This is a copy of the “script” we used to organise Brainwaves Episode 142. It is not a full transcript but should give you an overview of the news as we reported it. Quotes are in italics.
Headlines
CMON sales
https://icv2.com/articles/news/view/56802/cmon-sales-flat-2023
- CMON is a global tabletop games company responsible for some of the biggest games on Kickstarter, both financially and the size of what you get!
- The company has just announced its sales for 2023 and they have come out roughly flat, falling by $200,000 to $45.1 million in 2023 from $45.3 million in 2022.
- 58% of the company’s sales came from Kickstarter and around 40% from wholesalers.
- During the same period, profits increased by over $240,000 to $755,948 in 2023, up from $510,101 in 2022.
Tabletop Games Designers Association
- Back in episode 133, we told you about the formation of the Tabletop Game Designers Association.
- This is an American-based organisation that wants to help designers navigate the sometimes complicated world of getting games published. They set out to offer legal advice, dispute moderation, contract reviews, and more as the organisation grew.
- The three founding members are
- Elizabeth Hargrave: Designer of WIngspan, Fox Experiment
- Sen Foong-Lim: co-designer of Mind Mgmt, and Jiangashi: Blood in the Banquet Hall and psychology teacher.
- Geoff Engelstein: co-founder of the Ludology podcast, designer of The Expanse board game, Space Cadets, and Super Pinball Arcade.
- We are pleased to announce that the organisation has now officially launched and is offering services.
- On the site, the organisation says it will advocate for all and is pursuing the following aims:
- Standardize the information on royalty reports
- Have game designers listed like authors on large online retailers like Amazon
- Define terms like designer, developer, graphic designer, artist, editor, etc, for game credits
- Set an expectation of advances for all aspects of design work, including expansions and exploration
- Establish standards for non-game rights like electronic versions, merchandise, or film/TV.
- Standardize what returns to the designer when licensing rights lapse
- Connect journalists and media writing about tabletop games and game design with appropriate experts
- Work with institutions such as the Strong Museum of Play and Stanford University to preserve tabletop gaming history
- The organisation has three tiers of membership offering various services and targeted at everyone from designers just starting out on their journey to established names.
- The website also offers free resources for new designers, so it may prove to be a good starting point if you are just thinking about putting a game together.
- Thanks to Corey from our Discord for bringing us this update
IWBG Union welcomes tabletop members
https://iwgb.org.uk/en/post/iwgb-tabletop-workers
- Finally in our headlines, a piece of news we picked up just a couple of hours before recording. Corey once more coming through for us sand bringing this to our attention.
- The Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB) Game Workers Branch voted on the 28th of March to accept members from the tabletop and board game sections of the industry. This establishes the first union for tabletop workers in the UK.
- From the press release
- The Game Workers branch of the IWGB is a worker-led, democratic trade union that represents and advocates for UK game workers’ rights. With this vote, the union makes clear their support and acceptance of all game workers, regardless of field or industry.
- This branch of the organisation has seen rapid expansion after several high-profile computer game studios were shuttered over the last few months.
- Austin Kelmore, Chair of the IWGB game workers branch said
- “I think everyone should be in a union because we are stronger together than we are alone. As for how we will approach the tabletop industry, that’s up to the members who are in the industry itself! Each industry and workplace is slightly different, so having the workers themselves lead the effort is one of the most important things for them to make the changes they most want.”
- We’ve reached out to the IWGB to see if we can get an interview about the benefits this would bring to workers in the tabletop games industry. We hope to bring you that on the next cast.
Updates
Mythic Games up to no good
- Over the last year, we have brought you news and updates on the company Mythic Games. A once well-regarded Kickstarter-focused publisher, in recent years the company has come under fire for delayed campaigns and frequently double, or triple, dipping, into backers’ wallets as they struggled to deliver projects.
- The last time we reported on them was back in episode 136 when CMON, who we mentioned earlier in the cast, had taken over two of Mythics projects in their entirety.
- Well the company has reached what we think is a new low. Thanks to Adam Richards from Punchboard in the UK who forwarded us the email detailing what we are about to describe.
- Rainbow Six Siege, a board game based on the popular computer game franchise Rainbow Six, has been one of those much-delayed projects from Mythic.
- Now the game is starting to reach backers the company is contacting reviewers. They are offering to send a free copy of the game out to reviewers for them to play and review. Normally we wouldn’t be surprised by this, it is run of the mill for the industry, but the company dipped into backers wallets after the campaign ended in order to help with shipping costs.
