MagicCarrot.com interviews Creative Team Alpha about their Ultimate Odyssey

Part 6

MagicCarrot.com sat down with Creative Team Alpha in April and talked about the Ultimate Odyssey, Killer Bunnies, and other games. Creative Team Alpha’s fearless leader Jeff Bellinger, Creative Director Jonathan Young, and Product Development Specialist A.J. Pfeifer answer fans’ questions and give tantalizing answers to our Odyssey questions.

If you missed them, be sure to catch Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4, and Part 5.

AJ: Dago Bunny is my favorite in Kinder.

JB: We got into trouble for Dago Bunny.

MC2: Oh, no!

JB: Because everybody thought it was a slam on Italians, like dago, but it was short for Dagoba, day-go-bun-knee. I hadn’t the slightest idea that dago meant a slur to the Italians. So, we actually caught [expletive deleted] for that. Yes, we caught [expletive deleted] for that. But we didn’t know. We had no clue. So, there you go.

MC1: You’d never heard that slur?

JB: I had heard it, but it was so long ago… I’m from New York/New Jersey. I’d heard it as a kid, but… Technically, by the way it is spelled differently. So, thank God. We were going for the planet. Evidently, not a lot of Italians know where Yoda’s from, and the confusion…

AJ: I think it would be a nice little branch off of that question is how do the Red Jupiter bunnies, the Red Dwarf bunnies. Which ones do we like the best? We didn’t really cover Jupiter at all.

JB: I like Rimmer! I’m a huge Chris Barrie fan, no matter what he’s doing.

AJ: That would be the Red Technician bunny, right?

JB: Yes, the Red bunny.

AJ: The Red tech. is your favorite.

JB: You like Kryten, because ….

AJ: Actually, my favorite is the Red Security bunny. I like Chance the best.

JB: Because she’s got big boobies.

AJ: That’s not all of it.

JB: Have you noticed that Kryten is holding the talking toaster?

MC1: No.

JB: Okay, are you big Red Dwarf fans?

MC1: I would have to say, no, sorry.

JB: There’s an annoying AI toaster. It’s an artificial-intelligence toaster. It’s one of the characters in Red Dwarf in a few of the episodes and and he’s holding the toaster. It’s worth checking out.

JY: Toaster makes the reference.

AJ: What’s your favorite Red bunny in Jupiter?

JY: I don’t like Red Dwarf, so I can’t answer that question.

AJ: Awwww!

JB: He doesn’t like Babylon 5 either.

JY: Yes, I do.

JB: Oh, I’m sorry. You never gave Red Dwarf a chance.

JY: I couldn’t get past the first episode.

All: [Laughs]

JY: There are so many cards,

JB: It’s really a tough question. It’s like asking a parent which kid you like best.

AJ: I think we’d have to play each of the games some night and cone back.

MC2: That becomes hard too, because you do not see all of the cards in each game, so there are some cards that its like “Oh, I forgot about that one!”

JB: I haven’t seen all of the cards in years, it’s true.

MC2: Well thank you, that’s a lot of favorite cards and lame cards. I don’t know how many questions you’ve got left, hon.

MC1: Actually, I did want to start to wrapping up to respect these guys’ time. But, I wanted to ask if there are any particular favorite moments of your actually playing your own games that come to mind, some magical combination of cards in the deck and people playing that just worked out in a memorable way.

JY: For me, I think the best times are when, like you mentioned, I’m playing with the fans. For two reasons. One is that I work in a little bubble. My buddy plays with AJ and Jeff and a couple of our other fans, and I get pretty [indistinct]. It’s fun to play with the fans and what they like, what are their favorite Carrots, what are their favorite cards, how they like to play. And two, for some reason, I win more when I play at the convention.

All: [Laughs]

AJ: He hits a winning streak whenever he’s at conventions.

JY: And when I’m at the convention playing with the fans, I—on-purpose, not try to lose—I try to let the fans win, to the point where I’ll give away Carrots just for the sake of giving away Carrots. I’ll give away bunnies so that the fans have a good time. But I win more often at conventions than I do any other time, so that’s when I like to play.

JB: I’ll jump in. Jonathan’s absolutely right. We do kind of work in a bubble. And we get together, AJ and I get together every Tuesday night for work. To work. We either talk about new cards, we play-test, we look at cards that aren’t working, especially with the new game, we try to build decks, see if anything’s broken. The pride of Quest and Jupiter has always been that it has been play-tested to death so that we never have to apologize later. And I have to tell you, AJ has been a loyal bunny fan for about eight years. He knows the game, I would say, second only to me. Sometimes, more than me. It’s work on Tuesday nights. As much as we have friends over sometimes, and sometimes we have big games, sometimes it is just the two of us, sometimes Jonathan comes over, sometimes he’s just drawing at home. It’s work! So I agree. When I get a chance to do a game at a game store, or go to the conventions, which I always enjoy, or when I get to talk to fans, or do an interview like this one, I would say, off-hand, those are our best moments. I mean, we have had plenty of… you say our best Bunnies moments, AJ and I have a favorite pizza place. Generally, when we go there, we’re talking about bunnies. So that’s a Bunny-moment. Like I said before, good folks, good food, good fun. I’d have to say that it kinda is like work, and people always ask me “How many times can you play this stupid game? Aren’t you tired of it?” and the answer is “No.” because it’s not the game, so much as the people that you’re playing with. Since that’s always changing, the game’s always changing.

