I am a common man. I live common house. I have a common 9 to 5 job working for “the man”, where I design software that enforces business processes and government regulations.

Such was not always the case.

I had a dream. I wanted to follow my passion for electronic entertainment and interaction. Surely I was destined to rise from the desk in my basement with creations so innovative that I single-handedly would take over the video game world. Today, however, my technological innovations are geared to improving compliance yields rather than inventing new and exciting forms of entertainment.

In my adventures as an independent game designer, I count three times where I thought I was on the brink of overnight success; three failures that drove me out of the world of video games to the relative security of the mundane corporate world. Today I will tell you one of these tales.

But first, an article from the Associated Press:


From the Associated Press, Wed, Apr. 24, 2002:
Ventura's next pitch to voters may come via video games
ASHLEY H. GRANT
Associated Press Writer


ST. PAUL - If you think Gov. Jesse Ventura is animated now, you ain't seen nothing yet.

Ventura's campaign committee, credited in 1998 with being among the first to use the Internet as an effective campaign tool, is again exploring how to break new ground - this time by distributing interactive campaign-themed video games.

Forget the standard glossy leaflets most candidates send. The games, on CDs or DVDs or posted on Ventura's Web site, would feature the Navy SEAL-turned-wrestler-turned-actor-turned governor, presumably touting his political accomplishments and putting the heat on his opponents.

"There's no shortage of material for a number of games," said Phil Madsen, treasurer of the Jesse Ventura Volunteer Committee.

The Ventura game (or collection of games) would be entertaining, 100 percent political and distributed free to voters as campaign literature, he said. While the games are just in the talking stage, Madsen describes what might emerge as "an ongoing political cartoon" that could engage the voter for hours.

"On the level of Letterman-like awards for creativity, this would be a good candidate," said Larry Jacobs, a professor of political science at the University of Minnesota.

First, though, there's a potential legal hurdle: Would the games be considered campaign literature or gifts? Minnesota law prohibits a campaign from giving most gifts to voters.

Madsen has asked the state's Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board for an opinion, but board members said this week that the gift clause doesn't appear to fall under their jurisdiction. It's unclear, exactly, what group might have jurisdiction.

In the meantime, the campaign committee is keeping in touch with the game maker that hatched the idea. Because it's still in its talking stages, the governor hasn't yet been approached with the possibility.

Ventura declined an interview on the topic. He has said he won't decide whether he'll run until the July candidate filing period, but Madsen says he wants to be ready just in case.

"I'd much rather be prepared for a campaign that doesn't happen than to be unprepared for one that does," he says.

If not the first, it's among the first times a candidate would use a video game as campaign literature.

But Joseph Turow, professor of communications at the Annenberg School for Communications at the University of Pennsylvania, said it's a logical next step in the integration of politics and entertainment.

Ventura, like other candidates before him, is trying to break outside the box for maximum exposure. All candidates create a persona - that's part of what gets them elected, Turow said.

"In a crowded media environment, breaking through is what you need to do," he said. "If you can break through, particularly if they're younger voters or unaffiliated voters, it's terrific. I think the idea is to be applauded."

Madsen, who also serves as the committee's Webmaster, has maintained that Ventura's 1998 victory didn't happen because of the Internet, but it wouldn't have happened without it.

He set up the Web site, a mix of position papers and biographical data, to produce money, volunteers and votes. The campaign raised a good chunk of its $600,000 in donations and loans through the Web site, which Madsen said cost $600 to set up.

Since Ventura was elected, the campaign Web site has sold Ventura action figures and thousands of bobblehead dolls. If the video games present ethical problems, one solution might be to sell them from the Web site.

"Nobody anticipated what a hit the Jesse Ventura bobbleheads would be," Madsen said. "A Ventura game could be a huge success or just a worthy experiment."
--end of AP story


Former pro wrestler Jesse Ventura was the Governor of our State and attracted a lot of media attention in his various escapades. Like him or not (and a majority didn’t), his election made politics in Minnesota more exciting. Locally, he never had a high approval rating. Nationally, his election in 1998 was big news.

Three months after this article, another story broke about Ventura’s kid trashing the Governor’s mansion with a house party, which appeared to be the last straw for his declining local popularity and Ventura decided not to run for re-election.

