IDW: The First Decade Chapter 2

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THE FIRST DECADE

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__________________________________________________________________ A selection of some of the strategy guides IDW worked on for BradyGames.

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After getting IDW set up and settled into their new office space, the founders of IDW focused on lining

up steady work for the company. Three early clients

would help set the direction for the next several years.

BradyGames As video games became more complex, a new category of publishing popped up–strategy guides that helped players navigate the games. In the late ’90s there were two major players in the

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video game strategy-guide market: Prima Games and BradyGames. IDW did work for both companies but the founders wanted to establish a long-term contract with one company.

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__________________________________________________________________ A selection of some of the strategy guides IDW worked on for BradyGames.

C

H

A

GAMES P

T

E

R

2

After getting IDW set up and settled into their new office space, the founders of IDW focused on lining

up steady work for the company. Three early clients

would help set the direction for the next several years.

BradyGames As video games became more complex, a new category of publishing popped up–strategy guides that helped players navigate the games. In the late ’90s there were two major players in the

18

video game strategy-guide market: Prima Games and BradyGames. IDW did work for both companies but the founders wanted to establish a long-term contract with one company.

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Adams remembers, “I was focused on figuring out a way to have regular cash flow, money that we could count on that would supplement the individual projects we were doing. Kris and I had both worked on strategy guides at WildStorm and we knew there was a lot of work available.

“In those days, all of us were playing games and had a real affinity for this kind of work. The strategy guide publishers already had a pool of writers who were writing the guides so we didn’t have much luck breaking into that side of the business, but they did have a need for maps to show the players the layout of each level and indicate where bonus items and similar things appear.

“One of IDW’s first projects was a small map job for Prima Games [Final Fantasy 8], but our first big job came from BradyGames in September 1999 when we were contracted to provide the maps for Jet Force Gemini, a Nintendo 64 game.

“The way it worked on the first map projects was Brady would send us videotapes of someone else playing the game and Alex would watch the tapes and hand-draw the maps. He and Robbie created textures and designed the icons that would be placed on the maps. Looking back at the Jet Force Gemini

maps, they were very primitive compared to what Alex produced even just a few months later.

“Brady was very happy with the work and we were quickly a regular provider for them. The next job was creating maps for Donkey Kong 64, a job that was considerably more complex than Jet Force Gemini, and I remember several late nights in the office for all of us as we worked to complete them.

Brady then tried us out on a design/production job for the Sega Dreamcast game, NBA 2K.

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Adams remembers, “I was focused on figuring out a way to have regular cash flow, money that we could count on that would supplement the individual projects we were doing. Kris and I had both worked on strategy guides at WildStorm and we knew there was a lot of work available.

“In those days, all of us were playing games and had a real affinity for this kind of work. The strategy guide publishers already had a pool of writers who were writing the guides so we didn’t have much luck breaking into that side of the business, but they did have a need for maps to show the players the layout of each level and indicate where bonus items and similar things appear.

“One of IDW’s first projects was a small map job for Prima Games [Final Fantasy 8], but our first big job came from BradyGames in September 1999 when we were contracted to provide the maps for Jet Force Gemini, a Nintendo 64 game.

“The way it worked on the first map projects was Brady would send us videotapes of someone else playing the game and Alex would watch the tapes and hand-draw the maps. He and Robbie created textures and designed the icons that would be placed on the maps. Looking back at the Jet Force Gemini

maps, they were very primitive compared to what Alex produced even just a few months later.

“Brady was very happy with the work and we were quickly a regular provider for them. The next job was creating maps for Donkey Kong 64, a job that was considerably more complex than Jet Force Gemini, and I remember several late nights in the office for all of us as we worked to complete them.

Brady then tried us out on a design/production job for the Sega Dreamcast game, NBA 2K.

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The job was a nightmare and it was one of the few times that, even though we completed the project, we couldn’t make a client happy.

That was the only design project we would get from Brady, but they were so happy with Alex’s maps that we were soon buried in projects.

