Introducing CollectorEgg
How being a lonely kid lead to a game about stories.
Earlier this week, I wrote a long blog post all about how working at Disney Club Penguin changed my life for the better (spoiler alert: it’s a love story.) In that post, I briefly discuss my experience of working behind-the-scenes on what would become Card-Jitsu — a trading card game about penguin ninjas.
Today, I want to tell you a bit about the app and game I’ve been working on called CollectorEgg.
I share a bit of background about why I’m making CollectorEgg, and how Card-Jitsu has been just one of the many influences on the project.
Let me start from the beginning….
Me as a Kid
I was a shy and lonely kid, and often felt unwanted.
My mom was a teenager when I was born, and my dad was struggling with alcoholism at the time. I spent most of my life being raised as an only child by my grandmother, but I could always sense this feeling of tension being with her. When I was 20 years old, she let it slip — she was “stuck with me”.
Needless to say, this gave me a bit of a complex about people being stuck with me — the unwanted kid.
I ended up moving around every few years as a child, continually switching schools. Since I was already fairly shy, I found it tough to make new friends each time we’d move again.
The things that remained throughout my life were music, video games, and my computer. From 1985 to 1997, my only computer was a Commodore 128, which I used to play games and do school work on.
I loved to draw and write stories. My father and grandfather were both talented artists, so I aspired to become an artist one day, too. I remember when my dad had interviewed to become an animator at Disney, which is when I decided that I wanted to work for Disney one day.
Little did I realise that I actually would.
Since I consistently felt isolated and alone, I vowed that I never wanted other kids to feel that way. I started making friends with the outcasts and nobodies, and distanced myself from folks who were popular (mostly because I was sure they were okay without my help.) When I started working at Club Penguin many years later, one of the main things that drew me to the game was that kids who wanted to meet new friends could do so there, without judgment from the meaner kids.
Like many lonely children, I found meaning in my “things.” I found significance in the physical objects I had in my collection — albums by Nirvana and The Smiths, my Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo games, and my Star Wars toy collection.
I also have positive associations with these “things” because my dad and I would go out to garage sales in search of these valuable treasures, like NES games and toys. He had a massive collection of toys, records, and antiques, and I found that intriguing. There were so many stories to discover, so many secrets to unlock. The thrill of the treasure hunt was addictive — you never knew what you would find at a yard sale, flea market, or thrift shop.
As a teenager, I started thrifting regularly. After all, it was the early 90’s, and grunge and thrift stores were cool in those days. This worked out well for a kid being raised by his grandmother with very little money to go around.
I would spend my hard-earned paper route money on used records, slowly discovering the vast history of music that I only knew from a distance. I’d buy albums by the Bay City Rollers, The Knack, or other niche artists jokingly mentioned by my favorite musicians as influences (thanks for the recommendations, Kurt Cobain.)
And this is where my obsession for the historical began…
Enter the Archival Ninja
The Card-Jitsu project was a dream come true for me back in 2008 when I was at Disney.
When I was a kid, I concocted several different tabletop and card games for school or fun. I made a game called Stax, which was my response to the Pog phenomenon. I made a game called The Task of Terenthia, which was a pen-and-paper role-playing game system that was more HeroQuest than Dungeons & Dragons.
The thing that made Card-Jitsu intriguing to me were its limitations. We already had over three years’ worth of newspaper, catalogue, and other illustrations, so it only made sense that we repurpose those as the artwork for the cards. The challenge with this was that some of these images didn’t make too much sense on their own — so I had to focus on what made these random items significant in some way. The “Grey Fish” or “Manhole Cover” cards in the first 110 card set, for example. Each of these cards included a hint about their significance. The Manhole Cover was the route you’d take to get from the Plaza to the underground pool. The grey fish in Ice Fishing are only attracted to bright lights in that minigame. You get the gist of it.
I liked the idea of creating a miniature time capsule out of each card. Almost every Card-Jitsu card reflected a micro-moment in history — especially in the later sets where we started introducing sketch and concept art cards. The behind-the-scenes material is often more interesting than the final product to those of us who think like detectives, searching for clues and meaning amongst the smallest details.
As some of you may know, I started work on assembling a “Club Penguin Archives” of sorts back in 2007. I was an in-house archivist, busily collecting every napkin sketch I could find that captured the story of the creative process. I love documentaries and videos that capture a moment in time — especially for those of us who cherish the life moments that experiences create.
