Upon further Review…

If ever you’ve wanted to be a critic, here’s your chance. We’re looking for some serious rants (but preferably raves) about all of our games.

If you’ve played ‘em, you’ve got to have an opinion and we’re dying to hear just what that opinion is.

We need your input for a couple of reasons: First – we’re making a bunch more games and we need your feedback on what we’ve been doing right, but more importantly what we’ve been doing wrong.

And secondly, shameless self promotion!

We’ll post them on the actual game pages for all to see, so get busy and get raving - especially about all the Rewinds. My boss will read them you know…

We look forward to hearing from you. Submit yours Here

When graphics guys have too much time on their hands...

We know us – so we trust us…

But you don’t, so why should you?

That’s one of things we suddenly came to realize recently. (Hey, we’re great at making games. That doesn’t make us all that bright.)

The Playgamewave.com site was the face we presented to the world who might be interested in our product, and all we provided there was us telling them – the stuff we make was really, really fun, and you and your family are going to love it, and up to six can play and 4Degrees is fun, and so is ZAP 21 and so is Click! and so on and so on….

Now, none of that was untrue.

All of our stuff really is fun. Especially the Rewind games, although since I worked as the editor and head writer on those, I might be a wee bit biased. It’s just we were asking folks to take our word for it.

And since those folks had no idea who we were, they tended not to.

So, we’re focusing now on a couple of things – first, letting people know who we are a bit through things like this blog.

And second, using our current customer's experiences to tell our story for us.

There is nothing more convincing for me than hearing from a person who sounds a bit like me about something that I may be interested in. Be it a movie, a restaurant, a cell phone, or in this case, a game console, if someone who I can relate to has a positive experience about something, anything really, that is far more compelling for me than hearing it from the company who is producing it.

So – instead of us blathering on about how great the Game Wave is (and it is pretty great really), I’m asking you to take a sec and blow our own horn for us.

People who come to our site don’t necessarily want to hear it from us. They will want to hear it from you however, so if you have something to say about the Game Wave, pass it along.

Enter your Game Wave testimonial Here

Do you Sudoku?

If so - I can promise you have never Sudokued like this.

The ultimate solitary game is revolutionized into a competition between two, three, four, even six players...

Or, if you want, you can still play all by your self.

More coming soon

Shamelessly Using You

...and you'll like it!

Between deciding what should and what should not go in Rewind 2007, working on a as yet un-named (for certain) game and getting Rewind 2006 ready to publish, we’ve been exploring new ways to get the word about Game Wave out there.

Not being Xbox or Nintendo, we weren’t about to go to The Electronic Entertainment Expo that’s currently underway. The journalists and bloggers who cover that would just giggle at a cute little company like ours who is only interested in making games for families.

We also don’t have their budgets. The makers of Xbox, a little company called Microsoft, revealed this week that they’ve spent more than a Billion dollars (yes, that’s with a “B”) just on console repairs alone.

We’re not quite in the Bill Gates’ financial bracket quite yet.

That means we’ve got to be more creative. So – I’m putting together a kind of “Friends of Game Wave” campaign. It’s a grass roots thing where happy existing customers, like… say… you, might help us spread the word to friends and family. And just for doing so we’ll make it worth your while.

We have a great story to tell. We just need the right people to tell it.

If you are interested, give me a shout.

gavin@zapitgames.com

The ah ha moment

Let’s say an alien, of the outer space variety landed his/her/its(?) space ship on the White House lawn. What would be the first thing George W. Bush would do? Okay, the second thing, after asking Dick Cheney what he should do…

Well, eventually he would attempt to let the alien know that we earthlings welcome him/her/it in peace. He’d try to get across the hope that he/she/it has come in peace and finally, if George has any cool left in him at all, that he would simply love to go for a spin in that funky flying saucer!

But how? How would Bush communicate with someone who is even more language challenged that he is? English, I’m certain, is not the first language of the stars.

That’s the communication problem of the third kind.

It’s our problem as well.

We have this killer product, the Game Wave. We have 99% positive feedback from our existing customers. We have tons and tons of positive press, stacks of awards, Toys r Us even named the Game Wave, up against the Wii and the PS3, the Toy of the Year.

Yet despite all that, we are still struggling to get the word out. Why? It’s because, simple as the Game Wave concept is --up to six people playing the same game simultaneously-- a player can’t understand it until they actually play it.

All that fabulous feedback comes from people who have sat down and experienced it first hand - however all that doesn't translate well to those who haven't.

We’ve dubbed that the "ah-ha moment" and have seen it basically every time someone plays the Game Wave for the first time.

The folks are expecting just another gaming console or DVD game experience, but when they are involved with a group, competing all the time, with no turns or waiting, the dawn breaks. They nod knowingly. They look over and almost invariably say something like, “ah ha,” or “oh, now I get it!”

