Even James Bond Didn't Work Alone

But up to this point I had pretty much kept the idea to myself, only a few people knew I was even working on it, and I think they thought I was crazy, so I decided to give it the ultimate test and run it by the real CCG creators at work. I was more than prepared to be laughed out of the office but to my surprise, they seemed to take to the game pretty well. It was rough, and had more than a couple of holes in it. But all-in-all, it received a thumbs up review.

With the positive reviews from the pros at work I began to take my little project a little more seriously. I wanted input from the guys at work...I wanted it to be a really fun game. Hey, maybe we would even play it at work someday (you never know). So I got with a couple of the guys at work on a regular basis at lunch and we'd brainstorm about new ideas.

Matt Carson, a die-hard Bond fan that makes my knowledge of James Bond look like "Bond who?", gave a ton of insight into Bond history and the Bond intellectual property in general. He also had experience playing several collectible card games, which was a bonus. His head is filled full of Bond history, trivia, and one-liners.

Jonathan Quesenberry was one of the few people who already knew I was working on the game. After I told him about the game he said it had some interesting ideas and that he was interested in brainstorming about it. Jonathan is one of those types of guys that is great to brainstorm with about ANYTHING. He always has new ideas and has the ability to look at any given project from many different angles. Jonathan wasn't a big Bond fan exactly, but he had years of experience developing collectible card games at Decipher. He had a hand in the development of both the Star Wars and Star Trek CCGs.

And The Cycle Began

I had successfully recruited agent Carson and agent Quesenberry. Together the three of us made up the small team of people to help review the game, give suggestions, and playtest. So for a while, once every couple of weeks we would gather at this great little hamburger place and review the latest changes and ideas and talk about what seemed to be working, and what needed to go away.

We invited a handful of other experienced gamers to playtest the game after work accompanied by a stead supply of pizza and coke. And so the cycle began of playing, then fixing, the playing, then fixing, then playing...you get the idea.

Do you Believe in Fate?

Somewhere is the midst of designing the game, and gathering as much information about Bond as I could, Carl Braun, another co-worker, brought to work an amazing Bond book entitled "The Secret World of 007". The book covered all the Bond movies, as well as all the main characters, locations, vehicles, and gadgets. It was invaluable. Carl mentioned there was another copy of the book at the half-price bookstore near his house. I told him I would happily pay him back for the book if he would pick it up for me.

The following day, in walked Carl with the book. I was thrilled. I reached in my pocket for the cash to purchase the book, but I only had a twenty and Carl didn't have change. I told Carl I'd break the twenty at lunch and pick up the book from him after we got back.

So I went to lunch, broke the twenty, returned to work with the change. I found Carl and handed him the eight dollars for the book which left me with one bill left, a five. And as I began to put the five away something caught my eye on the five. Something was hand written on the bill and once I realized what it was, I couldn't believe it. There were three numbers written on the five dollar bill I got in change from the fast food restaurant at lunch. The numbers: 0...0...7. I sandwiched the five in between the pages of the book where it has remained ever since.

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