“In 2000, IDW did maps for the BradyGames strategy guides for Perfect Dark (Nintendo 64), Tenchu 2 (PlayStation), Dino Crisis 2, and Banjo-Tooie (Nintendo 64). During this period Alex was refining his work with each project, working towards the day when he would be able to stop hand-drawing the maps and could produce true 3D computer-generated maps.

“By 2001, Brady was so pleased with the work we were doing they put us under an exclusive contract and paid us a monthly advance against a guaranteed amount of work. Up until then we were

still doing a few projects for Prima, and we’d done the Rune guide as well, but we were very happy to sign an exclusive with Brady. They were always one of our favorite clients and we appreciated the confidence they showed in our work.

“Alex continued to refine his technique and by this time was producing maps that were really works of art. It was also during this time that Nintendo decided they wouldn’t let the games out of their office and Alex would have to make regular trips to Seattle to work on the maps.

“Over the next four years, IDW provided maps for dozens of projects and worked for Brady until the summer of 2005. By that point, game designers were starting to provide their own maps for the guides and the games were becoming so complex that Alex, working by himself, couldn’t get the maps done as fast as a team of people. By then, IDW 23

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The job was a nightmare and it was one of the few times that, even though we completed the project, we couldn’t make a client happy.

That was the only design project we would get from Brady, but they were so happy with Alex’s maps that we were soon buried in projects.

“In 2000, IDW did maps for the BradyGames strategy guides for Perfect Dark (Nintendo 64), Tenchu 2 (PlayStation), Dino Crisis 2, and Banjo-Tooie (Nintendo 64). During this period Alex was refining his work with each project, working towards the day when he would be able to stop hand-drawing the maps and could produce true 3D computer-generated maps.

“By 2001, Brady was so pleased with the work we were doing they put us under an exclusive contract and paid us a monthly advance against a guaranteed amount of work. Up until then we were

still doing a few projects for Prima, and we’d done the Rune guide as well, but we were very happy to sign an exclusive with Brady. They were always one of our favorite clients and we appreciated the confidence they showed in our work.

“Alex continued to refine his technique and by this time was producing maps that were really works of art. It was also during this time that Nintendo decided they wouldn’t let the games out of their office and Alex would have to make regular trips to Seattle to work on the maps.

“Over the next four years, IDW provided maps for dozens of projects and worked for Brady until the summer of 2005. By that point, game designers were starting to provide their own maps for the guides and the games were becoming so complex that Alex, working by himself, couldn’t get the maps done as fast as a team of people. By then, IDW 23

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RUNE STRATEGY GUIDE The first book to have the IDW logo on it wasn’t a comic book—it was a strategy guide for the PC-game Rune.

Adams remembers, “I think my old friend and colleague at Todd McFarlane Entertainment, Terry Fitzgerald,

Publishing was really up and running and we decided not to pursue a new contract with Brady.”

Alex describes his experience as the games became more and more complicated: “For me, the only frustrating thing about these projects was that the deadlines were concrete, but the broad scope of each game varied wildly and was never known beforehand. Because of that, I was always forced to blindly budget my time, just praying I could finish by the due date. When we first started, I would average 1530 maps per game. As game sizes increased over the years, the average number of maps per game was nearing 100 and therefore became unmanageable for one person. The only solution was to hire a team to help out, and that just wasn’t feasible for our business strategy at the time.”

introduced us to the guys at Ethos Entertainment who were associated in some way with Human Head or the developers of the Rune game. In any case, they had the strategy guide rights for the game and were looking for someone to help them put together a book.

This one was a complete turn-key job for IDW— we hired the writer and did all of the design and production.

“The thing I remember most about this project is that we had to buy a PC to get it done. We’ve always been, and still are, a Mac-only shop but this game didn’t run on a Mac so we had to break down and buy a PC. And this was in the days of the giant PC boxes and monitors. That thing was an albatross in our office for years, taking up space and doing nothing but gathering dust. It was only when we moved into our current office in 2008 that we finally found a way to recycle the longobsolete equipment.”