The reason I was drawn to being an archivist was not so much for the organisational elements of being in library sciences. What matters most to me about the history of objects are their stories — I love hearing about what makes something significant; especially in the creative process. I like albums more when I hear about the labour and effort that went into their production. Take the story of that 1970’s punk rock band from Detroit featured in A Band Called Death. Hearing about how their album was mostly lost for years, only to be re-discovered 30 years later? Amazing. Or the narrative in Searching for Sugar Man — both of these ‘behind-the-scenes’ stories of the past are awe-inspiring.
In 2008, I had to make a tough decision — did I want to continue being the archivist, or did I want to move on to managing the writing team? The opportunity to apply to become an editorial manager was far too compelling an offer to neglect. My ex-wife asked me, “do you want to organize other people’s creative ideas, or would you rather create your own ideas?”
Needless to say, the answer was obvious. I left the archives behind and moved on.
But I never really let go of the idea of archival storytelling.
Your Archival Story
Think about your own story for a moment.
What’s most significant to you in your life? Has someone given you a mixtape or a gift that represents a key moment in your personal story?
I still remember and cherish the mixtape my girlfriend gave me a few years ago. Seeing certain album art reminds me of when I was a teenager. Reading about the creative process behind the production of R.E.M.’s “Out of Time” in a recent issue of Mojo only serves to make me love the demos and outtakes even more. Playing Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy reminds me of how I became interested in storytelling in video games.
What objects or items represent your personal history? Especially if you were born in a different year, in a different era? What makes these things significant to you? Why do you care about that one specific game or object that’s personal to you, but doesn’t matter to anyone else?
Enter CollectorEgg
A card game and app for collectors by collectors.
With CollectorQuest, I want to celebrate each person’s unique story, as represented by all those various inanimate objects. I know that there are so many things that many of us would love to have in our homes to best represent us, but that these often take up so much room that it’s not realistic to have them up everywhere.
I was inspired to create CollectorEgg after I first attended the Portland Retro Gaming Expo in 2015. I didn’t quite realize that there was such a vast and passionate community dedicated to the preservation and appreciation of vintage video games. For some reason, 2015 was the year I first discovered Norman Caruso’s Gaming Historian series on YouTube. 2015 was a good year.
The one collector I’ve been most inspired by has been “Metal Jesus Rocks”. What I love about his channel is that he is such a friendly, authentic collector, with such an genuine interest and love of video games both new and old. And because of his passion, he collaborates with these wonderfully genuine and lovely people that share his passion for old games. Metal Jesus Rocks represents the friendly and kind type of content creator I like best. The one guest I’ve enjoyed the most on his channel has been a guy named John Hancock, who has this endearing and friendly tone about his love of collecting vintage games and aspires to one day open a video game museum. Naturally a man after my own heart, so I love watching his videos to hear about what he’s been up to.
Metal Jesus Rocks, John Hancock, and the many other collectors out there have these warm and endearing stories about the games they collect — and these stories are often more interesting than the games themselves. And these collectors aren’t unique. There are so many stories in the world about the objects each of us has collected. From the guy in Ontario who collects hand-carved wooden ducks to the gal who collects ancient Chinese vases — everyone has a reason for the things they collect. It’s not about collecting. It’s about meaning.
CollectorEgg is two things:
1) A card game about collectables — think of it as the gamified version of the Antiques Roadshow or Collectors Weekly. The priority here is the physical card game, where we can interact and play with our favourite stories.
2) A collection app and community — a place where people can create cards and share stories about their favourite collectables. Again, this could be anything from comics to records to toys to furniture to hand-written notes.
Here’s the thing — I will need some serious help to pull it off.
To start with, I’ve set up an Airtable form for those who want to reserve a username for the CollectorEgg community app. I know there’s something special about having the right name, so I want to give collectors the first opportunity to reserve their names first.
Secondly, building a web app is expensive. And as a dad with two kids, my finances are limited. So I’ve started a Patreon account where we can collaborate, pool our resources, and build this thing together! I’m planning Patreon-exclusive printed cards in the future. Anything you could offer as help or support is appreciated.
CollectorEgg is the most exciting project I’ve ever worked on. I can’t wait to find more like-minded people who believe in the idea to help me bring the experience to life!
I’ll be posting updates and writing blog posts as the project progresses. You can follow the CollectorEgg publication here on Medium to get the latest posts. Thanks for reading, and hope you can join me on this crazy journey.
Sincerely,
Chris
“A good life is a collection of happy memories.” — Denis Waitley
