News Digest Brainwaves Episode 144

This is a copy of the “script” we used to organise Brainwaves Episode 144. It is not a full transcript but should give you an overview of the news as we reported it. Quotes are in italics.

Headlines

Steamforged bought Privateer Press rights

https://steamforged.com/en-gb/blogs/brands/sfg-acquires-iron-kingdoms

• As you’ll come to see over the course of this episode it is a bit of a merger palooza at the moment. 
• The biggest one this week is the acquisition of the Iron Kingdoms Univers from Privateer Press by Steamforged Games. Privateer Press are the makers of the Warmachine and Hordes Miniatures games and the Iron Kingdoms RPG. Steamforged primarily make computer game property board games like Dark Souls and Horizon Zero Dawn. 
• From the press release
  • For the past twenty years, the Iron Kingdoms and Warmachine have enchanted players and hobbyists around the world with rich lore and immersive gameplay. Warmachine’s growth has been electric since the launch of Mark IV, with new and returning players around the world getting into the game. 
  • Now, as we step into this new chapter, Steamforged and Privateer Press are teaming up to make sure your experience with these games is better than ever. There has never been a better time to start playing.
  • Going forward, we’ll work together on design and development of the lines. We at Steamforged will be bringing our proven 10-year track record of creating, developing, and delivering large-scale games to thousands of players and retailers around the world, to turn that growth from electric into explosive. 
• From the Privateer Press, press release
  • It is with great excitement that we are announcing that Steamforged Games has acquired the Iron Kingdoms/Warmachine library of properties, including Warcaster: Neo-Mechanika, Riot Quest, Bodgers, and all associated board game, card game and fiction titles, as well as the Formula P3 hobby products line. Going forward, Privateer will continue to partner with Steamforged Games to develop Warmachine, the Iron Kingdoms RPG, and future products based on the vast intellectual property library that has sprung from the Iron Kingdoms. Privateer will also continue to manufacture Warmachine models while working with Steamforged Games to expand the materials the products are offered in as well as increasing availability in markets where Warmachine is not widely accessible.
• Chief Commercial Officer of Steamforged Games Mat Hart said
  • “There’s a real wealth of creative talent and, as you might expect, genuine passion for tabletop gaming in our team. In particular, we all share a special kind of love for Warmachine and the Iron Kingdoms. That, along with our expertise in creating games loved by many, makes us ideally placed to collaborate with Privateer Press in shaping the future of a hugely important franchise. There’s a profound sense of duty to nurture its growth and potential, and we take that responsibility seriously. We cannot wait for what’s to come for the players in this wonderful world.”
• Matt Wilson, Chief Commercial Officer of Privateer Press said
  • “We couldn’t have asked for better custodians than Steamforged. Their track record, history with the games, and genuine excitement about the future make them the perfect fit to shepherd Warmachine and the Iron Kingdoms into the future, opening up new opportunities and growth channels for all Iron Kingdoms titles. We look forward to working with Steamforged in the years to come.”
• There was an update to this acquisition just yesterday, Thursday the 6th of June. 
• In that update Steamforged give a better idea of what they are going to be doing with the properties they have acquired. 
• In a post entitled Part 1: Vision & Mission, Warmachine and Hordes Manifesto, Mat Hart of Steamforged says

So, in short, our first mission is to preserve what’s already excellent, and focus on improving areas that need it. Right now, we have two key priorities:

• Strengthening the Supply Chain: Ensuring models (and everything else) are always available without interruption. This means not only a bunch of backend work on production facilities, inventory control, and logistics, but also collaborating with our distribution and retail partners worldwide to get Warmachine into your local gaming stores (FLGS).
• Expanding the Game’s Reach: We want to share this game with as many people as possible. That means implementing a solid marketing strategy to help more gamers discover (or rediscover) the Iron Kingdoms. Engaging with the community is crucial, as is building support through organised play, cool events, and narratives for gamers to enjoy. We want to make sure we’re present at key shows, running demos for everyone and anyone.

Beyond this, we’re integrating the SFG and Privateer Press (PP) teams to synergise on great art, engaging story, and exciting design and development. More details on this will follow, but suffice to say things are moving in a very positive direction. 

• We will bring you more on this as we get it. Thanks to Corey from our Discord for posting about this to our Discord.

UKGE figures

Expansion into hall 4, losing hall 1

• UK Games Expo is over for another year and just after the doors closed, they released the attendance numbers
• Total Attendance – 65,281 over the three days. Unique attendance was 39,306
• Biggest ever UKGE attendance with a 31% increase on last year.
• Boardgamewire got the scoop on some changes happening next year. 
• The show will be losing Hall 1 but gaining Hall 4. Hall 1 has been booked out by an undisclosed third party for the next two years. 
• The convention is aiming to have 20% more space next year. Hall 1 was 14000 sqm but hall 4 is 16700 sqm. 
• The show is still planning an expansion into the events space, using shows like Gencon as a template where there are thousands of events on offer. 

