Welcome to the Indie Tabletop Newsletter, hear from independent tabletop games designers about their current and upcoming projects. Take a look at the games we’ve already self-published and our upcoming Kickstarters, maybe even get yourself a free print n play game. Learn more about this newsletter here.
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Also, we’re having a bit of fun with Carnivorous, some of those plants bite back so you have to watch out! This domino laying/stacking roll and write has players taking the role of shop keepers tending and feeding man-eating plants! Think Little Shop of Horrors. You even have cloned assistants than might become snacks!
Also also, a new polyomino placing roll and write with chess-like vibes called Anastasia in this 1-2 player game players are either helping an assumed czarina Anastasia escape or be captured. Clever dice drafting and careful placement of your pieces will guide her to safety as she flees into the snowy woodlands or elicit her bribes and possible capture! The supposed Anastasia has her own set of movement cards which guide her and players will be able to change and rearrange.
Happiest of holidays to you and yours!
In other news, Adrift has begun delivering in the UK, Europe, and Australia, with North American copies landing soon. We are also currently having a site-wide early bird holiday sale with 15% off the entire store, AND are involved in a mini online puzzle hunt made in collaboration with other creators. You can visit unicornconservation.com/puzzlefallfest/ to free puzzles and submit your solutions for a chance to win a prize!
We worked on a new variant of our largest game, “Pirate Pursuit – The Spanish Treasure Fleet”, where players learn real pirate lore. More on that will be coming in the New Year.
We’ve been busy again on the historical fiction side of things. With COVID concerns having abated, we had a number of opportunities to get out to community markets and other events with “The Day the Pirates Went Mad”. It was nice to be meeting people face-to-face again and raising funds for BC Children’s Hospital at the same time. *** Psst! We’ll be making the ebook free for a limited time later in December! Join our mailing list to get the notification: eepurl.com/gqUrEL ***
We were also able to add more STEM activities and recipes to the website to help extend the educational opportunities of Emma’s first adventure.
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Emma’s next adventure has been progressing well with scene building fully underway. But it’s a bit too soon to start sharing specifics about that!
In the meantime, and in the ‘spirit of the season’, perhaps you would enjoy a round or two of our dice-roller, “Miser vs Miser”? 🙂
The best of the season to you all! #MakeLearningFun
… OK I am happy to report that the thing-finders have secured the elusive dark-yellow translucent crystals we’ve been waiting for. And hold on to your suspenders, we have… wait for it… All components needed to finish 10 preview editions of Perilous Pond.
What do you mean you’ve forgotten what Perilous Pond is? You’ve been coming to all my presentations and showing up for surprise breakfasts all year! Very well, let’s refresh your memory. Ahem…
Perilous Pond is our new tabletop game design, a game for the whole family, something to bring to your mates down at the pub or something to pull out at a tête-à-tête with a loved one. It’s all about natures favourite creature, the Frog, and guiding it through the very Perilous Pond eating Fireflies and avoiding the
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< Ominous Thunder >
Pike.
… Ok, keep up it seems like we’re moving northward again. Should be safe but keep your head down, Germans can be very protective about their game components you know…
Anyway, with these last components we’re almost ready to send out the preview editions in preparation for a forthcoming Kickstarter campaign. We still have some work to do with regards to translating the rules to English but the Swedish rules are in good shape.
Things are actually looking up! Holiday Greetings from us at Frozen Maze Games, we wish you all warmth, love and some good gaming these next months.
This year is going to be very difficult for a lot of people. How do you bring Christmas joy when you have to choose whether to spend your hard earned cash on heating or eating? Others will be struggling with illness or other challenges. So we’re going to do a little giveaway. Email joy@eurydicegames.co.uk before 10th December and suggest someone (could be you!) or an organisation who deserves a little joy this year. Paul and I will pick two winners and send them a free deluxe bundle (FlickFleet and its first expansion worth £70 GBP) including free shipping anywhere in the world.
Help us to bring joy through gaming!
For those in the Bristol area this festive season, we will also be stocked in two lovely shops filled with amazing unique gift options from independent local businesses. The first is The Bristol Pop-Up Shop at the Galleries Mall – this is the pop-up’s 5th year and after securing a bigger shop space they’ve been able to stock goods from 100 local makers. Part of the process is that business owners taking part can do shifts at the shop to help out and bring down the commission structure. I’m already looking forward to my shifts to hang out with some great Bristol makers and sort out my Christmas shopping in one place!
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The second physical shop we are stocked at right now is Flourish Home and Leisure Shop in Saltford, Bristol. This shop has been newly opened by the lovely people behind the Flourish Farm Stall and with them being on the same grounds with ample parking, it’s worth making a special trip to treat yourself to lunch, shopping and take home some farm fresh goodies for later.
