The Story
As a kid I fashioned myself as a some-day inventor. So, when I was 15 I invented a game that was cross between tic-tac-toe, Othello and that dot game we all played.
The object of the game is pretty simple, capture the Four Corners of a Square and you get points equal to the length of a side - the bigger the square, the more points.
However, WAY back in 1980 there was no iPhone (um, does that give away my age?) So, the game was primarily for play on paper with visions of a board version at some point. The challenge, either way, is that the players have to keep track and add up their scores. And after all, who wants to do math while playing a game?
So, I wrote up the rules, had my brother and my friend witness the documents and did a “poor-man’s patent” by mailing the thing to myself. In fact, you can see my original drawings here – pretty funny ☺
As the years rolled by, like so many other ideas, I’d left this one behind. Sure it rolled around in the dusty attic of my mind finding daylight during the occasional casual conversation, or when I forced a friend to break out pencil and paper to play. But other than that, I never gave much thought to trying to capitalize on the idea.
Now fast forward quite a few years. Don’t ask me how, because I can’t remember, but the envelope with the game resurfaces. Maybe I kept it all these years? But between the Navy and moving across this great country with several stops along the way, it seems unlikely.
Maybe, it resurfaced when my Dad died a few years ago. Mom gave me some of his things and a bunch of stuff from my childhood I’d long forgotten about. But honestly, I can’t remember how this manila envelope re-appeared into my file cabinet.
So a several months ago I opened the envelope and re-visited my 28-year-old chicken scratch. About the same time, I took the plunge like many others and got the new Apple iPhone 3G.
Not long after having the iPhone I realized that it would be a great platform for the game I invented as a kid, and starting mulling over the idea of launching it.
Keep in mind, I’m pretty busy with my main objective of getting ShopWatchBuy.com launched and this “side project” seems like it would be a distraction.
Now here’s were it gets weird:
As I think about doing this, I’m pondering various names for the game and even poke around for a couple domain names, but nothing really sticks. Remember, at this point I’m still not sure if I want to spend time on this, so my efforts are pretty half-hearted.
Then one night, I kid you not, I have this weird dream.
It’s been awhile, and I really don’t remember much detail. It was one of those “half asleep, half awake” dreams – not very vivid, but somehow it registers with you.
What little I do remember is an image of my Dad and this silly manila envelope, and somehow from this dream I felt compelled that I should do this. Who knows, maybe it was stress, and lack of sleep playing tricks on me?
In any case, that morning I get up to start my day and decide to really look at this. Again, coming back to the question of a name, domain name, etc…
Then I think, “What did I call this thing as a kid?” So, back to the manila envelope! Hmmm, “check-4”, not too sure about the hyphen, some pros and cons there, but I’ll see if the domain is available.
Now, if you’ve ever tried to secure a domain name, you know how hard it can be to find one (especially a .com) that is available, memorable, spells easily, etc…
BAM! Check-4.com is available! Exactly as I wrote it as a kid! Before the Internet, before the iPhone, before the App Store, this was how I chose to name this game!
All I can think is that it’s way too much serendipity and now I HAVE to pursue this!
During the development process, it became pretty clear that using the iPhone there were a lot of options, and some pretty cool things that could be done: timed games, multiple players, computer only version, etc…
Then, from the realization that the game’s set-up has a lot of flexibility, it could have more than one game mode and “Lines” was born! It will be very interesting to see which game is more popular: Squares or Lines.
It’s extremely satisfying to see something that was once just a vague dream, small as it may have been, become a reality.
Which is why much of this endeavor, whether it succeeds or not, makes money or not is really about something else. It’s about never loosing faith and being true to a 15-year old kid from upstate New York who wanted to be an inventor.
November 11th, 2008 at 8:54 am
Sounds like a great Game !! sorry I do not have an iPhone Good luck to an upstate NY kid with a dream and an angel on his side…Dad would love this!!