JY: We’ve had fans that have called us, saying “Hey, we’re going to be in San Diego next week, can we meet you?” and we’ll meet them at a coffee shop or a restaurant and play a game with them and its just fun. We get a lot of people who come here for ComiCon and other conventions in San Diego, so its fun to meet the fans, not just at conventions elsewhere, but come here. Jeff has friends and fans on his travels and its just great to hang out with them.

JB: Yeah, its always nice. I’ve never met a group of fans that weren’t fun. It’s kinda neat because, not to sound overly-conceited, but we’re brilliant on a weekly basis and yet we don’t…

MC1: [Laughs]

JB: … that’s great, that works, oh, that’s new. Let’s put that in. And we just keep pumping it out, and we kinda do work in a bubble, and then we get to meet other folks and they tell us their stories and its kind of neat. Some of them will send us pictures, “Oh, we have a Bunny night on Wednesdays” or whatever. And I’m like, that’s cool. There’s nothing better. Talk about Bunny moments. Here’s a Bunny-moment I had by myself, is when I’m reading the fan mail about a group of people said “Oh yeah, we have a group of people, we get together on Wednesday nights, we have laughs, we’re always together on Wednesday nights, we have like ten people.” I’m like “Wow”. That’s kinda cool. That, to me, is extremely rewarding. Those are some of my favorite fan-letters. How about you, AJ. Take the ball.

AJ: I think that to answer the question more, I kinda got from it that more of the historic and memorable moments of when we’ve been playing.

JY: Was that the question?

MC1: That was the question, but that’s okay.

AJ: I totally, one hundred percent agree with Jeff and Jonathan there. I mean, its definitely a lot of fun to play with people all over the country and play with our fans and get a new interaction on it and a new look on it. As far as in-game is concerned, I know we’ve had many a game, many Quest and Jupiter games, that have been just outrageous. Jupiter more than Quest, but I know we’ve had extremely good games. I know one game we passed the Plutonium back and forth about four or five times before it finally landed, and you know the suspense was just so amazing that it was just wonderful. It’s something that you don’t really forget. There have been a couple Jupiter games that, the entire game can change in one turn.

JB: Jupiter is so tight. I love playing Jupiter. That’s my favorite to play, for sure. And great pot-luck dinners!

MC1: Are those included with later expansions?

JB: What, the dinners?

MC1: Yes.

JB: Next time you’re in San Diego, we’ll cook for you!

MC1: Okay, very good. Now I have just a couple more very, very short questions that are satisfying my dying curiosity about some things on particular cards. [the interview was 83 minutes at this point… We’re really glad they were gracious enough to answer a few more questions]

JB: [Laughs] There are no short answers!

AJ: This is correct.

MC1: I’ll just let these fly. Mysterious Place number one, 74 West 89 South. Is that some specific spot in Antarctica or just some random spot that sounded cool?

JB: [Sarcastically] No idea what you’re talking about. Next question, please!

All: [Laughs]

JB: All will be revealed… later on. It is very specific.

MC1: Okay, fair enough. On the Pink Timid bunny, number five-hundred, the characters “HH” appear below the pink and twenty/zodiac stripe. What’s the significance of those characters, or is it just a reference to Gilligan Island’s Episode “The Producer”?

JB: [Feigning bad phone connection] Geez, Glenn, you’re breaking up. [Laughs]. What was the question? I can’t hear a thing [makes hissing sound]. I’m getting a lot of interference. [Laughs] Something about “H”?

JB: I’m just teasing. Yes, there certainly was an “H” there wasn’t there?

JY: Don’t look at me!

JB: Now, what did you think it was? A Gilligan’s Island thing?

MC1: Harold Hecuba from the Gilligan’s Island episode “The Producer”.

JB: I’ve seen every Gilligan’s Island. I don’t remember that one.

MC1: Phil Silvers played the producer, Harold Hecuba, and they did this wonderful musical number.

JB: Oh, okay. And he had H’s across something?

MC1: Harold Hecuba: HH. I’m just speculating!

JB: Holy Hanna. I never would have thought of two words that started with H. No, it has nothing to do with Gilligan’s Island.

MC1: Okay.

JB: The truth is, and I’ll give you this one. Originally…

JY: Originally.

