Hello all you wonderful people who still follow my blog! Happy New Year for 2024!!
It’s been a busy year as always, and while I haven’t had the time to be overly vocal about all the stuff that happened in 2023 (I might get around to a year in review blog post at some point) my plan for 2024 is to change that.
One of the main reasons I make games is to connect people and foster old and new friendships – hence why I ended up in the board games area. An issue with my previous model, the way I produced Frodge and Bin Off, is that there’s a lot of background work to get the games in a playable format and get them into your hands. While the games are inclusive and accessible, pricing and workload counter that a little…
So I’m trying something new to help get my games into more hands, and reduce the cost and busywork! I call it the Print and Play Initiative!
- Opening up Memberships/Subscriptions on my Ko-Fi and new Patreon pages
- New games offered monthly for subscribers – available as Print and Play PDFs
- WIP games offered for higher tiers – be part of the game dev process
- Community suggestions – I’ll make your game for future monthly game releases
Three different subscription tiers! All tiers will have access to the Print and Play games, while higher tiers allow you to be part of the design process, and maybe even put forward your own ideas for me to make!
Why a Membership?
There’s lots of reasons why I’m shifting to a membership model for my game dev. A major one is that I want to increase the accessibility and affordability of my games. Printing locally isn’t cheap, and shipping out of Australia is tough for all of us – both of these factors make it expensive for me to produce the game, and expensive for potential customers. But if the game is a PDF that anyone could print and construct themselves, wherever they live, then more people can access the game and enjoy with their friends!
The membership format also provides me with a steady income stream for my game dev ventures, providing more flexibility in my work and allowing me to focus on making more games!
I have a lot of ideas for new games, and friends/contacts approach me with even more ideas. This new format will allow me to actually build all these new ideas and release them monthly. Alongside the Print and Play games, I’ll release work in progress games for higher membership tiers.
What kind of games?
I spent most of my life wanting to make big fancy fantasy games. But I recently realised a number of things about that wish. Everyone already does that, and ultimately I prefer making creative stuff that serves a wider purpose beyond to simply entertain. Bin Off taught me that a fun game with educational side aims achieves so much more than yet another sci-fi adventure game or city building simulator.
So, being able to make the print and play games every month will also enable me to put out more games with educational potential. I still want to make sure these are fun to play with friends, but that there is something you can actually learn while playing the game.
The Timeline
This is a tentative timeline of future games. I won’t be updating this here, but I will be updating it in the FAQs document. Check back there from time to time!
2024, january Games – Available 7th of January
- Face Off – Competitive face-pulling that highlights endangered Western Australian animals!
- WIP: Professional Productive Procrastinators – A simple card game to fit with your schedule, helping to identify productive and procrastination activities during your day!
2024, February Games
- Keep Your Head – Inspired by trick-taking games, but with an eco-twist! Keep your food web in balance by devouring your opponents critters, but sometimes letting your own be devoured too!
- WIP: Chef Shuffle – Claim ingredients and cook meals to gain points, but make sure you use all your ingredients (or find a way to share with other chefs) so nothing is wasted! A competitive cooking card game that teaches good food waste habits.
2024, March Games
- Garden Gatherers – Battle it out against your neighbours in this garden planting game! Whoever attracts the most native animals to their garden gets the most points and wins the street eco awards! Choose your garden size and place plants to attract native bees or endangered birds to your backyard! Learn about planting animal friendly gardens in whatever plot size you have, from an expansive farm paddock to a few pot plants on a balcony.
- WIP: Awkward Crabs – a ‘social battery’ game where everyone is playing as a crab.
That about covers these updates…
For more general details on the Print and Play Initiative see this FAQ document (some detail from this blog post is reiterated in the FAQ document).
Thanks for reading! If you’re keen to get your hands on cheap games, and support my creative endeavours, consider heading over to my Ko-Fi or Patreon and subscribing!
Dapper Cranium 