Diana Jones finalists

• The coveted Diana Jones Award has announced its finalists in this year’s competition.
• The 5 finalists are:
  – Adepticon, the largest wargaming convention in the world and the new home of Golden Demon, Game Workshop’s premier painting contest 

– Ami Baio, owner of Pink Tiger Games and designer of Flatter Me, You Think You Know Me, and Cloud Nine. The awards say of Amy ,

has been on a mission to share compassion and empathy through tabletop games

– Fastaval, a Danish board game and RPG event, known for design innovation and the birth of Danish Freeform- a genre of single scenario RPGs.

– TTRPGs for Trans Rights in Florida, a bundle of roleplaying games organised by Rue Dickey which raised over $280,000 for their partners in LGBTQ+ groups in the state of Florida in America.

– United Paizo Workers, the first workers union in the tabletop gaming industry which was voluntarily recognised in 2023 from Paizo Inc management. 

• The winner was announced on 31st July at the “unofficial kick-off of GenCon” in Indianapolis Indiana. 
• Can’t remember what the trophy is now as the original plastic pyramid is lost forever in the parallel realm of missing post. (The new one is like a perspex blue and white lit-up pyramid)
• https://x.com/mforbeck/status/1555196272440754177

Updates

Ryan Dancey update

• Just under a year ago Elizabeth Hargrave, designer of cultural juggernaut Wingspan amongst other games, posted a thread on Twitter pointing out the lack of female nominees for the Spiel des Jahres, and criticising the pipeline for game production that resisted women designers. Ryan Dancey, CEO of Alderac Entertainment Group, replied to this Twitter thread speculating that the reason he doesn’t get many women designers pitching to him is that they are socialized to avoid harsh criticism. 
• That reply, you can check out the full reply in our show notes, got Ryan a lot of justified backlash. He went on Twitter the following day, apologising and making pledges to help. Those were
  • * We are going to actively connect with designers from under-represented demographic groups, especially women, and offer mentorship and development support of their projects even if AEG is not publishing games of that kind.
  •  * Some people have suggested various organizations that could benefit from our support. We will proactively reach out to the groups that we have been made aware of and aggressively look at pitches from members of these groups. 
  • * Our goal has been to publish the very best games, we are going to expand that goal to help and provide more support to the people who we want to be in business with get to a place where they are being seen and published. 
• He asked folk to hold him accountable
• So we did.
• We aren’t going to read out the whole thing as it is pretty long
• https://x.com/rsdancey/status/1795600725034283418
• In it he gives a breakdown of the company, saying that 5 of the employees are women. He also notes that the new product pipeline has been closed over the period in question, 
• About halfway through he says this.
  • At our leadership summit at the end of January this year our team recommitted ourselves to the goal of widening our reach when prospecting for new game pitches. When we’re ready to re-open our pitch pipeline we plan to be more actively visible in the spaces where we believe we can find and connect with an ever more diverse designer community. Coincidentally and beneficially it appears the industry is self-generating many new venues where these connections may occur and we’re going to seek to take advantage of those opportunities.
• • Another part of that is finding ways to support people at the beginning of their design careers, when they are making their first forays into the business of game design. We continue to research and evaluate opportunities AEG may be able to assist with in this area, but progress so far has been slow other than relationship building with individuals.
• Ryan rounds off the piece by saying
  • Diversity is both an objective and a set of values. I’m proud to work for a company that has embraced the challenge of being a part of the change that the industry needs and is experiencing and I’m happy that we are on a path of continuous improvement in this area that is generating results.

