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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Malum Hortus – Check out the Malum Hortus box art! I’m so happy with it. There are 8 main evil flowers that will be hunting for you in the night, I chose the Orchid for the box as it’s my favourite piece so far, it also lends itself nicely to being a mirror image of itself. On the left it is beautiful in the daylight with the right being the evil version that it transforms into at night (right before it comes hunting for you mwahahahaa). Please give it a follow on Kickstarter using the link below, if you already have, thank you very much!
UK Games Expo – If you’ll be there, please swing by and see me, I’ll be on stand 1-1058 and I’d love to meet more of you. If you have your own Board Game Survival Kit and feel like taking it along so that you can play as your colour in the open gaming areas…
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And if someone asks you about it you can send them my way, remember, stand 1-1058 😉.
My husband will be conducting demos of all 5 of my currently published games on the stand, demo sign ups are open so just message or email me to get a slot, you can pick your ‘game of interest’ out of Tri To Win, Mini Memory Mischief, Feline Felonies, Canine Capers or Animal Alliance to play and you’ll still get a chance to learn about the other games if you would like. I would love to get the first couple of demo slots for Friday filled ahead of the event so that we can hit the ground running.
Preparations have been going well, if you follow me on social media, you will have seen my banners and stand test run. It was really helpful to lay the stand out more or less exactly how I want it so I can set it up quickly once I’m there and not worry about how it will all look.
My nerves are gradually being replaced by excitement as I get closer to the event, I do worry that there will be no sales and it won’t make sense to exhibit again. I’ve told myself it’s worth doing it at least once for the experience and sales don’t matter as much as that, but wouldn’t it be amazing if Atikin Games does well there and I can afford to come back and do it every year? I keep hoping that’ll be the case, keep your fingers crossed for me!
Turing is almost finished with fulfillment, the last rewards are packed up and waiting to go out and SSO only has a few UK backers to send out. Once we get done with sending the last of those out and attending UKGE its time to get back to work with launching Song Of Tales which I’d like to get up by the end of the year, its been a while waiting and looks spectacular.
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We’ll be running playtests virtually on TTS and by print and play, anyone interested in taking part, just let us know and we’ll make sure you have all the links and bits you need to follow along.
See you out there!
I had the pleasure of playing some other Indie games and some new-to-me fairly popular games. I also met some of only a few game designers that live in Wyoming. All this to say, that as an indie publisher/designer, it was really nice to not go to the conference with an intent to sell games or a set schedule. I encourage all to take a break from constantly trying to make a sale and simply enjoy the benefits of connecting with people at a convention.
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Now all that said, I was invited to participate in an Indie Showcase on the last day, where they invited indie game designers and publishers to talk about their games for a two-hour period in the gaming hall. Although this wasn’t an invitation to sell games, I might have sold a few under the table to those that were insistent on buying a copy.
Something really cool that happened, was after I described Top Tale to one gal, she not only asked to buy a copy, but she asked for me to sign it. This seems silly, but it was only the second time someone had asked me to sign a copy of Top Tale. She was absolutely giddy after receiving her signed copy. Although I’m by no means in this industry to become a somebody, it was still pretty cool to have autographed something that I created and brought to production. I hope all indies get to experience that feeling!
We’re at Stand 1-323 in Hall 1 and will be running a Demo table for up to 5 people (or groups of 2&3) and also a ‘Beat the Collector’ competition with prizes available for the winners!! If you missed out on the Kickstarter we’ll also be selling copies with the Limited Edition Scorepad (while stocks last) so don’t miss your chance to grab one while you can.
I’ve also set up a Discord group for Publishers, Designers and Helpers going to UKGE so that we can help share ideas and tips and tricks on how to make the best of the weekend. There’s been some amazing contributions so far so thank you everyone that has already joined.
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We have a help-needed channel in case anyone needs a helping hand, whether that be needing a pair of scissors or just borrowing a spare chair for an hour. A lot of us are going for the first time with our first ever games so having a friendly bunch of faces to connect and share ideas and stories hopefully makes things a bit easier for everyone. Hopefully we’ll also all get to meet up to grab a beer or even just say hi in person.
If anyone is also keen on joining the discord too please ping me on any of the social medias and I’ll send you across an invite link.
Good luck to all the other exhibitors and happy hunting to all of those visitors looking for new games to try out! See you all on the other side!
