--On February 10, 2006 Joseph Peterson <jeepeterson@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I just read the webzine and... wow... I mean... wow.
I'm with you on that WOW reaction.
I thought the whole thing was insane at first...
Here's the link, if you have not read our webzine yet this week:
<http://www.wunderland.com/WhatsOld/2006/WN.02.09.06.html>
I'm not sure I think the new plan is a great idea, yet. Let's say I'm
new to Icehouse sometime later this year... I've heard about this
great game called Volcano and want to build up my set. I need to buy 5
(or more for Mega-) Treehouse games to do so. I can't help but feel it
will be a waste of those extra little cubes. Why will I want to own 5
dice with dig/swap/aim/hop/tip/wild on them? And I certainly don't
want to be paying extra for them.
We plan to institute a die recycling program at the web site, where fans
can turn in extra copies of the die on trade-in or something. No details
yet, but we will do something for those with extra custom Treehouse dice
they don't want. How about if we make them each worth 1 Rabbit point if you
send them back?
Specifically on the Volcano front, we are looking into making a set of 5
small gray caps available - so you could get 5 Treehouse sets and the new
caps product to play Volcano.
I'm also very sad to hear that Volcano is being taken off the stove.
I've managed to sell several people on pyramids by teaching them
Volcano. I was also hoping for a Binary Homeworlds set, too. ;)
Volcano is NOT being taken OFF the stove. It is just being pushed to the
back burner. We will make a boxed Volcano set some day... just not soon.
We need to build up more demand in the marketplace for the pyramids before
we can go back to making boxed sets - and the best bet we've got at getting
more people buying and playing with pyramids is a simple inexpensive
standalone game that is tons of fun to play. Treehouse is all of these
things.
We have been playing tons of Treehouse this last week...
First at Toy Fair with all sorts of retailers: stores who are already
selling the pyramids well in it's current form, stores who sell our cards
games but never tried the pyramids or tried and couldn't sell them, and
stores who have never heard of the pyramids. I am 110% convinced that this
new Treehouse plan is rock solid good. The reactions were awesome.
Now we are at Genghis Con in Denver - playing Treehouse with fans. And the
game is just as good as we hoped it was. It's quick and easy to teach, all
sorts of different types of gamers love playing it, and it has a strong
'let's play again' response. Awesome.
So - although it is hard for all of us long time pyramid fans to bend our
brains around, this new shift in pyramid packaging is a REALLY good plan.
Please hang in with us on this. Start thinking about ways that you can help
adjust the way the icehouse community talks about pyramid games - so we can
start to pitch the coolness and depth of everything ELSE you can do with
these pyramids to people who are brand new to the whole thing having just
purchased this little $9 game called Treehouse. Thank you to everyone who
is already doing just this!
The little $2 book called 3HOUSE is coming out soon. (It includes rules for
Binary Homeworlds, Jeep!) We are looking for some cool new games that
require only 2 Treehouse sets for a future booklet called 2HOUSE. Anyone
want to run another pyramid game design contest for 2HOUSE games?
If the plan is to start selling ONLY this way, I would recommend that
the dice be generic dice in Looney colors, or something. I don't like
the idea of wasting all those dice. Or maybe someone needs to come up
with a *very* compelling game that requires 5 of the dice.
It's a custom die. Please start working on that game that uses 5 dice!
PlEASE NOTE: Although I have pulled the solid color tubes out of
distribution, so they will not be available in stores, we will be selling
the single color tubes at our web site direct to pyramid fans for many many
years to come. I still have 500+ copies of most colors in this format -
they will last a long time. If they sell out quickly, we will rethink
making more in this format. Nothing is set in stone.
Thank you everyone for playing with pyramids!
Thank you for bending your brain around the new way we are starting to sell
them!
-Kristin (of the Looney variety)