Joel Kinstle, of Pinnacle, once told me that if it were up to him he wouldn’t announce a book until it was on its way to the printers—in other words, when it was done. Valve, on the other hand, has Valve Time, which is a frustrating temporal hole where “every 6 months” means every couple of years for Half Life 2 episodes, and Christmas 2007 means sometime between now and the Rapture. They effectively string along fans with an endless cycle of waiting and changing release dates. With the announcement of Temporal Probability Agency, I find myself understanding both philosophies. When inquiring about our own internal release calendar I was given the frustrating response, “When it’s done.” Refraining from punching my business partner in the teeth, I started thinking about the long history that brought us here.

Recently the Internet has exploded about the Portal update. It got me thinking about how to keep a crowd interested in the gaming you’re creating. So what lessons can we take to our tabletop games?