It's taken me all week to get to this, but I wanted to give a shout out to the small group of friends that let me beta-test all my home-printed-card-stock, scribbled-upon-posterboard and pasted-on-dice prototype games . . . talented musicians, screenwriters and Your Community Blog creators among them.

We spent last Friday night battling it out on the chess board, playing Pente and trying out several games of my own design for which I needed feedback.

I definitely think one among them is a logical candidate for my first board game release--whenever the fates may decree that day comes. It's a build-a-board strategic sea battle game that is as yet nameless.

I love build-a-board games. You get a new game every time without having to learn new rules. And, depending on the theme of the game, the changing board arrangement and shape reflect a much more realistic representation of the world. Battlefield and other map- or terrain-based games make for particularly good build-a-board games.

Take HeroScape. As painfully similar as it is to a game of my own design from years before HeroScape's launch, I still love to build a cool battlefield and duke it out with my son. A new battle, new scenario and new environment every time--for results that are different every time, too.

Hopefully, I'll win the race to market with my sea-battle game, as well as my build-a-board chess game.

Til then, I'll keep pressing my buddies into service and making the next games to come better all the time.