Sam “King of the Hilltop”
Growing up, my older brothers and I moved around a lot. I think I calculated an average of a move around every 1.6 years….give or take. All this moving led to a lot of adventures and my childhood was AWESOME!! We even lived on a dairy at one point. There is a whole story there about Manure Man but maybe that story is best served never being told…I mean like ever. Looking at you Ed!
Anyways, I believe all this moving around forced us to spend time together and one of the things that really brought us together were games, specifically miniature games. We would spend hours going over Warhammer and Warhammer 40k army lists and discussing lore from the army books. This would later lead to RPGs like: Marvel Heroes, Robotech, Rifts, Legend of the Five Rings, and D&D.
We also acquired a few board games that proved to be instant classics for us: Battle Masters, Hero Quest, and Axis and Allies. No matter our issues with each other, we could always play games. Now, I was very competitive, and being the youngest at the time (brothers 4 and 5 arrived much later), sometimes those games brought more problems than they solved but, in the end, we were brothers and we were there for each other.
So, one day while at our Aunt’s house, she had shown us her double cassette tape karaoke recorder. You could play a cassette tape, sing into the microphone, and record your song. Well, I was really into MC Hammer at the time. So, I wrote a rap about my brothers and I. It went a little something like this, “dun dun tsktsk…..tsktsk…dun dun…tsktsk…tsktsk…Matt, Ed, and me, We are brothers don’t you see, We play games and like to have fun, We are brothers awesome, dun dun…tsktsk…tsktsk…dun dun…We are brothers awesome, Best in the world…… We are Brothers Awesome!”
Yup, I was considered a lyrical genius, even then. But, that’s how the term was eventually, and I mean eventually, fondly remembered. B.A. stands for Brothers Awesome. Though I don’t mind the other connotation of B.A., I think it’s very fitting and the very few times someone has called me one, I can’t help but feel pretty awesome…Brothers Awesome!
So, we promised to each other years ago, like 20+ years ago, that if we opened a game store, or started a game company, that we would all be involved. B.A. Games is the start of that dream and although not all the brothers are as involved as we would like, we are working towards that goal. One day we hope to have all 5 of us working for B.A. Games.
How does this effect our games?
We want our games to be interactive and built on a sense of community. We hope to make competitive, cooperative, and even semi-cooperative games, but player interaction is going to be one of our key elements. For us, games are about the people you play with. You need to have epic moments, good and bad, to help establish a strong relationship with one another. In short, the games need to be fun!
All of the brothers are also big fans of quality, it could be genetic or maybe it was just drilled into us as children but we enjoy playing with and having high quality games. We want to go the extra mile to provide an incredible game experience. Having a good that not only plays well, but looks great, and feels awesome is the experience we are looking to achieve. We want those games to have a great value to you and your game group.
Finally, our games will be heavily focused on theme. The setting, the characters, the look, and feel of the game matter to us. The theme of the game needs to be brought to the forefront of all parts of the game to truly make it a next level experience.
So, until next time, keep playing, watch out for each other, and have fun!
My Take On Being B.A.
Ed “Duke of BAzlandia”
My brothers and I are quite close and as Sam mentioned, it is quite possibly due to all of the moves growing up. My move to year of life ratio is closer to 1 to 1 for the first 18 years of life. As far as brothers, I am actually number 2 of 5. Sam, however, is number 3 of 5…. so I don’t know where he gets that he is the youngest. There is a large 12 year gap between Sam and the next set of 2…so maybe that’s where he gets it. He was the youngest for over a decade.
So on to fonder memories of childhood. There were epic nights and weekends of gaming. However, there is an age gap. I am about 2 years younger then the oldest brother, that puts Sam 5 years younger than the oldest. When playing games and doing things, that age gap can make a huge difference. I won’t try to pretend that it was all good all the time, but for the most part things went well. It also helped that Sam is a patient and forgiving guy because he is the youngest of the older 3 and he caught a lot of flack. We were not always the nicest to him. There were moments of him trying to prove himself just as capable as his older brothers and a bit of fun may have been had at his expense. If you ever meet him in person, ask him about how he obtained the name “Manure Man” or any of the other odd names we used to call him (if he won’t answer, hit me up and I will gladly tell).
Now to hear Sam tell it, it was just an innocent “oh I was into MC Hammer and I made a song.” Reality isn’t quite that simple. If I recall correctly Sam was probably 6 or 7 at the time. The lyrics quoted above is a much improved rendition. There was no “dun dun tsktsk” and et al. It was more like “doot doote brothers doot doote awesome doot doote brothers awesome yeah doot doote we are the best doot doote awesome…” yeah that was about the extent of it. So after he recorded this in secret, unbeknownst to us, he promptly showed off his amazing creation and we were not the kindest. He mentions this above and glosses over it but we made fun of it relentlessly, well at least until the parents stepped in and my older brother and I got in trouble. For the next several years though it provided a good way to tease Sam until finally he got over it. From there it has become a fond brother memory and it comes up at least once when we all get together.
This brings us to why we are called B.A. Games. Throughout the years, as has been mentioned in previous blogs, we have always talked about being in the gaming industry, whether it be through opening a store or developing games. We have bandied about names for years. B.A. Games was always one of the top options. One of the few reasons is that it abbreviates the obvious and the call back to the legendary song of “Brothers Awesome.”
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