Mad Match Surveys are almost all in!

1Most of the Mad Match surveys are in and in no time we’ll be mailing out rewards.

If you missed the kickstarter and want to get in on the fun, we will be selling the game through The Game Crafter as soon as all rewards have been delivered. Check back in a couple weeks to buy.

Can’t wait to get your Pope Street Game fix? Mad Science The Card Game is available now:

New Duds

We hope you like the new site. We are renewing our focus on music – particularly upcoming performances and releases for sale, though your favorite independent Pope Street projects like Skateboard Heroes and Mad Science The Card Game are stillĀ here.

There’s an app for what now?

I have this Pitfall t-shirt I bought on clearance a few months ago. It is the artwork from the classic Atari game. Lately I’ve been wearing it and getting all sorts of comments from my 11 year old’s friends. Apparently there is a Pitfall app that they’ve all downloaded. I was kind of psyched because I love the old game and used to rock at it (if I do say so myself). I finally hit the app store on my phone a couple days ago and cruised some biggies – most recent Angry Birds pig spin off, Shazam!, goconnect iphone app, and… then I found it. Huzzah!

Oh man. It sucks. It’s not Pitfall at all. It’s a thinly veiled Temple Run rip off (of which I was among the earliest of early adopters). What a bummer. Somebody, please… I beg you… make me some classic 80s Pitfall for iPhone!

Stat!

Bruthas

I know it is irrational, but I get REALLY pissed off when my kids talk about certain video games and related properties that originated when I was younger than they are now and they get it all wrong. An example of this is the current popularity of talking about various Mario Brothers games. Where I go nuts is when the kids say Mario Bros. and pronounce the abbreviation of Brothers as it is written – Bros. As in Bros before Hoes.

Look, I know it is how the logo is written and all that. I know the box reads Super Mario Bros. But everyone in his or her right mind speaks it aloud as Super Mario Brothers. Regardless of abbreviations. Seriously? Am I unreasonable? If these little pishers expect to be playing at some grandstand video game championship surrounded by Sightlines Spectator Seating and tens of thousands of fans, they need to get the simple stuff right. Right?

My Swingin’ Youth

When I was a very small child my Dad installed a swing in our basement. A couple of swing bolts and a sort of jury-rigged system of metal plates and such between the exposed joists. Somewhere between 35 and 40 years later, it still hangs.

And for that matter, it still swings.

People I have known my whole life will connect with me when I’m visiting my Mom and end up in the basement, marveling that it still hangs. And swing.

It’s a different swing now. When I started having kids we switched the old plastic white flatbed for a questionably safe toddler seat. Even after all these years without a breath of maintenance, I worry far less about the ceiling apparatus, and far more about the primary-colored plastic vessel my littlest sits in, screaming “Higher! Higher!”

The Ask

Since doing the Mad Science the Card Game Kickstarter and putting this supremely awesome card game out in the world, I get a whole new variety of spam. Not just the weight loss pill and credit score nonsense or the buy Avira Business Security Suite now type thing. I also get requests from all over the world. Random gamers, gaming groups, gaming blogs, gaming pseudo-publications all contact me in search of free copies.

In theory this could help me out if they have a wide enough reach and enough of those they actually reach choose to buy my game. But if you’re a half dozen guys in Brooklyn who get together every couple of months to play games asking for a player copy… is anybody really going to step up and buy one. I mean, these things cost real money to produce. I have to sell between 3 and 4 games just to break even on the cost of mailing one out for free.

Now I didn’t get into this to get rich. I did it for the fun of producing a game, and enjoying it with people all over the world. That’s why I happily offer games at cost to people in the business, or to gaming groups. Do you know that I’ve had some people get angry with me when I suggested that? Even though that’s better than any other independent game company I’ve contacted. Sure, they’ll give copies out for review in publications, and they will offer steep discounts to verified retailers for use as in store demo models, but the only discounts most places give gamers is on volume.

Back to the Pack

You know, a while ago I was writing about my new found excitement with the outdoors. Camping, hiking, etc. I’ve been building up a real gear jones lately, and that isn’t dissipating. I don’t necessarily want to be the perfectly tailored sportsman or anything, but kitting myself out right sounds… well, it sounds pretty alright. It always cracks me up when you see the hard core wannabe guys with expensive rain slickers and $500 boots that give them blisters. That’s not for me. But I like the really functional stuff that looks good functioning.

Can you dig it?

Or more to the point, can you dig WITH it. If not, I’m probably going to be leaving it home in favor of a more useful tool.

Indie Printing

As the king of indie nonsense, I am a huge fan of cheap business card printing. I have musician cards to hand out to baooking agents and club owners, I have Mad Science The Card Game Cards for distributors and retailers, I have Skateboard Heroes cards for comic book industry folks and readers. I should probably get into the printing business myself. Then I could have business cards for my business card printing business. Makes perfect sense, right? I bet you wish you’d thought of it.

Mad Science The Launch Party

Hey fans of Mad Science The Card Game! You’ll be happy to hear the launch party was a success. We had lots of friends, new and old, come out to play the game. We had snacks and special giveaway cards and all sorts of fun. Best of all, lots of new Mad Science players out there. There’s even talk of starting a regular game on Saturdays at Alterniverse. Organized play, here we come!

If you aren’t playing Mad Science The Card Game yet, what are you waiting for? Another fine independent project from Pope Street!

Scouts

Do I ever mention I dig Cub Scouts? I used to be a little negative on the whole thing, especially considering some of their very public policies about leadership and lifestyle intersections. But lately they seem to have worked through a lot of those issues as an organization, and I’ve found it is much less of an issue at the local level.

And anyway, my kids are totally into it, so I am too. It’s a world of archery and whittling chips, leather dyes and BB gun shooting, arts and crafts and polar bear swims. And camping. Oh man, the camping.