Stocking is _work_

Imagine if you will that a truck has just dropped off pallets with ten thousand copies of a game and it is your job to move the games onto the shelves of your warehouse.

 

Welcome to the world of Greater Than Games. I had a chance to see Christopher and Adam (and intern Dylan!) briefly today as they passed through Indy on their way to Origins. Adam was a bit slow walking up the steps. Seems that moving ten thousand games can take a bit out of you. :)

 

I remember when Christopher told me before Sentinels was released at Gencon 2011 that they'd printed 5,000 copies of the game and I thought he was crazy. How would they ever sell that many?! I'd had other friends who'd shown up at GenCon full of hope only to see practically zero sales of their pet game. I feared Sentinels would go the same way. Then I played it and learned how awesome it is.

 

The rest is history -- All 5,000 copies sold by the end of Origins, 2012, less than a year later; Three successful Kickstarters and multiple print runs since.

 

Still, the original three guys have only been supplemented by one person helping them with shipping and an intern who's with them for just a few weeks. There's no HR department, IT department, Facilities department, etc. These guys literally built their own office in the previous warehouse, putting up the walls, running wires, painting, etc. Con season is in full swing, GSF playtesting and Vengeance playtesting are ongoing, there's lots of work related to printing and shipping, and they have other long term, secret projects. 

 

If you're lucky enough to see them at Origins or another con, I hope you'll give them a kind word. They are working their tails off.

I'm hoping to go to KantCon in July.  If they need any volunteers, I know some of my gaming group and I would be honored to lend a hand.  Kind words are the bare minimum of what we'd give to Greater Than Games.

Great post, I shall be patient to receive my copy of the latest reprint.  

I'm not at Origins, but I hear that their shipment of games, etc., which was supposed to be waiting for them Wed morning so they could do set up in preparation for the dealer hall opening on Thu was delayed.

 

The shipping company apparently couldn't handle all of their work and thought it would be ok if this was only a day late. Last I heard the company was going to deliver late afternoon yesterday, giving >G just an hour or two at most of setup time before the dealer hall closed for the night.

 

On top of that, there was some sort of an explosion in the convention center on Wed requiring an evacuation. 

 

Sure hope everything is going ok today!

The pallets arrived at ~9:30pm - hall closed at 10. We found out just after we'd given up and were just leaving the convention center to get dinner. We went back and spent a few minutes getting everything unloaded, then left.

Thursday was great. We got in early, set up, and waited. Once the hall opened, we were not disappointed. This is Origins, so it's never as busy as Gen Con, et al, but it was still pretty consistent. Luckily, we had lots of coverage, so there weren't any issues.\

Last night, a few of us went into the board room and played SotM with some of the Con attendees. Beat Iron Legacy. Twice! :open_mouth:

Today should be even better!

 

Glad the pallets arrived and you were able to get set up in time!

 

At PAX East we gradually accrued a corps of experienced players who were happy to shephard new players in order to get more Sentinels Points. Is that happening at Origins?

Gen Con was the same way, and yeah, it happened at Origins, also. We had a good group of official volunteers along with some unofficial folks who were getting lots of points to help out new folks.

There were also groups playing at the inside ends of the tables who were experienced, trying to get points playing harder villains on advanced mode. That, unfortunately, didn't always work out well...

Overall, Origins went very well. Lots of people, great buzz, even a few visits with the tabletopmovie.com folks. (Check out this pic they took of Christopher and Adam - it's a thing of beauty!)

Personally, it was a great time working and hanging with everyone - both new and old. Glad everyone could join us!

 

Interesting Kickstarter. I've decided to back them. That picture is horribly, horribly wrong!

I'm assuming that's a 1st edition copy being destroyed...

it was fast, fun, and good work, and I only really slowed down when I got hit by con crud on the last day. Such is life, but I managed to wiggle a few tidbits out of Christopher and Adam… of course… they could have been playing me… grrrr Arrrgh the games they play!! I just wish I’d gotten to play more games with Adam and Christopher

Nope.

They are both very good at it, aren't they? :confused: But it's still fun to play the game! :sunglasses:

It really is amazing to me how busy they are at these Cons. There is just so little down time. They didn't used to be as insanely busy as they are now at the Cons, though, as we used to get in playtest games in the past, but yeah, this year was all meetings, etc.

At least a couple of us forum-folks got to meet, hang, and play, though. :grin: (And we even got to spend time with Intern Dylan and teach him about the game! :open_mouth: )