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1 November VPG Update
That Was the Week That Was!
Whoever said, “You can’t get there from here; you have to start somewhere else” must have been riding with us for the past few weeks. While the rest of you were resetting your clocks to fall back, here at The Little Game Company That Could, we’ve been trying to fall up.
We have had equipment and production difficulties of every color and stripe these past fewweeks, yet somehow the orders get filled and VPG marches on. Marijuana might be legal in our state of California, but we’re all high on stress these days and busy as can be with lots of news for you this week. The games must go on, and we've got 'em...
GMT = Games Made Together
Alan Emrich recently went up to the GMT West gathering up at the GMT warehouse facility in Hanford, California and had a very nice time meeting the wargaming intelligencia congregating there. During the brief sales interlude, Dresden 20 (and a few advanced copies of No Surrender!) were sold. It was also great to see playtest games of The Barbarossa Campaign and The Lost Cause fill the back room tables at this event. VPG is very grateful that GMT allowed us to “fly the VPG flag” there to sell and demonstrate our games. The great people at GMT have always been very supportive of our little gaming venture, and now we’re moving a step closer together.
The “G-man” of GMT himself, Gene Billingsley, mentioned to the assembled gathering of gamers that GMT and Victory Point Games are seeking a closer association. No, not a buyout or merger or anything big-time like that (somehow we missed out on all of that Wall Street bailout money). GMT is simply looking to bundle and box VPG game titles into themed packages for their customers (think "Quad Games" from the SPI days of yore, but this time with every game in the box being a good, quality kitchen-tested VPG game), and we hope to share more presence together at game conventions, etc. in the future.
While this is hardly a “stop the presses” announcement, it is nice to know that our very long time friends at GMT will help this friendly little game company find more exposure, just as we hope to provide them and their fine customers with the best bundles of games that VPG has to offer. GMT's Andy Lewis is already perusing the VPG line for suitable games to put together for testing on GMT's P-500 list in the future.
It is very encouraging that we all put our heads together to find a win-win-win scenario for both companies and their customers, and we’re beginning to make our first considered moves in this direction. These things take time and patience, of course, but the handshake was made and, to old gaming veterans like Gene Billingsley of GMT and Alan Emrich of VPG, that means a lot. Special thanks are owed to Andy Lewis and Rodger B. MacGowan for helping get everyone to put our thoughts together and scout the best path going forward.
The C3i’s Have It: Napoleonic 20
Speaking of Rodger B. MacGowan and GMT, the next issue of C3i magazine will be shipping in the merry month of November and contains a gift to its readers – in it will appear a C3i edition of VPG’s Jena 20 game and the new VPG Autumn 2009 flyer (that will also be gracing your VPG mail orders over the coming months). The C3i edition of Jena 20 features a Mark Simonitch graphics treatment, albeit with smaller (1/2” square) counters than you’ll find in the VPG edition of the game. Still, it is a great introduction to the Napoleonic 20 series of games, and we hope that their readers will discover the many other titles now available, including Lance McMillan’s latest offering, Dresden 20.
In addition, Lance has also put to bed the next game in the series, Katzbach 20 (from the German 1813 campaign), which has gone to Chris Magoun for map art. Lance has also graced the front page of the VPG web site with another article in the Making of Dresden 20 series, this time on playtesting that game. Currently, Alan Emrich is building the playtest map for Klum 20, which is an expansion kit for Dresden 20 in much the same way that Smolensk 20 expanded Borodino 20.
Meet the Press
And speaking of C3i magazine, apparently that is not the only gaming publication to see VPG adorning its pages. Suddenly we are much talked about in an upcoming issue of the French gaming magazine Vae Victis, and in issue #2 of Battles magazine (now shipping) which features us in their Small Games column. It is also in that magazine and where we have placed our first tentative 1/2 page ad. It seems that Europe and Japan have really been slamming us with orders of late, and we think that is largely due to the exchange rate from the anemic US dollar (you know it is bad when you can buy dollar bills by the roll in 2-ply and quilted styles).
But here’s the real hot flash: the venerable hobby publication GAMES magazine has also mentioned VPG in their current issue, featuring their annual “GAMES 100” list. Apparently, Joe Miranda’s Zulus on the Ramparts! game made a runner-up mention in that publication for Best New Historical Simulation game! Well, that’s a lot of unexpected exposure and we’re already getting calls from our mention there!