What We're Doing
- Archon
Archon has been available in one form or another for most of the last 25 years, and we hope to have that continue for another 25. Besides monitoring our existing agreements (one of which will eventually bring it to a cell phone near you), we almost perpetually seem to be negotiating license agreements for new versions of the game.
To put it mildly, our widely-publicized contract with Mercury Games didn't work out and has been canceled. However, we are talking with several interested parties and hope to have a new deal in place
--and new versions of Archon indevelopment-- later this year. (Don't hold your breath.)If you are...
- enthusiastic about Archon,
- ready to tackle a new development project,
- willing to negotiate an agreement that protects our interests and pays us an appropriate amount for the use of our valuable intellectual property,
- and able to develop and distribute a product on one or more contemporary platforms,
- TRIPLICARDSTM
Quite a long time ago Jon Freeman had occasion to realize that the ordinary pack of playing cards, widely used and certainly useful, nonetheless was not without flaw, limitation, and awkwardness. After much thought, research, deliberation, and experimentation, he invented and later patented a novel deck of playing cards
--a replacement for the old-fashioned set of52-- that he first called Triad, later Thrall, and finally TRIPLICARDS. For a considerable span of years now, he has been inventing, reinventing, tweaking, and polishing both the cards and a great variety of games that use them.We may not be entirely unbiased, but it's hard to gainsay the idea that the TRIPLICARD deck is the proverbial better mousetrap. Casual games rule the Internet, and card games are perennially popular. TRIPLICARD games are simply better - faster-moving, more interesting, more fun - than ordinary card games.
Yes, TRIPLICARDS require a small paradigm shift, and like anything new they may be resisted by those who are closed-minded or hopelessly stodgy. However, it's the 21st Century. With MMORGs going mainstream, and cell phones beginning to outnumber the people who use them, it's hard to believe that people can't cope with something as simple as three suits and three colors.
TRIPLICARD development has been constrained by time and money, not ideas or potential. We have a large number of TRIPLICARD games designed and quite a few programmed, but we need to bring the format and packaging up to date, perhaps develop versions to play online, and definitely find some new ways to market and publicize them. We need more people to see, try, and play them. (Marketing is not our strength.) A major publisher could provide considerable help with all of this, and we don't mind sharing the payoff with anyone who helps us turn the potential of TRIPLICARDS into reality.
- Other casual games
We'd also like to find a company to help develop and publish some other casual games we've been working on: Pachismo, a turbo-charged version of a classic board game; Capture the Flag, a virtual boardgame based on the original outdoor action game; Tracks, a simple but dynamic game for people who enjoy Tetris or Bejeweled, and others.
- Horde Help
Horde Help is an online guide to World of Warcraft. It is currently only a small Web site, but with a great deal of material in the pipeline, we are confident it will grow. We also hope to turn it into one or more books. With 10 million or so WoW players, we think this, too, has a lot of potential.
- Medical transcriptions
This has nothing to do with games, but it's currently one of Anne Westfall's main interests.