How It Was Made: The Creation of Gem Seekers
WELCOME TO THE FAMILY:
Hello and welcome to a new Fantasy Trading Card Game called Gem Seekers! Over the course of the foreseeable future I plan on using this platform to connect with you, the Fans, on the creation process, Lore, and Art of this game I’ve been and have created over the course of these past 7 years! It’s been a wild ride creating this but I’ve loved and enjoyed every minute of it even if there have been times I’ve wanted to pull my hair out… But, none of this would remotely be possible if it wasn’t for you all so I appreciate your love and support very much and I hope these posts help you fall in love with the game and universe of Gem Seekers as I have. With that being said, I hope you enjoy a little (or a lottle 😂) tidbit below on how this all started and stay tuned in the coming days for all sorts of Lore around the game!
IN THE BEGINNING:
The game was first started back on July 3, 2016. It was the first time in a long time that I had visited my family up in Canada due to various and numerous factors. But, it was an awesome time and feeling finally being able to see them for a long weekend after such a long time. On our way back home on the 3rd of that July, I was driving my family and I back home to the States to the lovely state of Maine and noticed something in the clouds. (Yes, as incredibly cliché as it sounds, this is how it all started). Upon looking into these giant puffy Cumulus clouds, I began to see all sorts of different creatures. The longer I gazed into the different beast looking clouds, I started to reminisce about the days when I was young.
TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE:
Like a flood, memories started to flow in and I remembered that I drew all sorts of creatures and made my own little card games with them back then as well. Pokémon® and Yu-Gi-Oh!® were massive loves of mine and influenced a lot of what I did and drew back during that time. Pokémon® was an all around love for me. Playing the video games, watching the show, and collecting the cards (I collected the cards more than I did PLAY the TCG), I loved Pokémon® so much and a lot of it stemmed from getting a Gameboy for Christmas that came with Red, Blue, and Yellow in this multi-pack bundle. After that, the rest was history. Then came an awesome and unique new card game called Yu-Gi-Oh!® but Yu-Gi-Oh!® was a different kind of love for me in the card game sense, as I fell in love with it for the TCG itself. I remember when I was around 6 years old, my Mom and Dad came home with this new card game and I still to this day remember opening that pack of cards and being in absolute awe. So much so, I started playing and collecting the game as soon as possible and completely disregarded playing the Pokémon® card game because I was so set on playing Yu-Gi-Oh!® (I still collected Pokémon® cards but didn’t bother learning to play the game as I did Yu-Gi-Oh!®). The show that came with Yu-Gi-Oh!® as well had me locked in and it gave me a vision of playing the TCG as well. But, as to not get too far off track, through this reminiscing, I really tapped into that young creative driven version of myself and made it a point that when I got home, I was going to dig through my old boxes and find those old papers/drawings/cards that I created back then. I knew both myself nor my very supportive Parents would’ve thrown them away and I was confident in that regard. I also knew I had an unfinished Art Book from the one Art Class I had in college, my Freshman year, that we hardly used that I couldn’t wait to get home and see if I could start the drawing process right away.
THE FIRST DRAWINGS:
Fast forward a few hours and we arrive home pretty late, around 9-10 P.M. Though we’re exhausted, since we had been on the road for nearly 10 hours, that didn’t stop my desire to find everything I needed to start drawing and try to gain as much influence as possible with the old work I used to do. I rifled for about an hour trying to find everything and I eventually did. It was super neat seeing all of my work I had made when I was a kid, though I forgot how absolutely terrible it was 😂, it was still really cool and neat to see those things again and it brought me even more influence than before. Then, I found the art book from College and tore the pages from it that were used from the couple “homework assignments” and I headed for downstairs to begin.
The pencil hit the paper and I was off. Nothing particular came into mind while doing the drawing and so I just let whatever happen, happen. It started to form and become a bird of some sorts so I kept on keeping at it and it eventually became a phoenix looking sort of bird but still very different from your usual and typical bird. At the time I was so unbelievably proud of the drawing and thought it looked incredible. Upon looking back and after filling out the book, which I’ll get to in a bit here, it was quite average to sub-par in my mind. I never was a great drawer but the little I could do got me by enough to create these concepts. Again, not to get too far off track, but as I drew one, I drew another and another until eventually I created about 10 unique beast like drawings. I knew I wanted the drawings to have stages of life, similar to Pokémon®, especially with it being my biggest influence in the Fantasy world, but I also didn’t want it to be too close and I wanted my own style to pour in as well.
