Post-Apocalyptic Board Games - A Millennium Game Update

New Millennium Game Box

Hey folks, I hope all is well by you and that being home isn't driving you up the walls. Many people have adapted to working from home as I did 12 years ago. It's best if you have a dedicated home office, otherwise, the distractions are maddening.

Family game night is back and so it's a good time to try something new if you're tired of the old classic games. I was hoping to get Millennium out there by the September 11 deadline but since the manufacturer (TheGameCrafter.com) had been closed and I've had to add additional COVID-19 theme cards and chits, that has set me back a bit.

But no worries, the game is better than ever and holding up nicely despite minor delays. I still have a gameplay video to produce once they print the final prototype. Mama mia, (I'm watching the Godfather for the 100th time as I work) this game is never done.

Grazie. Prego.

Absolutely one of the best films ever made. You gotta love the classics and that includes classic games but once in a while you have to take a walk on the wild side. Like watching Mad Max Fury Road for a change. That's a modern classic right there.

I like to think that Millennium will become a modern classic game in its own right someday. I designed it with that thought in mind so the game does have many classic themes and scenes that resonate and are familiar to many players.

That's one thing to keep in mind when you design a board game of any kind. It's best if a new game has familiar mechanics and themes that all players can relate to. I've always been fond of stories that take you back in time and so that's a big part of Millennium, as the cover shows.

But the game is about so much more than visiting the past as it explores Earth's possible future, which is a hopeful one. The themes and plot devices run deep in the game and so it is also more than a search and rescue game. Millennium lives and plays on many levels and draws you in and takes you in many directions. There are many choices and you'll have plenty of decisions to make along the way so its many adventures are unpredictable.

It's going to be an exciting game and I really look forward to announcing when the game is finally done. Soon. Hopefully very soon.

Meanwhile, let's be safe out there.

Hill Street Blues. (Google it youngbloods.)

COVID-19 And The Apocalypse - Just Ask Robert De Niro

Like most Americans, I'm stuck at home trying to find myself amid this COVID-19 chaos. But in all fairness, I've been stuck at home, half-crippled for the past 13 years after my brush with death of another kind back in 2007.

But that's another story for another time. Right now, the world is standing still; waiting for who knows what else. I happened to catch Robert De Niro last night on CNN saying that this COVID-19 virus is like a bad movie. I get that same feeling because it just seems unreal when you see the barren streets of Times Square and other big cities, like ghost towns.

How did we get here?

I've seen enough boring bookcases lately.

It's a double whammy for me but nevertheless, I go on with my life as we all must go on with our daily routines, masks firmly in place. Either find a hobby or load a gun. I stopped watching television altogether, except for an occasional good movie that comes around. You know, it's mostly re-runs these days. Not that Hollywood wasn't already rebooting every show known to humankind before the virus. As for the live shows from home. No thanks, I've seen enough boring bookcases lately. It's all horrible and unwatchable.

The late-night shows were horrible before the virus with all the ass-kissing hosts on full display, night after night. Always trying to be so damn nice and proper as if their guests are so delicate and vulnerable to life's hard truths. It's appalling what this world, especially the entertainment industry has come to these days. There's no edge. No honesty in anything they say or how they present it. They are absolutely unwatchable ass kissers, panderers, and politically correct left-wingers. A bunch of sore losers who still can't get over Trump being president.

Get over it people. The son-of-a-bitch will most likely win another 4 years. I'm pretty much apolitical in case you haven't noticed by now. And forget Bernie Sanders. He seems to mean well, but it's all just a scam. Like most politicians, he just uses politics as a publicity platform. It's a disgrace.

What else can I say?

It seems the apocalypse has snuck up on us and delivered it's first glancing blow as we await its full fury in the form of nuclear war. What else can we expect? Is COVID-19 the beginning of the end? Who knows?

I can't call it. It's anyone's guess at this point. We'll have to go along for the ride of our lives and see where all this takes us.

Hopefully, it leaves us in a better place providing we can survive it. From De Niro's point of view, we're all stuck in a movie scenario, something unreal.

Except that COVID-19 is very real.

So suck it up buttercup and deal with it, people.

Deal with it!

New Post-Apocalyptic Board Games - Baby Hitler?

New Post-Apocalyptic Board Games

Just when you thought it was safe to get into the water . . .

Hey folks, I've been burning the midnight oil and here's what I came up with so far.

I'm having a great time putting together the new Millennium expansion game, Manhunt in Berlin and Beyond. It's a bit of work since board games usually are but that's the fun part in so many ways; trying to figure out the best mechanics for the game and making it work.

Imagine if Adolph Hitler had escaped to Argentina back in 1945. That would be news indeed if we could prove it. Rumors of that kind started right after the end of WWII by the Russians and the fact that thousands of Nazi's fled to South America with the help of the Vatican, helps to fuel these rumors and inspire even more conspiracy theories.

That's the theme I based this new expansion game on and it should make for an interesting and fun game. What's fun about that war? That's where baby Hitler comes in. Here's a baby that only a mother could love. Imagine that.

