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.
Designers & Their Games
Crowd Funding Calendar
Looking for a specific designer?
Players will move their dice on the action rondel activating the space for the value of your die. Then reroll the die and prepare for the next turn. You can also stack your dice, get up to 3 little pigs in the poncho and the Wolf might overlook them thinking they’re just a tall citizen and not a pig. Big space them out on the rondel and they’re more likely to be jailed again!
The 3 Little Pigs in the Wild West pushes the boundaries of roll and writes even further delivering on the promise of bigger and better games for the genre!
I’ve also been working away on a promo card that should be available at UK Games Expo 2023. It’s still in the works but I can tell you it will be uniquely magical.
It was also a lovely surprise to stumble across Zuuli in the BBC Discover Wildlife magazine this month. Thank you so much Megan Shersby for choosing to feature Zuuli alongside award winners like Cascadia and Ark Nova.
Read More
I still need to reach out to find out if it managed to make it into the physical magazine as I’d love to be able to get a copy if so.
discoverwildlife.com/reviews/wildlife-nature-board-games/
That’s all for now, so happy April all and see you next month.
Chris
Backers in the USA and Canada will hopefully get their games in late April or May, as those have been sent directly to a fulfilment centre in the USA. Backers in the EU will also get their games in April or May.
There’s still time to order a game! Or pick one up at UK Games Expo in June….if there are any left!
I’ve also changed my Instagram from “Two Foxes in the City” (aka my previous game) to “fuchsform” to reflect my journey as a game designer, who is intending to publish more than a single game. Please join me on the trip 🙂
The Board Game Survival Kit – The pledge manager has launched and fulfilment has started! Although the aim is for most orders to go out between May and June I have managed to get some orders out already for those backers who wanted the original colours and versions of The Board Game Survival Kit. I’ve also been able to make a limited number of Ultimate kits with the wooden cubes I had ordered for the prototypes.
New Colours and Dice – Most of the cubes and all components in the new colours along with the new mini dice sets are due to arrive with me by the end of April.
Read More
Orders containing those items will start fulfilling at the beginning of May. With over 300 pledges and pre orders to get through it’s been good to be able to make a start. I really love making these kits and customising tins for people has been a lovely experience already. If you would like your very own personalised kit you can find the link to the pledge manager on my homepage.
New Products – On the pledge manager for The Board Game Survival Kit 2.0 campaign you’ll find my other latest products as well! These include the meeple and D20 erasers that I’ve been working on, more options for the large dice bags that pull out in to soft dice trays and black chain dice necklaces. All of these will eventually find their way on to my website when I have the time but for now, they have a home on GameFound.
What’s Next? – The next 8 weeks are all about Kickstarter fulfilment and preparations for The UK Games Expo. I hope to have all of the standard Board Game Survival Kits out to backers before the convention as I would love to take the new colours and Ultimate kits along with me. However, I’m unwilling to do that if I haven’t finished sending out the uncustomised kits to their respective backers. I hope it’s understandable that the kits with custom labels that are scheduled for June won’t be with their backers by then, as they take a lot longer to make and custom labelled kits won’t be with me at the convention so hopefully no one would feel let down by that. Anyone at UKGE who wants a custom labelled kit will be able to pre order one for delivery in July.
AireCon was lots of fun (and snowy!) then Paul took me home with a load of stock so I could carry on fulfilment while he was on holiday.
In the meantime I’ve been finishing off Rocky ‘Roid – a print at home roll & write game about asteroid mining in the belt and getting a _very_ basic Gamefound page together for it. It’s a game of two halves: in the first half it’s a fairly standard roll and write as you explore the map surveying and mining asteroids and building up a stock of minerals to sell. In the second you’re selling into a cutthroat shared market where the price drops after every sale.
Read More
So you want to stay out as long as possible to get lots of minerals, but you also want to be one of the first players back to catch the market at its peak. It contains four mini-games with more to come for only £4.
If that sounds interesting, you can follow the very basic Gamefound page (link below) which I’ll be filling out over the coming weeks.
Now it’s been so long since I’ve mentioned the game here that it’s probably a good time for a recap. Believe it or not, I am both a tabletop games designer and an active UFO investigator! When I began this project I had the vision to create an approachable and fun card game, but one which was also extremely authentic to the real UFO subject. I reached out to a genuine UFO experiencer from New York to create the vibrant cartoon artwork for the game, and am very pleased with how it turned out.
Read More
In UFO Wave you actually play as one of a number of alien species. You are tasked with performing activities and absorbing energy, while avoiding your opponents, and groups of inquisitive humans who are out to hinder your progress! You need to use your advanced craft and abilities to gain the upper hand and ensure your victory. It’s a competitive point scoring game for 1-6 players age 8 and up, with set collection and “take that” elements. The game mechanics are extremely unusual, and it’s very possible that you’ll have never played a game like UFO Wave before! I’m proud of the interesting mechanics which are highly strategic but also very straightforward to understand.
Check out the official website of the game to watch the animated launch video for the game and numerous playthrough videos, read review comments from all around the world, and even an active merchandise store with clothing and accessories featuring the games wonderful artwork.
Over recent years of my life I’ve experienced the entire path of tabletop game creation, from inception to release. It’s the end of an incredible journey, and perhaps the start of an entirely new one! If you’re a fan of fun tactical dedicated-deck card games be sure to check it out!
Read More
If you want to keep up with what I’m working on, you could check out my game development youtube channel Rule of Carnage, or the Rule of Carnage Discord where I’m sure it will all turn up at one point or another.
On the weekend I organised the first local play testing event in the town I have recently moved near. Despite the weather, a state election being on which I’d totally forgotten (we have compulsory voting here so everyone that would be attending also had to arrange to vote at some stage) it was a great time. Designers that travelled down got great feedback from players they’d never tested with & local gamers got to see what goes into designing a game. I managed to test a few changes & iterate on one of them over the weekend so any designer would have to be happy with that.
A couple of players were even inspired to concept & test game ideas that they came up on the day using bits & pieces that I’d taken along in the hope of this happening 🙂
Read More
Going forward April is looking a to be a bit heavier on the event/corporate side compared to the design side. My co-designer & I are hoping to meet with the charity to pitch Ricochet Roulette (Name will definitely change due to the target market) early April, there are 2 gaming networking events happening interstate that I’d like to attend & support, & I’ve been invited to pitch a concept at an investor/mentor evening this week. Fingers crossed they all go well!
For very very sporadically posted information follow my Facebook page, but realistically just subscribing to this newsletter will keep you across what I’m up to more effectively as like many designers I have started moving away from social media for all the obvious reasons.
We are especially excited about our limited ‘Design your own’ tiers. A handful of our backers will be working with our artist Rob to design some of the art for cake, alien, and sabotage cards. Watch this space to see what brilliant ideas they’ll come up with.
If you missed the campaign, it’s not too late to pre-order a copy. Head on over to our website now!
Search by Designer