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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In mid-March I exhibited at Airecon for the first time and had a thoroughly good time! Harrogate is such a beautiful town and Airecon itself was full of beautiful and amazing people. Molehill Meadows went down really well with those who previewed it, Zuuli fans aplenty came to pick up the new Airecon promo but most of all it was such a great opportunity to be able to chat to other boardgamers, new and older Indie Publishers and just generally be part of a community of people that have so much passion for puzzle solving and game playing. Walking through the open gaming in the evenings and seeing so many smiles and so much enjoyment from all ages left me with such a warm feeling inside.
Next up, some of you may have spotted already that Zuuli is going international under the name Moving Wild and will be published by Oink Games!
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I’m absolutely chuffed to be working with Oink on this, one of my favourite small box publishers, and I can’t wait for eager fans around the world to be able join in the cute animal drafting fun. You can check out some of the art and cards on their official site and for all our UK fans Hachette will be distributing in the UK so you won’t miss out if you fancy a copy for your collection.
Finally, I’ve been busy beavering away on the Gamefound campaign for Molehill Meadows, which should be launching in Mid April if all goes well! We have an ‘Early Bird’ promo card for all of our backers and a £1 discount if you follow before launch.
Stay tuned to our socials @unfringedthings to keep up to date with all of our latest teasers!
Players lay a card then decide how to best score it. Should it cover up part of another card, be placed adjacent, maybe turn it upside down to continue a really good track, or even tuck part of it underneath another card. The challenge with finding the perfect placement depends a lot more on what your longer goals may be.
Most scoring options require the connection of two Stations, but each of the four score sheets has different trick scoring. Connect two of the preferred landscape and you’re on your way to using your special power to move any one card that doesn’t have any other card on top of it. This tricky bit of strategy is going to keep your opponent’s guessing as you place it in just the right spot for those extra big points!
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Let’s take a ride on this Train Trek! Each turn the player will play 1 card from their hand. The placed card can be played partly under another card or two, partly over a card or two, or even next to other cards. Players are encouraged to continue the track, but this is not necessary.
After the card is placed, the player will assess the path they formed with the tracks on the card to another card or more cards that continue the path. In the event of two stations being connected on this path, the player will be able to score in any area of the player sheet as long as they meet the criteria. Or they can ignore the stations and aim for the path to connect multiple landscapes of the same type. Doing so will start to fill a track which allows the player to move a “top” card. Top cards are cards that do not have another card over them. The player can move a Top card to another spot on the landscape of cards to create another scoring opportunity for themselves.
Players will find plenty of strategy with placing cards and then moving cards to create those scoring paths. There are cards for multiple player counts. In solo play the player will use 18 cards, in two player there are 27 cards that are used giving each player 13 turns. In 3 player there are 36 cards and for 4 players 45 cards. No two cards are the same allowing for plenty of variation. Players may wish to use the starting card and then shuffle the rest of the cards to form a different deck depending on their player count.
The Morrison Game Factory has finished production and is en route to regional warehouses! The games have already arrived in China and Australia, and are due to arrive in the US, UK, and EU in the coming weeks. Some regions should begin shipping within the next two weeks, and others will follow throughout April. You can still pre-order a copy of the game by clicking the link below.
Last fall we partnered with Allplay, a supplier and publisher of board games, quality tables, and accessories. They’ve now taken over shipping and fulfillment for us worldwide, and you can purchase all PostCurious games through their website directly. Moving forward, we’re excited to spend less time on logistics and more time making new games, and we have several exciting projects already in progress. Stay tuned for more in the coming months!
Bury Treasure (bones), Mark Your Terriertory and challenge your opponents to dastardly doggy dice duels to gain points and achieve victory. Use movement points to travel between islands and explore these for resources and rewards, but watch out for hazards that will test your pack’s ‘traits’, as well as opportunities that you can take advantage of.
Expandable ship boards are used to carry resources from the islands as well as items and ‘Muttley Crue’. Managing your cargo is crucial in securing Victory! You can expand your ship at Paw’t St. Bernard to carry more cargo.
Resources are sold for bones that can be buried to achieve one of three Victory Conditions, or exchanged for upgrades that will add to your pack’s strength, luck or agility traits at the market. The market has variable resource prices based on supply and demand, so use your turn wisely to outwit your opponents and get the best prices!
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Expand your pack by hiring ‘Muttley Crue’, dog-pirates that will increase your movement as well as Mark Terriertory on islands, another Victory Condition. Positioning of your ship on the islands can gain you a turn order advantage, so your tactics are crucial to gain the upper paw.
Dog-pirates love a challenge, and will draw on their breed’s asymmetric traits to overcome opponents as well as Trade Ships that can appear across the map at the beginning of each round. Become the victor to take the spoils of war and achieve victory!
Of course there’s been crafting going on, how else would I relax? I’ve been working on some prototype 3D makes, like these mini dice towers, designed especially for the mini dice sets I sell, pictured with my wooden dice tower to show the scale.
Since the personalised mini tins for the mini dice sets that I announced last month went down so well I figured more mini dice accessories couldn’t hurt and I’ve wanted to make dice towers for a long time. I like this style with the yarn as it means I can make a variety of colours and do it from the comfort of my living room. They’re also making good general prototypes for when I come to make wooden ones in the future which will require a less relaxed setting to create.
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I’m working on a dice chest as well that should look just as sweet as these yarn click clack towers. Although, some may be disappointed that there’s no heavy click-clacking sound as the dice travel down the tower, the yarn dampens all sound which I think is rather nice.
