Saturday, December 22, 2007

An unhappy New Year's Eve

Last New Years eve I decided it would be a great idea to beta test the first disk of Rewind 2006 on my unsuspecting friends. It was the first game built using our Software Development Kit (SDK) that was in development, so much of the programming from previous Rewind builds was different and we wanted to test it to see if our new streamlined code could handle real world game play.

The short answer was, it could.

The long answer was, for me it was the worst New Years Eve EVER!

I popped in the game, asking my willing guinea pigs to play a few rounds, and to really put it through its paces. There was about 30 or so people there, so they all ganged up in teams and away they went with me watching in the background looking for any bugs.

There were a few entry screen issues and some overlay misalignments, but beyond that, functionally it worked perfectly. After only one round I had seen enough and thanked everyone and suggested something lame like, “lets get this party started!”

Except no one got up.

They kept playing. And playing. And playing.

And playing.

Now, I’m not adverse to game playing at any time, as it is my occupation, however I wrote Rewind 2006 and it wasn’t exactly like I could participate knowing all the answers as I did.

So I sat at the back. Alone. For hours.

Happy Frikin’ New Year!

Now, the reason I’m relating this is two fold: First, if you are looking for a GREAT New Years Eve game for groups large or for small, the Game Wave is kinda perfect.

And the second is for my friends. Don’t even think about it, okay?

Have a Happy New Year Everyone, and here’s looking forward to a fabulous 2008!

Cheers - Gavin

Monday, December 17, 2007

The 20th - The most important day of December

Well, for us anyway…

That is the absolute drop-dead date for ordering a Game Wave or a Game Wave game – if you want it under your tree for the 25th that is.

And even that day is pushing it if you ask me. Most places stopped guaranteeing orders last week, but not us.

How do we do it? I have no idea.

Two weeks ago I asked our operations manager what was the final possible order date and after talking to our facilitators and shipping folks that was the date he came up with.

Just in case, I asked him a few days later as well, just to make sure he hadn’t been over imbibing on the eggnog, and once again he insisted the 20th was in fact the date.

So, you only have a few days left to get your order in if you need a Game Wave for Christmas.

Order here.

Of course you could just hold off a bit because the Game Wave is also the perfect New Year’s Eve game as well.

And there’s no rush for ordering for that – until there is.