 TGDA pre-PAX Meeting Attendees Even though the 93 Made Games team has been exhibiting at gaming conventions and expos for over 6 years, nothing quite prepared us for the 14-hour days on our booth at PAX Aus 2015. Coupled with only 4 hours sleep each night, the weekend was close to taking a casualty. When posed with the question, “Would you do it again?” Our resounding response was, “Hell yeah! And these are the reasons why…” REASON 1 - MATES HELPING MATES PAX Aus is the biggest event of the year for independent Australian tabletop game designers and publishers. Two years ago at the first PAX Aus, I met people like Alex Dijk from Blue Room Games and Wez Lamont from RAEZ. These two fellows would go on to launch Tabletop Game Designers Australia (TGDA) – a Facebook group for Australian designers/publishers to share knowledge and experiences and to help each other succeed in creating and marketing great games. Last year, TGDA had its first pre-PAX meeting where we discussed how the group could help grow and legitimise the Australian tabletop game design industry. We only had about 10 people at this meeting. However, this year, the meeting boasted over 40 representatives from a range a different design firms, publishers, distributors and retailers, who all shared their wisdom and helped set the future focus for TGDA and its 550 plus members. These are the raw details that demonstrate the growing significance of the Australian tabletop game design and publishing scene and how the TGDA group is a major part of it. However, the thing that really highlights how much mateship there is amongst Australian game designers is when, after not seeing Alex for a year, he comes up to me at the pre-PAX meeting and gives me one of the warmest embraces I’ve had outside of my family. He wasn’t alone as there was a lot of platonic man-love that went on over the PAX Aus weekend.  Beer... surely the best way to recover from almost fainting. REASON 2 - ONE BIG, PROFESSIONAL TEAM The tabletop games industry is dwarfed by its bigger brother, the electronic games industry, in Australia. However, this doesn’t mean that its members are any less committed or less professional. We were fortunate enough to share booth space with Al Caynes and his crew from Senyac Games over the weekend and we could not have asked for better neighbours. Al ran his booth like a well-oiled wrestler (check out his Mexican wrestling game El Luchador Fantastico Grande) and it was evident that he’d recruited a great support team. The 93 Made Games team also had a great PAX Aus supporting cast, including David Harding who demonstrated his Grail Games (which practically sold out over the weekend), The Master Cogineer Wez Lamont who challenged people to best each other in COGZ and Alex Dijk who helped Ninjanimals escape from the zoo. The 14-hour days were made much more bearable as each designer shared a significant workload by promoting their games on our shared stand. I’d like to give a personal thanks to my team and the Senyac Games team who covered for me on day two when, after 2 straight hours of standing up whilst demoing games, I was on the verge of collapsing. I think if I’d been targeted by one more copy of Blind Freddie, I would have been out for the count. Luckily the guys gave me the time to recover in the finely catered PAX Exhibitors’ Lounge.  It's been so long since we've done the "Viewpoint salute". REASON 3 - PEOPLE PLAY FOR FUN I know it seems obvious that people play games for fun but sometimes exhibitors (not specifically exhibitors at game conventions – I also have experience on booths in other industries) focus too much on sales and getting their “numbers”. You know what we did all weekend? We asked people to play games. It didn’t matter if they had already bought our games or weren’t even looking to buy. We were just happy that they wanted to play games. Playing games all weekend energised everyone in our booth and filled us with glee as we saw people enjoying so many wonderful Australian designed and published creations. REASON 4 - THE FUTURE IS BRIGHT Seven years ago, when 93 Made Games was created, the game design industry was fairly small with only a handful of semi-professional designers self-publishing micro games or licensing their designs to well-established foreign publishers. The primary barrier to self-publishing larger, more complex games was cost since, even though manufacturing in and importing from China is relatively cheap, it is not without expense. This meant that the pool of active designers was extremely small. And then, 2 years ago (in Australia at least), Kickstarter happened! Kickstarter effectively kickstarted a new era of game design around the world but more significantly in Australia since the tyranny of distance limits our access to the biggest global game markets in Europe and the United States. Australian designers and publishers are now able to bankroll substantial projects through crowdfunding websites like Kickstarter. This means that more projects are coming to fruition and more designers are putting their hands up to share their games with the world. This was very evident with the number of first-time designers who were demonstrating their games to publishers at PAX Aus. We were visited by the likes of Dale Maccanti who showed off Beware the Trap Door and Harold Kho who demonstrated his monster bashing game. Both designers received feedback from publishers earlier on in the weekend and returned with revised copies for further evaluation. This shows great dedication to their craft and Dale and Harold are just a small example of who will be the future of the Australian game design industry.  The 'Reserved for Events' game looks particularly interesting. REASON 5 - WE'RE ON THE RIGHT PATH