When playing games with young players, whether with a commercial game or even something very simple like our “Miser vs Miser” or “Probability Battleship”, always be willing to scale and adapt the gameplay to keep it fun. Eg: just rolling the dice we made from our templates was a “smash hit”! (dice were smashed ;))
Calibrating the difficulty of a solo game with dexterity elements is a particular challenge. For multiplayer games, it’s easy to judge difficulty based on how well the other players do; so having a tough game is ok as long as all players are roughly on the same playing field. With a solo game, however, it’s just you against the game; so a tough game could easily be frustrating, since you have no one else to share your difficulty with. On top of that, what might be too hard for one player might be too easy for another.
My solution? Weapons. Every few maps, players have the opportunity to buy weapons that help make combat a little easier. My approach is to let players choose between a cheap weapon and an expensive one. The cheap weapon should be affordable to most every player.
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The catch is that the effects they give are really only helpful to those who have the most trouble with the dexterity-based combat. If you’re decent in combat, buying a cheap weapon really won’t make a difference. For you, there’s a more expensive weapon. You’ll have to work a little harder to get it, and it won’t help you as much as the cheap weapon would help a player who’s less skilled, but hopefully it’s still worthwhile to you.
If balancing goes well, combat will be tough, but you’ll always have a weapon to help you feel like you can take on the challenge!
Earlier this year we were at Airecon, where everyone was drawn to our oversized but ridiculously cute red panda banner. The demo tables were hardly ever empty and Snapshot came 3rd in a vote of attendees. At time of writing, we’re getting everything ready for our second UKGE.
We’ve been asking ourselves the big question: “What’s next?” After a frenzy of playing the many games we have in development (with a quick break for hot sandwiches), we settled on Cloud Foxes. Another adorable, reddish animal — yes! — but this time with bigger jaws, in a more fantastical setting.
Cloud Foxes is a fast-paced, tactical board game for 1-4 players, transporting you to a world of sky pirates, flying foxes and levitating ships. Combining dice management and area control, players roll three dice to determine their tile placement options as they battle for treasure and compete for trade-routes.
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The game is coming to Kickstarter later in the year. We are currently running physical and online playtests, while Marcos is developing some captivating original art.
Find out more about Cloud Foxes by following the link to our website.
Anyways… since we last had tea, so much has happened with Perilous Pond! We’ve been spending some time in Blender making 3D renders of the game for the back of the box and the Kickstarter campaign. And they look pretty cool if I do say so myself (and I do, I do say so myself!). The hardest part has been to get the look of the firefly crystals right, I’m still not 100% satisfied but I think it’s good enough for use on the back of the preview edition.
We’re also obsessing over the rules and inch by inch the somewhat murky waters are gradually becoming clearer. We’re super happy with the progress. We’ve also been updating the perilous pond web page with some more information and it’s now possible to sign up for getting an e-mail when the things start happening with the Kickstarter campaign.
Oh, you’re going to sign up right away? Cool, thanks. It’s much appreciated.
The first day of the campaign will offer big one-day-only discounts on both the core game and/or the expansion, and the launch date is June 8, 2022 at 10am Eastern time. If you would like to follow the campaign, just click on the link.
If you would like to meet us live during the campaign and sample the new set and/or see the new play mat, check us out at: – Origins Game Fair June 8-12, 2022 (Booth 1063 & Spotlight Game Area) – TooManyGames June 24-26, 2022 (Booth TBA)
We will also be attending: – Thy Geekdom Con May 27-29, 2022 (Booth 308) – Gen Con August 4-7, 2022 (Booth 268)
There are three different designs — easy, medium, and hard. The easy is very simple, while the hard….well, in theory there are 30 points available, but theory and practice are quite different things! Suitable for children from five years old right up to adults. Come and find us at stand 2-482 at UK Games Expo, or buy on Etsy.
With all the Expo preparations the FlickFleet: Xeno Wars Gamefound campaign has slipped, we’re now hoping to launch that on Tues 5th July. Xeno Wars is a new stand-alone expansion that you can play on its own or you can combine with the FlickFleet base game to have games of up to 4 players.
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Xeno Wars introduces two new alien species: The Storm who are fast and very manoeuvrable and pack a devastating punch and The Hive who infect their opponents with parasitic boarders. The campaign will run for two weeks and will be the last chance to get FlickFleet at 2018 prices (and we’ll match that for Xeno Wars during the campaign too!). There’s also a ~10% discount and heavily subsidised shipping.