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RUNE STRATEGY GUIDE The first book to have the IDW logo on it wasn’t a comic book—it was a strategy guide for the PC-game Rune.

Adams remembers, “I think my old friend and colleague at Todd McFarlane Entertainment, Terry Fitzgerald,

Publishing was really up and running and we decided not to pursue a new contract with Brady.”

Alex describes his experience as the games became more and more complicated: “For me, the only frustrating thing about these projects was that the deadlines were concrete, but the broad scope of each game varied wildly and was never known beforehand. Because of that, I was always forced to blindly budget my time, just praying I could finish by the due date. When we first started, I would average 1530 maps per game. As game sizes increased over the years, the average number of maps per game was nearing 100 and therefore became unmanageable for one person. The only solution was to hire a team to help out, and that just wasn’t feasible for our business strategy at the time.”

introduced us to the guys at Ethos Entertainment who were associated in some way with Human Head or the developers of the Rune game. In any case, they had the strategy guide rights for the game and were looking for someone to help them put together a book.

This one was a complete turn-key job for IDW— we hired the writer and did all of the design and production.

“The thing I remember most about this project is that we had to buy a PC to get it done. We’ve always been, and still are, a Mac-only shop but this game didn’t run on a Mac so we had to break down and buy a PC. And this was in the days of the giant PC boxes and monitors. That thing was an albatross in our office for years, taking up space and doing nothing but gathering dust. It was only when we moved into our current office in 2008 that we finally found a way to recycle the longobsolete equipment.”

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VIDEO-GAME MAGAZINES In addition to strategy guides, IDW did several illustrations for the covers and interiors of video-game magazines, including a Wolverine cover for Official US PlayStation Magazine.

WizKids In 2000, IDW was contacted, through a mutual friend, by Jordan Weisman, one of the founders of FASA and FASA Interactive. Among other things, FASA created the popular Battletech and Shadowrun franchises and after Microsoft acquired FASA Interactive, Jordan was Creative Director for their entertainment division.

“When we first met, Jordan was in the very early stages of development on what would become Mage Knight,” remembers Adams. “He had a prototype of the combat dial and explained to us how the mechanics of the game would work.

It was obvious that he was an unbelievably smart guy who had a great track record and we were very happy to be working with him. At the time, Jordan was actually paying us with personal 26

___________________________________________ IDW’s work was recognized by WizKids when the Mage Knight game was released in November 2000.

checks. He’s one of the most entrepreneurial guys I’ve ever met and I tried to learn as much as I could from him.”

In addition to designing hundreds of characters in the Mage Knight universe, IDW designed the WizKids logo and provided the art for the first booster boxes. The first

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VIDEO-GAME MAGAZINES In addition to strategy guides, IDW did several illustrations for the covers and interiors of video-game magazines, including a Wolverine cover for Official US PlayStation Magazine.

WizKids In 2000, IDW was contacted, through a mutual friend, by Jordan Weisman, one of the founders of FASA and FASA Interactive. Among other things, FASA created the popular Battletech and Shadowrun franchises and after Microsoft acquired FASA Interactive, Jordan was Creative Director for their entertainment division.

“When we first met, Jordan was in the very early stages of development on what would become Mage Knight,” remembers Adams. “He had a prototype of the combat dial and explained to us how the mechanics of the game would work.

It was obvious that he was an unbelievably smart guy who had a great track record and we were very happy to be working with him. At the time, Jordan was actually paying us with personal 26

___________________________________________ IDW’s work was recognized by WizKids when the Mage Knight game was released in November 2000.

checks. He’s one of the most entrepreneurial guys I’ve ever met and I tried to learn as much as I could from him.”

In addition to designing hundreds of characters in the Mage Knight universe, IDW designed the WizKids logo and provided the art for the first booster boxes. The first

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____________________________________ Mage Knight characters designed by Alex.

Mage Knight starter decks also included a mini-comic that was put together by IDW. IDW employed a handful of freelancers on the design but in-house artist Alex Garner, ended up providing most of the designs and worked closely with Weisman.