That first night I came up with a couple Phoenix-like birds, some odd and unique looking bats, and a bunch of wolves. As you’ll see below, you can pick these drawings apart. Little to no shading/shadowing, very 2D looking, tons of anatomical things going wrong, and just can tell in general, not much experience in drawing. However, with all the things that are wrong with these, one thing I wanted to make sure to stay unique with myself, was once the pencil hit the paper, I had to stick with whatever the creature needed to be. No drawing the creature numerous times until I got it right, no, just a rough first and only draft. I even told myself I really wanted to limit erasing all together to fix anything. Some creatures still were so bad I had to erase some detail on them and fix them a bit, but a lot, if not most of these, are non-erased first try drawings, which also goes for all the colors. Colors to all these creatures had to carefully be selected in my head because whatever got placed down, had to stay. Also, this notebook of drawings was on about 8 inch tall x 4 inch wide paper, so I had to also be strategic in how large these drawings were and how many stages of life I wanted to add in as well. I wanted to keep every bloodline of creatures on one page if I could. Check out the first 3 pages below!
CREATING THE ELEMENTS IN SEEKERS:
As I finished the drawings for that first night, it wasn’t until when I was finishing the wolves that my mind began spiraling down a rabbit hole of emotion and thought. “What if this could be a game of some sorts?” I asked myself. So I stopped drawing and began jotting many ideas down. It started with what the Elements of the creatures could be named and would they be Elements or something different? How many Elements if so? I knew I wanted to be unique but keep my influences in tact as well. So I decided making them to have Elements built into their structure and overall being and I knew I also wanted quite a few. I jotted down around 30 different elements and ideas. This process took a few months to dial down exact names and what different ones they could be but I eventually got the names down and came up with 18 different elements with 6 waiting to be discovered {A total of 24}. (I do in fact already know what they are and the effects that they have on the other Elements [You’ll see different colored circles on the Strengths & Weaknesses of the cards which indicates what these unknown elements are strong or weak to]). [Below you’ll see the original concept art drawings for the elements & a table for the original Strengths & Weaknesses as well as a more finalized version!]
THE ORIGINAL NAME:
After I wrote a ton of Elements down though, I wanted to figure out a really cool name for the game. Still had no idea what kind of game it would be or if it would end up being a game at all. Could’ve been just a name for the gallery of creatures I made, but, I eventually finalized a name that night. The name of the game was in fact not Gem Seekers but was “Pandora’s Beasts.” I was very excited about the name and was able to finally put everything away and sleep. That next day I was so pumped that I needed to not only show my parents but my buddy Alex who was also into the world of Fantasy as well. He thought the drawings were neat and the concept in general seemed cool but as I told him the name of the game, he wasn’t so enthused and for good reason. He mentioned the world of Pandora of Borderlands and how many other things had “Pandora” in it. I agreed with him, though I was a little bummed because I thought of an entire concept of how Pandora’s Box was opened and these creatures escaped and that’s how their Elements were formed and all sorts of things.
A few weeks passed and I kept on grinding out creatures and it came the time to do an annual thing I participated in for over 5 years (I believe it was 7?). Once a year I would go on a Mission’s Trip with a local Church to go to Buffalo, New York to help the Homeless. We helped in the kitchens, children refugees, aiding in repairs to build shelters/homes, and various other things as well. It was a lot of fun and very heartwarming to see not only our group but one of the churches in Buffalo help us and them out as well. During this trip, this time in particularly, I was a van driver for all the younger high schooler's belongings for the stay in Buffalo. The trip ended up taking 11 or so hours to arrive so I had so much time to think and brainstorm. Upon deep thought, the entire concept unraveled and became an entire storyline in my head and about a quarter of the way through the trip, I found the name that would stick to this day: Gem Seekers. [Original concept art of the logo below!]
I was (still am) always diligent in making sure that nobody had the name or really all concepts to my game, so, when we stopped at one of the many rest stops along the way, I looked up to see if anything came up for the name. Much to my surprise at the time, nearly nothing popped up with the name. I was super excited as there was only one church organization who had the name but it wasn’t relevant to anything I was working on and had no affiliation to games whatsoever. If anyone is familiar with choosing a band name, this is why this process took me by surprise. Growing up, my Father loved music and was in bands all throughout his life and I remember being with him numerous times trying to find a band name and every name you searched would be a band name already. I’m talking about the most outrageous names sometimes too. It would be like “Look up: Super Goober Ghosts” and boom, YUP! Band out in Utah (Not really a name or from Utah but you get the point…or maybe they are?!.. hahaha just kidding... Or am I?! 😳🤣) But from there on I felt comfortable enough claiming the name and creating a storyline in my head with the use of the name all throughout the drive to Buffalo.
