I've had a chance lately to take stock of my game collection.  After feverishly working on Open Rails for the better part of the last four months, I've walked away from it for a little while just so I can get some perspective.  The one publisher I was hoping to do the game has decided to wait on it and I am contemplating going it alone or just releasing as a print and play game.  I spent a lot of time getting this game down right and I'm quite happy with it, but, that's how things go sometimes.  It's easy to fall head over heels with your own design.  Sometimes its best to let it rest for a while and come back to it.

I've also taken a step back from my 18XX tile game for the short term to try and come up with other ideas for it.  It plays the way I want it to, but there isn't anything too terribly novel about it.  More work for later.

And Bindle Rails is still looking for a stock market game. 

In terms of playing games, my enthusiasm for Steam has finally quieted down a little.  I've been playing Age of Steam solo more lately.  I had a game of Steam against my brother and my seven year old in New York this past weekend and we didn't even finish because I was too far ahead and the kid was born.  Breanna didn't even want to play from the get go which was kind of sad, really.

I have had the opportunity to get in on some 18AL games via Rails and have been quite pleased with the pace of the games.  18XX seems to work well with PBEM.  Rails does a lot of the grunt work with the game and while I'm not a big fan of the graphics, the layout is logical and the programming team has been responsive to problems as they have arisen.  I'm in the middle of a four player game and about to go bankrupt, but it's been a great learning experience.

I will reflect on my 18AL plays and see if there is some other avenue I can work in with 18Card...  who knows....