Garner remembers, “Little did I know back then just how popular Mage Knight would turn out to be, which is a testament to Jordan’s sharp business acumen. But what I think also made him successful was that he was a real fan of the genre, so his passion for the project really showed through.

“When I designed the characters based off Jordan’s descriptions, I assumed the art I was doing was for sculptor’s eyes only, so I initially left them really 28

__________________________________________________ Opposite Page: Promotional poster for IDW’s Mage Knight: Stolen Destiny. Art by J. Scott Campbell.

open and sketchy. Only when we started doing trading cards did I refine the work for print purposes.”

IDW also produced a comic series based on Mage Knight that featured cover art by J. Scott Campbell, Dave Johnson, Ryan Benjamin, Alex Garner, and Mike Wieringo. Mage Knight was IDW’s first licensed comic-book series and it’s one of the few IDW titles to never be collected as a trade paperback. IDW

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____________________________________ Mage Knight characters designed by Alex.

Mage Knight starter decks also included a mini-comic that was put together by IDW. IDW employed a handful of freelancers on the design but in-house artist Alex Garner, ended up providing most of the designs and worked closely with Weisman.

Garner remembers, “Little did I know back then just how popular Mage Knight would turn out to be, which is a testament to Jordan’s sharp business acumen. But what I think also made him successful was that he was a real fan of the genre, so his passion for the project really showed through.

“When I designed the characters based off Jordan’s descriptions, I assumed the art I was doing was for sculptor’s eyes only, so I initially left them really 28

__________________________________________________ Opposite Page: Promotional poster for IDW’s Mage Knight: Stolen Destiny. Art by J. Scott Campbell.

open and sketchy. Only when we started doing trading cards did I refine the work for print purposes.”

IDW also produced a comic series based on Mage Knight that featured cover art by J. Scott Campbell, Dave Johnson, Ryan Benjamin, Alex Garner, and Mike Wieringo. Mage Knight was IDW’s first licensed comic-book series and it’s one of the few IDW titles to never be collected as a trade paperback. IDW

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MAGE KNIGHT TRADING CARDS In 2001, IDW brought together their clients Upper Deck and WizKids when Upper Deck produced a trading-card set based on the popular game.

________________________ Pages from the Scrye Mage Knight comic books.

also put together The Official Collector’s Guide to Mage Knight for WizKids and packaged a Mage Knight comic book that ran for a few months in Scrye Magazine. Kris Oprisko recalls, “This, along with the earlier sports comics, was one of the first postWildStorm comic-book jobs we did. It’s weird to think back on it now, but at that time we had no intention at all of becoming a comic publisher. It was great working on the books since I’d seen the birth of the characters from Alex, through to the sculpted minis and finally the comics.” _____________________________________________________________ Opposite Page: A rare promotional poster for Mage Knight trading cards.

“At the time, Upper Deck was still growing their games business and I thought there was a lot they could learn from Jordan. My hope was that the trading cards would lead to more business between the two companies but that didn’t work out. I’m not sure how the cards did for Upper Deck, but my impression was that most people bought the cards so they could get the rare Mage Knight figure that was packed into each box.”

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MAGE KNIGHT TRADING CARDS In 2001, IDW brought together their clients Upper Deck and WizKids when Upper Deck produced a trading-card set based on the popular game.

________________________ Pages from the Scrye Mage Knight comic books.

also put together The Official Collector’s Guide to Mage Knight for WizKids and packaged a Mage Knight comic book that ran for a few months in Scrye Magazine. Kris Oprisko recalls, “This, along with the earlier sports comics, was one of the first postWildStorm comic-book jobs we did. It’s weird to think back on it now, but at that time we had no intention at all of becoming a comic publisher. It was great working on the books since I’d seen the birth of the characters from Alex, through to the sculpted minis and finally the comics.” _____________________________________________________________ Opposite Page: A rare promotional poster for Mage Knight trading cards.