A week has passed and I’ve been able to reflect on PAX Aus, why we chose to exhibit and whether or not we’re taking the right steps as a member of the Australian game design/publishing industry. I can say, unequivocally, that we are doing the right thing in designing, publishing and distributing independent Australian-made tabletop games. There’s no reason why independent Australian games should not be put on a pedestal with top-ranking games from other countries. Australian designers are receiving the accolades they deserve – Rise to Power by Rule & Make was awarded the Best Non-Digital award at the 2015 Freeplay Awards as well as being a finalist in the Boardgames Australia 2015 Australian Game of the Year Awards. Elevenses and Pack of Heroes were also finalists for the latter award. Australian designers make great games and the evidence is no longer anecdotal. We’re proud to be able to promote and distribute these games throughout game stores in Australia and beyond. IT'S A WRAP! Only 5 reasons, you say. Well, yes, but the list could go on and on and on. I’m going to leave the rest to all of the wonderfully professional media who visited our booth and other’s over the PAX Aus weekend and link below to their articles and podcasts as they are published. Thanks for reading and keep your eye on the prize! Aaron Lim from Victory Points Podcast Jair McBain from Another Dungeon Matthew Lee from The Campaigner Magazine Ray Morgan and crew from Zed Games Stephen Heller from Whiskey Board Games
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93 Made Games received its second gong for having a game short-listed in the Boardgames Australia (BGA) Australian Game of the Year Awards. The original Viewpoint game was short-listed last year. This year Viewpoint Reflections was short-listed for the award. Everyone at 93 Made Games is so excited to be short-listed again and aim to, one day, win the coveted Australian Game of the Year Award. Once again, the competition was very strong with the four short-listed entrants included Phil Harding who designed the 2008 award winner Archaeology. Phil showed his class by taking the top award again with his game Dungeon Raiders. Dungeon Raiders proved so popular that it is now sold out across the world. Well done Phil!  Viewpoint Reflections short-list award. The Boardgames Australia awards were presented at the 2013 Toy and Game Expo, which was held at Sydney Olympic Park over the June long weekend. More information about the awards can be found on the BGA website.
Viewpoint was short-listed as the Australian Game of the Year by Boardgames Australia at the Toy & Game Expo. The other nominees were Caption If You Can!, Cuble, Dungeon Raiders, Dweebies, Higher or Lower and Rosetta, with Dweebies winning the coveted award. This is why Viewpoint was short-listed...  Viewpoint is a fun card game of tit for tat with a psychedelic theme of vision: spectacles, TV, blurry vision, and shadows all appear in this game! Each player is trying to get 100 points out on the table, but every card that they play also gives them special actions: moving cards back into their hand, drawing more cards, stealing from opponents and so on. The game hinges on timing the play of your key cards to have the best effect, but a little bit of luck never hurts either! Viewpoint is a fun-packed and easy to learn card game for 2 or more players aged 7 and up. Be the first player to reach 100 points by looking into the future, spying on other players and blindsiding your buddies!
Whilst Australian designed and published games are a rarity in the games industry, a published theme song for such a game is unique! The Viewpoint theme song “The Viewpoint Hustle” is track number 19 on the debut album of Australian contemporary pop pianist Julala. The album, Méthode Julala, is a culmination of years of experience, dedication and passion from Julala whose unique style and wide range of piano pieces tantalises not only the ear but the entire body. Her ethereal touch belies the audacity she shows with many of her pieces. The entire album is an artistic affirmation that Julala is an extremely talented up-and-coming artist and is definitely destined for stardom.  Julala's primary musical influences, which have subtle vestiges in her music, include Ryuichi Sakamoto, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Sergei Rachmaninoff and Tokyo Ska Paradise. Julala has been performing since the age of 6 and composing music since she was around 16 and has received training under Evana Bevan and Ros Thrift. Her talents were officially recognised by the music industry when she was nominated for the 2011 APRA/AMCOS Professional Development Awards under the Film & TV category, along with such artists as Stuart MacLeod from the band Eskimo Joe, Caitlin Yeo and other famous musicians. Her songs that she presented to the judging panel included The Viewpoint Hustle.
The Viewpoint Hustle song was commissioned by 93 Made Games, which were seeking a theme song for the Viewpoint card game. The song was the key track in the short Viewpoint Hustle clip, which was exhibited at the Viewpoint World Championships in 2010. Julala is already working on additional songs for the full version of the Viewpoint Hustle cartoon, which is currently in pre-production. Julala could soon be eligible to receive an ARIA for the Méthode Julala album, including each of its tracks, and we are hoping that she gets the award she deserves. You never know, it might be for Viewpoint's very own theme song! 93 Made Games wishes Julala the best of luck with the ARIAs and her album as we look forward to a long, creative and prosperous relationship with her. Here is some trivia about the Méthode Julala album.
93 Made Games will be exhibiting at its second games expo when it sets up its booth at the Australian Games Expo in January 2010. The Australian Games Expo is the premiere expo in Australia for games designers, developers and publishers. The expo has been running since 2006 and in 2010 it will be run in conjunction with CanCon, Canberra's long-running gaming convention. The expo is being held at the Exhibition Park in Canberra (EPIC) on 23-25 September 2010 and entry is free. Once again, 93 Made Games will be demonstrating a range of its released and developmental games as well as its game design and art services. In a addition to the expo, 93 Made Games will be entering Viewpoint into the 2010 Australian Game Awards. The winners for the 2009 Awards will be formally announced at the 2010 Australian Games Expo. To find out more about the Australian Games Expo go to http://www.toyandgameexpo.com.au/.
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