. Louis! More to come. :)

Children vs. Designer Games

I've seen blog articles from time to time from moms who tried introducing their young kids to designer games like The Settlers of Catan, only to have the experience end badly when one child or another throws a fit related to losing the game. These entries are borderline accusative in tone: "You all led me to believe that board gaming would be a rewarding experience for my child, but it was horrible!" They conclude that gaming is a bad option, that their child is just too young (which maybe true in some cases) and that the wisest course of action is to retreat to the tv room.

I want to share my own experience, because I almost fell into the same trap, despite everything I know about the virtues of designer gaming as a teaching tool.

We have a 4 year-old boy and a 6 year-old girl, and we've been teaching them to play designer board games. A few weekends ago, we broke out Incan Gold. This is a press-your-luck style game where you venture into a temple, Indiana Jones-style, and try to collect as many gems as you can while getting out before the expedition's untimely end at the hands of snakes, rockslides, spiders, and so forth.

So my 4 year old son is the last one in the temple, and he just keeps pressing his luck for the sheer joy of revealing the next card and amassing more riches. We keep warning him that he better get out soon, but he didn't comprehend the reasoning of why. So when the spiders got him, and we broke the news that he would keep none of the treasures in front of him, it happened. He burst into tears, and ran off to hide behind the couch and cry. I tried to bring him around, but it just wasn't happening, so the game pretty much ended there.

It was not a good experience, not for anyone involved.

The following weekend, we announce we are going to play a board game again. His first request? "Incan Gold, Mommy, can we play Incan Gold?" Now I was a little surprised at this, and we'd had a secret conversation a few minutes before where we'd decided we would play Ave Caesar instead since Incan Gold had been a bust last time. I didn't expect he'd want a rematch. But of course I was happy to encourage it, thinking to myself that this time I would be more explicit about the risks involved, so at least he understood his choices more clearly.

So we played again, and on the first round, his big sister was the last one in the temple, and got buried under a rockslide. She'd observed the whole affair last time, and to my delight, she took it in good spirit, flipping her stuffed puppy upside down and declaring, "Butterscotch got buried!"

Colin also met some bad ends during the course of the game, but he too took it well, and at the end of the game, who was the fair and square winner? COLIN. You should have seen his face.

I can't even count the ways this was a good learning experience for both of them. And it was a learning experience for me too. Look what I would have denied them had I quit at the first sign of adversity, just thrown up my hands and said, "Oh, that was just no fun, we can try it again in a few years when they're older." and left him with just that initial experience, the feeling of not only having lost, but of having ended the game for everyone else? What kind of long-term memory of gaming would THAT have been?

Compare that to the triumph of the second session, even if he hadn't won it, and it's just night and day. One thing we do not want to teach our kids is that when the going gets tough, it's time to walk away. Now granted, for some kids, they ARE too young, but it reminded me not to give up after one initial bad experience, because a golden growth moment could be just around the corner.

See you at PAX East

Just a little update to the screenings list I wanted to mention; PAX East.

Yes, it's official. Going Cardboard will be screening at PAX East. It's tentatively scheduled for Friday, April 6th, at 9:30 PM in the Arachnid room (how thoughtful, they clearly know of my intense love for spiders). I will be there, and I hope to see you New Englanders there too! I'll continue to add screenings as they are booked, of course.

Last night I did battle with mailmerging the Kickstarter mailing lists onto shipping labels. This morning I woke up at 5 and couldn't sleep, so I went downstairs and started assembling more components packs. It's like how chickens know when an earthquake is coming; the DVDs are being printed up this week, and are going to be shipping out VERY soon (on the scale of hours from now more than days, and definitely not weeks).

Here it comes, Khan...

Going Cardboard Has Gone Gold

This is the part where I get to make the long awaited and super-clever announcement: Going Cardboard has gone gold!

Yesterday afternoon, the final proof copy of the DVD arrived. I tested it out on the XBox and PS3. Today it was tested on a regular DVD player, a PC, and a Mac. All systems go. They also ran a triple-check test to ensure that the DVD is also Region-free.

A little while ago, I gave the official green light to the manufacturer. The word is given.



So within a week or two, the DVDs will be here. And then we cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war!



Oh, and guess what else happened today? The official IMDb listing for Going Cardboard went up! Don't get TOO excited; there's nothing there yet but the most basic of information, but I'll change that in short order.

Screenings Schedule

Official list of screenings for Going Cardboard: A Board Game Documentary.


