Welcome to Meeple to Meeple uniting players from around the
world, a 30 minute exploration of PJ and Galas ball game
experiences from across both sides of the Atlantic.
Each episode they share their thoughts and opinions on the
world of board games, including their favorite themes, games,
hot topics and much much more. Are you guys ready for more?
We are back for our Gen. Con story Part 2.
The Game Designers community as always on PJ, I'm Gareth and
we're gonna continue to talk about Gen.
Con. Gareth, how are you man?
I'm good. I loved last week's episode so
I'm. I haven't listened to all these
clips fully. So I'm looking forward to
hearing from more of your amazing acquisition of audio
sound clips from members of this time of the designer community.
So I think the description you hear about Jen about Gencon from
the community overall is it is how vast Gencon is.
It's it's so big, not just the vendor hall, the whole event
taking up hotels and the Lucas Oil Stadium and it's just so big
and hard to describe. So we, it's so vast that we had
to do 3 episodes, right? And we're only on Part 2.
There's a lot of consent. Otherwise it would be here for
three hours at a time. Oh yeah, we've got to keep these
short and sweet. We're supposed to be 30 minute
episodes and last week. And we always do a special with
the cons. So we do.
So shall we? So, yeah, so.
So these guys are these people you've met.
Okay. Yes.
So last week was members of the Instagram community.
So this week these are either game publishers or game
designers or they were exhibitors at the hall.
I met them all in one capacity or another.
Some of the some of those people you're going to hear from today.
We met in the first exposure play test hall where my wife and
I were play testing. And so we actually got to play
test their game and I was like hey, would you be willing to do
a sound bite so we could talk about your game on our show.
And they were kind enough to respond.
So yeah there's some really good games.
So I hope you got your your pen ran a pen.
Good. My I have my iPad ready to
Google some of these games to see whether I add them to my
wish list. Some of these games are
prototypes. So coming to crowdfunding.
Yes. And I will.
I'll let you know that we came through the course of the
episode. Some of the some of the games
are already out and you can purchase them and I'll try to
make that distinction from segment to segment.
So, OK. Yeah.
Well, I think so First one up I have Caleb.
Yes. Hey, this is Caleb from
Barreledge Games. We are excited to have now Stool
Pigeon which is a pigeon mafia family where you take over the
head of a pigeon mafia family in which you are trying to
eliminate or lower the number of witnesses in your crime scene.
In order to do that, you have some of your pigeon pals that
are there to help, maybe peek at other people's cards or even
switch cards with each other. Tons of fun.
There's even a rat in there. Sneaky rat.
You do not want him. And then a meatball.
Only one in the deck, but it's worth 0 points.
So the goal is you want to have the lowest score before anyone
at the table knocks on the table inviting in the foul feds and
then whoever has the lowest score wins.
Game plays out super fast. Each game takes only about 7
minutes. That's the game that you play
over and over and over. We absolutely love it and we've
had a ton of fun getting it ready.
It is for presale on our website nowbarrelagegames.com and you
can even shortly it'll be on Amazon but stool pigeon be on
the lookout for it and some of the other games we have coming
out soon. Thank you so much.
So do you get to play that game? I did.
I and we bought a copy. So Barrel Aged Games, for those
of you who know who don't know, they were the publishers of
Moonshine Empire and last year Fortify the Water Balloon
throwing game. So they're pushing Stool Pigeon
this year and they had some advanced copies to sell at
Gencon. And as you heard in the clip,
they'll be on Amazon. It's available for preorder now.
It is incredible. It is just so you get the four
cards in front of you if you look at the two closest to you.
So you know those numbers and then you draw a card and you
replace it and you just it's a lot of fun.
It requires a little bit of memory, right?
Because you're going to remember what you have and you don't know
all the cards that are in front of you, and so you want the sum
of those cards at the end to be lower than everyone else's.
Lower. And the way to end the game, the
way to trigger the final round, is just to knock on the table.
That's it easy. When when a player thinks that
their sum is lower than everyone else's, you knock on the table
to call the feds and then you go one round and we flip all the
cards and who's ever got the smallest sum in terms of
witnesses wins a game. That's it.