“At the time, Upper Deck was still growing their games business and I thought there was a lot they could learn from Jordan. My hope was that the trading cards would lead to more business between the two companies but that didn’t work out. I’m not sure how the cards did for Upper Deck, but my impression was that most people bought the cards so they could get the rare Mage Knight figure that was packed into each box.”

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IDW CARD GAMES During its relationship with Upper Deck, IDW worked on the following games:

2003 Manchester United Strike Force trading cards (Flip Game on Back)

2003 NBA Victory trading cards (Flip Game on Back)

2003 NFL Victory trading cards (Flip Game on Back)

Bionicle McDonald’s game Bionicle CCG (Starter Deck & Booster)

Cardcaptors (Starter Deck & Booster)

Gregory Horror Show Marvel VS. CCG (initial game design)

Medabots CCG (Starter Deck & 2 Boosters)

Upper Deck

SpongeBob Squarepants CCG (Starter Deck & Booster)

Survivor (Starter Deck & 2 Boosters)

Wizard in Training (Starter Deck & Booster)

NASCAR Racing Challenge (Starter Deck & Booster)

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_______________________________________________________ The Survivor trading-card game received a lot of press attention, inlcuding this article in The San Diego Union-Tribune.

Kris Oprisko discusses IDW’s other big client–Upper Deck: “On to the 5 in Pacific Beach, past UTC and the Mormon temple, through the rolling hills and lagoons, Torrey Pines rushing by to the West as we descended the valley, past the Del Mar racetrack before finally hanging a right at the windmill and flower fields for the straight shot down Palomar Airport Road and a final turn-off…

“For four and a half years (from October 1999 to April 2004), that trip from our offices to Upper Deck was part of every week for Ted & me, and even from a remove of many years and an entire continent, I can still see every bit of the scenery. It was a drive we longed to make at first, since we knew getting a monthly contract from Upper Deck would go a long way towards ensuring the stability of the company.

Ted and I knew Jerry Bennington [Upper Deck’s VP of their entertainment and gaming divisions] from our days at WildStorm, and he’d since ended up at Upper Deck, the leader in the collectible sports card field. Ted worked hard to get our material in front of Jerry–I remember Robbie whipping up one of the many pieces of promo materials he was working on in those early days–and it would pay off for us.

“The time period was just after the Pokémon phenomenon first hit, and Upper Deck was curious to see if they could compete in the new field of collectible card games. Their ability to produce high-quality and innovative cards was beyond question… but they needed the games themselves.

“At the time Ted & I had more enthusiasm and hunger to learn game design than actual design experience. We’d both worked on the Fast Break and WildStorms CCGs in our last jobs, but had no role in the design of those games. But we were bursting with ideas and fortunately were given the chance by Upper Deck to put them into effect.

“The Upper Deck offices were a thing to behold in and of themselves, packed with signed memorabilia: trading cards, jerseys, bobbleheads, sporting goods–even, for a time, an actual Formula 1 car! As Ted and I are both big sports fans, it was a great experience for us. We left our first meeting after signing on with Upper Deck in high spirits and looking forward to our first design job.

“We got two in rapid succession–first the call came in for a NASCAR racing game, followed by a request for a game based on the Japanese anime series Cardcaptors. Ted took NASCAR and I took Cardcaptors and we dug right in. We both developed 33

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IDW CARD GAMES During its relationship with Upper Deck, IDW worked on the following games:

2003 Manchester United Strike Force trading cards (Flip Game on Back)

2003 NBA Victory trading cards (Flip Game on Back)

2003 NFL Victory trading cards (Flip Game on Back)

Bionicle McDonald’s game Bionicle CCG (Starter Deck & Booster)

Cardcaptors (Starter Deck & Booster)

Gregory Horror Show Marvel VS. CCG (initial game design)

Medabots CCG (Starter Deck & 2 Boosters)

Upper Deck

SpongeBob Squarepants CCG (Starter Deck & Booster)

Survivor (Starter Deck & 2 Boosters)

Wizard in Training (Starter Deck & Booster)

NASCAR Racing Challenge (Starter Deck & Booster)

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_______________________________________________________ The Survivor trading-card game received a lot of press attention, inlcuding this article in The San Diego Union-Tribune.