I was so invested in thinking up brand new concepts that this kept me more awake than I had ever been before. It was as if I had 10 energy drinks, I was that wired. It was on that drive up to New York though that I came up with an entire story line in my head and so many new concepts to draw. As we got there and all throughout our time there, any down time we had, mostly after we worked all day and came back home to rest for the night, I spent working on new creatures for the game. This is where characters such as a Buffalo/Bison came about. Not only did it reference our group name, ‘The Maine Bison’s’ but also represented the city of Buffalo (though I’m sure I didn’t need to tell you this for you to infer…😅). Now, upon looking at this creature, you may wonder why I selected it to be Undead… It really was nothing more than simply that I wanted my first Undead Element to be super cool looking and started during and at a place that meant a lot to me in terms of the work we were doing. (Check it out below!)
SO much inspiration came from this trip to New York and I truly don’t believe Gem Seekers would be the same today or would never had really had time to grow and root in my head if it wasn’t for the awesome people who let me be a part of this from the very beginning.
{Thank you, Alex, for inviting me all those years ago and making every trip as fun as could be. Also, thank you, Ron, for allowing me to come back year after year and always making the trips awesome. And also a thank you to Mark for always taking us in with open arms and making us feel at home and helping organize these trips year after year with Ron. Again, this game would’ve never been possible if it weren’t for you all along the way and allowing me the amazing experience of helping people out in need year after year}.
As we wrapped things up in Buffalo, we didn’t know it at the time, but it would be our last time traveling for the organization. All leaders were either departing from their positions or going separate ways with their lives and it was time to close a very wonderful chapter that I hope becomes reborn down the road again.
ORIGINAL GAME CONCEPT: TCG/BOARD GAME:
The overnight ride home was something I was worried about from a tiredness perspective, but again, I was fueled by determination on creating something awesome. I developed more of the story in my head and even started to develop the idea that this would become a true game. I wanted to develop it into a Trading Card/Board Game. Throughout the process from July 2016-April 2017, I did just that. I drew until the art book was filled and ended up with 170+ different drawings which turned into 80+ bloodlines on Seekers. Throughout this duration of time, I spent thousands of hours throughout its creation process. Working a full time job and trying to be a supportive fiancé (at the time) were obviously the main focusses but I knew if I wanted this project done, I'd have to sacrifice something, which resulted in sleep. Every time my (now) wife went to bed I'd stay up for countless hours until I was drained and crawling into bed most nights varying around 2-4 in the morning. One would think I would’ve been gassed staying up that late but surprisingly enough, the hours from 11-2 or 3 were some of my most productive.
Those nights and that stretch of months working on the game, I developed all the concepts into the trading card game and board game, drew countless creatures, wrote an entire interactive 80+ page storyline (using Microsoft word) for it to be inclusive with the board game, and I used the application and service of "Paint" on the computer to make very rough 1st drafts for the trading card game. Other than the creatures, most of these weren't finished until later in 2017 (June-September).
Most of you fans are probably wondering (maybe you're not 😂) about the board game and storyline! For the longest time I was going to make this game to be something where you could build and play the card game as its own entity but you could also use the cards you bought and built to play the board game with it as well! This was a super unique (as far as I know and especially at the tine) concept that I really wanted to work out. The board game itself took a lot of fine tuning and was in an actually fairly decent spot once finished and the storyline that went with it I was super pumped about. However, after a ton of thought for pretty much close to a year, if not more, I decided it would be best and more plausible to only focus on one thing at a time. The trading card game felt instantly awesome and it's funny because I was so much more focused on making the board game and the board game really was, in a way, more of the forefront of what I wanted to push initially as opposed to the trading card game, or at least what I thought would be more successful (still working on that last part…)
[Below is what the Adventure styled board game consisted of (looks crazy, I know, but keep in mind this was supposed to be a game that took many hours to complete). Also, you will see what some of the original Player Cards looked like for the Board Game and the stats you could keep, etc.]
The storyline that went with the game still to this day I am proud of and love but as time and years have gone on, I've really wanted it to be more of a chapter book. Using ‘Word,’ the interactive story ended up being about 80+ pages long and a lot of it can be carried over into chapter book style but it for sure will be in more depth, more character development and focus on plot points more than the interactive story did/does. My hopes are to complete this shortly because I feel it has a very strong foundation and the ideas and story itself, I feel, people will be able to connect with very much so! The process of rewriting this has begun and I’ve been on and off working on it over the past recent year or 2. Hopefully one day soon, you all can read the lore of Gem Seekers in its entirety!
CREATING THE CARDS:
Not to get too far off track here, (again 😅) the trading card game beat out the others and that became my main focus to try and find tune and tweak. But, wasnt that a wild process! Especially when using Paint as your application...
