 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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PretzCon is returning again in 2015 on Friday, 10 to Sunday, 12 April in Omaha, Nebraska, USA. 93 Made Games are proud to be continuing its major sponsorship of the expo and support its goal of providing a fun and safe environment for gamers of all ages to play. 93 Made Games has sent an expo package containing Viewpoint, Viewpoint Reflections, Monster Town and a whole lot of other goodies for attendees to play and enjoy. Other games for attendees to play include Dominion, Apples to Apples, Machi Koro, Spiderman Yahtzee, Telestrations, Ghost Stories, Boss Monster, Pathfinder, Amerigo, Dungeon Roll, Zombie Dice, Battle for Sularia, Samurai, DC Comics Deck Builder, Bruges, 7 Wonders, Get Lucky, Forbidden Island, Unspeakable Words, Takenoko, Mille Bornes, Cannibal Pygmies in the Jungle of Doom, Escape: Curse of the Temple, Dungeons and Dragons, Fresco, Roar-a-Saurus, Legendary, Settles of Catan, Captain's Wager, Rialto, Pandemic, Splendor, Mysterium, Murder Mystery, Firefly the Board Game, Sons of Anarchy, Pit! With Bell!, Steam Park, La Isla, Dead of Winter, Crokinole, Discount Salmon, Battle of the Bands, Oz Fluxx, Shadows Over Camelot, Cash 'n Guns, Red Dragon Inn, Two Rooms and a Boom!, Cthulhu!!!, Trivial Pursuit, Pirate Fluxx, Fortune and Glory, Dead of Winter, Diamonds, Triassic Terror, Shark Mania, Trailer Park Wars, Hyperborea, Piraten Kapern, Hulk Smash!, The Mastermind Affair, Word Jam, Dragon Slayer, Acquire, Vye Card Game, Bra Room Brawl, Moderne Zeiten, TriBond, Boss Battle, Shadowrun Crossfire, Penny Press, Ladies & Gentlemen, Abyss, Pandemic: The Cure, Cyclades, Crusoe’s Planet, Set Cubed, Chez Geek, Lords of Waterdeep, Stuff and Nonsense, A Study in Emerald, Karma, DUNE, Smash Up, Ticket to Ride, Tokaido, Munchkin, Warhammer 40,000, Zombiecide, Sentinels of the Multiverse, The Resistance, Game of Thrones, Hoity Toity, Dixit, Aguirre, Summoner Wars, Quarriors!, Kolejka, Firefly RPG, Zombie ’15, Paranoia, Zombies!!!, We Created a Game, Eclipse, Five Tribes, Snake Oil, Cube of Death, Bang!, Cards Against Humanity, Werewolf Night, Munchkin Booty, Fellowship, Power Grid, Belfort, Nations, Guillotine, Maginor!!!, SdJ’athon, Citadels, Talisman, Lowenherz, Elevenses, Spartacus, Dino Race, Pay Dirt, XCOM: The Board Game, Cutthroat Caverns, Karnickel and Avalon. Phew! That was exhausting… aaaaand attendees can also bring their own games or borrow games from the extensive games library. It’s like the games never end and neither will the fun all weekend at PretzCon. PretzCon is a non-profit, family-run gaming convention offering a fun, safe environment for gamers of all ages to play. At PretzCon, you’ll find board, card, dice, and role-playing games. Play your favourite games or take the opportunity to try out new games.
