Weekly Update 8/19/2009
Posted on | August 19, 2009 | No Comments
The contest to design the first card is going well. There are several designs so far including a couple that really are spectacular.
I’ve had a couple people get in touch that are interested in working with me. I’ll talk more with them over the next few weeks and I might walk out of this with a cofounder!
The last piece of exciting company news is that I’ll be at the TechCrunch50 conference on September 14-15! I’m not presenting – I considered entering at one point but I knew I wouldn’t even have an ugly demo ready by then, let alone an attractive, professional looking demo. I’ll just be schmoozing, making contacts, and looking for partners and maybe investors. If you’ll be there or are interested in meeting up while I’m in San Francisco, send me a message or Tweet me (@geekstack).
WARNING: Particularly programmery-nerdy parts ahead.
This week I started the 3rd rewrite of the core game engine code. Each of the rewrites have come when the assumptions I made ran out of room to maneuver in and I had fairly well worked out the problems related to a certain area of the code. For instance, the v3 that I just retired was mainly about moving cards around within one player’s zones and executing some of the actions on those cards. I worked out a lot of kinks in that area but got to the point where I would have to change a lot of code to implement my newest understanding of the problem. Rather than go through the tedious process of changing all of the code to reflect that, I prefer to start with a clean file and write code that incorporates all of the parts of the problem I have seen since the last rewrite. This gives me a chance to implement pieces that I postponed, in this case how to include multiple players in a game and how the system will track multiple games at once.
Even though this sounds like more work, it usually ends up taking the same time to rewrite as it would to edit. Plus, when I’m done rewriting, I have code that’s shorter, cleaner and more consistent, and includes more functionality. Since I’m responsible for all of this, any time I can add design and understanding to reduce complexity and remove code, I need to.
Email Newsletter Signup Fixed – Sign up Now!
Posted on | August 19, 2009 | No Comments
There was a mixup with my mailing list provider and some people reported being unable to sign up for the email newsletter. That is fixed now so if you have had problems or just haven’t signed up yet, use the form in the right-hand column.
MacMod – Millenium Falcon Mac mini
Posted on | August 18, 2009 | No Comments
ac Users – Millenium Falcon Mac mini.
Euler’s Identity T-Shirt
Posted on | August 17, 2009 | No Comments
More on Euler’s Identity
Science Retro Funny Tee T-shirt from Zazzle.com
Posted on | August 17, 2009 | No Comments
Science Retro Funny Tee T-shirt from Zazzle.com.
Create the Art for the First GeekStack Card
Posted on | August 15, 2009 | 4 Comments
I’ve just posted a design contest to create the art for the first GeekStack card over at 99designs.
Science Heroes Art – 1st of over 200 Pictures Needed!
It was actually a good exercise because it forced me to put into words some of the basic premises and requirements of the project. Here’s the information:
GeekStack trading card: Heroes of Science and Technology
About me
I’m making an online trading card came. Think Magic the Gathering or Pokemon, but with a science and technology theme. I’ve seen and experienced the sheer volume of information that kids retain from the games they play, and I’ve seen the fanatic, almost obsessive lengths people will go to for trading card games and it looked like a match made in heaven.
I’m developing the game engine so my game can be played online, but I need it to look outstanding in order for it to be successful. The art, concepts, graphics and visual design in mainstream trading card games are extraordinary and that’s the bar that I need to clear to complete.
This is the first card design, meant to be used on the website, in early promotional and marketing materials as well as be included in the set. I haven’t figured out exactly how many cards will be in the first set but I would imagine it’s between 200 and 300 cards, all of which will need their own art. So this is just the beginning of things yet to come.
Target Audience
Trading card games have served a few major demographics. Games like Pokemon and YuGiOh were aimed at children 6-10. Other games like Magic the Gathering and World of Warcraft TCG were split between early teenagers discovering the game for the first time and dedicated adult players (both have organized tournaments, for example). I would like to aim for the second category, young teenager-ish people, say ages 11-15. Similar to the kind that would buy a Lego Mindstrom kit or enter a FIRST Robotics league.
The purpose of the game is to create an immersive experience, where each player is trying to use science to improve the world. Sounds wishy-washy and goody-two-shoesy, but there are a variety of ways to accomplish that (note: since the game is still being designed, none of these are definite). You could invent or improve something useful, you could make money to change the world another way, you could make the public more aware of science to increase the demand for it, etc. The game will cover all aspects of how science takes place in the real world, including funding, education, deployment, industry, advocacy, etc. The structure and rules of the game are meant to be a simulation of the real world, so that just like Madden helps you understand football much better, hopefully playing GeekStack will give a greater appreciation for how science makes the world better.
