March 3, 2012: Back From Cozumel

One great thing about the steady growth of the company is that Steve has been generous with the bonuses (see Steve's Report to the Stakeholders). I recently took advantage of Steve's generosity and transformed my bonus into a cruise. To my surprise, I loved the time off and am ready for my next cruise. I spent my days at sea sleeping, eating too much food, reading books, and even finally managed to get all of the notes for a new card game down on paper (next step is to find the couple of hours that I need to build the playtest set . . . ). And while I was in Cozumel I ate too much, bought a strange bootleg Transformers toy, and snapped photos of everything from Max Steel toys to a Simpson's Disco Bar. Yeah, I am ready for my next cruise to Cozumel.

But before my next short vacation, I need to make absolutely certain that Munchkin Apocalypse and Castellan both find their way off to the printer. Munchkin Apocalypse is currently in Steve's and Andrew's hands and they're making excellent progress; it looks like players will get a chance to destroy the world before the world ends!

And Castellan? The work on our packaging design continues. The feedback that we received at New York Toy Fair (see the earlier packaging mockup) has resulted in a new design that looks even more incredible than the last version. Both Samuel Mitschke and Richard Kerr are going all out to turn my rambling and arm flailing into a gorgeous, professional game that I'm prouder of than any other project I've worked on this year. It feels pretty good that we're going to have a great box to display a fun, awesome game. I promise that I'll get photos of the new Castellan mockup online just as soon as I can pry it out of everyone's hands.

-- Phil Reed