A small contingent of Tabletop Game Designers Australia (TGDA) members will be converging on Cancon 2015 to demonstrate the latest offerings from the group. Some of the games that visitors will be able to play include COGZ by Wesley Lamont, El Luchador Fantastico Grande by Al Caynes, MONSTROUS by Kim Brebach and Ragnaroll by Jason Kotzur-Yang. TGDA will be set up at the Games Library. If you don't recognise the 93 Made Games team or anyone else then speak to one of the librarians on the weekend and they'll be able to point you in the right direction. COGZ COGZ is a mad scientist strategy board game set in the steampunk era, where someone has broken the mad professor's chromatic cogtraption! You are a cognizant cogineer trying to repair the broken cogtraption before the professor returns. The other cogineers all seem to think they have the superior cognition needed to rebuild the chromatic device. It’s time to prove you are the true cogineer genius! Hurry! You recognise there isn’t much time to do this incognito before the professor returns with his cog-nac…  El Luchador Fantastico Grande Inspired by Mexican Lucha Libre Wrestling, El Luchador Fantastico Grande challenges you to become either a hero in the ring, or a villain that teams up with other players and then chair shots them to the face! El Luchador Fantastico Grande is a standalone card and dice tabletop game that challenges players to become Mexican wrestling super-stars. Players compete to see who can outlast and knock out all opponents, or team together in an exciting 2v2 tag-team mode. Are you ready to become the ultimate Luchador Wrestler?  MONSTROUS MONSTROUS is a game of gods and monsters, fear and faith, dexterous skills and tactical combos. Players are gods throwing mythical monster cards from their hand onto a shared tableau of ancient Greek locations to gain as much faith as possible. But a strong guiding hand is not enough - cunning use of tactical monster and location powers is the key to gaining the most faith of all the gods, and the favour of Zeus.  Ragnaroll Ragnaroll is a game of glory, death and dice. In Ragnaroll, you control a band of Viking warriors, each represented by a custom die, struggling to survive in a post-apocalyptic winter. You’ll need to fight to protect your precious food stores, as well as raid your opponents for glory and more food. It’s a harsh winter wonderland, and the last Viking alive wins, unless of course Ragnarok happens first.  Cancon 2015 will be held at Exhibition Park In Canberra in pavilions B and C and the Link building over the Australia Day long weekend (24-26 January). At Cancon you'll be able to show your skill in official tournaments, play upcoming, new and old school games, share your talents in painting competitions, dress to impress at the cosplay events, discover and learn at the painting classes and seminars, empty your wallet at the trader tables and pick up bargains at the bring-and-by stalls.
93 Made Games reviews the year that was and looks ahead to the big events and milestones that will be taking place in 2015. 2014 in review.
Preview of 2015.
This is just a snapshot of what we've got planned for the year ahead so stay tuned to the 93 Made Games website for more fun and shenanigans in 2015. 93 Made Games is an independent Australian tabletop game design and publishing company. We're also helping independent game designers and publishers in Australia to promote and distribute their games.
This event was cancelled by the organiser on 8 January 2015. 93 Made Games will be exhibiting its games and services at the Northern Beaches Business Festival (NBBF) from 21-22 March 2015. The objective of NBBF is to allow visitors to learn about and explore what businesses on the Northern Beaches and surrounding areas of Sydney can offer. 93 Made Games will be using NBBF and affiliated events to showcase a selection of great Australian games as well as 93 Made Games distribution services. With over 200 exhibitors and a wide variety of activities happening over the NBBF weekend, kids, adults and everyone in between will have plenty to do. Some of the other business that will be taking part in NBBF include Pink Fish Design, Superyacht Crew Academy, Candles by Diana and Dream Doors. There will be stalls for home & living, food, retirement, health & fitness, markets and family & lifestyle as well as arts & craft activities, kids stage shows, face painting, live music, amusement rides and much more. A twilight movie (not the teen angst Vampire/Werewolf/Human love triangle one) will be screened at 7pm on Saturday 21st. So if you're in the area, be sure to drop by NBBF and say g'day!
 The Northern Beaches Business Festival (NBBF) boasts hundreds of exhibitors showcasing their products, services and lifestyle options just for you. There will be free entertainment, live music, amusement rides, kids shows & activities and the shows are all located in one vast indoor and outdoor space.