So – how do we translate that experience to someone who doesn’t have access to the Game Wave?

Maybe we should ask Dick Cheney.

The Barry Bonds Quandary

Editorial-wise we put the wraps on Rewind 2006 a few months back, and one of the sports questions in on Barry Bonds. There! Just by reading this you have a heads up on the competition!

Bonds holds the single season record for home runs with 73, and at this writing he is four home runs shy of breaking Hank Aaron’s mark of 755 dingers in a career. He was just selected to start the All-Star game for the 12th time, becoming at age 42, the oldest baseball player ever to be so honored by the fans.

Now – knowing what you know about Barry Bonds you would think that writing a trivia question on the greatest hitter of his generation would be a snap.

It would be, except when you put all that he is done in the context of a family game.

Besides being overly adept at parking baseball’s in McCovey Cove, Bonds is also renowned for being a jackass to the press, and to the fans as well for that matter. Although the All-Star game is in his home stadium – he’s skipping the Home Run Derby because he has “nothing to prove.” That’s showing some fan appreciation for those who voted him into the game!

And then there is also that little BALCO situation. The Grand Jury is still sitting, possibly trying to figure out a way to get the soon-to-be home run king indicted on assorted drug related charges.

And thus the quandary. How do you write a good trivia question about Barry Bonds and not mention the stuff he is perhaps most famous for?

It's a game after all. It's supposed to be fun. Is "fun" focusing on the negative in a game setting? We decided no, so we made it one of our editorial rules. When we’re writing and editing the questions we try to put ourselves in the mindset of the family who is playing the game.

We try to picture Mom and Dad and their kids parked in front their TV, and our worst case scenario is having an 8-year old turn to Mom or Dad and ask them a question, inspired from one of our games, on drugs, or sex or any other of the tough topics parents have to deal with with their kids.

Playing the Game Wave is supposed to be a fun night and educational as well. But not necessarily a social studies lesson for a pre-adolescent.

So – when you play Rewind 2006, and when you get to the Barry Bonds question, or a Britney question, or a Lindsey question, and someone you’re playing with wonders why we didn’t talk about BALCO, or the sex scandals or the drug busts or the million other things that make tabloids what they are…

...now you know.

"Games for the Rest of Us"

"Games for the Rest of Us": A few years back that was the how ZAPiT Games and the then un-named Game Wave was pitched to me during my interview for the Project Manager/Game editor job that I still hold.

It held real resonance for me because I was considering joining a Gaming industry that, on the whole, I thought pretty much sucked.

Watching guys my age - or any age for that matter - play single-shooter games, complete with blood splatter and flying body parts was more than a waste of time to me. It was simply weird.

Besides the "what is the frikin' point?" thing, I wondered did I really want to join an industry that was thriving by mimicking mass murder?

Ya – because ZAPiT Games had a different message. They were going to build games for guys like me. No violence. No gore. Just smart, clean old-fashioned fun updated for a home theatre age.

Boring for those who like to see people blown up real good, sure, but I figured there had to be a market for those who, like me, had been left out in the gaming cold.

Overall the Gaming Industry hasn't changed. The best selling games are still packed with uber-violence. The trade mags are filled with articles on such topics like "rag-doll physics" - how to make a dead body fly through the air more realistically.

As for us, we're working hard on getting the message out, trying to fill that "rest of us" niche.

...and speaking of Rewind

We are in the process of gathering question topics for a planned Rewind 2007.

Though it's only July we've got nearly half of the question topics we'll need already. It's been a rather newsy 2007.

If you come across some weird news that you think would be perfect News or Not or True or False material, please pass it along.

You'll make my job much easier and if it gets in the game, you'll have a heads up on the competition.

Rewind 2006 Update

The final QA stages for Rewind 2006 are underway with the game going to Gold Master, if we don't find any major booboo's, later this month.

Like Rewind 2005, we had to make this a two-disk game because the content was so video rich, we couldn't cram it all on one.

Bad for us because the actual physical production costs are greatly increased.

Good for you because the production quality is the best it can be and the cost is the same as a single disk game.

So - look for Rewind 2006 coming soon. The ship date will be announced here first.

Welcome to the Game Wave Blog

Just a quick note of welcome to the enthusiasts of all things Game Wave.

We're going to use this weblog as way to keep you up to date on all the latest happenings with the Game Wave and with new game developments.

As well, we need your input on what we have already created, what we're in the process of creating, and what we are, or rather, what we should be working on in the future.

Our original intention for the Game Wave was to provide an opportunity to bring families together in play. That is still our working mantra - and the only way we're going to get better at doing just that is with your help.

So first, thanks for your support, and second, what can we do for you?