View Going Cardboard Screenings in a larger map




July 13 - 15, 2012
Hartford, Connecticut
ConnectiCon

July, 2012
Aukland, New Zealand
Board Games by the Bay Con

August 16 - 19, 2012
Indianapolis, Indiana
GenCon Indy Film Festival

September 1, 2012
10:30 PM, Unicorn Theatre
Seattle, Washington
PAX Prime







PAST SCREENINGS

1/4/2012
Berlin, Germany
Esperanto Screening

1/12/2012
MIT, Cambridge, MA
GAMBIT Game Film Series

1/19/2012
University of Maryland, College Park, MD
ThatCamp Games

2/8/2012
Berlin, Germany
Das FilmCafe

2/17 - 18/2012
(2/17 4PM; 2/18 5PM)
Los Angeles, CA
Orccon 2012 (Strategicon)

2/17 - 18/2012
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Game Summit
Register!

2/25/2012
Saturday, noon and 7 PM
Mansfield, MA
TotalCon

3/2/2012
Indianapolis, IN
Who's Yer Con

3/3/2012
Bucharest, Romania
BOARDGAMES Day

March 9 - 11, 2012
Nashville, TN
Tennessee Game Days



March 17, 2012
Winter Park, FL
Cool Stuff Games

March 22 - 25, 2012
Vancouver, WA
Gamestorm

March 23 - 25, 2012
Memphis, TN
MidSouthCon 4/6/2012
Boston, MA
PAX East 2012

April 9th and 10th, 2012
Ashland, OR
Funagain Games


April 13 – 15, 2012
Chicago, IL
Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo

April 21, 2012
Manchester, NH
Myriad Games

May 17 - 20, 2012
St. Louis, MO
Geekway to the West

May 25 - 27, 2012
Birmingham, UK
UK Games Expo

June 22 - 24, 2012
Belfast, Ireland
Q-Con

Premiere Screening Night for Going Cardboard

This past Thursday night was a huge milestone for the film - my first screening in front of a live audience of people I didn't know personally. The film had screened earlier this month in Berlin, Germany (also awesome given it's ties to German board gaming), but this was the first showing in the US, and also the first one I would be at, and it included a Q&A session afterward. Nervous does not begin to describe. The film is basically done at this point, but a public screening like this gave me the chance to observe audience reaction, and another viewing to assess the need for any final edits or tweaks.



The screening took place as part of the GAMBIT film series, put on by the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab. The theme was movies about gaming, and Jason Scott's Get Lamp was shown the following evening. The event was free to the public, and it took place in the swanky and iconic domed building at MIT. I got a little walking tour of the campus before-hand, which included a peek into the room where the screening was to be held.



Around 6:45 we started setting things up, and people were already filtering in at that point. A number of good friends I hadn't seen in ages came, and it was very comforting to know I had allies in the room. My editor, Jason Scott, was in attendance, as was Greg Lam, an indie designer who runs Pair-of-Dice Games and is featured in the film.


The audience starts to form

Before I knew it I was welcoming the audience and giving a totally noob intro, and then the lights went down and the movie started. I scuttled off to the back of the room to try and watch both the crowd and the film at the same time. I think there were 40 - 50 people in total, which felt like quite a lot. Finally, about 10 minutes into the showing, the constant stress and tension I'd been feeling for the prior two days melted away. People were enjoying it. They were paying attention, laughing at the right moments, and by the end of the screening, nobody had walked out.

The lights came up to a round of applause that I will totally never get used to but is an amazing feeling, and we dove right into the Q&A. The questions were good, there were plenty of them, and I think my answers were more or less on target. The Q&A lasted about half an hour I think, and then I got to chat with people for another half hour or so, and then a bunch of us went to Legal Seafoods to celebrate. It felt like such a perfect culmination of all the hard work over the past three years, and while that work isn't done quite yet (there's that small matter of a DVD to create, and a schedule of screenings to organize and publicize, marketing to be done, etc.) it was unbelievably gratifying and very much an "it all comes down to this and it was worth it!" night.

So the night before, I couldn't sleep due to nervousness. That night, I couldn't sleep due to cloud 9 syndrome. I woke up very tired but still thrilled around 5 AM the next day to get ready for work. One final surprise was waiting for me. A review was already up for the film! And it was a positive review! And it was thorough, and they'd clearly been paying attention and... oh what's this? This review was written by ANDREW PLOTKIN??? OMG! He's a major mind in the field of text adventures. I'd seen him at the screening and recognized him right away because he's in Get Lamp, and had gone over to say hi. It was already an honor just to have him there at the event, but then for the first-ever review of Going Cardboard to be written by someone like that? Too cool. Far, FAR too cool.

There is more work to do. There will be more screenings, and there will be more Q&A sessions, and doubtless more fun moments to come (and frustrations/haters/bad reviews/criticism too of course), but I could not have crafted a better premiere. The MIT Game Lab has my undying gratitude for making it all possible.