There are plenty of wonderful articles on people's experiences at 2014's Penny Arcade Expo in Melbourne, Australia, such as PAX Australia 2014 - The Return of Awesome by Blue Room Games, so here is short account of the immense fun and celebrity run-ins that 93 Made Games had at this year's expo. Thursday, 30 October Touched down in Melbourne, found beer and food, spent most of the night at the Games Laboratory discussing the future of game design in Australia with the Tabletop Game Designers Australia group and then partook in gaming until late. Oh and we also met Mad Men actor Rich Sommer who played Sye Robertson's new game Robots and Rockets with us. Ended up playing Magic into the wee hours of the morning with Sye and Tish Robertson from Syelon.  Anthony, Sean, Wez and Sye trying to remain cool around Rich (second from left). Friday, 31 October Happy Halloween! OK, so we didn't dress up... basically, because we were recovering from the previous night. Eventually made it into day 1 of PAX at 2:30pm. Quickly scouted the Expo Hall and then settled into the Tabletop Area to catch up with some local game designers, including Wez Lamont who had Ludicrous COGZ set up for giant-sized play, Allen Chang from Rule & Make who was showcasing Rise To Power, Nathan Hawkins who had a booth full of people playing Conjure and Al Caynes who was demonstrating his latest game El Luchador Fantastico Grande. We strongly recommend you head over to Kickstarter and back Al's project so you can get your own copy of his awesome game. After the afternoon stint of gaming, we found more beer and food and then returned to PAX for Sean's panel on the Quest to fund Indie Board Games. He was joined by Alex and Paul from Blue Room Games, Wez from Raez and Phil from Adventureland Games. Check out the video of the panel below. Capped off the night by playing Magic and drinking alcoholic bevvies. No trend forming. Saturday, 1 November Rocked up at PAX at a more respectable 10am and made use of the time to check out all of the amazing offerings from indie developers of electronic and tabletop games. Played a bit of Gauntlet and Cards Against Humanity and, after finding ourselves engrossed in so much fun, realised that it was time for Anthony's panel - The Indie Board Games Panel - with Kate from Games We Play, Dann from Game Salute, Phil from Adventureland Games and Anthony (the other one) from Handwritten Games. After the panel, touched base with artist and graphic designer Lily McDonnell from My Beautiful Monsters. Surprise, surprise, finished the night playing Magic with Sye & Tish Robertson and Kim Brebach from Secret Base Games.  Panellists - Kate Raynes-Goldie, Anthony Condos, Dann May, Phil Walker-Harding and Anthony Sweet. Sunday, 2 November Finally a day free of panel obligations. Arrived at PAX at 11am and bummed around the Tabletop Area playing and demoing games. The big event was the Kangaroos vs England in the Rugby League Four Nations. High-fived Sam Thaiday in the street early that day, which obviously gave him the extra luck needed for the Aussies to knock over the Poms by 16 points to 12. Wound up at the Games Laboratory playing more games with Sye & Tish and Jason Kotzur-Yang from End Game Games. So. Much. Gaming.  Thumbs up and tongues out at the footy. Monday, 3 November Departure day. Grabbed a quick meal and headed for a long Virgin Australia check-in line. Finally made it through to the departure lounge. Located medication for a manky cough, disappearing voice and puffy eye. Who says gamers don't know how to party hard?! Finished off our Melbourne adventure by playtesting Simon's new game whilst Matthew Lee from The Campaigner magazine watched on and took some snapshots.  Playtesting Simon's latest game in the departure lounge at Melbourne Airport. Business shoes are an essential game design tool. Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) is a celebration of electronic and tabletop gamer culture. Go to the PAX website for more information on all Penny Arcade Expos.
93 Made Games will be running demos of Monster Town, The Winking Dead and its other games throughout the 3-day Mother Of All Battles gaming convention being held at Sylvania Heights Community and Youth Club from 4-6 October 2014. Visit the MOAB website for more information and be sure to drop into this free event and say hi if you're in the area.  This year's MOAB includes a well-appointed canteen with plenty of sumptuous options, huge bring and buy activities, a board games library and free participation games for all ages. Competitions to be held over the weekend include Flames of War, Warhammer Fantasy, Bolt Action, X-Wing, 40K and more! MOAB, short for Mother Of All Battles, is a three day gaming event held each year over the October long weekend at the Sylvania Heights Community and Youth Club.