So there's a funny angle I can't pass up and the expression on his face says it all. He already might have been planning something sinister for sure.

You just can't make this stuff up. BTW, that's a clipping of Hitler's real mustache. (Needs some trimming) Yes, I am very dedicated to my craft.

I hadn't planned on showing this game card but how can I resist? That haircut alone is priceless. Okay, this is hard to top so I'll end it here. I'm not sure how I'll use this baby Hitler photo yet but I'll come up with something. Or better yet, if you guys can come up with a funny gag for it, please let me know and I'll use it.

Baby Hitler

Don't forget to sign up for email updates (upper right column) if you want to keep track of all this insanity.

Meanwhile, I'll get back to work on this baby Hitler card and see what I come up with.

Maybe I'll take it back to when the photo was taken and have his mother say something revealing and funny.

The possibilities are endless. Stay tuned for the final version of the Baby Hitler game card, coming soon.

Auf Wiedersehen!

Product Packaging - Does Yours Have a Hook? [Apocalypse Board Games]

All-New Millennium Game Box

When it comes to product packaging, products are no different than a movie poster, a novel, or a short story; the secret to designing a killer package is to give it an irresistible hook.

Right, you thought hooks were just for movies and novels, well think again because everything needs a hook. Even your hooks need a hook because without a hook, it's just another cog in the big machine. This brings to mind a cliche, the squeaky wheel gets the oil.

Think about that. So based on this analogy, your product should be squeaking for oil or a damn good hook because without it . . . you get the idea.

And a good hook, of course, is a design element that attracts prospects out of sheer curiosity. Hooks speak to people instantly by engaging them with visual cues that tell a story.

With the Millennium box, the marketing hook is relevant and immediate. This box, this product, this game is not of this world. How do I show that visually? The game box washes up on shore, but notice that it's beaming from above. Not exactly a Star-Trek beam-me-up, Scotty effect, but something similar.

More to the point, this image brings to mind the monolith from 2001 A Space Odyssey. None of these design cues were intentional but given the nature of the game, a futuristic setting, these design elements tend to come naturally as an extension of the genre.

Another hook is the sepia-tone and the juxtaposition of a futuristic woman set in the 1930s past. That's the real product hook. The rest is marketing.

This is the new box I'll be printing shortly. The seal says: Earth's Brightest Journey - Starts Here.

That little zinger keeps the main theme of the game, that all is not lost, front and center. That there is hope for humanity, after all. In other words, this is not a shoot em up, end of the world, the winner takes all game. Yes, the stakes are high and the danger is real ( a potential apocalypse) but there is a silver lining at the end.

The reason for this sort of thinking is that if I had designed the game like all the rest of the apocalypse games known to humankind, then it's just like all those other games. And frankly, I'm not sure how other games play in detail because I don't want to be influenced by their mechanics.

So Millennium, for better or for worse, is as original but as familiar as it gets because it's in a realm of its own. That's what makes it unique and what sets it apart from other apocalyptic games. I think that's a good thing and it remains to be seen if consumers agree with that or not.

Either way, I believe it's a good move and I'm sticking to it and will continue to develop the game along those lines. Right, sometimes you have to take chances because playing it safe is not an option.

If you're struggling with a product and searching for a meaningful hook, leave your comments below so we can figure it out right here. If you can disclose your idea, I'd love to post it to see what we can come up with.

Meanwhile, I'm committing myself to work on the Extension game ( The Fall of Berlin - And Beyond) and hopefully finish it for September release as well. A tall order but not impossible so it's all in the works and I've got to get back to it, folks.

See you back here soon!

Post-Apocalyptic Fiction eBooks - Beyond The Apocalypse is Here

Click HERE For a Preview and Download Free!

Fans of apocalyptic fiction, the third and final book of The Edge of Time book series, Beyond The Apocalypse, is out and free for a limited time (March 1-5) on Amazon!

For what it's worth, I decided to release the final book in this awesome series. Beyond The Apocalypse ties all the loose ends and wraps up the series with a curious question. No spoilers, but what happens when we die?

There are plenty of theories and speculation out there. We've heard of NDE's (near-death-experience) where some people have seen heaven as described in the Bible. Others claim to have gone through tunnels with blinding lights and wormholes that have taken them beyond this realm into other-worldly places.

Whether those visions are part of our collective subconscious or just our over-active imagination, we'll never really know until we get there ourselves.

It's been a great time for me writing these short books and I've complied all three books in the series into one full-length novel of about 295 pages.

I'm not sure when I'll release the novel but I might publish it on Barnes and Noble in a collectible hardcover edition, most likely by next year.

Right now I'm turning my full attention to finishing the Millennium Board game and it's Europe Expansion, which I hope both will be out this September 11, 2020.

This expansion fits next to the big six-fold board and the game continues with a manhunt for Hitler at the end of WWII in 1945.