- On top of that, the email sent to reviewers sort of begs them to ignore the company’s reputation and instead concentrate on gameplay.
News
Spiel des Jahres Support Programme
https://www.spiel-des-jahres.de/foerderprogramm-2024-73-000-euro-fuer-spielerische-projekte
- Since 2012, the Spiel des Jahres association has been financially supporting groups and institutions to enable them to run board game related activities and events, as well as to maintain board game libraries.
- For 2024, the association has confirmed that it will be able to support 85 projects with funding of around 73,000 Euros.
- One of the projects receiving funding is a youth committee of the Protestant church community in Sommerhausen, Lower Franconia, where four young people train others to become volunteer rules teachers. As a group, the youth workers and volunteers go to local kindergartens and regularly play with children aged 3 to 6.
- Additionally, 24,000 Euros will be allocated to scientific projects at the universities in Bonn and Cologne, as well as to the German Games Archive which is run by Nuremberg museums.
- The German Games Archive is a historical collection owned by Dieter Mensenkamp from Detmold and comprises more than 5,000 games from over 300 years of gaming history, which have been collected and catalogued over decades. The collection is particularly known for its diversity and the excellent condition of many objects, which provide comprehensive insights into social, political and cultural structures of the past. As part of a special exhibition at the Toy Museum, a variety of objects with magnificent illustrations, thematic diversity and uniqueness in form and content will be shown. The exhibits include evidence of cultural change and human action, ranging from the Industrial Revolution to World War II and into the 1950s.
Deutsche Spiele Preis
https://spiel-essen.de/de/programm/dsp#abstimmen
- We’ve covered the Spiel des Jahres many times on the show but it would be folly to assume that it is the only significant German tabletop game prize.
- Every year the German Game Prize is also given out through a public vote on Spiel Essen’s site.
- You can vote for any game released in Germany between 1st of May 2023 and 30th of April 2024. There is a full list of the possible titles you could vote for on the Spiel site.
- Voters can make 5 choices ranking them from 1st to 5th where each game is given a number of points based on their position, 5 points for first place, 1 point for 5th place. You can also vote on the best children’s game.
- Voting is open till the 31st of July 2024.
Black Lotus beats the One Ring
- Last year we reported on the search for and eventual discovery of The One Ring. No not the Ring of Power from Lord of the Rings, but a unique version of a card in Magic: The gathering from the set inspired by those books.
- That card eventually sold to Post Malone for $2 million dollars and at the time was the most expensive single magic the gathering card to have ever been sold.
- Well it hasn’t taken long for a new card to take that crown.
- The Black Lotus card from the original Magic:The Gathering set has sold in a private auction for $3million
- The card was rated as pristine by CGC cards, one of the grading companies that folk use when getting their cards assessed.
- CGC cards vice president Matt Quinn said
- “Seeing it in this condition, it is the top of the pyramid when it comes to collectible card games. The condition: top of the pyramid as well.”
- The Black Lotus is a card sought after not only for its rarity but also for the possibility that there are still some out there tucked away in a booster box, waiting to be opened.
Biggest card tournament
https://icv2.com/articles/news/view/56813/largest-tcg-tournament-ever
- A recent Japanese Yu-Gi-Oh tournament broke the world record for largest Trading Card Game Tournament.
- The tournament had 7443 participants and took place over two days at the Tokyo Big Sight International Exhibition Center.
- Guiness awarded the record to Konami at the tournament.
- The record was last set in 2012 by another Yu-Gi-Oh tournament in Long Beach California which had 4363 participants.
Jobs, Opportunities, and Events
https://www.facebook.com/groups/TabletopJobs
Fallcon game award
https://fallcon.com/CGDA/Rules
- One for all our Canadian listeners now, and our listeners that may have game design friends in Canada.
- Falcon is a 3-day convention in Calgary, Alberta, Canada taking place from the 23rd – 25th of August 2024.
- As part of the convention, there is a game design award you can take part in.
- The competition costs $30 Canadian to enter and you need to fill out an online submission and submit a video of the game. The video should contain a rules summary of the game along with a pitch about why you think the game is unique.
- The finalists will be announced on the 1st of July and will be given free entry to the convention
- The deadline is the 19th of May, 2024 so you only have a few days left to get your entry in.
- The winner is awarded $200 and the Canadian Game Design Award and will be announced at the convention.
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