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. 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. 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. 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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On 19 April 2009, one year and one day after 93 Made Pty Ltd was created, the original 93 Made website was launched. In the brief time before 93 Made Games was officially a business, this website served as our main online façade. However, over the following 6 years, the changes to our website would mirror our growth as a company. We are now very proud to welcome you to our new website and travel back in time to show you how it has evolved since its beginning. 93 MADE PTY LTD (2009)Back in early 2009, we were still figuring out what we were going to do (besides entertaining and teaching people) and the idea for Viewpoint had only been conceived a few months prior and was competing with a range of other ideas to be our first released game. The original website also covered tuition services provided by Julia Carroll, our Director of Education, which would then become Julala's Tuition. It was a scrappy website which had an, admittedly, terrible logo but it had some fancy drop-down menus. 93 MADE GAMES [Mark I] (2009-10)Along with the development and release of Viewpoint, the website was revamped to focus on our design, marketing and tournament activities. We had a Top 5 Viewpoint leaderboard on the front page and the first flat version of our 93 Made Games logo. As you can see below, we kept the hex-circle theme going throughout the website. You can also see that development of Viewpoint Reflections and Monster Town was already underway in 2010. 93 MADE GAMES [Mark II] (2010-13)Whilst the website was still hard-coded in a text editor, 2010 saw a step up in content and quality to match the increase in offering from 93 Made Games. For the first time, our games could be purchased from the website. A mailing list, polls and a wide range of cross-promotional links were also added. The website would showcase the release of Viewpoint Reflections, a brace of award short-listings and recaps from many exciting expos and conventions occurring for the first time in Australia. 93 MADE GAMES [Mark III] (2013-15)In 2013 we revamped the website to better highlight our activities and improving artwork and graphic design. Not only were our released games showcased but we added print and play versions of our developmental games. Details of our Indie Distribution and 3D Design & Printing services were also added in 2014 and 2015, respectively. With everything that was going on in the company, including more and more indie games to distribute, our little website was beginning to burst at the seams. 93 MADE GAMES [Mark IV] (2015+)So here we are, six years after the launch of our initial website, with a brand new website and new logo to boot. We've updated the website to focus on our three pillars - Design, Publishing & Distribution. You can find out about our released and developmental games at Our Games and the Australian-designed games we proudly distribute for other independent publishers at Indie Distribution. We've included a fully-fledged, security-enabled webstore, that we'll be adding to in the near future. We'll keep you updated on all of our major activities and milestones via the Articles section where you'll also be able to comment on what we blog. There's also a Twitter feed on the front page (woo!) as well as a Retailer Portal that we'll be improving as we go. We really like this new website and hope that you do to. Feel free to drop us a line with suggestions on how we can make it even better. Until next time, keep your eye on the prize!
93 Made Games returned to Mega Games in Penrith, NSW on Saturday, 11 April 2015 for International Tabletop Day. The gang got to show off a bunch of games to the eager attendees, including playtest games No Fish! and The Winking Dead and other indie games the company has recently started distributing, such as One Zero One, Elevenses, Pack of Heroes, Pocket Sports and El Luchador Fantastico Grande. 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.
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.
93 Made Games now offers services for the production of 3D models and miniatures, including 3D printing and design. We can print almost anything up to a 20cm x 20cm x 20cm (!) scale using our brand new Zortrax M200 3D printer. Models are printed using ABS plastic in a range of colours, including grey, green, red, blue, black and white. All models are printed with a full in-fill using a layer thickness of 0.09mm, which means that you can cut into your model and modify it as you see fit. If you don't have a design for a 3D model, 93 Made Games' qualified 3D graphic designers can also help you design your ideal model or tinker with your prototype miniature. Check out our page on 3D Design & Printing to find out more about what 93 Made Games can do to meet your 3D printing needs. If you would like more information about our 3D printing services or would like to send us your model file for printing then send us an email.
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.
93 Made Games are proud to announce that it is now distributing Pack of Heroes for Adventureland Games. Pack of Heroes was designed and published by multiple award-winning Australian game designer Phil Walker-Harding. The card game pits two superhero teams against each other in a battle to reign superior as the official superhero team of Power City! Stores around Australia are quickly snapping up this amazing game so expect to see copies arriving at your local game store soon. If you can't wait for it to become available at your store, you can purchase Pack of Heroes and other Australian games via the 93 Made Games webshop. If you are a store owner who would like to stock Pack of Heroes then drop us an email. Choose your very own team of superheroes from the 40 unique heroes in the game. Then fight your opponent in an all-out tactical battle with surprising super powers and killer combinations! Whichever team wins will be declared the official superhero team of Power City! Pack of Heroes is set in a fun parallel universe of vintage comics. Each hero card features amazing artwork, fun stats and an origin story. The game even comes with a 12 page mini comic book and a 24 page hero almanac! Pack of Heroes is for 2 players aged 10 and up and takes around 20 minutes to play. The pedigree of Pack of Heroes in undeniable. Phil Walker-Harding's games have won or been short-listed for multiple Boardgames Australia (BGA) Australian game of the year awards and Golden Geek (GG) awards.
Adventureland Games is a publisher of exciting strategy board and card games, based in Sydney, Australia. The company is run by game designer Phil Walker-Harding as a way to bring his games to market. Adventureland Games began in 2007, simply as a hobby for Phil. From 2011, Adventureland Games stepped up to become a more professional publishing house with its games more widely available.
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. 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. 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. 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. 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.
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