How many players does it play to two to six?
Have you played in two player? We played it at two.
We played it. Yeah, it's really good.
We played it at 3:00, which was entertaining.
We played it at 4:00, which was really good.
Then we played it at 5:00 and 6:00.
So it's it's scales beautifully because.
Yeah. OK.
It's it's worthy. So pay attention to stool.
Yes. Also the the designer is Nate
Miller. I did not meet Nate at Gencon
but after Gencon I started sharing posts about this game.
He reached out to me on Instagram and he's like dude
thanks for the you know thanks for the the product you know I'm
like cool. Yeah that's that's kind of cool.
Sounds like a lot of fun. Sounds like a lot of fun.
So, pigeon up next, we've got Samuel.
Samuel Yeah. I'm Sam Barmettler with Around
the Stump Games, LLC, the publisher behind Outrun the
Bear. Outrun the Bear is a survival
racing game for two to six players where the goal is to not
be eaten by this giant, hungry bear that's chasing you down the
board. You can do that in one of two
ways. Make the safety of your car in
the parking lot or the bear happens to have an appetite only
for all of your friends and family, so if you're the last
one standing, it's satisfied and lets you go.
The game's designed with an easy to get into hand management
system that allows for new players and kids to be very
comfortable with it. But still with the way the cards
all play out and the changing of the board state leaves a nice
crunchy experience for more experienced gamers.
My favorite experience during all of Gen.
Con was seeing a couple young brothers desperately trying to
get each other eaten by the bear while all the adults at the
table were doing everything in their power to try to save them.
I've never outrun the bear. Neither have I I haven't.
Yeah. I felt better.
No. No.
Yeah. So this is an interesting game
because you and I both have played it.
Not together, but we've played this game.
So we play tested this game last year, I'm gonna be saying.
Yeah. And that's how we got our name
in the rule book as play testers.
So Sam was one of the first people that was on our list to
go see. We went to see him and say hi,
got him to autograph my rule book.
I was the first autograph he's ever given.
So thank you, Sam. He didn't know what he was
doing. He had a pen for it.
He's like, I guess I'm going to do this.
And I I think I message him later.
By the end of Gencon is like, I bet you signed so many that you
probably wish you could redo mine.
We're going to try to get Sam on because this game just recently
was fulfilled through Kickstarter in the summer.
He was supposed to be one of our guests and our schedules were
gonna work there. We're gonna go work out.
So Samuel be on look to talk about our on the bear.
This is fun. So what are your thoughts of the
game How'd you like it? Yeah, we've played it a couple
of times. The first group I think
everyone. I don't think anyone survived.
I think we're trying to get head around the mechanics of the
card, card discarding and whether because it's quite mean
in, I mean quite mean across the whole game.
So I don't know whether we're trying to work as a team or
whether we're trying to work just to survive.
But it seemed to be just people ganging up in each other.
And then we played it again with the work group who enjoyed it a
lot more. So I think, I think I think it
depends. Yeah.
Do you play it aggressively or do you play it to try and get
somebody to survive? So I played it both ways.
The first time I played it was like, OK, we all need to
survive, right? And if somebody gets eaten,
well, we can't do anything about it.
But let's try to get everyone to survive.
And I've also played it mean. So whatever it takes, whatever
it takes, it doesn't work. I never outrun the bear.
What what I do really like is the way that the the play board
is a long, straight boards and then the bear just fits neatly
over the board, just slides along.
There's always this menacing presence of this angry bear that
is the game pieces. The game pieces are acrylic, so
they're really, it's really nice.
It's a really nice game. OK, And that's that was
available. So I picked up at UK Games Expo
because I think it has just been fulfilled.
So we got it from the Kickstarter fulfillment team for
whoever they used and we backed it.
We backed it on Kickstarter when we got home from Gen.
Con last year because we play tested and we're like, this is
really fun, let's do it. So, so we did.
So we're gonna see a Kickstarter come through and deliver as
well. So we've got Liam Kenny up next.
Hi everyone, we're Party Tales, Abli and I'm Kenny.
