Andrew's going on JoCo Cruise Crazy the first week of January.

We wanted to be sure to say that, in case any of our fans are also going . . . because we want to be sure you ask him LOTS of questions about Munchkin. (Rumor is, he'll have a Munchkin Zombies 2 playtest set with him, and maybe some other surprises . . .) Just because he's on vacation is no reason not to make him work, right?

You can find a fairly good likeness of Andrew on our Staff Profiles page, so you know whom to stalk.

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On December 13 we started shipping our last physical releases of 2010 -- Deluxe Illuminati, Illuminati Y2K, and Munchkin Boxes of Holding -- to distributors. With those three games on trucks and working their way through the distribution system (there's an excellent chance U.S. stores will have Deluxe Illuminati back in stock before Christmas), it was time to sit down and look back at 2010. And rather than keep my thoughts on the year hidden away I felt it might be fun for you to get a look at our year of releases and my thoughts on each month.

January -- Often a slow month, this year's January was dead in terms of product releases. This is not the way to run the company, and I need to work harder to make sure we have a steady stream of new games and reprints on shelves every month of the year.

February -- Only one release this month, Chez Cthulhu, but whenever it's a new release in the popular Chez Geek series that's enough to make it a good month. Steve and John went all out on this one and I still groan thinking about the night we went out for ice cream to review the art notes and card list. Trust me, the last thing you ever want to do is spend an evening with Steve, John, and Andrew as they are coming up with terrible puns and awful jokes. (Andrew would like to say, for the record, that Phil is kidding. He had a R'Lyeh good time.)

March -- Another month without any releases. I'm not doing a very good job at keeping the games flowing, am I?

April -- Cthulhu Dice hit shelves in April and it has been a fantastic seller for us. In fact, it's selling so well we pushed the button to get new colors out to stores before Christmas . . . but that's a discussion for a later month. We also shipped the non-curling Munchkin Fairy Dust in April and it is a beautiful pink pack of nasty fun that continues to sell very well for us.

May -- A huge and important month for us, with both Zombie Dice and the upgraded Munchkin hitting shelves. Zombie Dice has been a runaway hit for us, selling tens of thousands of copies in less than a quarter of a year, and quickly becoming a favorite way to settle disputes. (Will and Randy have used the game to determine who gets the bed at some conventions.) We also released the Munchkin Waiting for Santa reprint in May, and sales show that Santa is popular all year long. (Or is it that Munchkin is a hit and is carrying Santa along?)

June -- Chez Geek House Party Edition and the July 4 Chibithulhu were our new releases in June, and both did fairly well for us, but paled in comparison to the Munchkin reprints this month: Munchkin 2, Munchkin 3, Munchkin Bites, and Super Munchkin all returned to shelves this month, and they proceeded to sell so fast that we had to scramble to send them back to print. A challenge that we deal with almost daily is keeping Munchkin games and expansions in print, and I think you would be surprised at just how difficult it is to make sure the shelves do not run dry.

July -- No new releases this month, but the return of Munchkin 6, Munchkin Quest, and the Munchkin Kill-O-Meter kept the month strong and meant that we had cool stuff for everyone. This was also the month I had too much fun at SDCC, but a discussion of the 2010 conventions is probably best left for another time.

August -- In order to get to this month's new release I think I should start by looking at the reprints. Munchkin Cthulhu, Munchkin Cthulhu 2, and Munchkin Cthulhu 3 all came back just in time to give the latest Munchkin Cthulhu expansion, Munchkin Cthulhu 4, a core to build on. And as if that wasn't enough to keep us busy we also shipped the Munchkin Fu reprint to stores, and Steve and I sat down with John Kovalic and went over Munchkin Zombies. It was a busy month, but it was also a very good month.

September -- Three new Munchkin releases -- Munchkin Marked for Death, Munchkin Boxes of Holding, and +6 Bag 'o Munchkin d6 -- made this a great month for us, but as if those weren't enough, it was also the month that reprinting Zombie Dice became a huge priority; it was act fast or not have any Zombie Dice for Christmas. And sending children to bed Christmas Eve without any Zombie Dice would be wrong, so we tackled the problem and threw every trick we had at it. To properly top off the month we released reprints of Munchkin and Munchkin Fu 2 and the W23 exclusive Cthulhu Pins.

October -- Are you ready for a flood of new releases and reprints? Months of work collided in October as we unleashed 11 products on store shelves. We expanded classics with the Illuminati Mutual Assured Distraction booster for Deluxe Illuminati and Frag Gold Edition FTW for use with the price-reduced Frag Gold Edition. But it was Munchkin that saw the real burst of releases, with four new Munchkin items -- Munchkin Go Up a Level, Munchkin Quest: Portal Kombat, Munchkin Santa's Revenge, and the Munchkin Holiday Edition -- and four reprints -- Super Munchkin 2, The Good, the Bad, and the Munchkin, Munchkin Booty, and Munchkin Booty 2. One other new release, our Cthulhu Dice Bag, rounded out the month with something completely new and different for us.

November -- Another busy month, November had a total of seven releases. Revolution! The Palace is an inexpensive expansion that adds two players to Revolution! and changes up the way you have to think about strategy when playing the game. Munchkin expansions in November added two new boosters -- Munchkin Booty: Fish & Ships and Star Munchkin: Space Ships -- and the new W23 Munchkin Monstrous Christmas Card to the always-growing Munchkin library. Two Munchkin reprints -- Star Munchkin and Munchkin 4 -- showed that we were starting to get caught up with keeping the Munchkin line in stock (have we ever had the entire line in print at once?). And wrapping up the month was GURPS Low-Tech, the latest hardcover in the series, which has already been expanded on e23.