Spiel Essen drops AI art

• Last year in October in episode 131 we reported that the Essen Spiel games fair, the largest tabletop convention in the world, was using AI art across the estate to promote the fair. The images were creepy and the organisation weathered a storm of very justified internet anger.
• Merz Verlag, the company that runs the show said to Boardgamewire.
  • “The online discussion was big, or semi big. We got feedback via mail, especially from artists exhibiting at Essen, saying, ‘Hey, we don’t like that’. Some American exhibitors also said ‘not the best choice maybe’, so we realized that there was a discussion going on about two weeks after putting the pictures online. 
• The same representative said
  • “We have to keep in mind that there are ongoing uncertainties regarding laws and all that, things that we were not aware of in the beginning.
  • “The development of the new technology is discussed in law and society at the moment, so before that is finalised and there is a consensus found for renumeration, for acceptance and all that, we want to focus on the positive things and not create a new discussion. And then our agency had a great idea to still convey these emotions [without AI art].”
  • In a positive piece of AI related news, artist Joan Guardiet, the illustrator behind the White Castle game, is working on a manifesto challenging the use of generative AI within the industry. 
• He told boardgamewire
  • “The fact that Essen Spiel is willing to drastically change their approach to generative AI is really positive for the board game community.
  • “For a start, it shows that voicing our opinions, both as artists and consumers, can make a big difference. It also casts doubt on this idea of the ‘inevitability of AI’ – there are still important choices to be made.
  • “This is a good development and we can only hope that other boardgame companies and events see this as an example of how to avoid similar situations.
  • “Human-made art is core to the creation of board games. It gives depth and soul to projects, as well as rooting them in ideas or concepts that only exist in the creator’s mind beforehand.
  • “I also believe that giving away this part of the process to AI is turning our backs on creativity and new ideas.

IWGB union interview 

• Back in episode 142 we let you know that the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain had started taking on Tabletop gaming members. This is part of their Game Workers section of the organisation. We had reached out for an interview but haven’t heard anything back. While Iain was at UK Games Expo Eryk tapped him on the shoulder. Eryk is an organiser of the Game Workers part of the union and Iain had a chance to chat with him. 
• This is live from the show floor at UK Games Expo 2024, so the sound quality will be a little different to the rest of the show. 

News

Roll20 acquires Demiplane

https://blog.roll20.net/posts/roll20-has-acquired-demiplane

• Roll20, the biggest of the Virtual Tabletops that allow users to play roleplaying games with each other online, has added another quiver to its bow. 
• Back in 2022 Roll20 grew by acquiring One Book Shelf the company that runs Drivethrurpg the biggest online PDF store for RPGs
• Now they have picked up Demiplane. Demiplane is an online character sheet portal for RPGs with an impressive interface and built in dice roller. There are not a lot of games represented on Demiplane at the moment, so why would Roll20 want to buy them?
• Well one of the games that is represented is the forthcoming Daggerheart from Darrington Press, the publishing arm of critical role. Critical Role are an actual play show that has taken the world by storm and shows no signs of letting up with the advent of a new edition of Dungeons and Dragons on the way. 
• From the Roll20 press release
  • Known for its rapid rise as the ‘D&D Beyond for every other game system’, Demiplane offers a game play “Nexus” for a rapidly-growing list of popular TTRPGs including Pathfinder 2E, Vampire: The Masquerade, and Avatar Legends RPG, and more. Each Nexus provides a digital character sheet, character builder and character management along with a beautiful digital-reading experience that assists players in quickly referencing any part of a game’s rule system or content.
• Demiplane currently has 11 games present on the site including Alien from Free League and the Marvel Multiverse RPG. 
• Thanks again Corey from our Discord for this story. 

Mantic acquires River Horse assets

https://icv2.com/articles/news/view/57016/mantic-acquires-river-horses-brand-assets

• Mantic, the UK publisher of the kings of War miniatures game amongst other titles, has acquired the brand and assets of River Horse. River Horse is a UK company probably best known for the Labyrinth and Dark Crystal board games. 
• CEO of River Horse Alessio Cavatore has worked with Mantic CEO Ronnie Renton before, when they were both at Games Workshop. 
• The first game produced under Mantic will be the 40th anniversary of the Labyrinth Board Game

Gamefound becomes a store

https://gamefound.com/en/blog/post/our-next-big-release-introducing-creator-stores-to-gamefound

https://help.gamefound.com/article/381-project-settings-for-store

• Gamefound, the tabletop focused crowdfunding platform that has risen to prominence over the last couple of years, has announced a change to the way it operates. 
• Entitled ‘Creator Stores’ this feature will allow folk using Gamefound to make storefronts to sell their goods. From the update
  • With the most recent platform update, creators can start new projects under the “Store” category. You can create one store to sell items you have in your inventory that are ready for shipping. Of course, crowdfunding and other options will remain available at all times. We’re ensuring that handling store projects and transactions is as simple as possible.
• We will put links to the page where you can find out all about this in the show notes
• Thanks to Corey from our Discord for bringing this to our attention. 
• Discussion: We have said many times that Kickstarter is not a store. Now Gamefound is, kind of. They are going to have to be careful here to not dilute their offering or confuse consumers. 