They’re not in my online shop just yet but feel free to take a look around, there’s plenty of gaming accessories available as well as the games (also mostly hand crafted) that I’ve designed.
In the lead up to our Kickstarter we have started thinking about the contents of the essential banging video every campaign needs. Our idea? Sea shanty! I mean they are catchy and will get you into a seafaring mood. So keep an eye out for pirate-y sounding tunes on our socials.
Another thing to look out for is especially relevant for Edinburgh citizens. Ancient Robot Games now runs a monthly playtesting night and so far we are 2 for 2. It has been lovely chatting to other creators and gaining invaluable feedback for Splash Safe. If you are in Edinburgh sometime we definitely recommend checking it out.
That’s all for this month! Thanks for reading and we can’t wait to share more.
Pukeapocalypse is about ready to go off for printing, which is incredibly exciting. The book looks amazing and I couldn’t be more proud of it. Sadly it won’t be available for Salute next month, but I might have a preview for UKGE. Having said that, Salute is next month! The biggest minis game convention of the year is rolling up soon, Mike and I haven’t been there in around four years now, and last time was on Osprey’s ticket, so exhibiting (on Mike’s ticket) again is going to be a hell of an experience.
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I currently don’t think that Hobgoblin is going to be available there, which is a pity, I hope we can shift enough copies of Gaslands and A Billion Suns to make the day worthwhile.
I’ve been trying in the time I have available to get Playlandia playtested, since it has a publisher interested. I’m also knocking together an expansion for Pukeapocalypse, working on Boarders and Black Flags, thinking of the new SSO expansion, SSO: Travellers, and the Kickstarter campaigns for those last two while looking sadly at Daring Dungeoneers and mostly, working on a YouTube video about Warhammer. You’d think with all that I’d be constantly busy and productive with game design work, but I’ve been quite engaged with procrastination for the last few weeks. Hopefully I can get out of that soon, at least, before the deadlines start to rain down upon me. Wish me luck.
“A game about mini missions to maximise joy.” is a game for one person. You play it for a few minutes each day, choosing a new mission to hopefully help you build healthy habits.
“A game about sequencing screenshots, with 50 bits of writing by 50 writers.” is a very unoriginal game with a bunch of folk that I’m honoured agreed to join in.
“A game about taking turns, bidding on stuff, aiming for majorities.” is a quick 10 minute game with some crunchy decisions and a little drama!
“A game about all alphabetical creatures and trying to identify them after someone makes noises” is almost the same game as my previous noise-making games.
And I’m finally releasing “Categorickell” and re-releasing “Kitty Cataclysm”. So I’ll have a bunch of new games, but I need people to help me demo them! Would you like to come along, hang out, help me a bit, and then spend most of the day exploring everything else UKGE has to offer? Learn games. Wear red. I offer accommodation, many games, and other benefits.
Our first game, Snapshot: Wildlife Photographer (with the big red panda on the box), was developed and delivered in two years between lockdown 2020 and Spring 2022. It has continued to garner recognition, with a seal of approval from The Dice Tower and even a feature in BBC Wildlife Magazine. Cloud Foxes has been another two years in development and is quite a different game, if still involving tricky decisions with dice and cute red animals. We’ve been energised by the hugely positive response we’ve had to it at conventions, including UKGE, Airecon and Tabletop Gaming Live (if you came by the stand at any point, thanks so much!).
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There have been challenges. We’ve had to balance being an independent publisher with day jobs and parenthood. And, frankly, Cloud Foxes is a bigger game — not just in box size. It’s been a learning curve, taking on a project of this magnitude. More art and graphic design. More gameplay modes and balancing. More premium components and greater manufacturing requirements. Like our many playtesters, we fell in love with the Cloud Foxes theme and wanted to make sure we got everything right before launch. But we’ve put in the work and can be confident we are… finally… ready.
Over the last month, we put the last touches on the solo and co-operative game modes, and our artist (and co-designer) Marcos has just about finished the final art. We’re really excited about going live this month and hope you’ll have a look at the game on Kickstarter when it launches. (You can also check out Snapshot on the Paper Boat Games website).
This month I’ve been pretty slammed with various game (The Last Command) related tasks. Everything from setting up marketing campaigns, social site upgrades, artwork briefs, game balancing, rule book editing, getting updated manufacturing quotes, working with a publisher for a possible future game signing, working to schedule content creators, writing up mailing list articles, on and on and on!
I’m happy to report though that the game has been responding well so far to marketing and we are on track to having a positive Kickstarter experience.
With that in mind now would be a good time to mention that the Kickstarter date has been changed to June 11th. The reasons for this are many, but ultimately, I underestimated how long it would take just to get on people’s schedules. One of the harsh realities of game design is that you can’t just walk up and make something happen, especially when working with other people in the trade.
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It’s going to take time, and unless your game is very, very simple, there are going to be a fair number of complications.
When working on a project, please give yourself ample time, much more than you first think. Another thing I’ve observed is that you really have to have a now, now, now, attitude. What do I mean by that? Try to do something on your project every day, even if just something small. More often than not, when it occurs to you that something else needs doing, do it now, rather than waiting. Honestly this seems to be the only way to keep on top of it all, especially if you are largely working alone.
If anyone has any questions about the process or what it’s like to discuss it more, please feel free to reach out to me!
Until next time,
Ty
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Finally, after a fantastic run of sales at the end of last year we almost ran out of most things FlickFleet – they are all finally back in stock now, as we’ve been re-ordering boxes and components as part of the Gamefound fulfilment 🙂