December -- We usually try to not release games in December -- our warehouse closes down mid-month and it's easier on everyone if the new releases ship in November -- but this year delays pushed nine releases into the month. Warehouse 23 got two exclusive releases with the Exclusive Warehouse 23 Munchkin Booster and Munchkin 2011 Christmas Coins, and the distribution network was restocked with Zombie Dice, Star Munchkin 2, Deluxe Illuminati, Illuminati Y2K, and Munchkin Boxes of Holding. The success of Cthulhu Dice throughout the year led to new Cthulhu Dice colors shipping out (how could we resist making more die colors?), and Munchkin Reloaded gave Munchkin players one last booster for 2010.

Whew. No wonder we're all so tired. 2010 was a busy, productive year for us. I'm proud to say that we almost succeeded with keeping Munchkin on store shelves, and we even managed to release new games. Publishing expansions for a few classic games was a great icing to an otherwise great year, but with 2010's print schedule behind us it's time to start getting deeper into 2011. I say deeper, because we already have games and expansions out through June of 2011 at print; my goal is to get the company to the point that we're working on releases one year before the release date, and while we are not there yet, we are closer than we were last year at this time.

2010, a year of successes. Thank you to the staff for the hard work, and thank you to all of our distributors, retailers, and fans for helping make the 50+ releases in the year worth the effort and expense it took to create them.

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Last year we releasedThe Vorkosigan Saga Sourcebook and Roleplaying Game (aka "GURPS Vorkosigan") in both PDF and hardcover. We took entirely too long to finish the project (my fault; read the foreword of the book, in which I take the bullet). At the end of 2010, our license will expire.

The hardback will remain on sale until the existing copies have been sold, but it won't be reprinted. The PDF version will be removed from the store on the 31st and will, in all likelihood, not be available again. As with other e23 releases: if a registered purchaser requests a replacement copy of the file, we will provide it. But you have only until December 31st to become a registered purchaser.

We appreciate the opportunity to work with the Vorkosigan universe (which is still alive and growing). We're very proud of the book and very grateful to Lois McMaster Bujold for her help and support during its lengthy gestation. (And check out Bujold's newest Vorkosigan novel, Cryoburn.)

And, changing the subject: Have a Merry Christmas, everyone. You have made me very happy by playing my games, and I hope you are all well and happy and will stay that way for 2011.

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We always have fun on Game Days here in the office. Yes, the business of making games is often as far from "fun" as can be, but we're all gamers, and we had new games to try out.

In fact, I didn't share any photos from our Halloween Game Day, did I? Let's take care of that first.

Since Halloween hit right after a couple staffers got back from Essen, we had some new things to try from Germany. We played Bausack, where you stack oddly shaped wooden pieces; Tok-Tok Woodman, a Korean game about hitting a plastic tree; Perpetual-motion Machine, which has a nifty steam-punkish feel; Polizei-Alarm!, a noisy and frantic game of cops and robbers; and Sneaks and Snitches, a blind bidding game that was delightfully frustrating (aka "there was a ton of smack talk").

There were many more games around, and I've lost track of who played what. But costumes were worn as well! SJ was a bartending zombie and Jimmie was "V" from V For Vendetta. Alex and Gabby were characters from . . . something. Apparently they were unrelated, but could have been mischievous partners in some Tim Burtonesque film.

SJ also brought in some Lego constructs to decorate the office. (SJ note: In the first picture, the one in front is me.) In return, we got him another dino statue. Pretty soon, he'll need to delicate an entire room of his house to these -- if he adds in some Jurassic era plants, it could be a heck of a diorama.

For the Christmas Game Day, we had more deviled eggs (not that they lasted very long) and even more games. Bausack and Perpetual-motion Machine were pulled out again. Snow Tails, a dog-sled racing game I picked up at last year's BGGCon, got a play. Will tried out his new copy of Claustrophobia, which was billed as "Space Hulk, but with demons and in the catacombs of Jerusalem." A group set up Ascension, and played it about a dozen times. Alex says it's a cross between Dominion and Magic. I saw the World of Warcraft Boardgame set up, and there was a rumor of a couple rounds of Pocket Battles.

But the stand-out game of the day was Lightning Reaction. It's an electronic game that consists of four handles around a central base. The light on the base flashes red, and, after a couple seconds, turns green. Everyone then punches their button -- the last player to do so gets a shock, which is mild enough to cause the player to leap around and howl, but doesn't inflict any permanent damage. Yes, Alex Fernandez was the one responsible for bringing it in.

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We thought you'd like a quick update on the status of Give Me The Brain. And that status is . . . (drum roll) . . . At The Printer!

The final files were checked, re-checked, and approved. The printer got everything, encountered problems -- because there is always something -- we fixed said problems, and now all is well. The proofs have arrived and were checked and re-checked. (We do a lot of checking, which makes it all the more frustrating when an error does creep through.)

As of today, the majority of the print run has been finished, assembled, and loaded onto the shipping container. The shipping container may be on the boat by the time you read this, but since we know the games are heading this way, we're uncertain as to their exact position. (Hey, there's a Heisenberg joke for all the physicists and XKCD fans in the crowd!)

"But Paul," I hear you say, "if the print run has left the printer, why is the status still 'At The Printer'?" The answer is simple: the games remain the responsibility of the printer, at least until we formally receive them (which involves counts and invoices and paperwork you don't even want to think about).

Give Me The Brain will arrive in our warehouse in the middle of January, and start shipping to distributors and retailers shortly afterward. Expect to see it on shelves by the end of January or the beginning of February.

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