So, from the Millennium board, the full U.S. map, you'll find a time portal on the 89th Meridian, which transports you back to 1945 and inside the fall of Berlin.

From there, the search is on, folks! With the help of numerous clues gleaned from declassified documents, you'll have many paths to follow in search of the infamous and most notorious villain in the world.

Can you find this scoundrel and bring him to justice?

That's the focus of the Europe expansion game, which is still in the works. I think it's a fitting goal to pursue if we want to rewrite a harrowing piece of history and hopefully take our future into a far better place than it is today.

And of course, there's always a fine line between reality and fiction or in this case, conspiracy theories.

But the beauty of this game is its theme and the possibility that this is one conspiracy that just might be true, given the proven facts, based on records, that thousands of Nazi's did indeed flee to a Nazi-sympathizing Argentina under president Juan Peron's rule.

There's a good bit of factual history that helps support the conspiracy theories, so to think that Hitler and his wife, Eva Braun, also managed to successfully escape is not as far-fetched as it sounds.

Again, I'm having a great time putting this expansion game together and it's going to be a great addition to the original Millennium board game because it will add a good deal of thematic depth, resonance, and intrigue. In my book, that's a good formula for the makings of a great game.

And so, my quest to finish both games and link them to the trilogy of books in the upcoming September promotion is indeed a worthy cause to pursue.

I can hardly wait and I hope you'll be there to feast on all these fantastic games and books that are much more than what they seem at first sight.

For me, it's all about a fun and engaging story at its core, wrapped with profound meaning that takes us beyond the status quo and the ordinary, into a new world beyond our imagination.

I wouldn't have it any other way.

Join us in a promising adventure that you won't soon forget. Be there or be square, as we said in the good old days.

See you back here soon with lots more exciting news!

Please leave comments or questions below.

In my next post, I'll explain my approach to marketing board games and books. Right now these products are in stealth mode but as September approaches, that's when CHTF happens. Chits Hit The Fan, which is a good title (coined here) so expect me to use it.

I've got to hustle and polish both games with more playtesting until then. Most of the initial promos will come straight out of The GameCrafter website when both games launch.

Aside from that, I might run an ad in BGG and other key websites but not sure. A lot remains to be seen and I'll play it by ear when the time comes. Gaining momentum is important after launching but so many other things have to be in place before then.

Stay tuned for all the details if you're interested in a case study about marketing new board games. This could be an epic fail without Kickstarter but I'm counting on my promotional materials and the strength and popularity of the game itself to engage consumers to generate sales.

That's a mouthful and that's why it's almost CHTF time.

Enough said. I've got work to do so see you back here soon!

Epic Apocalypse eBook Promo

Epic Apocalypse - Book Two

For those of you following this series, you can now get the second ebook free for a limited time (Feb.23-27) so If you've read the first, here's your chance to follow-up with Epic Apocalypse.

Beyond The Apocalypse - Book Three

I'm also posting a preview of Book Three, Beyond the Apocalypse, the final book in this amazing series, so have a peek.

No worries, these are short stories, about 100 pages each, so they're a quick read. I'm still working on the full-length novel of about 295 pages, which of course includes all three books in this series.

I must say that I've had the time of my life writing these three books and without question, I'll be continuing this series indefinitely. Hopefully, I'll get to the 4th book before the end of this year, although I can't say for sure because the Millennium game is due out this September 11 and I just might be quite busy promoting that for a change.

Things will then come full circle with the game and the three books out for the first time after September and that's a handful right there. Not to mention that I'm also working on a Europe Expansion of the game. I'll be posting those details here soon. I've already started designing the box and the game board and so I'll have about 3 card decks to design and a number of other things to go with it.

So, as you can see, I've got my work cut out to finish up before the end of this year. Once the game is finished I'll be able to get things going so the next several years are all about promoting the game and the books together at conventions and game rooms starting here in Jacksonville and Gainsville, Florida.

Thank you to those who've posted reviews on Goodreads.com. Hopefully, Amazon reviews will follow soon. It's all about finishing the board game now so standby for that.

Enjoy the stories!

Preview Epic Apocalypse

DEVS - A Look at The Hulu Sci-Fi Mini-Series [Alex Garland]

You know I'm a sucker for fascinating sci-fi thrillers but I'm not so sure this qualifies. Although, Devs looks promising. It's Hulu's upcoming mini-series, by Alex Garland, writer/director of The Beach and Ex Machina fame, the latter, which is one of my favorite films and why I'm following Devs.

That being said, we catch a glimpse of a giant doll in this trailer, which looks neither ominous nor mysterious in any way to me but you know, the "Hollywood" movie machine needs stars just like the world of sports and someone has to give it a shot. And I hate to judge a movie by its trailer but I don't have much of a choice at this point.

Can that comment be any more condescending? Probably not but this series reminds me of so many other bad concepts taken on by good players indulging in a bit of bad story-telling. Not exactly a high-concept, but Devs' success remains to be seen so let's cautiously hold our breath for the first episode on March 5.

We just might be surprised.