Requirements
Produce the art for one card. The subject of the card will be John Von Neumann. He was one of the prominent mathematicians of the 20th century and among other things, invented game theory, oversaw the design and construction of the first programmable computer, and did the math behind early weather prediction. More information is at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_von_Neumann and all over the web.
The art should be representative of his accomplishments and abilities, not just a picture of what he looked like. Bring the magnitude of his accomplishments, intelligence, and creativity into the picture without just being a slideshow of his life. I haven’t settled on a style (cartoony, comic book, painting-like, etc); this contest is a way to see the range of designs available, so don’t feel constricted.
Format will be similar to popular trading card games, roughly half of of a 2.5″x3.5″ trading card. I haven’t worked how the printing size translates to pixels, but ithe picture should be at least 1024×1024 px. It may be cropped to fit the shape and size of the box when the card layout is finalized, but the whole art may be used on the website, marketing materials, etc.
For examples of cards from other games, see
http://www.wizards.com/magic/tcg/article.aspx?x=mtg/tcg/magic2010/spoiler
and
http://entertainment.upperdeck.com/wow/en/products/huntforillidan/default.aspx
Thanks to Jason and Welcome TWiSt Fans
Posted on | August 14, 2009 | 1 Comment
Today I was on This Week In Startups with a question for Ask Jason and he gave me some good advice about how to proceed with GeekStack as a business.
For those new to GeekStack, my background is that I’m a part-time solo founder with a wife, kids, a mortgage and a job. Basically the opposite of the prototypical startup founder, and I asked him what I could do given my situation. His main advice for me was to find a cofounder and possibly an investor who understands what effect my life would have on the burn rate.
Then he worked the Calacanis magic and had everyone listening tweet something along the lines of “@geekstack is looking for a cofounder with design and art skills for a trading card game startup”. I got lots of tweets and that was from the 300 or so people watching live. Hopefully lots more people will see it and get in touch once the episode is available for download.
Which brings me to the point: While I feel like I’ve got a good shot at being successful on my own, having a cofounder to share the work with and complement my strengths would improve my chance of success and time to market. I’d also be open to an accomodating investor. Specifically, if you’re:
- interested in joining a startup
- passionate about games and education
- ***have graphic design and art skills*** (this is my biggest need)
- willing to invest in me and my idea
Then please email me at peter@geekstack.com. I’ll try to get in touch with you as quickly as I can, and hopefully we can make something awesome together!
DESIGNERS:
See also the next post about the contest to design the first GeekStack card! It’s a small prize ($100) but I’m going to need 200-300 more pieces of card art over the next 6-9 months so take a look!
Quick Update 8/14/2009
Posted on | August 14, 2009 | No Comments
I’ve been working on the game engine for the last month or so. It started out slowly because everything I tried to do required 4 or 5 or 6 supporting pieces. The nice thing is that I’ve been picking up speed lately because I’ve been able to use the utilities I wrote for the earlier functions. Right now I have most of the classes defines for cards, costs, actions, etc. There’s a nice framework for writing new actions although the only action you can do right now is to move a card from one zone to another. You can add and spend resources and right now I’m working on allowing alternate costs. There’s enough visible progress that I’ll make more frequent status updates.
Make your own Chemistry lab
Posted on | July 24, 2009 | No Comments
How good were the old [chemistry] sets? They were certainly more exciting, stocked with iodine and nitrates good for making unstable explosives or homemade rocket motors. Chlorine and cyanide compounds could emit deadly gases. A few chemicals turned out to cause cancer.
Kits from the 1920s to the 60s might include radioactive uranium, deadly sodium cyanide, or pure magnesium foil that burns at 4,000°F, with manuals that told how to mix up gunpowder or melt sand red-hot to blow your own glass test tubes. The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments debuted in 1960, packed with risky experiments. Its 19th-century predecessor, The Boy’s Own Book, had 20-plus pages of chemistry and fireworks recipes.
People tolerated more risk back then, but in exchange, generations of young experimenters were rewarded with deeper discoveries, bigger thrills, and the satisfaction of daring to achieve something important for the future.
Rocketry, nuclear energy, plastics — new sciences that were changing the world — were all highlighted in popular chemistry sets of the mid-20th century. Many of today’s scientists and engineers trace their careers back to the excitement of that first set.
via Make: Online : Great balls of fire! Make your own Chemistry lab….
When life gives you lemons, build robots
Posted on | July 24, 2009 | No Comments
I smashed my finger in my door today. It hurt like hell, and I need to make sure I didn’t hurt it again.
But I had to type! So I built a splint/typing claw out of a Lego NXT kit I had sitting around.
Obviously it’s a short step to building a mechanized exoskeleton for my finger. So that’s what I did. One button lowers the finger, the other raises it. If I move it on my own, it will automatically bring it back to the resting position.
