• you know the sponsors without even thinking Thank You @DNAMail, @Ustream, @WebSpy, @PowerVPS, @Bing.
• Jason has mentioned your name in show more than once.
• you remember the Deadpool.
• you’ve listened to more than one episode in a day.
• you knew Jason was joking about the iPad.
• you have written a review.
• you have multiple comments on this blog.
• you can finish “Like a wheelchair at _________”.
• you know the full version of “Insights from Tyler”.
• you’ve clipped and posted a TWiST video.
• you have called in to “Ask Jason” or “Jason’s Shark Tank”.
• you have been RT by @Jason.
• you have seen all the episodes.

13 total – I’d say we qualify!

via You Know You’re a TWiST Superfan if… | This Week in Startups TWiST.

Sign up at http://geekstack.com/playtester-signup/

Please pass this along to anyone you think would be interested.  We’re especially looking for experienced trading card players, particularly people who have played Magic: The Gathering, World of Warcraft TCG, and Chaotic.

Read the rest at TWiST – Ask Jason, Will GeekStack Be Jason’s 3rd Angel Investment? | StartupRecap.

Thanks for the writeup, Scott!

First call to TWiST episode 12, August 14, 2009

Part 1

Part 2

Second call to TWiST episode 20, October 2, 2009

Part 1

Part 2

Avatar toys go augmented-reality, courtesy of Mattel and Total Immersion.

Design contest on 99designs – This was a great success!  I got several very good entries and was wowed by the winner.  I’ve used the heck out of it since then, putting it on the website, making a t-shirt of it, and printing trading card mockups with business cards on the back.  (See the end of this post for more about that).

People – First, I’ve had about 100 people follow me on Twitter since then.  (If you’re not already, you should follow me on Twitter here).  I had several people email me to talk about working together and several others offering advice and encouragement.  I ended up finding a great partner who I’ll talk about in the next section.

At TechCrunch50, I got to meet people that I want to have on cards, and there’s one I’m working with to refine the collaboration process.  I also met several investors.  All of them loved the idea but wanted to see a demo, so I’ll be getting back to them in a couple months.  Besides that, lots of people I talked to loved the idea and were very encouraging, especially the guys from Spawn Labs.  (BTW, if you love console video games, keep an eye on Spawn Labs – their product lets you play console games on any internet-connected computer).

I’ve also found a couple people with a gaming background and current game ventures who’ve agreed to be advisors to us on the game aspects.

Partner – of the people that contacted me about working with me on GeekStack, I chose to work with Michael Pavelich, a senior at Illinois State.  He’s a total package of web development (Python/Django especially), graphic design, and art skills.  Not only that but he knows artists and art students as well as people in Chicago that invest in startups (apparently they do exist!).  All of this would be enough but he’s fairly close by, he’s from outside Chicago and comes back frequently so we can meet in person, and he’s working on GeekStack for his senior capstone class so his diploma depends on doing a good job!  I couldn’t be more pumped and we’re going to tear it up together.

Project Status
Website – Michael is working on it.  The inital version will let you manage your decks, acquire cards, and play against other players.  The immediate next feature planned after you can actually get cards and play will be a trading marketplace where you can fill in the holes in your collection and get the most from each pack you buy.  So far the registration part works and deck management is under construction.  We’re still working on defining the right way to interact with the game engine.

Game Engine – I’m on the fourth rewrite of the game engine and each time the code gets shorter and clearer.  The initial launch will include a subset of all card actions that will be eventually available – certain basic actions open up a ton of design space and we want to make sure we get playtesting feedback as soon as possible.  We’ll continue to add planned actions and other ideas that come from playtesters and early adopters.  If you’ve ever wanted to shape a game in progress, look for the forthcoming “Playtesters Wanted” announcement on Twitter or subscribe to the blog.

Game Design – The game design is open and flexible.  I’ve read millions of words (no, really, millions) about game design in general and trading card games specifically, and I’ve studied and played some of the major games so I have a good idea of the design space, pitfalls, and strategies.  I also have a couple twists on common patterns that I can’t wait to see  how they playtest.  We want the game to be as fun as possible so we’re making the game design as easy as possible to modify.

Goodies For People That Read This Far – As a concession to everyone who has persevered through my wordiness, you have your chance to get a free, real life, fake GeekStack card!!  Real life because it’s a physical printed card, but fake because it is a mockup that has no relation to how the actual cards will look and can never be used in a real game.  Yes, I will mail a free copy of the limited edition John von Neumann GeekStack prototype card/business card to anyone that does the following:

- Write a blog post with your opinion of GeekStack so far OR
- Tweet your opinion of GeekStack so far OR
- Sign up for the mailing list

and email the URL of your blog post/tweet or the email you signed up with along with the mailing address where you’d like me to send your card to peter@geekstack.com.

So that’s it!  Progress, People, and Prizes (does anyone know a synonym for alliteration that starts with P?)  Thanks to Jason and the This Week In Startups community for your support and enthusiasm!

What do you think?  The colors are a little funky (the evils of a built-in flash + incandescent bulb) but it’s supposed to be a gray shirt.

If anyone likes this and is interested in getting one of their own, I can setup an order page at Printfection.  Otherwise, I’ll be wearing this one-of-a-kind bad boy to TechCrunch 50 next week!

I’ve had a couple people get in touch that are interested in working with me.  I’ll talk more with them over the next few weeks and I might walk out of this with a cofounder!

The last piece of exciting company news is that I’ll be at the TechCrunch50 conference on September 14-15!  I’m not presenting – I considered entering at one point but I knew I wouldn’t even have an ugly demo ready by then, let alone an attractive, professional looking demo.  I’ll just be schmoozing, making contacts, and looking for partners and maybe investors.  If you’ll be there or are interested in meeting up while I’m in San Francisco, send me a message or Tweet me (@geekstack).

WARNING: Particularly programmery-nerdy parts ahead.

This week I started the 3rd rewrite of the core game engine code. Each of the rewrites have come when the assumptions I made ran out of room to maneuver in and I had fairly well worked out the problems related to a certain area of the code. For instance, the v3 that I just retired was mainly about moving cards around within one player’s zones and executing some of the actions on those cards. I worked out a lot of kinks in that area but got to the point where I would have to change a lot of code to implement my newest understanding of the problem.  Rather than go through the tedious process of changing all of the code to reflect that, I prefer to start with a clean file and write code that incorporates all of the parts of the problem I have seen since the last rewrite.  This gives me a chance to implement pieces that I postponed, in this case how to include multiple players in a game and how the system will track multiple games at once.

Even though this sounds like more work, it usually ends up taking the same time to rewrite as it would to edit.  Plus, when I’m done rewriting, I have code that’s shorter, cleaner and more consistent, and includes more functionality.  Since I’m responsible for all of this, any time I can add design and understanding to reduce complexity and remove code, I need to.