My story started in St. Paul Minnesota in late 2001. Political groups were staring to gear up for the 2002 gubernatorial elections. Meanwhile, I was looking for an opportunity to turn my indie-games outfit into an overnight success. Thinking that 1) Most elections at the State level are primarily volunteer-run and would take any free help they could get (especially a 3rd party) and 2) Ventura’s national profile could mean a lot of exposure, I contacted the Ventura campaign at their website to see if they were interested in using us to build a political themed game staring Ventura.

The Ventura campaign was already famous for some novel ideas. They had used Ventura’s name and image for all sorts of original fundraising activities such as T-shirts, action figures, and bobble-heads. If Ventura ran for re-election, there was almost a pressure to continue that tradition and top what they did in 98. For that purpose, Phil Madsen, treasurer of the pending campaign, bought into my idea; and I devoted my time to developing “Jesse Ventura: The Game of Politics”.

The world realizes it now, but back in 2002 the prospect of building a video game to cater to the masses was not generally accepted. The Ventura campaign was high on the idea, because it offered something other forms of media did not:

1. Value-Added Propaganda: If the Democratic party produced a video, or aired an infomercial on television that was going to lionize their views and policies, how many people would pick it up and watch it? (Besides Barbara Streisand) Nobody has time for that. Yet millions of people did watch The West Wing, which essentially promoted the same policies, every week. Why? Because it mixed the political B.S. with something they value: in this case stories they find captivating.

2. Easy Sales and Distribution: Physically, video games are easy to distribute. CDs can be mass produced for pennies each, and top quality packaging can be made for less than a dollar. When put on the internet, you instantly give access to anyone who wants to play the game from anywhere in the world, and it doesn’t cost a thing (unless you don’t have your own connection and are paying for bandwidth) to distribute it. Video games also provide a variety of sales models, such as shareware and adware that let people try the product (and get the message you want to distribute), and then can also contribute to the campaign by paying for extra features, or can generate revenue just by playing it with embedded ads.

Like most of his campaign staff, I worked as a volunteer. I knew going in that I was taking a gamble- he could still decide not to run for re-election and all my work would be for not. But I took the gamble, and looking back (despite the outcome) I can still say it was the right move. The only thing I would have changed it the fact that we had to produce the game incognito. Here’s why:

In April of 2002 the Ventura campaign was forced to find out if and how they could legally distribute a video game. It was a given that we could sell the game, but campaign laws in the US and in Minnesota prohibit candidates from giving “items of value” away for free. That said, video games raised all sorts of new questions. If we gave the game away as a limited version, and sold the full version, is the limited version an illegal giveaway? If we gave the game away as ad-ware, would it still fall under those rules? Even if people downloaded it but had to pay before they could play, would the file itself be an “item of value”? Could digital files be classified “items of value” since they have no physical presence?

The Ventura campaign checked with the Minnesota Supreme Court to find out how they could legally distribute a video game. At that point it became public record and the story broke. The AP picked it up (as shown above) and all of the sudden it was in all the local papers, on the news both locally and nationally, and even appeared on tons of news, political, video game, and pro-wrestling web sites (which is where I first found out the story broke).

Then, the big news: Ventura’s campaign booked the game’s worldwide debut on NBC’s Meet the Press, and for subsequent showings and interviews on various news outlets. Ventura would be the main man, of course; but Phil and I would also be able to contribute, as the people who brought this idea to life. Needless to say, I was excited that my gamble had seemingly paid off. No video game, not Super Mario 3, not Mortal Kombat, not even Zack & Wiki had enough hype to garner this mainstream interest and potential publicity; and I was the little indie-developer who would have made it all happen. I could not wait until I was unveiled as the “secret volunteer developer” of what was already booked to be the most televised video game in the history of the world.

In July the news came that Ventura was not going to seek reelection. Ventura retired from politics into (relative) obscurity, and the big debut never happened. Now of course the game couldn’t generate hype if it were driving drunk with Paris Hilton. The only permanent outcome of the game: shareware is now a legal method of distributing campaign propaganda in the US, and I guess that gives me some solace in my commoner’s life. Yay work.

Here are some clips from the game. The basic idea was you were on a platform with money on it. You had to collect all the money and bring it back to the public fund. Move too far to the left or right, and the platform would tilt, and the objects would slide off the platform. There were also the Lefties and the Righties, who would try to take the money and bring it all the way over to their side. Breaking up the action were mini-games, which had themes which were mostly a fusion between State politics and pro-wrestling.



Looking back, I think God was looking out for me on this one. The game really sucked, and a debut on national television might have given me the kind of attention I didn’t need.