Island Fortress on Kickstarter

Hey all!

So, I wanted to bring your attention to a particular Kickstarter by one Bryan Johnson, for a game called Island Fortress.



Here's the project on Kickstarter. It's got 11 days to go, and it's going well, but you ought to get in on it if you can. Why? Because Bryan plays a big part in my film, and after watching it, you will probably want to have seen his Kickstarter succeed. :)

And when will you be watching it? Soon, my friend. SOON.

Going Cardboard: A Documentary Trailer

My editor/mentor/hero, Jason Scott, has been a busy guy. In fact, this week we've BOTH been burning the midnight oil editing for Going Cardboard. He's been working on the film itself, and my assignment was: do the trailer.

It was quite daunting at first. Trying to encapsulate the whole film into 2 minutes or so, and doing it in the fast-paced flashy way that trailers do is, I want to say, arguably much harder than making the film itself. Well, the rough cut anyway.

I knew conceptually what I wanted to do. I wanted it to start out slow and peaceful, and evoke the memories most of us have of playing board games as kids. Serene and nostalgic. And then, I wanted to kick off rocking music, and WHOAH, look at board games today! Rawwwr!

So I spent a few days searching for just the right music to do that while I started throwing bits of this concept together. It was quite a struggle, until I hit on exactly the music I wanted. I knew basically right away this was the right track. And once I had that, the rest of the trailer really fell in line. The final result has the feel I wanted it to. I hope you like it!

Going Cardboard Teaser from Lorien Green on Vimeo.

(here's the YouTube link)

Hair of the dog that bit me

So, if you wake up groggy from a precious few hours of sleep after a late, late night session working on your documentary (and believe me, you pretty much look like this), what do you do? Grab a coffee and get back to work!

Last night after working on the trailer and reviewing Jason's latest cut of the film, I went a step further. I've got two bonus sequences (and a bit in the movie) that talk about Avalon Hill. Eric Martin was kind enough to loan me some early Avalon Hill games a few months back, so I have cutaway shots of those. But one sequence in particular talks about Avalon Hill's newsletter, the General. I didn't have supporting images for that one, and though one might argue, "It's just a bonus segment, it doesn't have to be as fancy as the feature film!" I wanted something.

Luckily, the crowd over at boardgamegeek.com came to my rescue. I reached out to two members there, and just my luck, one of them happened to have been a former Avalon Hill employee! They were both happy to help out (as were several other BGG members before them, for random images here and there).

Supporting assets MAKE a documentary. These guys will be credited in the film, of course, but when you're watching the film and its bonus sequences, you have Rodger MacGowan and Thom Denholm to thank for the great Avalon Hill images.

The latest on Going Cardboard

Here’s the latest for you all on everything Going Cardboard.

First, I recently checked in with the Ninja vs. Pirate podcast to discuss board gaming and the film. You can check that out here:

http://ninjavspirates.libsyn.com/nv-p-6x10-going-cardboard-with-lorien-green

In the past month, the final proof for the DVD packaging (with Reiner Knizia's Shoot-Out board game insert) arrived, and it looks fantastic. Not to be out-done, the proofs for the components to the game arrived a few days later. Did I mention that the DVD comes with bits for the game? There are bullet counters, a D-20, two little cowboy meeples, and the cards you need to play, illustrated by the talented Mr. Rick Schmitz.

A lot of my current efforts are surrounding the Kickstarter campaign rewards. The first box of autographed board games has arrived, and the coasters, of course, which come in two designs created by my animator, Kerry Hutton.

This week I’m looking into the right shipping boxes to buy, for both the different Kickstarter tiers, and the regular retail shipping of the DVD. Editing is progressing on the film as well, of course.

Among other things, I’ve been working with my editor to select additional music for the soundtrack. I can’t be sure how long before I‘m actually holding the finished DVD in hand, but the many parts of this machine are falling into place to support that goal.

In related board gaming news, there’s this nonsense going on with a board game collector claiming a record collection size of just over 1,500 board games.

http://newssun.suntimes.com/news/6863421-418/lake-villa-man-wants-to-be-chairman-of-the-board.html

Needless to say, that’s not even CLOSE to the record. As per my teaser trailer of over a year ago...

Collecting Designer Board Games from Lorien Green on Vimeo.

James and Sheila Davis’ collection was hovering around 11,500. They’ve passed 12,000 since then, and THEY are not even the largest-known collection out there. What‘s up with that, Guinness?!

SPIEL fair expands to fill an additional hall for 2011 show

I just received the SPIEL 2011 newsletter, and according to this:

Once again the steady growth being seen in the international games market will be reflected at the world's largest trade fair for social gaming. This year a further hall is being added to accomodate the increasing number of people who come to the fair. The additional hall (hall 7) will house the part of the fair where board and card games are exhibited. This will bring the overall total of exhibit halls in use at the fair to 11.