Kris Oprisko discusses IDW’s other big client–Upper Deck: “On to the 5 in Pacific Beach, past UTC and the Mormon temple, through the rolling hills and lagoons, Torrey Pines rushing by to the West as we descended the valley, past the Del Mar racetrack before finally hanging a right at the windmill and flower fields for the straight shot down Palomar Airport Road and a final turn-off…

“For four and a half years (from October 1999 to April 2004), that trip from our offices to Upper Deck was part of every week for Ted & me, and even from a remove of many years and an entire continent, I can still see every bit of the scenery. It was a drive we longed to make at first, since we knew getting a monthly contract from Upper Deck would go a long way towards ensuring the stability of the company.

Ted and I knew Jerry Bennington [Upper Deck’s VP of their entertainment and gaming divisions] from our days at WildStorm, and he’d since ended up at Upper Deck, the leader in the collectible sports card field. Ted worked hard to get our material in front of Jerry–I remember Robbie whipping up one of the many pieces of promo materials he was working on in those early days–and it would pay off for us.

“The time period was just after the Pokémon phenomenon first hit, and Upper Deck was curious to see if they could compete in the new field of collectible card games. Their ability to produce high-quality and innovative cards was beyond question… but they needed the games themselves.

“At the time Ted & I had more enthusiasm and hunger to learn game design than actual design experience. We’d both worked on the Fast Break and WildStorms CCGs in our last jobs, but had no role in the design of those games. But we were bursting with ideas and fortunately were given the chance by Upper Deck to put them into effect.

“The Upper Deck offices were a thing to behold in and of themselves, packed with signed memorabilia: trading cards, jerseys, bobbleheads, sporting goods–even, for a time, an actual Formula 1 car! As Ted and I are both big sports fans, it was a great experience for us. We left our first meeting after signing on with Upper Deck in high spirits and looking forward to our first design job.

“We got two in rapid succession–first the call came in for a NASCAR racing game, followed by a request for a game based on the Japanese anime series Cardcaptors. Ted took NASCAR and I took Cardcaptors and we dug right in. We both developed 33

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Personal Favorites Out of all the projects IDW was involved in working on, which games were the designers’ favorites?

Ted Adams - Survivor The Survivor game, based on the hit CBS show, was definitely the IDW game played the most around both our and UD’s offices. Ted’s game mechanic was simple for non-CCG players to grasp and replicated the show’s cutthroat, alliance-based environment almost exactly.

For a time, there was a regular Friday-afternoon Survivor CCG league going at Upper Deck HQ. “For the Survivor game, we were trying to reach a broader audience than some of the anime or fantasy-based games. I wanted the game to be fun for ____________________________ someone who’d never even heard of Magic: This very rare Survivor crate was given away to key retail accounts.

The Gathering but we also wanted it to have a fun collectible aspect to it. UD did a good job of marketing the game, there were articles and ads everywhere and, if I remember correctly, there was even a TV spot for it. They flew out some of the Survivor ‘celebrities’ to shows, including an appearance by Elizabeth Hasselbeck at the San Diego Comic Convention, several years before she would join the cast of The View. I’ve always thought it was a fun social game but it never caught on in a big way.”

Kris Oprisko– Gregory Horror Show The Gregory Horror Show game was based on a very twisted Japanese computer animation show that ran late-night in that country. Kris designed rules with an innovative combination of cards, an actual game board, and an army of intricately designed plastic character gamepieces.

The show was supposed to get picked up by MTV but never did, killing the game after its initial release.

“Gregory Horror is by far the game I’m most proud of designing. The overall concept–trying to escape from a horrific hotel presided over by a deranged mouse–was enough to hook me from the start. Finding a way to incorporate a gameboard and miniatures was tough but rewarding. And the miniatures of the twisted cast of characters turned out amazing—I still pull out my complete collection and ooh and ahh over them every once in a while.”

