A New Home for the Canadian Heritage Collection

As many of you know, September is the month where the Canadian Heritage Collection typically releases its annual Master Catalog of Canadian Games. While I don't have a 2012 Master Catalog for you, I do have some good news that bodes extremely well for the Catalog's future as well as for the future of the Canadian Heritage Collection itself.

Back in July of this year, I entered into discussions with an Ontario-based organization called GamesForAll that is working hard to grow and celebrate boardgame culture in Canada through a variety of initiatives ranging from retail to event support to publishing and more. We've agreed that their spirit and intent is closely aligned with that of the Canadian Heritage Collection and that they're well equipped to continue growing and improving upon the CHC in the years to come. On that basis, I made the decision to transfer the rights and responsibility involved in the Canadian Heritage Collection over to their team and am now assisting them with the transition.

Big Update - Famous Games + Kickstarting the Apparatus

Hi everyone! Rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated. =o) It's been eons since I updated the blog but it certainly hasn't been for lack of news. If anything, it's because so much has been going on at once that I've had to let Canadian Gamer take a back seat for a while.

So what's been going on, you say? Well here's a quick rundown:

• 
  After 14 years of developing HD games at BioWare/Electronic Arts, I've decided to leave the company and strike out on my own. Needless to say, it was a tough decision and I'm glad I took the time to wrap up pre-production on some special projects before I left.
• 
  Following my departure, I've been hanging around with the guys at StartupEdmonton and pouring my passion and energy into Famous Games Co., my game-related sports marketing startup that I quietly launched last year. That's involved a lot of effort on the website and, now that I have my card game samples from the manufacturer, I've been reaching out to the various related sports leagues and their major sponsors to build up some initial clientele. It's been a neat design challenge for me as it's involved building an entire line of card games capturing familiar subject matter (sport) yet using no more than 9 cards. It's been exciting to see it all finally coming together and taking shape as an actual business. In the meantime, the general gaming public will be able to order copies from the BoardGameGeek webstore starting in early August (special thanks to Derk, Aldie, Chad and the gang!) so keep your eyes peeled there.
• 
  Not to be outdone, the Toy Vault team has been hard at work on their Kickstarter program for my upcoming steampunk board game, "Apparatus". They've put together a great promo video and art assets and everything went live yesterday. Check it out and, while you're there, stop by some other Canadian gaming campaigns currently being Kickstarted and wish them luck on their journeys.