In order to start the whole process, I had to scan all the drawings from the art book, using a printer, to get them onto the computer. Then, I had to create a rough outline and align everything just right. Can't tell you the grueling process of that... still gives me nightmares. Had to come up with names for all these creatures (though that was done when drawing them [for the most part]), names for the attacks, names for the abilities (at the time), the elements, all sorts of different things that went onto the card, but it wasn't until the tedious task of placing all of these things into the right spots using paint where the nightmares I'm talking about occurred. If you know, you know…
Once I finally got the hang of everything though, it became "easier" and eventually I made rough drafts for all: 170+ creatures, 40+ Hex, 30+ Fate, 70+ Relics/Elemental Cards. After this, all of these had to be copied and pasted into word documents in order to have them printed multiple times. Then once they were printed, after the several cartridges of ink that was purchased, I laminated each and every one of them with the help of my Mom who bought me the laminator for 2017 Christmas. We spent hours laminating and cutting out each and every individual card, which amounted to nearly 1200+ cards due to each sheet having 4 cards a piece of the same art, so that when play testing occurred, they could be used in multiple ways. {MASSIVE, THANK YOU, AGAIN, TO MY MOM!}
After the printing process and a little bit of play testing, I was really able to see what kind of product I had and this is where I found that the board game was definitely good, but had to be dropped due to, again, focusing on one thing at a time and because the card game had such a strong foundation. {Thank you for the original playtesting of the board and card game: Josh, Alex, Chad, and Levi!}
[Check out below to see what the original card using ‘Paint’ looked like! You’ll see that their names changed as they Mutated or Maturated (B.E.A.M.’d) to their next stage of life. The change was made on the next versions of the cards (2018-2019) to be just one name, as they were only, essentially, getting older and not completely changing their “genetic makeup." You will also see Abilities. These may get reintroduced later down the road but in a different format for as when “Soul Energy” came to fruition there was just too much going on on the card at that point. So both that and Level were dropped and replaced with Soul Energy.]
LEGALITIES: 1ST VISIT TO PATENT ATTORNEY’S:
Most of the kinks were found while playtesting in that original run through of cards and so I felt confident enough to try and get the ball rolling by finding somewhere to protect the game so that people wouldn’t try to steal my ideas. At first, I had contacted "Invention Home" to try and see if I could protect my product through them. After a few emails and talking on the phone with them, things just didn't feel right to me and I wanted to feel as good and safe as possible in trying to protect my product so I moved on until I found what was called: Bohan Mathers (at the time) and I met with an awesome guy named Jeff in December of 2018.
Probably seems like a large time jump, but most of the time spent in 2018 was spent playtesting the game, working out kinks, working on every single one of the creatures lore, typing the story from the pads of paper onto the computer, and more. But jumping back to Jeff at Bohan Mathers. We met early that December to see if I'd be able to begin the process of protecting the game through trademark and patents. I remember showing up with the large box that I personally made; made of cardstock, tape, and cardboard. I took every little bit of what I made for the game to see him and when I got there, i was told to wait in a room and I could unpack whatever I needed to so he would be ready to see it immediately. I spread everything across the table so that when he walked in he could see the efforts I had made over, at that time, 2+ years or so. Upon meeting Jeff, he came off as a super nice guy who was honest and wanted to help in any way he could. As he looked over all I had, he seemed surprisingly optimistic and applauded me for my efforts I had made with the game and even brought down his boss, Harry, to check it out. They both seemed to like it a lot and Jeff admitted that he was ready to tell me that board games and card games are extremely hard to protect in the patent sense and he was fully prepared to essentially turn me away at the door but thought that the game was unique enough to press on. “If this game isn’t patentable then I don’t know what is.” I left that day feeling super good about our meeting but I knew I also had to come up with the funds for everything and I knew also, that I loved my product, but I also needed it to get to a much better spot aesthetically if I wanted to really have legalities work out. So, I thanked Jeff for all he and Harry had done and said to me and that I’d be in touch. But much to even my surprise, things took way longer than expected and I didn't get back in touch with him until December of 2019, a full year later.
THE BIRTH OF SOUL ENERGY & PLAYER CARDS (C.A.P.’s):
I spent the entire year of 2019 thinking of different ways to make the game better and went on a slight hiatus in development in order to brainstorm countlessly on what to do to make the game better and another step up from it being even more unique than it was and more simple but intricate. It wasn’t until around early-mid 2019 where I was running on the treadmill at Planet Fitness® in deep thought about the card(s) itself/themselves and an idea hit me. "Soul Energy." The concept used to be that you would have a level on your creature and depending on its level, you would have to meet the numbers in the corners of the card, fully, however many times the level said in order to B.E.A.M. to it's next stage of life. So I took that concept and made it entirely new and came up with the entire concept of "Player Cards" or “Commando’s & Arbitrators of Peace (C.A.P.’s) to be used with this new mechanic of Soul Energy. This mechanic seemed to make everything click with the game and make it its own and make it the unique game it is today; that video game feel.