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a similar style of working on the games… come up with the ideas during the morning/early afternoon, mockup and print some bare-bones cards in the late afternoon, and print, cut, & play-test them by the end of the day.

“The whole office (we’d just moved to our second location at that point and had hired our first employee) would participate in the play-testing sessions. The card table/dining table was the site of many pizza-and-beer-fueled nights of testing and refining. Many were the curses thrown around when a rule was exposed to make no sense, or a card didn’t function as planned, or, worst of all… when a game was broken and a complete restart from scratch was needed. But all those things happened–many times!

“In the end we’d get the game to the point where we had two rough playable decks and could explain the rules enough to get a game going. That meant we were ready to present it to Upper Deck, which involved showing the UD execs our concepts and allowing them to actually try the game out themselves. These sessions really showed us if we had something or not, because in those days, for the most part, the UD folks had little or no familiarity with collectible card gaming. If we could quickly get them up and playing–and having fun– then we were on the right track.

“Over the years, we got a chance to work on a huge number of projects. Some eventually were released, and many more never made it that far. For instance, we developed games for almost every sport out there–auto racing, football, baseball, hockey, soccer, basketball–just in case Upper Deck ever wanted to enter the sports CCG market. We even got very, very close to seeing a baseball game I designed become the default online-based baseball game for a huge software company, but in the end things didn’t quite work out.

“At the height of our Upper Deck business, we were dealing with game design from every imaginable source–Animation-based properties like SpongeBob SquarePants, an adolescent magician project

called Wizard-in-Training, card games based on Lego’s Bionicle for UD and McDonalds, the initial work on the game that would become UD’s Vs. CCG, and more. In the early days, before UD’s design department was expanded, Robbie would also design the card frames, boxes, and foil packs as well.

“Besides the games we designed for Upper Deck, another important component of our work there concerned bringing Yu-Gi-Oh! to the United States. Although still unknown in the U.S. at the time, Yu-Gi-Oh! was already the hugest thing since Pokémon in Japan, and the writing was on the wall. After a trip to Japan for the UD guys, a deal was struck with Konami to begin bringing the game to the U.S. “Thus began our long relationship with the juggernaut known as Yu-Gi-Oh! Here our task was localization–working through the dense rulebook, then the game mat, and finally the text of each and every card–to clean up the barely translated English and make the game understandable to U.S. players.

Every single sentence, each word, was scrutinized one by one. This work required lots of traveling– we’d alternate with the Konami folks between them coming to California and us going to Tokyo.

Painstakingly, we worked our way in this manner through the first 1,300 cards of the U.S. Yu-Gi-Oh! releases.

“After a time, our cooperation with Upper Deck finally came to an end. In the beginning, the UD squad was a small group consisting of Jerry Bennington, Stephanie Mascott, Tim Muret, Martin Welling and Mark Irwin, but by the time we parted ways there was an entire gaming department.

While the runaway success of Yu-Gi-Oh! had a lot to do with that expansion, the fact that there even was a gaming department in the first place can be traced back to IDW’s involvement with Upper Deck.” IDW

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Personal Favorites Out of all the projects IDW was involved in working on, which games were the designers’ favorites?

Ted Adams - Survivor The Survivor game, based on the hit CBS show, was definitely the IDW game played the most around both our and UD’s offices. Ted’s game mechanic was simple for non-CCG players to grasp and replicated the show’s cutthroat, alliance-based environment almost exactly.

For a time, there was a regular Friday-afternoon Survivor CCG league going at Upper Deck HQ. “For the Survivor game, we were trying to reach a broader audience than some of the anime or fantasy-based games. I wanted the game to be fun for ____________________________ someone who’d never even heard of Magic: This very rare Survivor crate was given away to key retail accounts.