Our new game, Time Lancers is a time travel themed set
collection game. Players will move around the
city of the future collecting resources and then go back in
time to revise historical events that complete their factions
objectives. It'll be on Kickstarter later
this year, and you can find out more and sign up for our e-mail
list at time lancers.com. Our favorite moments from this
year's Gen. Con were being able to demo
games for the designers, especially David Smith, who
showed us around Junk Drawer, and Andy Kim, who helped us
clean up some animals with his game The Spill.
We'd have to say that's one of our favorite things about Gen.
Con every year. It's making those connections
with all the amazing people in the board gaming community
wonderful. Tell me more like I.
So first of all, I love these guys because they shared with
us. They played somebody else's
game. Like you know that's that's
great that when I asked them to talk about their game and their
favorite moment was about playing someone else's game.
So that was really cool. So my wife play tested again.
We're back in the first Exposure play test.
All she play tested time Lancers last year and it went to
Kickstarter and we backed it because she enjoyed it and I
think they had some problems and they didn't hit, they didn't hit
their goals or it was something to do with the European market.
I don't, I don't remember the whole story but it was something
like that so so they pulled it down.
They decided to play tested some more so they came back this
year. So both Katie and I play tested
it this year and it's interesting.
It's really chunky because of this time travel, because you're
time traveling and you're altering history.
So you could do something. And then if I do, if I go and
change an event, say in 1503, every event after 1503 changes,
including ones that you've already changed, say 1655.
So it's already on your player. Matt.
You have to flip it over because of what I've done, because
you've altered and you're treated.
Yeah, it sounds it's it was really challenging for me to
wrap my brain around. I did not perform well because
time travel is a little wonky for me, but my wife loves the
game. So like, you heard it's going to
come to Kickstarter. We got a date for that.
I want, I think he said September.
But I'm going to have to double check that.
But anyway, go to timelancers.com or check out
Party Tales on Instagram and they'll keep you up to date.
It's a pretty cool game, definitely an interesting
mechanic. A little different from other
time traveling games I've seen. So yeah, if you go and pull Game
Geek into the general forums, there's a link to the pre launch
page. Loads of contents gone live as
well in terms of videos. And there's a tabletop simulator
if you want to check it out. Yes, check it out.
Sounds really good, right? Next up we have Heather.
Hello, my name is Heather Dixon and I'm the designer of
Apistocracy. In Aristocracy, it's 1851 London
and you're new to town. At the behest of your titled
host, That host uses their influence to launch you into the
events of the season so that you may gain the most Victoria
points and become the season's favorite.
One of the unusual things about it is it is a worker placement
game, but it ends with a trick taking game based on Wist.
So during the course of the season, you're going to be
curating ahead of cards that you use to open the various doors,
and you'll use that same hand in the end for the final Wist game.
I really love Gen. Con.
This was my second Gen. Con and it was my second time
and 1st Exposure played us all. One of my favorite things is
seeing familiar faces, so I was really happy to see PJ and Katie
and a number of others. It's also really special when
people come back a second year to play Test by Game.
It's super valuable when they see it after so many iterations
and can give me their feedback and it's always just good to see
them as well. I am so looking forward to Jen
Con again next year. I just looked it up on
Instagram. Yes, love the artwork.
I'm loving the theme. Yes, you are.
Did you Did you play? So Katie didn't.
But I play tested it at First Exposure last year.
Oh, and then I reached out to see who was going to be a geek
way and Heather was there and she brought Apistocracy and
Katie and I got to play test it at Geek Way and I.
So I got to see she'd made a lot of changes subsequently.
We gave her a lot of input and then we didn't play test it this
year, but she was back again. So she's working it out.
This game is it is getting fine-tuned When she launches on
Kickstarter or hits retail, whatever that happens.
Look out for this game Apistocracy.
It is so good. It is so good.
Yeah. I don't know what else to say
because she described it beautifully.
I mean, I think she explained it well, but it was great to see
her and Heather's so cool. She's just so welcoming and
inviting and just open the input and to really see this game grow
and change as she fine tunes it has.
It has a bit of obsession. Yes, vibes to it in terms of the
so the rule books up on the website.
So go and check out the website or Heather Dixon's Instagram
account. And the beauty is we've we've
squeezed obsession into this episode.