About half way through 2019, I set off to Canada once again for a long holiday weekend. During my time and trip there, I worked on a more refined and better looking card with this new mechanic of Soul Energy. Thanks to the help of my buddy, Alex, he pointed out a new program called "Photopea" that was easy to use and similar to Photoshop®. So I took his word and learned the program and made all the Beta test cards with it. Things looked a lot more slick than before but boy didn't doing the cards a second/third time around feel tedious after already doing over 300 unique cards the first time around. But, it felt good to finally have it coming to life a bit. I knew it still had a long way to go in terms of getting it to where I wanted it but it was at a good enough spot to start play testing once I was done with all the cards. This process took quite a bit to complete and get the feel of as well and to find ambition to want to get all of the cards completed again was for sure a very tedious task. This process took all the way into 2020.
COVID, PATENT RECONNECTION, & BETA COMPLETION:
At the very tail end of 2019, as I mentioned briefly before, I was able to reconnect with Jeff at Bohan Mathers but much to my surprise, Bohan Mathers was no longer a company and Jeff joined the company: Eaton Peabody. Jeff and I were very happy to reconnect and we got the conversation piece started again but had a gap in communication again with me trying to get everything together and especially once Covid hit.
As we all know, Covid took the world by storm and my wife and I had about 5-6 weeks at our house, not working, due to the shut down. During this time, I was and am very thankful for the quality time I got to spend with my wife and through this time allowed me to also recognize all the wonderful things I have and am thankful for. (For some people, as we know, went through very trying times with this entire process, if you were one of those people who is/are currently reading this, I am very sorry for whatever it is you had to go through and I hope you’re in a better position now.) It really opened perspective to recognize all these things and all the freedoms I had at my home compared to others. It definitely was a humbling time and time to appreciate and be grateful for what I had/have and it also opened my eyes to see the reality of all the people struggling through those trying times; whether it have been someone who passed from the illness, domestic abuse, depression, etc. So much bad came from the entire thing and one of the hardest parts looking back and reflecting upon everything was the lack of being able to help people who needed it and not seeing the people you loved who didn’t live in your home. But, there was always that light at the end for me and a shift of perspective through a different lens: I had a game that I could share with people and it became the basis of my mission; help people & connect people to each other.
It sounds pretty goofy saying that I could change lives through this game but I truly believed and believe, in general, that I could create something that people could come together and play in camaraderie and demonstrate that even in a dark filled world, there is light in the little things and good things in the world that can help us to stay together in some way, shape, or form. This I believe too, would be Gem Seekers Mission Statement, because, I believe, it is the little things and the slight chipping away in life of darkness that can lead us to the light and to find love in ourselves and each other again. It enables and allows us to unleash that inner kid inside us too to be and get excited in so many ways and not fabricate who we are. Through this time, it truly allowed me to regain my vision for the project on why I wanted to do it in the first place. So I unlocked my motivation again and was able to finish all the components up about the creation of the beta play test cards.
(Again, if you were affected by this terrible disease in any negative way, I am deeply sorry and I truthfully hope everything bad has passed and if you lost any loved ones, I hope you’re able to find an ounce of tranquility through it all.)
[Below you will see the progression from the original card to the beta play test card. Still not perfect by any means but, enabled me to play test thoroughly and work out the kinks to the game.]
After I completed all of the work on all 300+ unique cards once again and fixed and created tons of different things compared to the original cards, I had to also create and make the Player or C.A.P. Cards from scratch. I had thrown around ideas a couple years prior but really wanted to nail down what exactly I wanted. Eventually, I came up with a rough idea of what I wanted and was able to finish it up enough for playtesting. Then, finally, I knew I had to go through the printing and cutting out process once again and I blew through an entire new printer, tons of ink, and tons of paper, which then mixed with tons of stress with things not printing how they needed to be printed, yada, yada, yada. Woe is me, right? 😅😂 But, by July, 2020, I finally got everything completed and knew it was time to get in touch with Jeff again, and this time, actually follow through with everything.
{Below you will see the original ideas for Player Cards and then the finished Player/C.A.P. Beta Playtest Cards. Always wild to me looking back on when I was using Paint for these to start before the switch to Photopea for the Beta’s.}
TRADEMARK & PATENT PROCESS BEGINS:
Finally, in July of 2020 I got in touch with Jeff again and managed a serious conversation on what I wanted to do with Gem Seekers legally. (Mind you, at this point in time, I also hadn’t shared this publicly to anyone and had been keeping the game under fairly tight secret [other than from close friends and close family], so I was ready to finally get this out to the world and start trying to spread the word, even just a little bit.) By October of 2020, trademarks for the game and copyrights were filed and just a few months later, trademarks went through.
