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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Our tale begins as all superhero stories do, with a cry for help: HELP! Elections are on tomorrow and I completely forgot. How can I study enough to make the right decision?!
Leah had had a lovely weekend of camping, but she came home to chaos late Sunday night. Her new neighbors had blocked her car parking spot, her cat Winkie had somehow gotten worms, and her trash was stinking up a storm. Leah had valiantly dealt with all these problems herself. She hotwired and moved the neighbor’s car, took Winkie to the local pet psychic and learned she had gotten infected from the neighbor’s cat (Winkie was also now expecting kittens…but that’s future Leah’s problem), and tipped her garbage into her neighbor’s bin.
Leah was congratulating herself when she remembered… tomorrow is election day and this was the most important election of her generation, but she didn’t know the name of a single candidate.
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HELLLLLPPPPP. She wails, thinking that Batman must be available. Everything had been quiet since Batman and the mayor had convinced all the big league villains to move around the world to Tokyo. They were doing quite well there with a new monster-smuggling business.
What Leah had forgotten was that Batman had left town too… so she was surprised by some decidedly less impressive “superheros”. In a rumbling stampede of noise a gaggle of teenagers, all dressed similar to the Tin Man from Wizard of Oz, burst through her wall.
“We are steam-powered squad and we heard your call of distress. Never fear lady. We will carry you to the polling booth tomorrow. You will barely miss work because we are very fast.” They stood with hands on hips and heads held high. One of them began humming a triumphant melody.
Leah sighed quietly. This did not solve the problem that she didn’t know who to vote for. She frowned, considering their offer, when a small parrot appeared from nowhere with a faint *pop*.
“Leah, I am time-travelling animal and I am the true hero of your story.” The parrot winked at her. “I time travel, and each time I do I can become a different animal. If you call upon me to save you I will use my powers to seduce your cat last Saturday night. I am a clean time-travelling animal, so I will not give Winkie worms, and I will put a ‘remember to vote’ sticker on her forehead, solving two problems at once.”
The triumphant humming from steam-powered squad stopped. They looked dejected.
“That does sound like a better offer” Leah said to them apologetically.
“Whatever” the squad pouted. In another puff of steam and noise they burst out through the opposite wall, leaving two gaping holes in the house. Leah waved casually at the neighbors.
“Please, help me time-travelling animal” she said.
There was a faint *pop* and suddenly Leah knew exactly who to vote for. Her walls were whole again. A new cat sat in the living room cuddling hers. That hadn’t changed at least. Leah and Winkie were still expecting kittens.
Want to create your own story of debateable super-heroism? Check out the new Half Monster game “Trust Me I’m a Superhero!”
Top Tale is a casual, family-friendly card game that is designed for 2-10 players, 30+ minutes, ages 10+, and takes less than two minutes to learn. The cards are all family friendly, and with adults or older kids as part of the game, kids as young as 5 can enjoy playing.
The basis of the game was simple, everyone tells tales and everyone votes on the top tale. The game has evolved to where the cards are all carefully balanced between light-hearted topics, and deeper topics. Through playing the game, players get to hear stories about the other players that they may have never heard without the prompt of the topic cards.
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The Original Game (“O.G.”) series is meant to be a family friendly series, where the topics are all designed to be everyday topics. There will be several volumes in the O.G. series if the game is as well received as it has been so far. Aside from the O.G. series, there are several other themed expansions in the series planned, such as Top Tale: Tall Tale, where players are encouraged to embellish the truth. Topics in Tall Tale will still be mostly relatable, but they will all have a twist to them that encourages you to perhaps introduce a dragon to your tale, supernatural events, or perhaps superhero-like powers. All decks in the Top Tale series will be playable together, with the same basic storytelling and voting mechanics.
Top Tale is not meant to be the sexiest of games, and there aren’t awesome 3D-printed miniatures, but there’s plenty of that out there anyway. Top Tale is truly meant to be a game well suited for just about everyone, everywhere (pending future translations and localizations). If you’re reading this between before November 21st, then act now! You can help bring the Top Tale series to life on Kickstarter and get the game for only $16 (plus shipping).
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It’s a full-scale RPG meant for playing in groups or solo and will be offered with some fun extras. If you like playing games that use the width and breadth of your imagination, then this game is for you. Otherwise, as always, be sure to check our links and follow us on social media for the most up-to-date information about everything we have coming to your geeky minds.
We were surprised to find out other game designers on #BoardGamersLift also write! So we thought this month, as something different, we would let you know more about our ‘playful’ comedy adventure!
It started with (surprise!) a game: “The King and Queen’s Banquet” is the transcript of a puppet theatre conceived by our daughter. There was no pre-planning of the story or the characters. We divided up the puppets, and the action & dialogue just started. Afterwards, we thought it had been such a fun story that we wanted to write it down & illustrate it.
