113 - Forward Thinking/Planning Game

I'm wondering if I can make a business out of creating free print-and-play games that parents and teachers can use to teach young children (6 and under) the basic mechanics of hobby games. With Candyland, we all can learn about taking turns and roll-and-move. But how do we teaching forward thinking/planning? How do we teach perfect information? Deduction?

I can name prototypical games of each of those, but they aren't geared toward kiddos and some kiddo tailored games are a little pricey.

Something to put in the backlog of things to work on!

You may be asking: how can free be a business? Premium versions I suppose. Licensed for groups and schools? I don't know.

112 - Nintendo LABO

Spent the weekend working on the Nintendo LABO this weekend. We got through 3 of the models. It's a really fun project! They took quite some time to complete. I'd like to spend more time just discovering the "how it works", but that'll be at a later date. Just getting the toys constructed will be the most important part so the kids can go nuts.

The fishing one is particularly cool with how the rubber band fishing line mimics the pull of the lure and a potential fish. Very neat.

111 - Many Pages Drawn

I have about 5 pages left to add. Two of those should be comics, two of those should be for a short story, and I guess the final would be for answers and contact info. Fun times!

I need to weigh 9 pieces of paper and 2 staples to see if it is all under an ounce. If it's not, a regular 1st class stamp won't work to send this out through the mail.

110 - Planning the Zine

Planning out the pages for the Sadie Cat and Mao zine. It's going to be 16 pages. I've been toying with the idea of doing this 4 times a year (seasonally). Is it worth doing? Not sure. Might as well try with the first one and see how much learnings I can get from it.

109 - Connect the Dots design is difficult

I realize it's very easy to take for granted the work that goes into activity pages. Making an interesting connect-the-dots image is hard. I guess the above wasn't difficult, but it's also not very interesting.

The learning continues!

108 - System OK

I take a bus to work and saw this on the side panel. I found it humorous that those were the two different statuses available. Good information, I suppose!

107 - Nikoli

I read a few older articles about the Japanese puzzle book/magazine publisher Nikoli. What made this a particularly interesting and inspirational read was the size of the quarterly magazine's operation as well as their mindset about sharing handcrafted puzzles to their small fervent base of fans.

It gave me a new way to approach future work with Sadie Cat and Mao.

I've given it some thought since reading the articles. I've completed two children's e-books and two games in the universe. I've got a young adult level story in progress, but what else is there? I was racking my brain all weekend to invent a new kind of logic puzzle and when I thought I had the perfect one, I found that it already exists.

But then my new considerations for the project is to start working on a zine that encapsulates stories, puzzles, illustrations, and all the things I want to create for the property. Maybe with enough dedication I can make it something for a niche audience to enjoy. Maybe I can pave my own Nikoli path.

Maybe! Wish me luck! Off to the thinking and planning room... which is basically my car during my commute in total silence.

Other Articles: Japan Times, Nikoli Website

106 - The Color Factory

105 - Say Cheese

104 - New Game Design: Mantis v Mantis

What awful game design am I trying out today? We have a tile placement combat game.