We are happy to announce that our first game, John Butterfield’s “Battle of the Bulge,” is now a Kickstarter project. The campaign launches on Thursday, April 26th around 5:00 o’clock Eastern time. We are excited to have the opportunity to tell the world about our game and to give so many people the opportunity to be a part of it.

The Goal

Our goal is to raise $20,000 which we use to improve the quality of the game: more and better sound effects and music, enhanced game play, and more play modes. We are confident we will reach this goal – with your help! We have provided a wide variety of rewards and we hope you find a reward that excites you.

Stretch Goals

We have exciting surprise announcements to make too! We have two major surprise announcements that we’ll make during the campaign …

We are happy to announce that David Dunham has joined the Studio as our Lead Developer and development manager. David has a deep background in software development, going back to one of the first outlining programs for the Mac, Acta, which he published in 1986. He later published a new outliner, Opal, which built upon the success of Acta.

David has worked in a number of game companies as a programmer, project lead, and development manager, including GameHouse Studios, Rogue Amoeba, and others. He also worked at Tableau Software where he implemented Tableau Mobile for the iPad.

David has also published an excellent game himself, via his company A# (www.a-sharp.com), called “King of Dragon Pass.”

He published it in 1999 on Windows and Mac to wide acclaim. The game is a turn-based strategy game set in the fantasy world of Glorantha. In September …

Each startup company has a personality of its own and a path forward that is unique, we are no exception. It took us the better part of a year to get our portfolio of games signed and our team assembled and now we are moving rapidly. We have more people joining soon – announcements pending! – and more games too. As we grow, our site is needing more and more attention too. If you are a gamer and an experienced WordPress guru, and you would like to help, drop me a note. We are currently looking for consulting help but we would much prefer a hobbyist to step forward.

we don’t have the time to explain to them what a movement allowanc

Along similar lines, we are starting our internationalization release strategy and we have decided we want to enter …

We are pleased to announce that Shenandoah has closed its first round of outside funding the money is in the bank!

This backing from friends and family will get the Studio’s first game into development, enabling us to showcase our approach to bringing turn-based strategy games to the iPad and iPhone, to both the gaming community and to potential investors.

We are grateful to our backers: gamers, technologists, and entrepreneurs who share our vision for the hobby and have the faith and confidence to provide the means to take it to the next step.

The funding team includes myself and our CFO, Nick Karp.

Cheers!

Eric

Eric Lee Smith
Founder & CEO

subject: Shenandoah Studio
author: Eric Smith

We are happy to announce that Miguel Nieves has joined the Studio as a Senior Developer.

Miguel graduated from Drexel University in 2005 with a degree in computer science and has spent the last six years working on a variety of games. The games appeared on platforms such as Nin]tendo DS/DSi, Nintendo Wii, Sony Playstation Portable, Flash, and – most importantly for us – the iPhone and iPad. The most recent game he programmed is called “XenoCube” on iOS and I recommend it to you.

His favorite area of software development is game AI. Miguel is also an accomplished graphic designer and musician: he plays the violin, bass guitar, and Didgeridoo(!).

Welcome on board Miguel!

Cheers,

E

Eric Lee Smith

Founder & CEO

subject: hiring, Shenandoah Studio, welcome
author: Eric Smith

Greetings,

This introduction is overdue, yet right on time. Shenandoah brought Patrick Ward on as a partner back in November, 2011 to be our Art Director and leader of how we appear visually to the outside world.

Patrick has a rich background in 3-D animation, working for some of the top firms in console gaming. He also knows sound, graphic design, web design, and more. Take a quick look at this video and the others from Pat’s vimeo portfolio.

Pat is also a serious boardgamer, especially of block games from Columbia Games, game which I love personally too.

Plus, he sounds like John Lennon, which is a major plus in our book.

Indeed, Pat graduated from Liverpool University – but after Gerry and Pacemakers – and continues to live outside Liverpool.

Academy games began working with Pat as a freelancer before he joined Shenandoah and the maps …

I am moving the game to the “bucket o’dice” system of combat resolution for a variety of reason. First, it enables me to move the game to strength point combat losses, rather than just steps. Plus it makes the game feel more tactical, for instance, when you attack a unit in two (or more) adjacent hexes, then your fire must be split. A unit with five strength points would have to attack with 3 into one hex and 2 into the other, the player’s choice. This forces a kind of extended line feeling to the game, by which I mean that hitting an enemy with attacks from two or more hexes forces your opponent to split their fire.

The combat system is really quite simple, with terrain having a base “to hit” number on a ten-sided die. A “0″ is always …

“Across Five Aprils” is a game I designed back in the early 90′s and which was published by Victory Games to some acclaim. A second edition, with more battles, was planned from the start but my career in high tech just prevented me from working on. That has changed.

“Blue and Gray Battles” design began about five years ago and the game has been play tested a number of times by various people, and all of them have enjoyed it. The goals of the design are:

Keep the game scale the same (brigades) and the time to play the same (fast)
Enhance the combat system – use the bucket’o dice method
Change the sequences of combat so that attacking is deliberate, not the result of enemy moves
Stay compatible with the first game, just new counters and rules needed to update
Make the game playable as …

“Blue and Gray Battles” (formerly Across Five Aprls 2) is the “Duke Nukem Forever” of board games: originally announced in 1992 and never shipped. We’re working on it. The first task is to get an updated set of rules out there, which we intend to do before summer. More updates to come soon.

subject: design diary
author: Eric Smith

The Project Simonsen team is busy analyzing each of our first nine games and estimating the time it will take to implement each game. The publication order is not yet final, but will be announced soon. We are seeing good synergies between the games, with the work put into the first game helping make the second game’s development schedule shorter. We are focusing on shared code libraries for core modules.

subject: Shenandoah Studio
author: Eric Smith

Greetings All,

When I announced Project Simonsen last week, I expected us to operate under that name for several months before formally incorporating. However, recent events have moved a great deal faster than we anticipated and we received legal advice to incorporate as soon as possible. That meant a lot of things, including reams of legal paperwork, but it also meant that I had to pick a new, permanent name for Project Simonsen to incorporate under.

Before I go any further: yes, this means our website URL will be changing in the near future. However, the Simonsen URL at http://www.projectsimonsen.com will remain active, no need to update your bookmarks. As to what the new name and new address is, read on…

My partners and some of our game designers sent in suggestions, but left the final decision up to me. I had to quickly …