How you like that? Yeah, it's been a few weeks as
well. Yeah.
So we're obsession is we're running a house in Derbyshire,
in Apistocracy. You're trying.
You're not, you're not landed, right, You're you're trying to
make a name for yourself and find a spouse during the season.
So yeah, it's cool. Check it out.
I am That one is going to be saved.
Right up next is Nate. Hi, my name is Nate Linhart.
I'm the designer of Tenpenny Parks published by Thunder Works
Games. Tenpenny Parks is about building
your own epic amusement park and trying to bring in the most
visiting people by games, and it is a worker placement tile
placement game. Players are going to start with
their own property board that you're building up, and you're
going to finish building your own unique theme park from
everyone else by games and. As I said, it's work
replacements and at the heart of the game is building rides and
each of the attractions are denoted by different polyaminal
shaped tiles you have to fit. And the twist of this game is
the tile, place and rolls tiles actually can't touch in this
game. They could touch corner to
corner but they can't touch adjacently.
You need room for people to be able to move around and walk
around your park. So what it does is it creates a
very unique strategic tile placement experience that most
are going to be used to. It's got amazing artwork by
Vincent de Trait and it's got amazing production value by
Thunderworks games such as a 3D carousel.
You actually spin throughout the game to manipulate the market
prices of rides. This was my sixth Gen.
Con. It was another great year.
It's so fun. One of my favorite parts is
meeting so many new people, such as PJ.
Everyone is so kind and so welcoming.
And then one of my other favorite moments of this year
specifically was trying Pinball Alley.
I've actually never played pinball really before and I had
a lot of fun doing so and I think I have pinball fever now.
I have made a side note, Pinball Alley.
That sounds amazing, but 10 penny bucks?
I have played this game I've had the pleasure of.
Nick from Ball Game Review UK told me this, and I had a lot of
fun. If you assumed you played
Jencon, I did. That's how I'd met Nate.
So this was an actual you've heard me talk about events at
Gencon. This was a ticketed event that
we signed up for. It was an opportunity to play
Tenpenny Parks with the designer Nate Lynnhart.
And we're like, we really can't can't pass it up.
Katie was really interested in the game.
Our good friend Nick had been talking about it since he picked
it up about a year ago. And I was like, we need to check
it out and I get to meet Nate is really cool.
Did learn. I don't know if this is unique
or not but apparently when you play tenpenny park with the
designer and you go to spin the carousel you have to hum a song
while you spin the carousel to to make new role we should add
it in and and that is from Nate the designer.
So if Nick is listening or when you see him let him know you got
a hum a song when you turn the carousel.
That game was awesome. I do like the whole polynomially
try and make them fit. You got the trees that are in
the way. Yes.
I don't think I did very well, if I remember rightly, because
there's quite a few moving parts.
Yeah, that I didn't remember. It's pretty tight because the
market adjust stuff. Yes.
But you had a great time. There's a really good game.
And then trying to keep your trees because you get penalties
for cutting them down or something.
That's right. Yes.
Yeah. Yeah, that's right.
You want to keep them in the park if you can.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 10 penny
parks. Yeah.
Thunder work games. That's going to be.
There's no no sign of an expansion or anything.
He didn't mention anything. I think he's moving on to
another project that he couldn't talk about.
So I was like, cool. But at least he was kind enough
to share his thoughts on his experience.
Yeah, and then I need to look out.
Pimba Valley. I'm gonna do that now while we
listen to the next clip. Yep.
Which is from Tatay Wu. Tatay Wu?
Yes. Here we go.
Hello, this is Tatay Wu, designer of In the Stars.
In the Stars is a role and draw game for one to six players.
In the game, players will connect stars to create
consolations on one board. They will also draw an animal
icon around complete the consolation, which is one of my
favorite parts of the game, seeing people draw and share
their creativity. No matter how strange your
drawing is, a space cat is always adorable.
Thank you for coming to In the Stars events at Jincon.
See you out there. How was so?
Is that A to be released? Yes, yeah, if I recall
correctly, Tate said. November of this year at
crowdfunding or yes, yeah, OK, so you've got this board and you
have these neon colored chalk markers.