The Gathering but we also wanted it to have a fun collectible aspect to it. UD did a good job of marketing the game, there were articles and ads everywhere and, if I remember correctly, there was even a TV spot for it. They flew out some of the Survivor ‘celebrities’ to shows, including an appearance by Elizabeth Hasselbeck at the San Diego Comic Convention, several years before she would join the cast of The View. I’ve always thought it was a fun social game but it never caught on in a big way.”

Kris Oprisko– Gregory Horror Show The Gregory Horror Show game was based on a very twisted Japanese computer animation show that ran late-night in that country. Kris designed rules with an innovative combination of cards, an actual game board, and an army of intricately designed plastic character gamepieces.

The show was supposed to get picked up by MTV but never did, killing the game after its initial release.

“Gregory Horror is by far the game I’m most proud of designing. The overall concept–trying to escape from a horrific hotel presided over by a deranged mouse–was enough to hook me from the start. Finding a way to incorporate a gameboard and miniatures was tough but rewarding. And the miniatures of the twisted cast of characters turned out amazing—I still pull out my complete collection and ooh and ahh over them every once in a while.”

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a similar style of working on the games… come up with the ideas during the morning/early afternoon, mockup and print some bare-bones cards in the late afternoon, and print, cut, & play-test them by the end of the day.

“The whole office (we’d just moved to our second location at that point and had hired our first employee) would participate in the play-testing sessions. The card table/dining table was the site of many pizza-and-beer-fueled nights of testing and refining. Many were the curses thrown around when a rule was exposed to make no sense, or a card didn’t function as planned, or, worst of all… when a game was broken and a complete restart from scratch was needed. But all those things happened–many times!

“In the end we’d get the game to the point where we had two rough playable decks and could explain the rules enough to get a game going. That meant we were ready to present it to Upper Deck, which involved showing the UD execs our concepts and allowing them to actually try the game out themselves. These sessions really showed us if we had something or not, because in those days, for the most part, the UD folks had little or no familiarity with collectible card gaming. If we could quickly get them up and playing–and having fun– then we were on the right track.

“Over the years, we got a chance to work on a huge number of projects. Some eventually were released, and many more never made it that far. For instance, we developed games for almost every sport out there–auto racing, football, baseball, hockey, soccer, basketball–just in case Upper Deck ever wanted to enter the sports CCG market. We even got very, very close to seeing a baseball game I designed become the default online-based baseball game for a huge software company, but in the end things didn’t quite work out.

“At the height of our Upper Deck business, we were dealing with game design from every imaginable source–Animation-based properties like SpongeBob SquarePants, an adolescent magician project

called Wizard-in-Training, card games based on Lego’s Bionicle for UD and McDonalds, the initial work on the game that would become UD’s Vs. CCG, and more. In the early days, before UD’s design department was expanded, Robbie would also design the card frames, boxes, and foil packs as well.

“Besides the games we designed for Upper Deck, another important component of our work there concerned bringing Yu-Gi-Oh! to the United States. Although still unknown in the U.S. at the time, Yu-Gi-Oh! was already the hugest thing since Pokémon in Japan, and the writing was on the wall. After a trip to Japan for the UD guys, a deal was struck with Konami to begin bringing the game to the U.S. “Thus began our long relationship with the juggernaut known as Yu-Gi-Oh! Here our task was localization–working through the dense rulebook, then the game mat, and finally the text of each and every card–to clean up the barely translated English and make the game understandable to U.S. players.

Every single sentence, each word, was scrutinized one by one. This work required lots of traveling– we’d alternate with the Konami folks between them coming to California and us going to Tokyo.

Painstakingly, we worked our way in this manner through the first 1,300 cards of the U.S. Yu-Gi-Oh! releases.

“After a time, our cooperation with Upper Deck finally came to an end. In the beginning, the UD squad was a small group consisting of Jerry Bennington, Stephanie Mascott, Tim Muret, Martin Welling and Mark Irwin, but by the time we parted ways there was an entire gaming department.

While the runaway success of Yu-Gi-Oh! had a lot to do with that expansion, the fact that there even was a gaming department in the first place can be traced back to IDW’s involvement with Upper Deck.” IDW

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