JB: Very originally, there was a plan to have another set of weapons that went from levels twenty-one to thirty, and so the “H” stood for the thirty-sided die, since “T” was already for twenty. “H” was supposed to be the representation for the thirty-sided die. Mathematically, we found a better way to introduce more weapons, which was more unique, and frankly, the thirty-sided die cost too much.

MC1: [Laughs at the honesty] Okay. Good answer.

JB: We kind of switched horse mid-stream. Horses. [Laughs] I left out the other “s”. Horses.

MC1: And my second-to-last question: the card Earth Below Us, number 487, is that a reference to David Bowie’s song “Space Oddity” or its sequel “Major Tom” by Peter Schilling?

JB: For me, it would be the Schilling version, but I know I have both of them in my collection, but my favorite would be the [second] one, because it has such an unbelievably cool beat to it.

AJ: Agreed.

JB: Schilling was a god.

MC1: Yes, almost a one-hit wonder, though.

JB: That’s a title reference, you bet.

MC1: And, my last question…

JB: Baker Street is a song reference.

MC1: Really? I didn’t know that, I thought it was a Sherlock Holmes reference.

JB: Everybody does, but if you check the lyrics of the song “Baker Street” [by Gerry Rafferty], it starts, the very first line is “Winding my way down Baker Street….” which is in the text of the card. And also, Cool Change is just an awesome song from the 80s and the one with that, what was that thing on that card? That bird?

AJ: Like a Puffin or something?

JB: Like a Puffin bird

MC1: I run Linux, so I love the penguin.

JB: What?

MC1: And my last question is…

JB: Last call! Last call! Sorry. Go ahead.

MC1: What can fans expect to see from Creative Team Alpha at this weekend’s Kingdom Con convention?

JB: Arrogance. Attitude, and what’s another A-word?

AJ: Alcohol?

JB: Yes, alcohol. We’re going to party down! No, um, this is our first time going to Kingdom Con.

AJ: That’s because its the first Kingdom Con.

JY: [Sarcastically] Really?

JB: Yes, that’s true too. [Teasing] But don’t correct me when I’m talking. Actually, Kingdom Con is being run by a friend of mine, Ross Thompson, and its not really a Bunny convention. If Bunny fans actually attend this Con, the number one thing they can expect is access.

JY: That’s an “A” word.

AJ: There you go.

JB: It’s alcohol, attitude, arrogance, but access. Although we don’t promote underage drinking and we always have a designated driver.

MC1: That’s good and very responsible.

JB: Yes, well, I have to be. I’m old.

MC1: I’m still older than you are Jeff. It did get a little long. I apologize for the length, gentlemen, but I really appreciate your time today and thank you for answering our questions.

JB: I would like to send a message out to our loyal fans. There’s been a lot of folks waiting for new product, so our message is, in all honesty: product comes out when it is ready. And that is not meant to sound arrogant. We just want it to be the best that it can be. I remember that Jupiter came out late because we were not satisfied with the product and we sent it back to be re-done.

JY: That’s a production issue. We had a lot of production issues with that and so it was actually printed and we sent it back to have it re-done.

JB: We will not give our fans anything substandard, in either the quality of the production or the quality of the game. We absolutely adore our fans. Tell them that the new game will be [indistinct]. We’ve planned for two boosters a year, which means for the next seven years, we’re set to go. We do want to emphasize that boosters do not need to be bought in order by color or by letter. We really think that the last game is the best game, the one we’re working on now. It beats the other two, as far as numbers, artwork, strategy…

AJ: I’d like to add one small thing. I have gotten a few emails from people that are reluctant to get into Odyssey because they’ve played collectible games before and they were intimidated by it. I just want to let the fans know, don’t let it scare you! Don’t let the fact that it is a collectible game scare you because you can get into it as much as you want or as little as you want, and its a lot of fun.

JY: Technically, it’s not a collectible game.

AJ: I mean customizable, I’m sorry.

JB: Let’s make this clear, because Playroom wanted us to. Collectible games have random card decks. We do not have random card decks. You can pick up a booster and you can know exactly what’s going to be in there. What we say is that they are constructible, which means you can take cards from different decks and put them together however you please. And ultimately, I think it is respectful to the fans not to make them buy pack after pack after pack looking for that special card, so everybody’s treated the same. I like fairness. Fairness is good.

MC1: Fairness makes games fun.

JB: Yes they do. I want our fans to be happy. Somebody has this card and that card. Every fan in Odyssey will be able to get any card they want. And they know exactly where to get it. That, to me, is good.

MC1: That’s good.

JB: That is good. All right, that is my closing statement. Thank you, Glenn and Kathy.

MC: Thank you!

MC1: We appreciate all of your time.

Superbunny Returns

Superbunny Returns is a companion card to Spiderbunny.

As far as we know, it is the only fan art Psi card in existence.