I was finally able to publish my game and its name to the world without feeling like someone could or would take my name and copyrights, though I was still tactical on what I published because I hadn’t officially filed the patent yet either. Before getting into pending status, I was allotted a provisional period in which I could pay down some of the cost of the patent to keep it pending status before officially having it in official pending status (its complicated, haha). But as I got these all under my belt, I was finally ready to get some stuff out to the world!
KICKSTARTER & FIVERR:
A few months later, we traveled into 2021. I had finally ordered some long awaited merch and made sure I got some shirts and some official logo stickers made during this couple months span. To a pleasant surprise, I had some amazing support ensue via Facebook followers and a bunch of family and friends when I decided to create the Gem Seekers page and essentially cleared me out of my shirts and a ton of my stickers as well. (Huge thank you and shout out to the local businesses I used: “The Craft House” for the shirts and a huge shout out to Ryan for bringing my concept art of the logo to life through digitalization!)
This support gave me so much hope for the game and I knew I wanted to try a Kickstarter to try and completely lift it off the ground. In doing this though, I knew I also had to get the game in a very professional looking spot so I did some research on how I could find local and/or USA based small businesses help me get all the concepts into professional looking digital art and I found the site, 'Fiverr.' On this wonderful site, I found a fella named, Johnny. At the time I was very nervous about sharing my work with anyone because it meant so much to me and all the work I had put in and I wanted it to be special, despite having the copyrights and trademarks pending as well. But little did I know that I found the perfect person to help me. In January of 2021 we started working together and have been working together ever since.
Johnny, with open arms and very reasonable pricing, made a few of the major creatures concept art come to life with his brilliant work in digitalization. Johnny helped me with so much and the little money I had made from the shirts and my own money as well, I was able to hire him to do some of these projects for me. Johnny helped digitalize 7 creatures at the time, 18 different elemental backgrounds for the elements in the game, booster pack art, and the elements themselves. Johnny played a massive factor in helping me get to a better, more comfortably professional looking spot so I could launch this onto Kickstarter and boy didn't he provide!
{I'm going to go on a slight praise trip for Johnny as this entire game would not be possible or remotely the same without him. Johnny has been the most professional, understanding, and outright talented person I ever could have asked for. I'm very particular with the things in my life and especially the game that I've poured my heart and soul into and Johnny took me in with open arms and didn't fret once when I would send him back 15 different edits on a singular Seeker (and countless Seekers in general) or the background art or anything. He's been a Godsend for the game and Johnny and I have been working together ever since, as I mentioned before as well. As I'm typing this, Johnny has helped do all that I mentioned above but has worked tirelessly with me for over 2 years now on thousands of edits at this point on all the Seekers in the game and we're finally on the last 10 of over 170 Creatures in the game. Johnny has not complained once, has been the most reasonable with the cost to make these, and has really been a friend now to me who has believed in this project as much as I do. When I say this project would not be the same without him, I truly mean it and I want to just make it known, publicly, how grateful I've been to have someone like him in my life who has poured his heart and soul into this project as I have. Thank you again, Johnny.}
After working with Johnny for a bit, by March of 2021, I got in contact with another wonderful artist from Fiverr named: Yanliw. Yanliw took the most undetailed, effortless drawing of mine and just the littlest amount of details in words and turned it into the incredible box art that I wanted for the game so I had something to show and to display for the Kickstarter when I got it up and running. {Below you'll see the incredible artwork of Yanliw and the amazing job they did making almost identically what was in my head on nearly the first try on all you'll see below. Huge shout-out and thank you again to Yanliw!}
A few weeks passed and I was finally approaching setting up the Kickstarter, but I knew I was missing one crucial component still: a video. Once again, I tried my luck with Fiverr and I found another gem (pun intended) for an artist. I found a guy named, Tyler. Tyler helped exceed my expectations when I sent him a bunch of videos for my Kickstarter Promo to edit and make the best video it could possibly be. Tyler did an absolute incredible job and truly made me feel like I was ready for the Kickstarter after it was finished.
{Ty has been an important friend of mine in this entire process and has helped edit videos beyond just for the Kickstarter! Ty is a master at his class and deserves a massive shout-out as well for the incredible editing and videos he can piece together. On the homepage of this Shopify are the 2 videos he also helped piece together. Thank you so much again, Tyler!}
EXCITEMENT & HEARTBREAK:
I was ready. I spent weeks preparing for the launch of the Kickstarter, talked back and forth with Delano Games for accurate pricing, had all my amazing artists work with me to get everything as professional looking as possible, and I was so unbelievably convinced and excited to post this project to the world. I read everything that Kickstarter recommended a new project do and I tried my absolute hardest to get everything as perfect as possible. "But, like a thief in the night, the dusk left it's stain."