It was another successful Toy and Game Expo for 93 Made Games in the year two thousand and fourteen. We'd missed the previous year's expo due to a variety of reasons and were very happy to return to an expo that brings gamers, game designers and the general public together under one very high roof. The expo started off with the indoctrination of the newest member of the company when we subjected Simon to bump in on a freezing winter's night. Whilst the expo hall was warm enough, having to circumnavigate half of Olympic Park to return to our cars froze our proverbials off.  Both days of the expo gave us plenty of chance to catch up with old friends and make new ones. We received visits from Barry and Jason from UOW Guild Gaming Society as well as Simon, Sam and Will who have been big supporters of Viewpoint in Australia and abroad. Christine and Manuel from Mega Games also dropped by to say g'day and pick up their freshly-minted copies of Monster Town. We made a lot of new contacts with up and coming designers such as Kim from Secret Base Games, Jason from End Game Games and Anna from Draw Cards Game. We saw and played many great games from Australian designers and can easily envisage a time in the near future where Australian games are going to be a well sort after commodity. Watch out world! It's not a Toy and Game Expo without a Viewpoint Championships and it seems it's not a Viewpoint Championships without the reigning World Champion Lindsay Heming from The Games Cube winning again! 22 other competitors placed Lindsay firmly in their sights but he managed to stave off a concerted effort in the typical style of a champion (winning by the smallest of margins) by claiming his first double crown - Viewpoint Champion 2014 and Viewpoint Reflections Champion 2014. Well done Lindsay!
Viewpoint aside, we also had great fun demoing Monster Town and NinjitZoo. The guys from Blue Room Games definitely have a popular game and we're proud to help them get it out to the gaming public. We also can't wait to see what game they have in store next. So if you were unfortunate enough to miss out on this year's Toy and Game Expo, make sure you check out their website and get in early for next year's expo. We'll see you there! The Toy and Game Expo is Australia's only public expo with the latest in toys and board games. Experience the fun in this family interactive heaven for ages from 4 through to adults based on a principle of See, Play, Own. Come along and SEE passionate high end users demonstrating their projects. PLAY with it yourself, and if it tickles your fancy take the opportunity to OWN it by visiting a retail booth.
Gamers will have their first chance to get their hands on the premiere edition Monster Town at this year's Toy and Game Expo in Sydney, Australia on 5-6 July. 93 Made Games will also be showcasing its other games - Viewpoint and Viewpoint Reflections - as well as NinjitZoo, which is the first game from Indie designers Blue Room Games. These games will be exclusively available to the Toy and Game Expo attendees for special expo-only discount prices. Along with Mega Games and Natural 20 Games and Hobbies, the expo will also be the only locations where gamers will be able to purchase Monster Town prior to its official release in September 2014.  Free Stuff! As per usual, 93 Made Games will be giving away plenty of merchandise to people who show up at our booth and purchase our games. And back by popular demand, 93 Made Games chocolates will be available - while stocks last - to anyone who comes by our booth to say hello. Demo Games We will be demonstrating all of our released games as would be expected but will also be demonstrating the latest prototype of Superstars Rugby League to those diehard league enthusiasts. Attendees will also get to throw rotten tomatoes at us during our 30 minute stint on the Spotlight Stage so please feel free to raid the vegie bin and hurl some produce our way or at least come by to say hello and play our games. Indie Distro Last but by no means least, we want to meet with as many other independent Australian game designers and publishers as possible. The expo is a great place for doing this so if you have a game that you have designed and/or released then we want to know your story. Come by our booth or drop us an email so we can see how we can help build the Australian games industry together. 93 Made Games might even be able to assist in distributing your games throughout Australia and beyond. The Toy and Game Expo is Australia's only public expo with the latest in toys and board games. Experience the fun in this family interactive heaven for ages from 4 through to adults based on a principle of See, Play, Own. Come along and SEE passionate high end users demonstrating their projects. PLAY with it yourself, and if it tickles your fancy take the opportunity to OWN it by visiting a retail booth.
Gamers will get their first look at the Monster Town beta prototypes during International Tabletop Day activities hosted by Mega Games in Penrith, NSW on Saturday, 5 April 2014. Viewpoint, Viewpoint Reflections and NinjitZoo will also be on show as part of the International Tabletop Day festivities at the PretzCON games convention in Omaha, Nebraska and g33k3 (pronounced “geeky”) pop culture convention in McKinney, Texas.  International Tabletop Day is a celebration for all the fans of tabletop gaming. A single day where the whole world is brought together in a common purpose of spending time together and having fun.
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