This last weekend my first friend from childhood came into town. We'd spent our afternoons hanging out from shortly after my memories start until I went off to boarding school at 16, making up stories and taking turns running games for each other. We'd met back up on and off over the years,whenever we were in the same town, including a time he gave me a couch for 10 weeks while I was taking a Berkeley summer course. I suppose it was sometime around then he took the trip a couple hours south to Big Sur and decided that between the ocean, the mountains, and the redwoods, it might be the most beautiful place in the world.
He'd wanted a wedding where he and she walked up a mountainside, and gave each other their vows with no one else to hear them, not even a priest. She'd gotten locked out of her car in Big Sur years before, and fallen in love with that same stretch of land and sea. So when the time came to exchange vows, this is where they came.
They came down from the mountain the next day, and caught up with the rest of us. I was honored to give a micro-ceremony, where they repeated their vows before witnesses and friends. A flight of pelicans sailed by the cliffside vista after the last words were said.
And then we ate; quite delicious Indian food.
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The board game has 8 playtests behind it now. All positive. A few of my playtesters have written to ask when they get to play again next. It's not expected to go this well yet; normally there's a phase where it's too broken to be fun, and you play with understanding folks who suffer through the early tests until you fix the worst problems or send the game back to the drawing board and start over. But this one's come out of the gates strong. I'm psyched.
Well, not at this moment. At this moment I'm drained from an unrelated contracting gig, and wanting a little vacation of my own to recharge. Even games can lose their power to recharge when you look at them as work. But soon again. Of that I have no doubt. This one's going too well not to come back to very, very soon.
He'd wanted a wedding where he and she walked up a mountainside, and gave each other their vows with no one else to hear them, not even a priest. She'd gotten locked out of her car in Big Sur years before, and fallen in love with that same stretch of land and sea. So when the time came to exchange vows, this is where they came.
They came down from the mountain the next day, and caught up with the rest of us. I was honored to give a micro-ceremony, where they repeated their vows before witnesses and friends. A flight of pelicans sailed by the cliffside vista after the last words were said.
And then we ate; quite delicious Indian food.
- - - -
The board game has 8 playtests behind it now. All positive. A few of my playtesters have written to ask when they get to play again next. It's not expected to go this well yet; normally there's a phase where it's too broken to be fun, and you play with understanding folks who suffer through the early tests until you fix the worst problems or send the game back to the drawing board and start over. But this one's come out of the gates strong. I'm psyched.
Well, not at this moment. At this moment I'm drained from an unrelated contracting gig, and wanting a little vacation of my own to recharge. Even games can lose their power to recharge when you look at them as work. But soon again. Of that I have no doubt. This one's going too well not to come back to very, very soon.
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So you're developing a board game? Cool! For fun or for work?