Re: Piecepacks from Blue Panther?

["Steve Jones" <steve@...>]

Hi:

This is Steve Jones (of Blue Panther LLC).  Just joined your group
this evening.   Of course, the last few days of your group's
discussion have been very interesting, from my perspective.

There are a few questions about the JCD Piecepack and others so I'll
try to cover them all.

1) We are looking at doing the JCD Piecepack - it does seem to be a
good match, especially since it is specifically intended to
be "monochrome".   Once we get the artwork in the right format, we'll
run a few pieces and post a picture here or on our website.

2) It's possible to do the JCD Piecepack in a variety of materials,
hardwoods, baltic birch, plastic.  For starters, we'll try baltic
birch with a polyurethane clear coat - these pieces will look like
most of the games on our website.   A light colored wood with darker 
contrast engraved symbols on it.

3) If you would indulge a short market research question - would you
like to see parts in a cloth bag or a wooden box with finger joints
(about 6"x2.5"x2.5") like we use for most of our other games?

4) Someone mentioned Cubed, the Cubic system is similar in intent to
Piecepack, except with rock, paper, scissors on dice.  Right now it's
a BP product, but it could go the same way as Piecepack system.

5) Plastic - parts can be done in acrylic or similar - allowing a
wide variety of colors ranging from transparent (clear) to
transluscent (think neon colors) to solid with little light
transmission.  There's also something called "engraver's plastic"
which would also work (this is the stuff they make nameplates
from).    For us it's just as easy to work in plastic, but since
plastic is way more expensive, the price would be alot higher,
probably 50-100% more.

6) The IEHK laser engraver.  It's very cheap, and we looked at
getting it for Blue Panther.  When they refused to provide the
contact info for any current users of their equipment in the US, we
decided it was risky to continue further.  If it's the model I'm
thinking of, be aware that it is WATER COOLED and YOU have to monitor
the temperature, according to their literature.  Also, check out the
software side and ensure that it can handle a variety of file
formats. Perhaps the design has changed or improved since we looked
at it, just check it out thoroughly...

Steve Jones
Blue Panther LLC
(and Protospiel guy)

--- In piecepack@yahoogroups.com, "palindromic_man" <barry.reber@...>
wrote:
>
> Hi all (this is my first or second post),
>
> when I saw this thread I had a crazy idea: use something like
> fundable.org to get enough pledges/pre-orders for piecepacks to buy
> your own laser-etch machine, which you could then use to make you
> piecepacks with..
>
> I haven't done any comparison shopping but here's an etcher for
$1299:
> http://www.iehk.net/Products/IE300.html
>
> I should just do it, but have neither the time nor the inclination
at
> the moment; everyone else is probably in the same situation.
>
> My wife and I made 10 piecepacks to give to family at christmas, and
> laser-etched pieces would have been way cooler than poorly painted
> (but still pretty cool) ones.
>
> -Barry
>
>
>
> --- In piecepack@yahoogroups.com, "Ron Hale-Evans" <rwhe@> wrote:
> >
> > Thanks, Jonathan! That's so cool. The more manufacturers of the
> > piecepack there are, the more the piecepack meme will thrive, and
> > that's good for everyone reading this (I can only assume).
> >
> > Marty points out that Blue Panther also works with plastic and
other
> materials:
> >
> > http://www.bluepantherllc.com/Prototypes.htm
> >
> > A laser-cut, laser-engraved plastic piecepack would be nice too...
> >
> > Ron
> >
> > On 1/11/07, Porter235 <porter235@> wrote:
> > > I have sent the first email to Steve. I will let you all know
> when/if I hear
> > > back.
> > >
> > > Thank you for your encouragement.
> > > JCD
> > >
> > > On Thursday 11 January 2007 17:20, Porter235 wrote:
> > > > > Jonathan, why don't you approach him about making the JCD
> Piecepack
> > > > > one of the games he sells on his site?
> > > > >
> > > > > Ron
> > > >
> > > > Clark has suggested the same to me (before Christmas actually)
> and it is on
> > > > my todo list... my freakin' huge todo list :( It would be
super
> cool.
> > > >
> > > > JCD
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Yahoo! Groups Links
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> > --
> >     Ron Hale-Evans ... rwhe@ ... http://ron.ludism.org/
> > Mind Performance Hacks book:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/mindperfhks/
> > 	   Center for Ludic Synergy: http://www.ludism.org/
> > (revilous life proving aye the death of ronaldses when winpower
wine has
> > 		   bucked the kick on poor won man)
> >
>