So we went up to Higgins Lake.  Had a good time there, particularly thanks to visiting with family there.  My family isn't very large, there's not many of us. Since college, I haven't been very good at staying in touch with my family. Which is pretty lame on my part because there aren't that many people to stay in touch with.

But when my sons came along and work started to be a little less crazy, I decided it was time to start trying to provide them the sort of rich experiences my mom and dad (independently) provided to me.

Hence this year we went to South Padre Island which is where my dad used to take me and Higgins Lake which is where my mom took me.

Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate very well. And the cabin we rented was only 400 square foot so it wasn't exactly a fun place to spend the indoors in.  We spent a lot of time hanging out with my cousins up there which saved the day for us.  I'd like us to look for a place up there. I also think it would be a great place for my mom to retire to since she would be able to be around her family and in a place where people would have even more reason to want to visit her which I know she'd enjoy.

So we came back early. And just in time too.  The Political Machine was announced while I was gone but there was confusion on the old "shipping" vs. "general availability". On August 10th the boxes started getting shipped out to stores and to us.  On the website, Stardock is able to sell the game directly but we have to purchase our units from our publisher, Ubi Soft per our agreement.  Users who have a subscription to TotalGaming.net were able to immediately download the game. But that left an interesting scenario -- what about the people who pre-ordered just the game? With me gone at Higgins Lake, things went on according to the original plan which was that we would wait for the boxes to come in and then ship them to people who pre-ordered the game.

However, that would mean that users who pre-ordered the game would end up getting the game after people who just went to the store and picked it up. Not exactly the way we wanted our customers to be treated. And certainly not a situation that us or Ubi Soft would want users to go through. After all, the people who pre-ordered the game are our "core" customers. Their loyalty must be returned.  But luckily, because of the terrible weather, we decided to come home and once I got a handle on what happened, I authorized those who had pre-ordered to be able to download the game via Stardock Central while they wait for their boxes to arrive.  Once we have the boxes, we'll discontinue that. But to make a long story short, there was some confusion on day 1 of release. 

But when life hands you lemons, you make lemonade and that extra day allowed us to finish up some of the changes in 1.01 which adds some new features. So those users will end up being able to get the updated version with the save game manager and multiplayer lobby. So everyone wins.  So people who buy the game from PoliticalMachine.com can get the game and download it while waiting for the box -- at least until the actual boxes come in which could be as soon as tomorrow hopefully.

Everyone is excited though about the game.  Our friends at Ubi Soft and us know the game is really good. Usually these "timely" games suck.  But all bias aside, The Political Machine is one of if not the best game I've ever worked on from raw game mechanics. And I say that as the designer of Galactic Civilizations. I just find TPM very addictive.  It'll be interesting to see how it holds up in multiplayer as there's really not another game quite like it and we're not sure what will end up happening. I think it'll be fun but  it'll be interesting to see what kinds of strategies come up.

Anyway, we have no idea how well it will sell.  We do know we've done everything we can. The game quality is where we wanted it to be. As early players are finding, it's very solid so we've been able to focus on features for the "bonus pak" aka 1.01 rather than fixing "bugs".  On Friday I'll head out to Best Buy to see if it's on the shelves.  Thanks to the power of Ubi Soft, the game should be all over the place.

So that's where things are.