December 2022

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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Hohoho and a way we go! This year Roll and Write Revolution is going big again for the holiday season! Train in Vain is back with a new map and new colors for the player markers! Check out the Conductor and the Engineer decked out in red and white!

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!


Kickstarter link

Come see us at PAX Unplugged! PostCurious will be there all weekend at booth 3912, and the creator, Rita Orlov, will also be appearing on a panel on Friday at 5:30pm in the Crab God Theater (Room 113C) called “Games You Only Play Once: What Puzzles Bring to the Table.” Check it out to hear from some amazing puzzle creators and the folks behind Room Escape Artist and the Reality Escape Podcast.

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!

PostCurious Shop

Christmas is almost here and another year has flown. On the game design side of things, this was, comparably, a year of low activity. We did release a new version of the game that started PlayGames2Learn.com. “The Bone Game” has a new look and is now also free to print-and-play.

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

Read the above with links…

Things are pretty busy for us at the moment. Firstly, we’re completing the graphic design and putting together the Kickstarter page for the SSO Triple Threat campaign coming in the first quarter of 2023. SSO has been a great ongoing franchise for us, and this campaign will be the last of the expansions for SSO in its current form, so we want to make it a good one. Secondly, the triple threat campaign will be back-to-back with the re-re-launch for Song Of Tales, which we’re also tweaking and re-arranging to work as a cards and counters game. Thirdly, Hobgoblin has just opened for its official beta test so there’s a lot of feedback and development coming in from that and I’ve posted up an early version of my Pirates based miniatures game, Boarders and Black Flags. There’s not a massive amount to show off, but if you want to chat about any of it, why not check out our Discord server: discord.gg/Gb4aK7uECh


Our website

Get down! What are you even doing here in Schwartzwald! If you must know, the yellow crystals never arrived so we’ve been forced to go on a bit of an expedition! Just stay there I’ll ask the thing-finders if all is safe.

… 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.


Perilous Pond!

We exist to bring joy through gaming. Sounds trite. Also cheesy. But it’s true. I give up a lot of my ‘free’ time to this. Paul earns a pittance for the hours he works. But it’s all worth it to hear the joy our game brings when fans get in touch.

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!

FlickFleet space battle dexterity game

The Murderer is celebrating the festive season with a special discount code for Indie Tabletop Newsletter readers! Use the code INDIEFREE for 20% off any order on our website until 31st December 2022. After all, ‘tis the season for sharing and gifting some murderously good times.

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.


Drop Dead Fun Games website

Christmas is so close! – My November was mostly spent making stock and fulfilling orders – many of which will hopefully be given as presents in the coming month! I do love Christmas, even more so since I started this job. I get to gift wrap peoples presents and know that things I’ve actually made will be opened and enjoyed on Christmas day! I couldn’t ask for a better present myself than that knowledge.

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.

Atikin Games shop

The countdown has begun! In just 80 days we’ll be launching our next exciting Kickstarter. This time it’s for our brand new game THE SCORE: the world’s fastest roleplaying game. Using just 18 cards and a simple, easy to learn system, players can create the world’s greatest heist in just 18 minutes – or less! The Score has been shown off at conventions around the world and we’ve had incredible reactions to it every time. We can’t wait to get it into the wider world, and that starts with the Kickstarter. You can sign up at the link below to be notified the moment we launch, or go to our website to find out more, read the beta rules and even print out a print and play copy to try for yourself!

Sign up to our kickstarter

Merry December all! As the cold starts to creep in, it’s been a great excuse for us at Unfringed to stay nice and cosy inside and announce that the 2nd edition of Zuuli is now available! Now with 1-6 players, a 50 page score pad and all the cards from the mini expansion! The first edition of Zuuli was met with such a heart-warming response that I can’t wait to hear from all our new Zuuliologists.

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!

Zuuli 2nd edition available now

Legendary Edition: Super excited to see the Castleshire Legendary Edition come to life. We fully redesigned the game box and just made the first prototype made from wood instead of MDF; see photo. We use three different types of material and gave the look and feel extra love. The box is about 10 percent larger to house the solo mode components and the extra components from the unlocked stretch goals from our Kickstarter campaign. We’ve got a surprise for our backers: the edition comes now with a DICE TOWER that fits neatly into the box. It can be used for both the multi-player game and the solo game.

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.


Castleshire Pledge Manager

We’re excited to now have Cosmic Voyage on sale in the U.K! We’ve been in early discussions with some retail partners to help us cover a store release in 2023, but for now you can get your own copy online at our website (savaniagames.co.uk). We have limited stock of our first run, and it’s the perfect time to pick up a little Christmas co-op fun! We’re also moving a little closer now to our next product reveal, which will be smaller in scope, but equally as fun to squeeze in to a coffee break! We’ll have more details on this soon, but in the meantime we wish everyone a wonderful festive period!

Grab Cosmic Voyage online!

Our pledge manager for Library Labyrinth is about to close! We’ve started production of Library Labyrinth now, and just after Christmas the finished games will be loaded on to ships. Some are going directly to the USA and Canada, while the rest are coming here to the UK. If you’re in the UK you’ll be able to get the game at Games Expo (and possibly AireCon, depending how fast the ship sails!) but if you’re elsewhere then this is your last chance to get it with cheap postage!

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!


Late pledge on GameFound!

Hi everyone! I’m Roland Auer and have been a UX Designer for the last good ten years or so. I’ve always had a love for games and did create some in the past for friends and family. I also co-designed the latest Machina Arcana expansion. Now I’m ready to move into the scary and arduous (or is it?) world of self-publishing.

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!


Instagram

We’ve received a complete factory sample of our new game expansion, Beyond Mission to Planet Hexx, we have approved all edits to the cards & pieces, and the game is now in production. We believe we will make our projected receipt/ship date of March 2023. Pictured are our impressive set of five custom dice, one for each card type, which were a stretch goal in the Kickstarter campaign. A set of dice will be added to every Late Backer pledge of the game between now and December 31, 2022. Just follow the link to Gamefound and pledge today! In addition, look out for us this year at PAX Unplugged, at Booth 3731, where we are planning to make a big splash! Come try out the original Core Game and get a gander at the expansion (and maybe even play a hand with the new cards!). See you there!


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