Summer is always such a busy time for me with my garden and so many other outdoor activities and fun events around Madison, that I hardly have time for game design. Still, I’ll need to carve out a few hours to finish up a prototype before I leave for Protospiel next week.

I’m taking the latest iteration of LXIX: Year of Four Emperors with me to test some changes I made at the Roundhouse Retreat in June. It’s in really good shape right now. I’m pretty happy with it.

I’m staying with my buddy James this year during Protospiel, instead of at the hotel. He and I are collaborating on a game. We’re still in the very early stages, passing our design document back and forth on Google Docs, but we’re planning to spend Friday hammering something out to test on Saturday at the con.

I bought a new (to me) vehicle a couple weeks ago and I love it. It has a CD player–the first I’ve had in quite a few years–so I dug out some of my old disks last night. Here’s one of my favorites. Maybe it’ll get us into the design groove.

“Games” by The Cannonball Adderley Quintet, from Mercy, Mercy, Mercy! Live at ‘The Club’