Written as a 3-act play, “The King and Queen’s Banquet” is about a feast that goes wrong. But first it needs to be prepared and some of the chosen dishes pose a real challenge to the Royal Hunter. Fortunately, the hunter gains the aid of a helpful witch and together they gather what is needed, though not without some difficulties along the way. However, an uninvited guest takes the party on an amusingly dark turn…
The e-book is just $0.99 until the end of 2020 – with all proceeds donated to our local children’s hospital!
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Great for reading aloud or as a puppet theatre at home, for Readers Theatre in the classroom or a (virtual?) school play, or even a light-hearted RPG setting! (we have plans!)
PS: Actually, “The King and Queen’s Banquet” and “Pirate Pursuit – The Spanish Treasure Fleet” [available now! :)] were the two main things that drove us to create PlayGames2Learn.com, and now here we are with 15+ educational games & activities!
PPS: One of those activities is to print our double-sided popsicle puppets of the main characters and use them to act out the scenes as you read along! Then use the blanks to make your own characters and create your own story!
My small roll & write game, Mini Town, which has been available as a free print & play for mailing list subscribers, is now also available in hard copy – a perfect stocking filler!
Our coaster games continue to be popular, with the set of six games being our best seller, over the last few months.
I’m really excited that my unpublished game – Uranus! – is in the final of The Board Game Workshop’s design contest. Uranus is a co-operative ‘write & erase’ network builder, which will be coming to Kickstarter in February 2021. You can pre-register for campaign notifications on the ‘Kickstarter’ page of our website.
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Here’s more about Uranus…
Catastrophic asteroid attacks are threatening your moon, and those of your neighbours. In this cooperative ‘write and erase’ network builder, you must optimise the ever-changing landscape of your individual moon and exploit its resources, before the moon is destroyed. Use your asymmetric powers to help your closest allies, for all races must make the journey to Uranus to be saved.
For most of my life I’ve been an avid board and card gamer. In the early days my interest began, as it does for many, with typical family games such as Scrabble, Cluedo, Whot and Uno. Later on in my teens I loved holding HeroQuest adventure evenings, and as I got older I began to discover the sheer breadth of board and card games available on the market, many of which never appear on the high street shelves.
There’s another big interest in my life too. Believe it or not I am an active UFO investigator! I regularly speak with witnesses about UFOs they’ve observed or aliens they’ve interacted with. As with gaming, I’ve had an interest since childhood, but only started actively investigating the subject in 2007. Over the last 13 years I’ve heard some truly fascinating (and sometimes un-nerving) things.
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Several years ago I came to realise that there are actually very few board and card games themed specifically on the UFO subject. Sure, aliens have been used countless times for subject matter in games, but I’m talking about what’s actually going on with UFOs in the real world – the craft and beings and experiences which are being reported on a regular basis.
I decided at that point that I would do something about this fact. I would design a new card game themed on the UFO subject! There’s so much to tell you about the background of the game and how it all came about, but it’s far too much for a single article. Fast forward to today…
The game I have proudly created is entitled UFO Wave. It’s a competitive strategic yet easy-to-learn card game for 1- 6 players. It features an unusual, perhaps even original, resource-gathering mechanic. Each player takes on the role of an alien species visiting Earth. They have to do their best to perform activities, while avoiding both their opponents and groups of humans who guard the activities.
UFO Wave provides a tongue-in-cheek look into the phenomenon, and is suitable for both adults and older children. It has quirky cartoon artwork drawn by an actual UFO witness! I recently went public with the game with an official website, as well as various social media pages. I’m planning to launch it via Kickstarter some point next year, probably late spring. Go check out the site, which features an awesome animated story advert as well as a merchandise store and other fun stuff.
In later newsletter articles I’ll go more into the background of the game as well as the cards themselves. You’ll hear from me again soon!
Stratera is an indie, social deduction card game that invites your group of 6-10 players into an archaeological adventure, retrieving lost artifacts and revealing tales of your enchanting journey. The gameplay is well-paced, and bases its art and plot in informative research and real-life experience of archaeologists.
This is our first time with the Indie Tabletop Newsletter and we can’t wait to share with you all that we have here!
Currently, we’re working to realize the physical copy of our game. Considering the current limitations of social gatherings, we are also developing a Tabletop Simulator copy so that the game can be enjoyed online as well. On top of that, we will be updating our website to feature artworks, game mechanisms, and historical settings.
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We hold online playtests and events. If you’re interested in playing or streaming with us, shoot us a message on social media @strateragame ,or email id34games@hotmail.com. We’ll be happy to connect with you.
We’ve been on Bez’s Boardgame Blethering show talking about tabletop miniatures games such as Gaslands and Warhammer and Clever Unicorn games giving our opinions about game design, so check them out for not only our interviews but plenty more besides.