On April 12, 2021, I launched Gem Seekers onto Kickstarter. I remember that night when I pressed the launch button; the excitement, the goosebumps that ran from my neck to my toes, the smile that felt like it was carving up my cheeks, the tears that trickled down my cheeks from finally letting it all out there to let the world see. I watched for about an hour as instant supporters backed me and the project. I went to bed that night so proud, so satisfied, so confident that all the hard work had finally paid off. And just as soon as it lifted off, it came crashing down. Life picked me up and punched me in the gut as hard as possible and smacked me right in the face and said, "Wake the hell up!"
I went from feeling amazing, to one of the most truly heartbroken moments of my entire life. I woke up that next morning and it barely moved any from when I went to bed. I convinced myself that everything would work itself out and that I had to keep pushing. But I should've known better. With a massive $200,000 goal, I should've known. I knew I had to make that the goal at the time for so many reasons. Everything still was uncertain. I was going to have to have everything still digitalized and for top dollar for someone to do all that. I was going to have to print thousands of each kind of deck and booster pack for me to really pump anything out sufficiently. There was so many different factors for me to have to raise that money and looking at all these Kickstarters and all these success stories, truly gave me the hope. Had me entirely convinced I could do it, massive goal and all. But again, I ate the biggest piece of humble pie, got smacked right in the face by rude people, the goal, and life in so many ways.
I ran the campaign for about a week or so and called it. I sat at $6,000 of the $200,000 and read many statistics that funding only got slower after the first couple days to week. I knew I wasn't making it after about 3-4 days in and kept on giving myself false hope to keep stretching days after. I think it ended up being about 10-12 days or so before actually throwing in the towel.
I've never felt more defeated than that day but more so for reasons leading up to the event, (I'll explain further in the next paragraph). I didn't know what to do at that point or where to go. At the time, I felt I had run out of options and that it was all for nothing. Immense heartbreak flooded in and failure swept me off of my feet. I remember having a vacation with my wife's family down in North Carolina, just a day or so after I cancelled the Kickstarter. I tried to put on a happy face the entire time as I sat there crushed and for lack of better terms, feeling dead inside. And as I eluded to before, it wasn't just the game either, it was more, so much more....
My wife and I lost our first child a few months before the cancellation of the Kickstarter... I wanted to make my family proud but especially my kiddo that we lost... so this... this just hurt so much. Felt like I failed them... failed everyone... All the time, all the money, all the hard work just ripped from my soul and along with it, the dream of making my kid proud of their daddy some day and showing them that no matter what it took, they could always do it with faith, determination, love, and hard work. It felt I had failed everyone and it was an unbelievably hard pill to swallow.
My wife, however, was able to get pregnant again which was a massive blessing and she was about 2-3 or so months into her pregnancy during this time of the Kickstarter. Through all that happened though, I was just so afraid of the back to back losses that it kinda broke my confidence all together for anything for the foreseeable future. In fact, it made me more nervous than ever to lose my kid that was on the way too or fail them as a father, especially with nothing to show to make them proud later down the road... But I knew I had to hold my head high and step back for a bit and focus on the next steps.
HIATUS & BIRTH:
I ended up taking a few months hiatus from the game all together to try and get my head on straight and reevaluate everything I had done and accomplished and really be there for my wife as she was trying to grow this baby. As time neared, I had streaks of ambition, including a time where I ordered some booster promo packs. Unfortunately, the company (whom I won't name) sent all the booster promos to me all flawed. The corners were all cut from an improper bleed line and they wouldn't help me in the slightest, even after I took partial to most of the blame, to place another order. I would've been fine with anything that would've helped but they wouldn't do it. At least I knew I could cross them off the list for doing business with them in the future. However, this put me at a slight breaking point with the game entirely. I even was in deep thought to put an end to the project all together...
But, by the end of September, as the due date grew closer for my little kiddo, life sparked in me once more to try and get this game done by all means possible. I finally got back in touch with Johnny to try and see if we could complete all the creatures so that I could slowly create the cards myself and, if I ever started a Kickstarter again with a much more reasonable goal, I could be hopefully more successful. Johnny welcomed me back with open arms and we began working together again and really, for the most part, haven't stopped working on the creatures since! (Probably sounding like a broken record 😅)
A few weeks later, the happiest day of my life occurred... my little girl was born. All the anger, all the sadness, all the frustration, anxiety ... absolutely everything... had dissipated when I saw her face. The immense gratitude I had to God for giving me an IV to my soul from heaven. The instant love I had for this child. It was all remarkably extraordinary. Everything before meant close to nothing for a short period and now everything meant something. The fight inside had been restored. After seeing my wife and how strong she was fight through the pain to give birth to my child, I knew I had to do bust my ass to complete this journey for her and for my immensely supportive family as well.
