A continuation of questions posed by JPBRAY to buxman, about the game, Bux, 'Your money game', he is marketing.
[By the way, how is your money game? Cool?]
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JPB Question 3: Who did you have in mind as players when you designed it?
buxman Ans: We had 8 to 12 year-olds in mind at first. But shortly into development, iwe knew it had to be opened up to all. Being successful with money is a very unifying theme.
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JPB Question 4: What makes it fun?
buxman Ans: Bux is only fun for people who are motivated by success- whatever they define success to be. For most, it's another head.
Our quick definition of success is having the freedom to buy what you want, do what you want, go where you want to go, and give to who you want to give to. Success may be 12 cars, owning a production company or a race car, married with a happy family, giving time and money to groups who need, or relaxing on a beach in Ghana. Success could be any or all of these at the same time.
If thoughts of success turn you on, you will have fun playing Bux. Playing Bux will give you the experience of becoming successful- the highs, the lows, the successes, the failures, the come-backs, the risks, the suspense of cashing in before time runs out, revenge... Playing Bux is like riding a rollercoaster of feelings.
In a way, playing the game mimics adult life. In about an hour of intense play, you'll live out a try for your own personal success.
Maybe rather than 'fun', Bux is excitement- with laughs.
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JPB Question: Why couldn't I get it from Walmart?
buxman Ans: Because Wal-Mart is playing Bux too. They want to be successful. So they can?t take in an unknown game from a little first-time company- with no advertising budget. That would be a tremendous risk. WalMart is out to win, so they limit their risk (which is one strategy in Bux) and only go with sure winners.
Maybe they will sell it later when it is a sure thing, but there are downsides to that for suppliers too.
So you won?t see Bux in stores for at least another year. But you can get it from the website, www.buxthegame.com.
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JPB Question: Oh yea, What happened between Howard graduation and Newscool inception that led to this point?
buxman Ans: A lot.
I graduated from Howard with a degree in mechanical engineering in 1966. I was ?recruited? by Ford. (I was interested in aerospace also and spent my junior summer at Douglas Aircraft, **** and Space Systems Division in Santa Monica, California. The beach life was wonderful. But when I visited Ford, I was given a ride in a 427 Cobra at 125 m.p.h. on the test track. That sealed the deal for me.)
At Ford I was an Experimental Engineer in their Experimental Garage. (I can remember while there suggesting that they put more power and quality into their Pinto- and them telling me to stick to engineering and let the marketing people handle it.) So I left Ford to work full time on an MBA in marketing.
One of my papers was on the ?Application of Marketing to Crime Reduction in Urban Areas? where I made an analogy between crime reduction as a ?product?, tax increase as the ?price?, public appeals for cooperation as ?advertising?, with increased freedoms as ?product benefits?... Grade: C. (Hey, in an automotive town? I recall someone writing on ...doorhandles... ?A?. I chucked the program- a thing I regret not having finished. But I had the foundation to continue.
I heard about a job at a methadone clinic and thought it would be a good experience for me to understand the challenges there. I was an ?executive? up on the ?third floor? and given the job by a nun who was the director, to reduce inside theft. So, using my engineering, I set up a flow system of clients, money and methadone. We warned four people that they had been discovered, and later had to dismiss three. Being there was another dimension.
I was always amazed at the brilliance of some of the regular drug users coming there for treatment- especially a ?lawyer? with no college education, but effective in giving defense advice. I thought it such a waste- and only because they couldn?t see a clear path out of their problem(s).
One day a guy- a regular user who was ?on-staff??, came into my office and took me to the window. ?See that guy out there?? He said pointing to a client standing talking to others. ?You will never see him again.? Not wanting to ask any questions, I said OK. But I did see that person again- in the newspaper about three days later: found ****.
It was something they had to settle, but nevertheless I was thinking that it was time to go.
I started a very small company with money from savings, family, a few friends. California waterbeds with 4-channel stereo speakers at each corner. ?Ahhh.? But high overhead in high rent district, cost of custom bed frames, fashion models to sell instead of salespeople, prohibitive advertising costs, located in the Motor City and opening on Halloween didn?t help. Out of business in six months.