It’s always a weird time post Kickstarter, the artists and graphic designers are putting the finishing touches before the manufacturers get to work, but we’ve not got a great deal to do. As such we’ll hopefully have a new version of Song Of Tales up for testing on Tabletop Simulator and as a print and play by the end of next week. One done and on to the next one!
Mini Memory Mischief successfully funded on Kickstarter! 231 backers helped to raise £2504 to make Mini Memory Mischief a reality. It’s very exciting times, I now get to go away and make 500 games instead of my original plan for 100. I couldn’t be happier and I’m so thankful for all backers and supporters. It’s now available to pre order on the Atikin Games online shop (link below) along with some of the sweet knitted and crocheted gaming accessories made during the campaign.
It turns out people actually like the handmade plushie dice and dice bags I’ve been making so I’ve listed some of the dice bags on the shop. I have quite a few plushie dice left to make for Kickstarter backers so I don’t have spares for the shop yet but I will make more if you’d like to get in touch you can use the contact page on this website. I’ve also enjoyed making these in peoples chosen/favourite colours which has been wonderful.
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Tri To Win is doing quite well as it was purchased in bundles on the Kickstarter campaign, which is why I’ve included bundles on the shop with a little discount on the RRPs. We’ve had wonderful chats on Twitter about future versions of Tri To Win. I do actually have quite a few ideas for future versions and expansions and they’re all super-secret but since this one was shared on social media; I’ll tell you about it.
It’s called Tri To Live and you’re trying to escape zombies. You start on a ship that goes down so you have to swim to shore, whilst evading zombies. Then you find a cycle on the beach so you cycle, away from zombies. Then the terrain gets too uneven for the bike so you run for safety, all still whilst evading zombies. I love it, but it is a long way off project-wise.
What’s next? Well, firstly I’m focusing on making games and accessories for my wonderful Kickstarter backers before anything else. After that I potentially have three Kickstarter campaigns planned for 2021! I’m aiming to do a make 100 in January for gaming accessories, another mint tin game is planned but also a secret for now. I also really hope Malum Hortus will have a big enough audience to launch sometime in the year, probably later in the year than originally planned.
Thank you all for reading and subscribing to this newsletter, the readership is growing every month as well as the designers contributing, this month we have content from 24 designers from our growing pool of 40 designers now!
If you like what you’ve heard and want to see more of my regular updates and some fun content you can find AtikinGames on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Please consider following me and subscribing to this newsletter for a monthly round up of content from all these wonderful indie tabletop game designers.
I’ve thought of some ways to get the overall cost down. One of the main problems is that my initial order was for only 30 boxes. If I increased the order to 100 boxes, or 200 boxes, the price per box would drop to only $9 or $10. (I’m not sure how much shipping would be. You have to upload art and place an order before the site tells you the shipping cost. Their “postage estimator” is nearly unusable, and it shows prices that are ⅓ of what you get at checkout.)
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But ordering 200 boxes would be too expensive. And I’m not confident I could sell 200 copies of my first game! So an alternative would be to create a smaller game! “Tip of the Pyramid” (my first game) is 10” x 10” x 3”, and that requires a large box. If I made a game half that size, the box would be a lot smaller and cheaper, and wouldn’t cost as much to ship.
I could make the big boxes myself. Get some paperboard, cut it into box shapes, fold it up, and slap a sticker on it. But that would require cutting straight lines. A lot of straight lines, for 30 boxes! I’m not too confident about my straight-line cutting skills.
I could also order cheap apparel boxes, which I can get in the right size, and order big stickers that I could stick onto them. But big stickers are pretty pricey themselves, and apparel boxes have the same size base and lid. I want a box that’s easy to open and close.
So I’ve come up with a lot of options. But the option I’ve settled on – for now – is to buy local. I’m going to talk with local print shops and see who can produce custom boxes for me. Ordering locally will avoid the crazy shipping costs; I can just drive over and pick up my boxes when they’re done. That will certainly keep costs down!
What I’ve learned is this: Indie game development requires a lot of creativity. When you hit obstacles, you’ve got to … well I’m not going to say “think outside the box”, but I will say you’ve got to be creative. And keep your costs down.
There is still time to get your festive gifts sorted and buy a game of 20 Dreams, which you can do on our web shop.
Nothing brings people together more than a game. So whether you are isolating with your family, chosen family, flatmates or friends, making sure to play together allows for relationships to build and your understanding of each other to deepen as we spend time together.
20 Dreams is a game designed to build on your Emotional Intelligence because you have to get into the mind of the ‘dream-teller’ to guess what kind of emotion they woke up feeling. With emotional intelligence you can do this in real life and understand the feelings of those around you.
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It is especially important now, as we each individually try to navigate life mid-pandemic, to be open to talk about feelings and emotions. And that is where 20 Dreams comes in as a really fun playful way to get to know each other better.
