Anyway, Eric has one cousin in particular, Abe, who likes to make up games. I first played one of his made up games, Pork, when Eric and I were dating or maybe we were engaged by that point. Anyway, Abe's wife, Erin, was also there, and so were Bart and Janssen. It was destined to be a fun night because the six of us just exude fun. Which is why we are all so crazy about board games, I guess.
One time over Christmas break the extended L. family went to a giant cabin called Spring Haven for a few days. That is where Abe introduced us to Plex, another of his invented games. It is a great game where the object is to buy properties that are close together. But you are also investing money so that you can earn more so that you can buy more properties. And if all goes well you will have lots of money when everybody else has none, and you will get properties for cheap because you buy properties (and you make investments) by bidding. And that's all the summary you're going to get from me.
So, Eric set out to make Abe's game. I let Abe know about it, and he sent me some files with the cards already made up. Eric worked really hard for about two days cutting and cutting and cutting to get the game ready to go. We have played it with a few folks, and so far everybody loves it. Eric and I really think Abe could market the game, and we'd be happy to let him use our copy as the prototype to show to some head honchos of a game company in case he is not so interested in cutting.
This first picture is of Eric sitting in front of the heater (hogging all the heat!) while designing the coins of the game. I sent this picture to Abe and Erin letting them know what a game-making fiend Eric has become, and that is when Abe sent me the files. Also, this is just to show you that Eric does own a pair of non-pink pajamas.
And this is the final version of the game. As you can see lots of things were done by hand. But it's such a great game, it was definitely worth the time we (mostly Eric) put into it.
3 comments:
Have you ever played Acquire? It seems kind of similar. That is like my favorite game. It is out of print (what is the board-game equivalent of this term?) now because I once heard they were bringing out a new edition. It costs like $100 on e-bay to get it now.
Have we played Acquire? Ha! I blogged about it in November. We love that one.
Yes, Plex is quite similar to Acquire in many ways.
I'm sure if you keep your eyes peeled you can find a better price for a used version of Acquire. My husband bought a new one about four or five years ago. And, if all else fails you can make your own. It could be a fun family project!
Abe's mom just got the new version of Acquire for us. The new version ditched the plastic tiles and 3-D buildings for little cardboard pieces. It actually looks quite similar to the board you guys made for Plex. I don't like the new version quite as much because I liked the sound of clicking Quantum into its new tile.
Plex looks really good, by the way. Great design for the game board. Abe should ditch the phd and just make games for a living. Or rather, think up of games and then have Eric make them.
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