Temporary setback. Not fun. No cash at all. Evicted. Moved to the Apple. Couched in a friend?s apartment for almost a year. Wrote a book. Now that I look back at it , it was a mind cleanser. Did odd jobs here and there.
An add in the New York Times: 'Engineer wanted to design electric car' I answered, interviewed and got the job, largely on my Ford background. But it was a scam. As I found out after being their 'Chief Engineer' for $600 a month with promises of huge money later. The guy (I suspect) had people pay him in advance for dealerships once the car went into production. He used this money to rent great looking offices, pay a couple of us and live nicely. [This may not be illegal, and perhaps is how some people start businesses, but ?his gear didn?t catch and his company didn?t get started fast enough to work.] His Bux timing was off.
When I felt the ?end was coming? I was lucky enough to see an ad, ?Toy and Game inventors needed?. I got some posterboard and went to work with Magic Markers. 3 games, 3 toy sketches. Interview. I got the job.
I worked there over a year, submitting between 5 and 12 new toy and game concepts a day. That was challenging, interesting and enjoyable work. Those concepts that they thought had potential went into (expensive) models. [Bux: My boss was spending and risking money to make more money. He was very successful at it.] Part of his MO was that he never let you know what product was successful or not- and I had no time, or access to look at all the toy and game companies in the world to find out.
Sometime after a year of the best training I ever had, a change toward me in the office told me that my ideas could be getting tired. I spoke to my boss about leaving and going to a toy company that used to come to his company looking for ideas to produce. It was a solution that suited everyone. He got rid of me without having to pay unemployment, Ideal Toy Company (Mouse Trap, Rubik?s Cube...) got new thinking, and I got a great job working for a legend in the game industry. 1976.
Ideal Toy was good to me. I learned under the masters in the industry how to shape a game. The concept is one thing. (I was told that ?Ideas are dime a dozen.?) But developing those concepts into exciting products is quite an art. Here is where the actions and reactions to the game and other players gets worked into an artpiece.
My proudest moment there was one day, in a brainstorming session, coming up with two ideas: One which became Electronic Detective (Ideal Toy- 1978) and the other, ?Failsafe? an electronic game that was never produced because of in-company politics, but was called the ?Greatest game that that master game ?tuner? had ever played?. And it was. Ideal sent me to California to work with programmers at an electronics company to make that game. When I brought it back, it was a sensation in the company. Two players looked down at a 14? red plastic dome on the table, like a radar screen with LEDs, representing missiles going from side to side, city to city with or without warheads. Players would launch counter missiles to blow incoming missiles up to prevent them from hitting cities. Very exciting and expensive for then.
Failsafe led me to believe that I had learned all that I could about developing games, and that it was time to ?start my own game company?. So I left Ideal and was lucky enough to sell the first product I invented and took to a manufacturer- ?I vant to Bite Your Finger?, a brilliantly executed action game where kids walked through a graveyard on the board only to face Count Dracula. If he bit them, they had to start over... Then I went on to sell (actually license) Advance to Boardwalk, Clue Jr., BoggleBowl, Castle Risk, Free Parking, Go For It!, Fun City, Won Over to Parker Brothers, and SpyWeb and MAGS to Hasbro.
It is this last game, MAGS (ever heard of it? 1999?) which triggered me to start thinking of my own game production company. [Notice? It?s usually some event linked with some feeling that precedes change for me?] MAGS was called the greatest game concept many had ever seen. [Bux: Regardless of what you have on the table, it ain?t worth nothin? ?til you sell it- and have your money.] I am planning to do it again so I can?t go into too much detail here, but MAGS was a game that you connected to your MP3 player and it played to your music. Everything from design, to programming, to production, to marketing to advertising to distribution, that could go wrong, went wrong and the product was one of the biggest failures in the game industry.
That was it. Hello Newscool. Hello Bux. There you have it. A game for the future based on experiences of the past.
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There you have the journey from Howard to here.
