The Origins of AMPU

[vcczar]

I was going through my old emails and docs to figure out when AMPU began. 

• Sometime in 2012, I buy President Forever (now President Infiniti), a game made by Anthony, and I start posting in the forum there. 
• In late 2012, I make my first game, a geopolitical War on Terror game made on cardboard. It had a pretty in-depth spreadsheet. The game was modeled on Zbigniew Brzezinski's "Grand Chessboard."
• Sometime around 2015 or 2016, Anthony's old forum had a lot of discussion about a "Be President" game that everyone wanted Anthony to make. I was heavily in this discussion. A lot of the things I talked about there are in the game. About this time I'm also making historical scenarios for Anthony's games -- 1788-2016 (JViking makes 1820, I think. Someone else makes 1968.). 
• At some point I made some president cards that kind of resemble a card game like Magic the Gathering. This had to have been before I began interacting with the fantastic boardgame creator Rick Heli in April 2018 (I highly recommend his games). After making most of the presidents, I stopped because I wanted to include a game that was beyond just the presidents.
• In the middle of Summer of 2018 I was frequently interacting with Rick Heli and helping him with his board games. He inspired me to try and make my own, so I was a Shakespeare's London boardgame and a Victorian Prime Minister boardgame. During this time, I realized all my game ideas were better suited for PC games. The way Scripted Events work is similar to how I had VPM. 
• I stop talking to Rick Heli in April 2019. By now, I've already started compiling legislation, events, etc. So I'm going to assume that AMPU's beginning is sometime in Winter 2018-2019. I know I started working on AMPU before Rick and I stopped talking to each other. 
• The first playtest seems to have begun in Summer 2019, so the game had to have been created many months before. Sometime after this time, Ted is taking over handling the GMing of the playtesting from me. 
• October 2019 is when I first proposed my game to Anthony back when the game was much more simplified. He said he was interested but that he'd need a year to work on it or something like that. The game is temporarily called Project America until the Kickstarter release.
• General Election 2020. Mass exodus from Anthony's forum, creation of this forum, and the closing down of Anthony's forum. 
• August 2021 I try to find a developer for AMPU and I get interest from a Finnish company and from Anthony. A lot of other devs are interested in the idea, but they have a list of projects they're working on. One guy assures me that no dev will pick up a game they aren't making on their own and that I should just learn how to code. 
• Sometime after August I decide on Anthony because the Finns 1) admit to not knowing much about US politics, 2) have any change in the game made by dev team vote, 3) took 4 to 5 days to respond to emails, 4) language barrier caused confusion. Anthony had more experience and more specific experience. I also know him. 
• Dec 2021. Kickstarter launches+official announcement of AMPU as a game in development. 
• Dec-Jan. Many new forum users sign on starting about this time and the number of playtests proliferate in the coming months. 

So AMPU's been a thing for about 3 1/2 years, give or take a couple of months. 

[vcczar]

@Arkansas Progressive @Brunell @Cal @ConservativeElector2 @DakotaHale @Hestia @Ich_bin_Tyler @jnewt @jvikings1 @Lars @matthewyoung123 @MrPotatoTed @OrangeP47 @Rezi @Rodja @themiddlepolitical @Vols21 @Willthescout7 @WVProgressive and anyone else. 

[ShortKing]

I do really like the name A More Perfect Union.

[DakotaHale]

37 minutes ago, ShortKing said:

I do really like the name A More Perfect Union.

A most perfect name for a more perfect game.

[MrPotatoTed]

As I recall, we met over the 2020 election game you had made (different from President Infinity).  I asked if I could join the playtest, and eventually ran a couple of my own and started suggesting edits, a sign of things to come. Ha.  You also introduced me to Founding Fathers, and I began running those games too.

Eventually you sent some of us FF/2020 election game players a list of some bigger games you wanted to make one day.  AMPU was on the list, so was your Shakespeare game.  And I think a game about the war on terror.  My eyes lit up when I saw AMPU.  I told you that was the one to focus on…completely ruining both of our lives for the next three years.  Whoops.  Sorry about that!  Hahaha.

I remember being in that first playtest.  Eventually you handed things over to Cal, but then he needed a break so I suggested I could help out for a few days.  Here I am, still running the game three years later. Ha.

 

[MrPotatoTed]

I didn’t like the AMPU name at first.  I know you’d already had that name but also suggested other names and asked us to contribute names too.  I suggested “Branches”, as in branches of the government and also branches of an alternate timeline.  In retrospect, that was stupid and AMPU was totally the way to go.  Ha.

[vcczar]

12 minutes ago, MrPotatoTed said:

As I recall, we met over the 2020 election game you had made (different from President Infinity).  I asked if I could join the playtest, and eventually ran a couple of my own and started suggesting edits, a sign of things to come. Ha.  You also introduced me to Founding Fathers, and I began running those games too.

Eventually you sent some of us FF/2020 election game players a list of some bigger games you wanted to make one day.  AMPU was on the list, so was your Shakespeare game.  And I think a game about the war on terror.  My eyes lit up when I saw AMPU.  I told you that was the one to focus on…completely ruining both of our lives for the next three years.  Whoops.  Sorry about that!  Hahaha.

I remember being in that first playtest.  Eventually you handed things over to Cal, but then he needed a break so I suggested I could help out for a few days.  Here I am, still running the game three years later. Ha.

 

I totally forgot about the election game. 

[Brunell]

What an interesting process; always so cool to learn about game development! I really cannot wait for when this game comes out. American politics needs a Grand Strategy Game the likes of AMPU, and when it comes my free time will totally be gone.

[Bushwa777]

20 hours ago, Brunell said:

What an interesting process; always so cool to learn about game development! I really cannot wait for when this game comes out. American politics needs a Grand Strategy Game the likes of AMPU, and when it comes my free time will totally be gone.

I too am looking forward to this game and cannot wait.  Do we have a better date then November currently for early release? 

[vcczar]

35 minutes ago, Bushwa777 said:

I too am looking forward to this game and cannot wait.  Do we have a better date then November currently for early release? 

No. It's actually impossible for me or the dev to estimate it because he hasn't worked on the game in like two months (updating his other games). As he hasn't coded the most complex part of the game, neither he nor I can estimate how long it will take him to do it. I think how quickly he codes the scripted events will determine if early release is in like December or March or something. I've personally given up guessing until he does the Scripted Events. I'd say the earliest is December and the latest is Summer. I really don't know. It's out of my hands.