One of the most important parts of the design process at OSG is to allow games to sit and mature. A typical production cycle for a game would be 6 or 8 years. The reason is the same reason that it helps to step away from a game you are playing: you come back refreshed-you come back with clearer vision of what you are looking at. In some cases it's almost as though your mind has continued working on the problem while you've been away. So it's good to take out the design projects and work on them intensively and then put them away and let ideas simmer. If you'd like to help speed up the pace of the P-250 projects there are many things you can do: You can write about the project on Consimworld, or on OSG's discussion board. You can publish a replay or clip OSG art on your homepage and/or provide a link to Napoleongames.com You can volunteer to work on your favorite project, or You could send us ideas that you have about this game or the period. (You might well be sitting on the solution to a design problem without knowing it.) You can help via our Contributors Page: http://www.napoleongames.com/contrib.html (So far we have received contributions to our general program and a pledge of $1,000 toward production of Highway to Leipzig.) Don't feel that by clicking the box on the pre-order form that you've done your part in bringing that game out. OSG is a small community and it needs the participation of everybody. We can't be here without your support. Most importantly, your purchase (and playing!) of each of the new games as they come out-whether you had pre-ordered or not-provides us with the cash we need to continue working on games. So if you haven't bought Seven Days of 1809 yet, please give it a chanceŠ If you have bought it, please play it, and then write something about it on the web. You probably don't know how much your comments on Consimworld can help, but if you did, you would take a few minutes to write something about any of the games that you like. Our print runs are 1,500 units per title. We figure there are 1,500 people who will eventually buy each of our games. That's been fairly constant since 1997. But it has occurred to me that our proper print runs should be only 1,200 units. That would drive unit costs higher, though, and might not be viable. A pre-order is a commitment to buy sight unseen. But that is harder to do than to buy a finished product like Seven Days of 1809, once you have seen it. We're not saying our games are perfect; we're saying they have a basic structure that is historical, playtested and makes sense; they have a basic physical system that is clear and attractive and well-produced. We back that with a full guarantee. So give Seven Days of 1809 a chance, and help keep OSG going strong. Many Thanks. Back to OSG News November 2004 Table of Contents Back to OSG News List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 2004 by Operational Studies Group This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com