Yeah. Pink, blue-green, yellow,
purple. And you have a card in front of
you that has requirements that you have to meet when you draw
your constellation. And once you complete those
three requirements and you've done it, you then have to
physically draw. You have to physically draw the
constellation. And I think I had a Scorpion, so
I was doing Scorpio. So I drew my first one and he's
like, now you have to draw it. I'm like.
You don't wanna see my drawing. And so I draw and I'm trying to
draw around my stars and make it look like a constellation.
And he's like, oh, you did good. I'm like, no, I didn't know.
And is it. So look in the pictures.
It's a it's a collective. Everyone's using the same board.
Everyone's using the same board in front of you.
And you're scoring separately. Yeah.
I've never seen anything like this before because as soon as
you said in the stars, so we picked up a game called Look at
the Stars. And if I, which had single
boards each player. But again it was, was chalk.
Yeah, chalk pens where we had to draw constellations.
But it was more flipping right. But they are very different
games with very similar names that rhymes.
Yeah, it looks it definitely looks like my cup of tea.
It's it's really cool. I think we got to play test it,
play test it at the first exposure.
Play test songs like Tatay. Come on, man, you got to, you
got to, you got to give me a sound bite for this.
And he was like, yeah, let's, let's do it.
I will dig you a side note while right before we play Tested, guy
walks up to Tatay, he's getting a preview copy of something.
Whatever they're talking, he looks at me and he goes, do I
know you? And I'm like you do, but I'm not
going to tell you where you know me from.
It was Jeff, the mad board gamer.
Between Origins and Gencon I have met the entire cast of the
Game Casters Podcast. So little plug for them.
So yeah I love. I love to win Jeff.
Yeah so it was great to see them so but Tata's game is amazing so
look for it in the Stars by Tata Wu.
You will not regret it. It's so I have just subscribed
from up to that 1. So it's really good.
OK, now we've got Adam. My name is Adam Nikovich.
I'm the operations manager and one of the designers at Tunnel
Monster Collective in Pittsburgh, PA My game is Chef's
Table. It's a cooperative dice game
about working in a fine dining kitchen.
Favorite moment of Gencon was the play test room.
It was one of the best play test rooms I've ever participated in.
Well, run. I got to meet a lot of really
cool people. I got to chat about game design.
Can't ask for a better experience than that at a
convention. Yeah, at Adam was really cool
and Okay, So we sit down at Chef's Table, that's the name of
the game, and we're waiting for the other players.
And so he's talking about how the version we were about to
play Test was actually bigger, like he envisioned a larger
Lacerta style. You're Okay, where you're
running an entire restaurant well.
That got too much. They pared it down.
So it's a cooperative game where we're chefs in the kitchen and
you roll dice and you're trying to plate food.
There's three courses, so three course meal, and you're trying
to plate the food. And each card, which is the
plate, requires a red, 6A, blue, 3, whatever, right?
And so you roll that, You have to go to a station in the
kitchen, roll the dice. But the beauty is this.
If you're playing blue, I'm purple.
You go to the Sioux station and you roll dice, and then I go
there to do it as well. I'm next to you, so I get to
increase the value of any blue dye I roll because you're there.
So it's like if I come up to you to help work the station, it's
like you're going, you're kind of helping me and you're like
saying, Oh no, do this or stir this or.
You know, add this spice and so for blue dice or whatever color
you're playing, in this case, you would obviously be playing
blue. I would get a + 1 pip to that
die roll. So it's very cool.
And there's stations. We actually go to plate the
food. There's a prep station, a Sioux
station, a grilling station. There's another.
Yeah, it's it looks awesome. Hopefully, Adam said.
He's going to try and get us a preview copy so that we can play
it and then we can have him on so.
Adam, if you're listening, don't forget us.
Me. But to me, but we're ready to
play. I do, I do.
It sounds like those kind of phone games.
We are trying to complete orders.
It's a little bit manic. I do do enjoy.
Good. Gather these bits, do that.
Yep. I guess pick up and deliver kind
of start a game a little bit. And this one really just shines
through. I've worked on a line line as a
line cook on a kitchen in like in like in college.