Quantum teach board game with Uwe Rosenburg

• When is a board game not a board game? When it’s both! You see it can be a board game and not a board game at the same time, and the final state is based on whether it has been observed or not yet and how the wave function collapses.
• Why are we talking about this?
• Germany’s federal Ministry for Education and Research has provided 820,000 euros to a project led by Uwe Rosenburg. The project is developing a game about quantum technologies to help teach about the workings of research laboratories. 
• The project is called Quantista and the first prototypes of the game will be played next year. The publisher Skellig Games will produce 3000 demo copies for game fairs and cafes and the make the game part of their catalogue after the project is over in May 2027. 

First Wonders CCG

It just gets worse and worse. The project lead has been banned from KS for doxxing a commenter. Cue his supporters trying to justify it on BGG – https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/3307388/a-little-light-doxxing-from-jeff

• Crowdfunding is full of strange projects, barely there ideas, and flights of fancy. Sometimes though it is just something that looks like a scam. 
• If you are into tabletop gaming at all and use social media, it is likely you will hae seen an advert for the first wonders CCG. This is a project that was on Kickstarter, then wasn’t, then was again. 
• The reason it was taken down was part of the model involves NFT (non-fungible tokens) that players could speculate on, and Kickstarter doesn’t allow that kind of thing. The project is back up but there have been all sorts of odd signs around it. The game itself promises cards that are never going to be reprinted and has had accusations of not only the art being AI generated but some of the team members attached to the project. 
• There is a former magic: the gathering designer attached but with some of the team members it is hard to verify their existence. The pseudo computer generated profile pics don’t help either. 
• Just when you thought this couldn’t get any worse, it seems that some of the games fans, and its developers, think doxxing people is ok. Doxxing is the act of tying an online public presence to a private one, or a even the real-life details of the person. It is an incredibly dangerous thing to do as you don’t know what an individual might do with that information. 
• Jeff French, the CEO of the company, doxxed a member of the community in the Kickstarter comments, linking the individuals profile on KS and the one they have on BGG.
• There are a few folk defending Jeff in the Boardgamegeek thread we got this from. 
• The project is going to fund, currently being on just under $1 million dollars

Jobs, Opportunities, and Events

https://www.facebook.com/groups/TabletopJobs

Palestinian children-focused fundraiser

https://www.pcrf.net

• Over the weekend just gone the 8th and 9th of June, a host of boardgame media folk are hosting a 12-hour livestream to raise money for the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund. 
• The charity provides essential medical supplies, food, water, and other necessities affected by the current war between the Israeli Government and Hamas. They have raised $25 million dollars so far but ongoing support is vital. 
• Organiser Jillian Ross, the marketing designer at Brotherwise Games, told BoardGameWire,
  •  “After watching other industries do successful fundraising events for Palestinian charities, I felt like it was a no-brainer to do one in the board gaming industry. 
• Publishers like Leder Games and Cephalofair are donating games to be auctioned off during the livestream. 
• Of course, you won’t be able to participate now, but the charity still takes donations directly. 
• We will provide links to all of that in the show notes. 

Patreon Shoutouts

Kevin Bertram

James Naylor

https://naylorgames.com

Shaun Newan
game-a-lot.fun/en
facebook.com/gamealotboardgames

Our Patreon

https://www.patreon.com/thegiantbrain

Metallic Dice Games

https://metallicdicegames.com

Promo Code: ROLLWITHBRAINS

Fanroll

https://fanrolldice.com/ref/2783

Outro

Jamie

Cluedo Liars edition

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/345582/clue-liars-edition

• Four or five years ago, Hasbro started bringing out variants on their classic Monopoly that had something of an ironic twist, including the cheaters edition where cheating is encouraged but those caught are shackled to the board with a plastic handcuff.
• Cluedo has finally caught up with Cluedo: Liars edition. 
• Alongside the usual classic characters (with Dr Orchid replacing Ms White as of newer editions) there are twelve Investigation Cards (6 true and 6 false). You draw one and read it. If another player thinks you are lying, they can hit the large Liar button in the centre of the board. 
• The game ends normally, and for the life of me I can’t find what the new weapons all are. There’s a revolver, a dagger, a lead pipe in a subway sandwich, a poisoned fizzy drink, what appeared to be a candle wick a long thick wick that is either dynamite or rope, and a garden gnome of some description. 
• How do we feel about this? I dunno, I think it’s good to change the formula slightly but then the knowing winks to the players can feel weird.

Iain

Our Links

Thanks very much for listening. If you like what you’ve listened to then the best way to help us out is to share the podcast and drop us a review and rating on itunes.  You can also follow us on

Oliver: https://tabletopgamesblog.com/

Discord: https://discord.gg/3bMx2HK75r

Blusky:https://bsky.app/profile/giantbrain.co.uk

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/giantbrainuk/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thegiantbrain

Website: https://giantbrain.co.uk/

Email: [email protected]