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RubyMidwest Wrap-Up - Part 1


After travelling all around Missouri just the week before, I ended up back in Kansas City again for RubyMidwest. Being the first year for the single track - two day conference, it gathered a good-sized group of around 160 to 170 attendees. I have gone to some larger conferences, such as RUC , but this was the first time I have gone to a conference on something that I personally want to find out more about. What a difference it made.

Doing some scouring ahead of time, it turned out that I could get a pair of round trip train tickets from STL to KC for the astonishing low price of $110 for both of us and the ride was 5 hours (about 1 hour shorter than driving, the same if you stop for dinner). On the ride out, I started working on a side project I had cooking in my brain for the last few years and never dove on. So, I was on rails programming in Ruby on Rails.

We arrived late for the pre-conference meetup, but there were still a few souls milling around. I showed my app to a guy named Veezus and he made a comment on the design I was using and recommended snagging something from ThemeForest. Yeah, I have some lousy designs when I first start out I just get it working and put things in boxes to be able to tell what is what. That night, I dove through and found one I liked and implemented it during the breaks and presentations that I didn't have a strong interest in.

The presentations the first day were great. One that stuck out in particular was Jeremy Evan's topic of Classes and Inheritence. The topic reminded me of brainfcuk, but pushing limits is how you make yourself better. Later that evening, he did a lightning presentations on classes, singletons, and methods. It was nearly completely an academic concept he brought, the absurdity of the depth he dove in had the audience rolling with laughter. There you go bringing class into it again. I also got some more information on Fog and the part it plays on getting you into cloud computing with an extremely simple gem.

Day two was more laid back and attendance was slightly sparser than the day before. That is a story for tomorrow.
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Ruby Midwest this weekend - be there or be hexagonal


I usually don't got to conferences or conventions, mostly because I didn't see the value in the ones I was forced to go to by my employer at the time. The technology conventions were where a bunch of people showed off examples of what they had done with a tool that is fine and dandy for them, but their implementation would not fit my companies setup or usage strategies.

Also, most of them are held in extremely far away resorts, so the things that interested me were always an expensive flight and an expensive hotel away. So, unless my employer was paying for it, I really couldn't go. Few things that interested me and were on my employer's docket to attend merged.

This time, I have found one that really piques my interest, is close and inexpensive to get to.


I have been dabbling with Ruby since... oh geez, sometime in the late 90's. It was simple, it was functional. In minutes, I had built the entire framework for a client-server application. A labor that had taken days in Visual Basic or C++. We would use it to prototype out numerous projects and then reimplement in C++ to get the speed.

When Ruby on Rails came around, I knew that it is something I wanted to use. Working with it finally drove in what the Model-View-Controller architecture really meant and how to use it properly. I have made a few projects in it that have seen the light of the web. The rest of the iceberg were 1 off projects that I was testing out ideas and getting used to how to do things. One such project was GoozexIndy.

Last week, during the family vacation, I started working on a small, doable, and interesting project that I hope to get some input from during the convention.

That right there is the key to why I want to go to Ruby Midwest: Peers. I hope that the inspiration, the networking, the critiquing, and the knowledge that comes from the interaction makes this a wonderful trip.
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Vendor Negotiations - These people should not be tolerated


Every business I have owned, I tried really hard not to be "that guy". The one that renegs on a done deal knowing that they have the upperhand because the work has been done, but money hasn't changed hands. My modus operandi was always to treat my employees and people I hired to do well. In several business attempts, they were paid more than I was. A few times, I was in the hole.

When Frank and I made "Lomby Zombie", we hired an artist and tried to pay him as much as we could. When milestones were met, check were sent in full immediately. No squabbling. No futzing around. Work has value. The work required to make the product, even if the product isn't used, has value.

People like those in the video below irk the heck out of me.

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Making a Board Game Box for Lomby Zombie


Depending on how funding goes, I have started working on some prototypes for a box for Lomby Zombie and LZ: Corporate Stiff.

When Frank and I first did Lomby Zombie, the bulk of the costs of making it was around:

  1. Art - $600
  2. 50 Tshirts - $450
  3. 1000 Dice and 5000 Stands - $400
  4. 36 Inkjet Ink Tanks - $260
  5. Misc Parts like Bags - $300
  6. Business License + Lawyer Fees - $600

At little over $2500 just to get things going and that doesn't include any sweat equity that we put into it. While we had some great lessons learned and found ways to cut some costs while improving the quality of the game, it will be about like that to do this again. That was a lot to front for just me, which is why I hope the Kickstarter page for Lomby Zombie helps out this time.

But that isn't what I wanted to get into today. What I want to talk about is packaging. When we did LZ, we opted out of packaging. It was something we didn't know how to make ourselves and printing companies wanted a minimum of $5 a for a telescoping box, $12 to have printing on it. For a game we were trying to retail for $20, that was a lot to swallow. So, we didn't.

Instead, we did this:

It wasn't the professional look we wanted, but got the job done. A lot of people at Archon that year though it was an alpha version as most of them were used to the completely gussied up box packaging and not the "Cheap Ass Games" style

Obviously, the flaw is that it doesn't fit well on most gamers shelves and wrinkles horribly. A few months later, I repackaged most of them in a large clear plastic bag that kept the game looking better, but still doesn't fit well on most gamers shelves.
Now that we are attempting to make a much nicer version of the game and the expansion, the first thing I have turned my eye to is a box. After reading a few guides on how to make a covered chipwood box, I made a quick prototype to see if everything we already have done fits.



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Getting my name out there


I have had some popular sites when I was writing metric tons of tutorials. All of them pointed to one site and that is how a lot of people found my work. Unfortunately, one frigid morning in May, I let my domain name expire. (Goodbye, saigumi.net, I wish that domain hoarder would relinquish you.)

A lot of the newer web technologies have been passing me by as I couldn't quite grasp the concept of how they could be useful to me. Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and all of their derivatives meant little or nothing to me. I don't get caught up farming virtual sheep for hours on end (Except maybe in Harvest Moon) and I am a genetically inclined introvert, so having a broad ground of friends and acquaintances never had a strong appeal.

Well, in the last two weeks, I have been turning that around. I have been adding babble to Facebook, twitting on twitter, adding my photo to my online profiles, and generally adding to the noise. Heck, I may just actually accept an invite from someone I don't even know.

So, tell me about why you haven't yet funded Lomby Zombie: Corporate Stiff?
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Lomby Zombie: Corporate Stiff Kickstarter in Progress


Lomby Zombie: Corporate Stiff is now in active fundraising over on Kickstarter.com
If you enjoy zombies or board games or if you just have a buck burning in your pocket, why not go by and pledge it towards the project. You will be rewarded with more than just the warm feeling in your heart. You will get some nifty stuff as well including copies of both games, tshirts, personal artwork and other doodads depending on your pledge level.



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If at first you don't succeed...


... you should still try.

I put my submission in to kickstarter.com. So, fingers crossed.

I went through the costs we had in making LZ, factored in how much things cost today. Got some materials quotes and talked to a couple artists to get the ball rolling to be ready when we get this ball rolling.

After doing some research, I found a project planning site that I will be using for this project which allows collaboration, has enough space, and is free: goplan. I found it by looking for "Basecamp alternative". While I would really like the full power and usability of Basecamp, I would really like to reserve the funds I am putting into this project for other things that enhance the player/customer experience.

When you run with limited funds, everything is about going lean. Out here in the middle of the MidAmerica soybean fields, you don't have the millions of angel investing dollars like on the west coast to allow you to blow on things like Segways and Aerons for the staff. You get things done with whatever resources you have and are thankful you have them.
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