Better Late Than November
Way Down in Kokomo
by Jason
One reason I kept dragging my feet on this newsletter is that it was already late, so I figured, “Why rush?” If I was going to miss the deadline anyway, I might as well take my time, right? I even came up with what I thought was the perfect title: "Better Late Than November". But then I kept mixing it up with "It’s November Too Late" and spiraling over which one was better. Scott finally settled it for me, saying the first one was the winner. Scott convinces me of a lot of things—want to know who Scott is? Skip to the second article.
On tomorrow’s podcast, I talked about how I wish we were where we are now… six months ago. That said, I love where we’re at. Everyone’s busy, engaged, and brimming with ideas. Case in point: Mike C. keeps flooding me with texts. I can’t even keep up. A month ago, he got inspired listening to the podcast, started designing a game, and now he’s testing it with friends. He’s even written a six-page rule book. Mike dove straight into the deep end—or is it off the deep end? Either way, we’re impressed.
So here’s the question: if Mike finishes his game before we do, can we call it ours? I’m taking partial credit.
Another friend of The Misplay, Ryan, is buzzing about a game he co-designed with his partner. (Who’s Ryan? Scroll down.) The excitement is contagious, but I’m lowkey panicking. Mark, for the record, is not panicking. But I set this deadline for us to choose our game and kick off Season 2 of the podcast, and now I’m feeling the crunch.
Here’s the thing, though: the panic is 100% self-imposed. We don’t have to hit that deadline. We’re not forcing anything. I hope we make it by the end of December, but if not? That’s okay. We’ll get there. It reminds me of the (very wrong) lyrics I’ve always sung to the Beach Boys’ Kokomo: “We’ll get there faster if we take it slow.” Not the real lyrics, but hey, it’s the right vibe.
Meet the Team
by Jason
We keep name-dropping our team on the podcast, but we realize it’s a bit abstract for the audience. One thing to remember is how we all connected: through a game. Many of us knew each other by usernames first (like imsobad, SRFS, and gatosujo). So here’s a quick rundown of the folks we’ve mentioned:
- Scott (aka "SRFS"): The wizard behind the curtain, Scott runs everything behind the scenes. Right now, he’s saving us a bundle by moving our website from Wix to a proper hosting platform. And when I say “moving,” I mean completely recreating it from scratch. He’s basically our CTO—if we had one. On the podcast, I called him the puppet master keeping us on track. Oh, and fun fact: he’s the one who originally pitched Succession.
- Brian R. (aka "imsobad"): Holder of the best username in any game. Every team needs a Brian—he’s the one who keeps us grounded, saying things like, “That sucks” or “Why would you ever do that?” It’s blunt, but it works.
- Peter: The board game designer we all aspire to be. He’s got the most experience in the field and even has his own episode: Meet Lead Game Designer Peter (Episode 11). Peter’s been incredibly patient waiting for Mark and me to get our act together.
- Marc (aka "cola"): Nearly a World Champion. Marc’s ridiculously good at games, and we’re lucky to have him.
- Mike C. and Ryan: For now, they’re “friends of The Misplay.” We went to Gen Con with Mike, and Ryan joined us on Episode 6 when we played Supermarket Game. Recently, Ryan pitched Animal Kingdom, which we’re now playtesting on playcards.io.
And one quick note: we’re moving our newsletter to Buttondown next month, so keep an eye out for a confirmation email!
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