FINALIZED CARD OUTLINES:
By December, I got in touch with another artist from Fiverr named Vincent. Vincent helped me capture the card outlines themselves and made what I could not. This was a massive step in moving forward with what would be a finished product sometime later. Vincent and I worked closely together a couple times throughout the end of 2021 and into the end of 2022. Vincent helped bring life to my original outlines and made them worlds better than I could have expected. Vincent helped make the Seeker, Hex, Fate, Relic, Player (C.A.P.), and Seeker Stat Sheet card outlines for the game. He even helped make the backs of the cards look way more professional and cooler than I could've ever imagined and eventually made the box outlines to the box art as well!
{Yet another awesome person to work with and very patient and timely. Thank you, Vincent, for all your hard work you did for me and the game! Appreciate you immensely and the game would've never looked as good as it does if it weren't for your hard work and perseverance! Thank you, again!}
CREATING THE END PRODUCT:
For throughout most of 2022, I worked on finalizing things and tidying up things with the game. This lead me back to Fiverr one final time, other than to finalize box art with Vincent, to connect with an Artist named Daniel. He helped make the art for the Hex and Fate cards and did amazing work through painting exactly/relatively what I had envisioned. (Huge shout out to Daniel as well for his awesome art and for being super professional, kind, and easy to work with! Thank you so much for all your hard work on the light and dark Hex and Fates!)
To help me complete everything, my family helped pitch in and buy me an iPad for 2021 Christmas and it was perfect for me to use Photoshop on there to complete the remainder of the journey to manufacturing. Throughout a good majority of the year I was back and forth with a company called: "Mr. Playing Card." The customer service I chatted back and forth with did amazingly and really dealt with my shananigans throughout the whole process and as a quick shout out, I really appreciate them for staying professional and helping me out in all aspects immensely!
I worked throughout 2022 diligently for one last round of plugging all the information into the cards and placing the Seekers where they needed to be, via the use of Photoshop that I mentioned before, to get them all ready for production. I eventually got it all situated and while working with Mr. Playing Card, I selected/made the cards to coincide with the 2 deck choices I had in mind: "Dawn" and "Dusk." I worked tirelessly throughout this year to get things completed because I wanted desperately to be able to release the game in 2022 but as my father always quoted from his favorite film, 'Eddie & the Cruisers II,' "A man in a rush starts taking shortcuts and I won't shortcut the music!" For my father, music was his life and even though the "music" referred to music specifically in the quote, he made sure for me to recognize that it applies for all things you care about and that taking your time always produces a better product. So I stayed adamant about those lessons and making sure it was as good of a product as I was capable of creating. This process unfortunately took me into into 2023, and finally by February 2023, the game had been purchased and set for manufacturing/production. Then, about a month later on March of 2023, Gem Seekers was shipped to the house.
THANK YOU:
At the time, nearly 7 years of hard work hit my doorstep and as I unboxed everything, I couldn't help but break down and cry. My product was finally here and in the flesh. It was an unbelievably surreal moment and soaking it all in was a journey all in itself. I quickly counted all the units I had and after, as quickly as I could, posted it all onto my Shopify page for everyone to purchase.
Thank you to absolutely everyone who purchased this game and played or is playing it. You have no idea how much it means to me that you supported this project and believed in me through all of this. I hope that this thing takes off so you can all see the vision I have had for this entire thing over these past 7+ years. Thank you all for your time and reading this as well and I hope you all enjoyed! No words can truly describe the feeling that you all gave me when you purchased the game but all I can say again is I appreciate you all very much. Special thanks to my family and friends as well for sticking with me and pushing me to get this game out. If it weren't for your belief in me, this game would've never seen the light of day and even though it's not much of anything right now, at least I can say I completed something through perseverance, faith, and hard work/determination. Again, thank you all.
WHATS NEXT?!
Finally, after nearly 3 years of working closely with Johnny (the talented artist helping digitalize my creatures), we're nearly completed with the 170+ Seekers of the game. My plan is to create the cards for all of these and to set out a Kickstarter so that we can hopefully create what the game was meant to be as a deck building game and get the game made into booster packs! Following this as well, my plan is to send regular posts on here of the Seekers themselves, giving you all insight to their lore and more! Gem Seekers this past June also got to its first Convention at PortCon! This convention went as good as I think it could've gone so that is also in the cards moving forward too on trying to attend more conventions! Stay tuned for more to come soon and thank you all for your patience!