GUBS was presented this year at the New York Toy Fair in February. It was very well received, with many people being drawn to its colourful packaging. My brother Alex and I were a little overwhelmed by the sheer amount of stuff to see at this show, but it was a great learning experience. Another thing that caught us off guard is seeing, first hand, the business side of toys and games so vividly. We are used to conventions filled with gamers who are searching for fun. Here we found sales people, many of whom were not really gamers, who were primarily interested in sales pitches and whatnot. We felt a little out of place until day two, where we just hovered near our game and explained it as best we could to anyone interested. Overall, we felt things went great. And we got to finally meet the Gamewright guys in person, which was really awesome. They are really cool folks, and Alex and I look forward to working with them well into the future.

As many of you have probably already heard, GUBS has a new publisher: Gamewright Games! I am thrilled to be welcomed into the Gamewright family of games. GUBS is a perfect fit for their line, and the people at Gamewright have worked very hard to preserve everything that made GUBS great. Their new and improved version is AMAZING! I could not be more pleased.

The game should be released middle of next month, but you can preorder now by going here.

I realized the other day that my brother and I have never really gotten much face time associated with GUBS, and that most of you have no idea what we look like or who we are. I mean, there’s a great deal of information in the making of GUBS about the history of the game itself, but only little glimpses into our lives.

Well, nice to meet you. My name is Cole and thats my brother Alex. Together we created GUBS. He’s four years younger than I am (I’m 27 now) and he’s been helping me make games since we were very young. I live over in San Francisco and Alex is in Lodi where we grew up together. Alex is a talented craftsman (welding, leather work, etc), a musician (he’s written many songs and plays awesome guitar) and an all around cool dude. I’m a writer/game designer/artisty guy who loves film and literature.

GUBS is our baby and there’s no one on earth who knows the game or world better than the two of us. We know every strategy inside and out, he constantly is my equal in tossing around ideas for expansions and changes, and watching a game of GUBS between the two of us is a crazy affair where each “turn” lasts maybe a second.

We are both so excited to be sharing all the joy we’ve had with the game and the gubs world with all the fans. Thanks for reading, and I hope we can continue to bring you more great adventures in the land of the Gubs.

This here is a little promo poster I did that would hopefully encourage folks to check out the game. I sometimes feel as though I made the box to bland. Its all brown, which was intended to give it an old earthy feel, kind of mysterious. The only problem is that GUBS should appeal to children, and children are generally drawn to fun, friendly colors.

So I tried to show the color of the cards with this poster while keeping the epic feel of the old rustic look. I added a lot of texture and a bold header to catch people’s eye. Even though this poster didn’t see too much use, I still think its one of the cooler looking pieces created to show off GUBS.

What do you think?

I do not envy game store owners; they have a tough plight. They have to make the best use out of every inch in their store to stay alive, because many people who are really into board and card games (like myself) will often just order their games online. Game stores have it tough to compete with those prices, I think, and it makes me sad to think of those magical shops all shutting down because the internet can save people a few dollars.

But it was a glorious day when GUBS was accepted (on consignment) to sit on the shelf in stores I had lingered in through much of my youth. Comic Grapevine is Lodi has nearly legendary status with me, as it was where I bought my first Magic deck, and my first RPG sourcebook for Star Wars 2nd Edition Rules. In every store GUBS has only been on consignment, because I never had official distribution channels. But even on consignment, the decks seemed to fly off the shelf. I was getting calls for more decks all the time right up until they sold out.

Early in 2008 I started to put together business cards for GUBS so that I could better market my game. I was preparing to visit trade shows and other events, and it was nice to have something I could pull out and hand to who ever was interested in the card game. Now making a business card can be a tricky thing. Its hard to choose exactly what image suits you the best. The first attempt, while not bad, was too vague. It neglected to show off the stars of he game, the Gubs themselves.

The first Gubs business card.

I had it in my head that if you teased people with an idea but didn’t show them exactly what it was about, that they would be come curious and investigate themselves. The problem is that I think this only works if you have a huge advertising budget. My budget was pretty much zero. So I decided to be more blunt:

Front of the card.

Back of the card.

This card got a lot better attention because it showcased the game, and the back of the card served to show people that the game was a real card game, not a video game.

Did you know that GUBS was almost published in Taiwan?

About 2 years ago I was contacted by a great guy named Byron Roberts from a company called Kanga Games. He expressed interest in publishing a Chinese version of GUBS. To see if there would be an interest, he bought a few decks and tried it out with people in Taiwan. Apparently it was a big hit, even though the cards themselves had not yet been translated. Unfortunately we were not able to get the project to publish Chinese decks in full swing, but that doesn’t mean it might not happen in the future.

In the meantime, they were able to provide me with a version of the rule sheet translated into Chinese (which you can find in the Play section.) I love having the different translations. Its neat to think of GUBS in homes all over the world, especially since it started with such humble beginnings.

Check out Kanga Games if you have a chance. They have a great selection of games from all over the world.

I have always been really fascinated by the more extravagant aquarium decorations, and so we managed to make use of one of those as well. Add some fake moss and stones, you have yourself a themed GUBS deck holder.

Cute little guys, aren’t they?

Well, they went through quite a lot of development before they arrived as the Gubs you know and love today (and they will probably continue to change for all time). When I first drew them in the margins of my homework in 3rd grade, they were simply little circles with stick arms and legs. Actually, the original Gubs had no arms and legs, and bounced around on little spherical bodies. They were the perfect example of something a 3rd grader could draw in abundance, and no doubt my teachers tired of seeing them covering my assignments.

Little did they know they were witnessing the birth of a movement! Gubs became more sophisticated as my drawing skills improved. Eventually they received the treatment you see here, which made it into the published version. I still have a soft spot in my heart for the original drawings, which is why I still have plenty of the original drawings laying around still.

Also, there is BIG news coming in the next few months. Big, big news. Huge even. Can’t wait to share.

This was my Esteemed Elder costume I made for Halloween. We also used it at a few conventions, with varying degrees of success.