It's been about two months since I wrote about my situation, as yet another displaced postdoc in the biosciences, the job market essentially frozen, hundreds of postdocs for every open position, and so on, as well as my solution - developing a new educational card game called Mutation. Game testing has been progressing nicely, but now I'm coming to the point where I need some help from teaching Kossacks, particularly those teaching middle school and high school. Follow me below the fold for some game development goodness!
One of the earliest and biggest problems was pointed out to me by fellow Kossack edg, who found a potential trademark violation: Viacom had submitted what appeared to be a "troll trademark" against the word "Mutations", including all entertainment devices and games. Susan Van Camp, Mark Harmon, their lawyers, and I, all huddled together, but we couldn't come up with a definitive answer whether "Mutation" might step on their trademark and/or draw a lawsuit. Once a big fish like Viacom moved in, I'd be done. Broke scientists don't have high powered lawyers on retainer.
So what they suggested is to add a new element to the brand: to create the character "Dr. Arch", i.e., to take my ArchTeryx pseudonym mainstream and use HIM as a hook to market the game, which would then be called "Dr. Arch's Mutation". Their lawyer confirmed Viacom wouldn't have a leg to stand on then. They even produced some potential art of card backings and card boxes with the new character.
I'm of two minds about this. On the one hand, I think "Dr. Arch" is an excellent marketing tool. On the other, I question whether or not it would be an excellent marketing tool to my intended audience, which is middle schoolers, high schoolers, and the people making the purchasing decisions for them (parents, school administrators, museum managers, etc).
And that's where you come in.
Any teachers out there, or other folks that have experience dealing with the people I list above, I'd love to get your feedback on the initial art, and on the Dr. Arch concept in general. This is one of the last great problems I have to solve; once I have an outline of the game's "look" it's on the fast track to completion.
I look forward to hearing more feedback!