Make sure you’re following us on our social channels for more daily updates.
In the game, you have inherited a distillery, and are hoping to someday achieve the title of master distiller through purchasing goods, building up your distillery, and creating the world’s most renowned spirits. Use cards to purchase new ingredients and invest in upgrades to your distillery, all while eventually distilling the spirit and sending it to the warehouse. Once in the warehouse, age your spirit to enhance its flavor and bottle it to sell it for major profits! Achieve the title of Master Distiller by having the most spirit points at the end of the game. Points are obtained by distilling and selling spirits, which results in the creation of Unique Spirits.
All artwork for Distilled is by Erik Evensen.
Wellycon and BGBTBs: What an event. Loved to be part of one of the few physical conventions this year. We had our table next to Shem from Garphill Games and were lucky that J from 3MBG interviewed us – video available on his channel. There were lots of local designers, some with their first projects, some more experienced. It was fun to network, play test, talk, and connect.
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There are two more physical events happening this November, one is BGBTB in Auckland, potentially as big as Wellycon, and one later also here in New Zealand which will be our 5th convention in 2020.
Crimopolis: Thanks to the organizers of BGBTB, we will run our second Crimopolis tournament in November. Earlier this year, 38 players qualified for the world league which we have online on our website. We secured over $500 of prizes from generous sponsors and can’t wait to give them away. If anyone wants their played Crimopolis games to be recorded formally, and make it into the league, or run a tournament themselves, reach out!
CastleScape is a deck-building area-control game set in medieval times. It is a time of Kings and Guilds, money and power, deception and influence. In CastleScape, each player represents one of four Guilds who are building a large castle, containing many different Baileys (walled-in sections), for the King. Players build Walls into Baileys, gather recruits to spread their Guild’s influence, spend gold, perform questionable deeds in the Back Room, and complete Goals and Quests. However, they must balance their actions with how much Infamy and Corruption they will accrue from performing them. Whenever the King visits the Castle to inspect it, he will strip Influence from the Guilds based on their Infamy.
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We’ve been busy at work getting together information to make Kickstarter as successful as possible! One of the updates for this newsletter is this beautiful sketch from our artist. She (Traci) has beautifully captured the theme of CastleScape and placed several Easter Eggs from the rest of the game into it as well. We’re extremely excited to see this sketch come to life as she paints it. We’ll share the final image after we have received it.
We’ve also been doing open Beta Playtesting. If CastleScape sounds interesting to you, please join our Discord server and sign up for an upcoming playtest: www.discord.gg/PaxPryH You can also sign up for the CastleScape email list or join me on social media. I look forward to meeting you at the table!
And then I added a couple of new cards to spice things up, after that I added a couple of new tokens (Debt and Loans) to better simulate the economy, and after that I decided the game needed more intrigue so I made intrigue cards. Those intrigue cards needed an economy of their own so I added in Influence tokens. And then I needed to add a bunch of rules so everything made sense again.
I didn’t realize what I mess I had made until I did a play-test with a couple of people that hadn’t played the game in a while and realized I spent maybe 30 minutes saying “oh, and by the way there’s also this thing. And this thing. Oh, and -”
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I kept remembering things and at some point it became kind of embarrassing seeing their increasingly frustrated expressions so I gave up trying to introduce all the new stuff. A total, utter failure. But then again, every kick in the butt is a step forward.
Fast forward a couple of months and after purging most of the complexity out of the game, I think that the current version has the best compromise between flavor and simplicity so far.
I still have some more testing to do, but here’s hoping that the next newsletter will have some pretty pictures of version 1.5 to go along with it!
News: Like roll and writes? Like dice drafting? Want to meet the Dinofaeries? Of course you do!
Work continues on DinoFaeria. We have a new player sheet layout (this month’s image) and have been play testing like busy bees. The refining process is going well. Want to play? Please join me for a play test! Just visit my site linked here and send me an email. The game is up on TTS and I’m keeping new iterations mostly up to date.
Ongoing: My flagship game, Diamonds for Water, will hit Kickstarter later in 2021. Diamonds for Water is a water-themed cooperative deck builder. I finished a PhD in Water Policy in 2019, and to get through the boredom and stress of writing a dissertation, I started designing a game. I’m not reinventing the wheel—I love cooperative deck builders and this is my homage to the things I love about the best of the genre—but I do think this game does some interesting things with the most popular (and unpopular!) mechanics.
The Pitch: I want every gamer to be able to find themselves in my games, or, better yet, to lose themselves there!
I’m all about amplifying the voices of people who may not have felt welcome at every gaming table. My characters are always going to be diverse, whether that means gender, race, queerness, disability, size, age, or any other factor. If I’m ever successful enough to be a publisher in my own right, those are the games and game developers I will produce.Read More