Yeah. And I really felt that like we
were working as a team, but we had to do it just right.
Yeah. Yeah.
It's also asymmetrical. Each, each role that you're
given, you know, I think it's like 8 roles.
And so you have some sort of an ability, right?
Like if you're a sous chef, you get a bonus when you go to that
station. Or if you're the expediter, you
can expedite a second extra die or whatever.
Right. But it's very cool.
Chef's table. Chef's table, yeah.
I think I've now worked out that I think Pinball Alley wasn't a
game. I think Pinball Alley is.
Is it a place at Gencon? Yes.
There's no such ball game for pinballs.
I was thinking that would be quite a good game.
I don't know how it would work. It's a it's a place of pinball
games, but that would be good if I went Gencon.
But yeah, there is no game, right?
So we have one more to do. We have Liz up next.
Hi, I'm Liz. With Folded Space, we make board
game inserts. They're really lightweight.
They're made out of an Eva foam material with a laminated card
on the other side, so they don't add much weight at all to your
game boxes. They're sturdy, they're easy to
put together with a little bit of PVA glue, and best of all,
they're pretty inexpensive. So they make a really good
option for organizing your games.
This is our first year at Gen. Con, so we really enjoyed
getting to know people that we'd only interacted with online.
Meeting people who had tried our products but we'd never gotten
to meet before introducing them to new fans.
And most of all, we love getting to show people our new color
inserts. This is something that we've
really been pushing for for the last year or so.
We work with the publishers to license the art of the game,
which we print directly on the insert, so that makes the insert
really beautiful. It also makes it really
practical. Often the trays will go directly
onto the game board and you can see where all the different
components go. People seem to really enjoy
those, so it was a really good experience for us.
We know big fans folded space. Yes, Anyone who's listened to us
knows that Gareth and I love folded space, love their
product, and the people are amazing.
I was surprised, at least in the US, because I did get to talk to
Richard. Yeah, so Richard is the second
person on this planet who has met.
Both of us now. Wow, these lucky individuals,
right? I know, You know.
So if you are ever in England and you're in Midwest US, you
can meet Gareth and I and be one of those lucky.
We need to look a little badge, right?
Yeah. See, maybe it's half the badge
is me pool and the other half is another me pool and they.
They oh sounds just made some merch.
But before we get distracted by that idea so it was great to
talk to Richard. Their booth was very successful.
They were there. They were busy the whole time.
Was surprised how many people it was.
Their first time purchasing A folded space insert was a
Gencon. He had come in a lot of people,
so it was great. It gave them more exposure to an
American market. I guess, I guess, I mean Frost
Haven is their big products. I think anyone who did well the
back it would have, Yeah. Yeah, I mean, yes.
But their color line of inserts has really grown.
They're they're doing more and more.
I'm trying to think of the most recent one that surprised me.
Oh, Lost Ruins of Arnac. Oh yeah, I haven't seen that one
yet. I've seen that and I'm like.
I have the Gray one, so I'm not going to buy the color one.
But now I'm like I told Richard I was like, how could you do
that to me? I think I think if people go
back, we have our interview with Richard, an episode maybe 15 or
so ago. Yeah, he was our very first
guest on here and he talked to me at the UK Games Expo about
printing. And actually I think from a
brightly it was, it's cheaper to print the color inserts that it
was. The Gray, yeah, how about that.
But you need the right machinery.
So yeah, it's great that that that that put line is I guess
rapidly evolving. I'm sure it never stops.
But at UK GE they'd sold out by the Sunday, is that similar?
They he did not sell out when I saw him at the end of the day on
Sunday, they still had product love.
OK that's good. So yeah, very popular.
Yeah, big fan. Definitely need to get a few
more of those into a number of recent acquisitions I have.
OK, so that is the end of our designer episode.
Yeah. Our next episode, we're going to
hear your personal experience. I'll just melodical for 30
minutes or less and tell you about my thoughts and my
experience of Gen. Con with all the people I met.
Pj's road trip. Yeah, OK, so with with that, I
look forward to hearing more about your road trip to Gen.
Con and your post game experiences.
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