That's right. This one goes to 11! Those who have seen the halls know, this is a BIG addition. The halls are HUGE. If you've never seen them, well... you WILL, when Going Cardboard: A Board Game Documentary debuts. Which should be sometime this fall. Or at least this year. ASAP, believe me.

Notice, they are now calling it "social gaming" which I assume encompasses board and card games, as well as other tabletop games. Interesting way of categorizing it, though I would say video games are often social, too.

The latest

Hope everyone is enjoying their 4th of July holiday! Just a quick update on things...

- The subtitle translations for German and Spanish have been completed. There are a couple others being worked on.

- Editing continues. I've seen some of the updated footage, and it looks GREAT! However, it's looking like the film will not be ready in time for PAX Prime. I'll keep everyone posted.

- The art for the DVD cover, board game insert, and the DVD disc itself are DONE, baby! If I haven't mentioned, the case will be transparent, so the inside cover art will show through when you open it up.

So what's left? Once the editing is done, there's that whole process of building the DVD menu and mastering the DVD. I'm both excited and fearful about that, as I think it represents the largest remaining hurdle/learning curve to getting this thing out.

Until next time, true believers!

The Legend Continues

I wanted to share some updates about what I've been doing on the film, as it's been a while. Time flies!

As you know, the DVD comes with Reiner Knizia's Shoot-Out, a 2-player board game. I'm also pleased to announce that all DVDs will come with the components for Shoot-Out, rather than having to pillage them from some other game or buy them separately. A do-gooder from Games on the Brain put me in touch with a great manufacturer that helped make this possible. It's very cool to get a little taste of what publishing a board game is actually like.

You'll also be able to order the movie directly from GameSalute.com (even pre-order it once I get them the stuff they asked for). More on that soon, but these are the guys that hosted the Going Cardboard teaser trailer in their booth on the GenCon show floor last year, and I'm very pleased to be working with them.

The DVD inside and outside cover are in final draft stage, and looking beautiful. I don't expect to make any more changes to those, so they are just about ready to print. The movie itself is still undergoing polish, and has a ways to go there. I'm very pleased with what I've seen so far on that, and I'll keep you posted on an ETA as one becomes clearer.

It's keeping a lot of plates spinning in the air at once, but so far none of them have smashed to the floor. :)

The Legacy of T-Cat

"My heart has joined the thousand, for my friend stopped running today." - Richard Adams

You may not want to read this one, it's not about the movie per se, but it is something I have to relate.

On Thursday, May 26, 2011 at about 6:00 PM, I lost my best friend and partner in crime, Toes. My cat. I think I've mentioned on this blog before that she'd been diagnosed with lymphoma back last October, and though they had operated to remove the tumor, it was likely only a matter of time. I thought that fact would help prepare me for when the day came. It didn't.

The tumor on her forehead had come back over the past month, and over the past week, her eye had swollen shut. I woke up yesterday basically knowing it was time. Her behavior had changed and she'd started hiding out in the basement. Pretty much the ONLY cue a cat will give you that they are in pain. So when I took her to the vet yesterday evening, I was not surprised to hear him in agreement with me that it was time. I said, "Just do it." I kissed her on the forehead and told her I loved her, and that was pretty much it.

I was fine for a while. But by last night I was not fine, and here it is Friday afternoon and I'm still FAR from fine. So I wanted to write this, to say as much as I could about what Toes meant to me. She was the reason I named my LLC "T-Cat Productions" and she's now my logo for the company, but there was so much more.

I had Toes for 11 years. She was really small, I called her Toes because her toes were so tiny. She talked to me and I talked to her. She rode around the house on my shoulders. Every single all-nighter I ever did for the film, she was there by my side. Or rather, getting in front of the monitor and interfering. She chattered at birds, and she loved eating yogurt. She either slept under the covers with me or in the crook of my arm, and would get so excited to know it was bedtime so she could cuddle. She was also just getting good with Maddy, my 5-year old daughter, to the point that she'd sleep on her too. She had no interest in escaping the house.

Here's a video of her I took while making the Hustream video presentation:




Note how she looks in the appropriate place where the action buttons would later be, and give you a direct look at just the right time. Yes, Toes had screen presence, she did, she was a natural!

And now she's gone and I wasn't prepared for how hard that is. I know I'll get through it, and she deserves some grieving, but right now there's a big empty hole in my life. I'll miss her. I wish I could have had her for another 5 - 10 years, even though I know it wouldn't have made saying goodbye any easier. I will never forget her.