Alien Menace
News Games FAQ Links Online Store Retail Locator
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Alien Menace News Games FAQ Links Online Store Retail Locator
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FAQ |
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How did you get started?
Ed
and Marc were lounging poolside on vacation in North Carolina when Ed said,
“Hey, did you ever think of designing a game?” It was just that easy.
Actually, it hasn’t been that easy, and we’ve got a long way to go, but
we’re hoping to ‘release’ 2 or 3 games at the 2002 GAMA next year and
we’re right on schedule to do just that. (Update: We did in fact debut
with 3 excellent games at the 2002 GAMA show! So those of you that are
waiting for us to wither and die will just have to wait a bit longer. -Ed )
Where did the name come from?
We
were looking for something interesting that would look good on a t-shirt. We
went through about 1000 names before we settled on Alien Menace because we just
thought that the name felt right.
What about a mission statement? Do you guys have one? Don’t
you need one for your business plan? Do you even have a business plan?
Don’t
you just hate people who ask a bunch of questions without giving you a chance to
answer? Believe it or not we really do have a business plan, and in the business
plan we really do have a mission statement. It reads:
Alien
Menace strives to create games that are fun, imaginative and focus on our
core beliefs of violence, greed, and the overwhelming need to blame others for
our own problems. We intend to sell
enough of these games to make the partners ungodly rich or to sell the company
to some faceless corporation for far more than its true value.
Wow. That’s a great mission statement. How can I get
involved?
Right
now there are really three ways: First, we’re always looking for playtesters
for our games. We’re also always interested in submissions. Right now we’re
a pretty small company so we’re not going to make anyone rich on their game
idea right away, but we do have a pretty good marketing engine and we’re
willing to consider almost any type of game for addition to the Alien Menace
line. If you have a game, and you think that it might ‘fit in’ send a note
to submissions@alien-menace.com
and we’ll take a look at your idea. Alternately you can send us a big check,
if it is of sufficient size, and it clears, we'll give you a 'producer' credit
on everything we ever do. This is probably the easiest way to become a part of
Alien Menace.
You know, I checked out the message boards and it doesn't even
sound like you guys like each other. What gives?
At
the end of the day we believe that a little conflict is healthy. Marc's opinion
of Ed's crappy site design is offset by Ed's opinion of Marc's crappy game
design. We save almost everything so someday we'll let you see the really harsh
stuff. You know, I checked out the message boards and they seem to be gone?!? What gives? Yeah, well...Despite our deep history of witty banter we've decided to move our forums over to the All Things Fun! Forums in the hope that we might actually review your questions and answer them. Or at the very least we can take the opportunity to mock you for sending questions to game designers.
The logos for your games and company are pretty cool. How do
you go about designing them?
We
have three rules: #1 The logo must not be a direct or obvious copyright
infringement. #2 The logo must look cool on a t-shirt. #3 Securing the rights to
the logo must be extremely cheap or free.
You mean you guys have hats and t-shirts with the <insert
your favorite logo> logo on it? How can I get one?
Stop
by our booth at a trade show and ask. If we have anything we'll probably give it
to you. Convince us that you’re from Hasbro and that you’re considering
buying us out and we’ll give you one of everything. Otherwise you're out of
luck unless you’re doing some playtesting or helping us out in some other way
and not being compensated for it in any way.
Most
websites have a “job opportunities” page. Where’s yours?
Right
now there are only two full-time job opportunities at Alien Menace and we’ve
already picked our favorite candidates for those positions. As soon as we have
more than $20 in the bank we’ll probably look into hiring them. Beyond that we
are really looking for freelance game designers (see the bit about submissions
above) and freelance artists who are willing
to work for a cut of the back end. We did not take a loan out to
start Alien Menace so all of the up-front money is coming directly out of our
pockets. That means that we simply can’t afford to pay anyone anything like a
salary or on a per diem basis unless they are truly a remarkable sucker in which
case we’ll be more than happy to take advantage of them. What we can do is pay
on the back-end meaning that a freelancer would get a cut from copies sold which
means two things: First, it is a risk. We might never sell a thing. Second, it
takes quite awhile to get from design and testing to on the store shelves so if
you’re looking for some quick cash for a new transmission you should probably
look elsewhere. If you think you might be interested send a note to our human
capital department at
eevans@alien-menace.com.
How can I reach you guys?
That's
easy: Alien Menace 185 C Route 73 North
West Berlin, NJ 08091 |