New Products – I’ve added a lot of new bracelets to my online store and they’ve already been going down a storm. I made them with every type of dice I could find as well as meeples for good measure. I finally managed to take some good enough photos of the D20 and Meeple Christmas tree decorations and I think they are looking great! There’s actually only one D20 ornament left already! How exciting!
Malum Hortus – I’m happy with the artwork progress at the moment, it’s been slow but this is my busiest time of year for orders, so that’s to be expected. I recently shared the finished Foxglove art and will soon be sharing the evil night time version of it.
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Follow me on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook for the art shares as they happen! @AtikinGames.
The Board Game Survival Kit 2.0 – I’m planning a new Kickstarter make 100 in January for some improvements to The Board Game Survival Kit. First and foremost, it will allow me to start doing custom labels for the tins again, the original Kickstarter had custom labels as a Kickstarter exclusive as I could only afford to have unique labels printed as part of the larger order for the printers with the other labels. These new custom labels will be made by me at home using the Cricut and permanent vinyl so that I can continue to make them after the campaign.
Secondly, the new Kickstarter will fund more ‘extras’ that can be added to any kit, to start with these will be 10mm wooden cubes and little pencils that fit in the larger tin size. With the potential to add more extras as stretch goals based on backer feedback.
Speaking of stretch goals, if the campaign can raise enough, I’d love to add a new ‘Ultimate’ or ‘Fully Prepared’ version of the kit containing just about everything you’d want or need in the larger tin, with the final name to be voted on by backers. I also have ideas for adding a gold and silver kit, fingers crossed!!
I’ve had many requests and ideas myself for the kit over the last two years and I think these are a good selection of the best ideas, factoring in the ease of actually making them happen. I hope you like the ideas and look forward to the campaign as much as I do.
What’s particularly exciting this time round is that Spiral Galaxy will be distributing this edition to your friendly local gaming stores across the UK so please do swing by and support your local businesses if you fancy grabbing a copy! If you can’t wait till then you can buy directly from our new and sparkly Shopify store, link below.
In other news we now have the Zuuli Mini expansion 90%+ fulfilled and it’s been such a treat seeing people respond so postively to it. The extra bonus fridge magnets seem to have gone down incredibly well so I may have to sort some more out for when we visit UKGE 2023! There’s even been a few requests for plushies!
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That’s all for now but I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season and may 2023 be a year full of board games, smiles and good friends!
Mass Manufacturing: We signed off the first Castleshire components for mass manufacturing. Our factory in China has started with the production. We still have some smaller quality issues to resolve, but we expect them to be sorted soon. We expect the production to complete in December or January.
Pledge Manager: Our pledge manager is still open for those who are still due to provide their shipping details. We aim to close the pledge manager once the mass manufacturing is about to finish.
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Print and Play: November was about delivering the first wave of our Castleshire PNP files to our Kickstarter backers. They were all delivered. We continue shipping them as people submit their pledge manager details.
Next Up: By the end of the year, the container ships for international distribution should be booked, and we will have finished our Legendary Edition prototype and prepare for manufacturing in early 2023.
We’ve been showing the game off at libraries too, and it’s been great fun! Check out the Kickstarter and the website (librarylabyrinth.com) for photos of us, and photos of the new meeples!
Two Foxes in the City is a cute game for a playful city discovery by two people, with a focus on memorable experiences. Alternately you draw from a set of cards with prompts for small activities or questions. Some of these will lead you to paths unknown, others will encourage bonding with your partner. Some of them are followed as a team, some of them are secret solo missions. All of them are light-hearted to allow for joyful memories!
The activities are G-rated, safe to play with anyone including children. It’s up to you if you want to play them with a friend, family member or a date. Prompts and foxes are gender-neutral and LGBTQ+ friendly. The game has been play tested mainly in cities like Heidelberg, Colmar and Sacramento, all featuring rich heritage sites.
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However, it can be played in any city and will bring out new facets both in places and in your play partner.
This first campaign has been print & play, a slow and safe start while I gather more crowdfunding experience. I know that printing yourself puts some people off, so I made it as easy as possible. The pages are toner-friendly and one-sided to avoid printer alignments hassles. It also comes with an optional yet neat tuck box. Details like these are important to me.
I’ve opted for Pay What You Want and consider the campaign a success. I’m sure there is a bigger audience for my game, especially for that self-decided price, but for a first campaign I’m pretty content!
Eventually, I want to create an experience that facilitates social connections for as many folks as possible. Later in 2023 the game will be released for free. I also have started with an Android app that’s free as well, so keep your eyes on this newsletter.
Thanks for supporting us indie designers!
