We love helping our community of game designers and playtesters find encouragement and connection through our virtual conventions and the supporting content like our Twitch streams, YouTube channel, and Community Newsletter. It lights us up to see all the amazing milestones Protospiel community members are reaching with their game designs.
Get Tomten in Time for the Holidays! -- Community Newsletter Issue 35
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Hey Reader! Heather Newton here. We've had lots of exciting news about games from our community lately. This weeks feature is one I've been looking forward to for awhile, so let's get to it. Tomten Now on Kickstarter!Way back in January of 2022 Tomten: The Tactical Game of Christmas Gnomes made the rounds at Protospiel Online. It was one of my personal favorites of those I got to playtest that weekend, and I've been eagerly awaiting my next chance to play. That time is nearly at hand! Tomten, for 2-4 players, tells the story of Christmas gnomes hurriedly completing tasks throughout the Swedish holiday season. It offers a light-weight family mode and an advanced tableau-builder mode. Either mode can be played competitively, cooperatively, or in 2-versus-2 teams. Tomten's Protospiel StoryWhen it last visited Protospiel Online, this game was signed with a publisher who has since closed up shop. Encouraged by the reception it got from playtesters, the game's designer, Chris Scaffidi, decided to bring it to market himself under his self-publishing company Fervent Workshop.
Playtesters truly make or break a game. Community members should never doubt whether their engagement with Protospiels matters. Community participation is the lifeblood of game design.
I could have given up on Tomten when the other publisher dropped out of the picture. But the enthusiastic reception of the game at the Protospiels told me that this was a great game that deserved to be finished. The Protospiels gave me courage to pick up the pieces and keep moving forward.
~Chris Scaffidi
What an awesome testament to the difference a playtesting community can make for a game designer and their creation! That story is almost as heartwarming as this picture of a jolly Christmas gnome. 😊 A Unique Campaign ModelThis Kickstarter campaign is a labor of love and tenacity. With 5 funded campaigns under his belt, Chris has decided to do an initial short-run launch of Tomten he can deliver before this Christmas 2024! Only 250 backers can get the standard pledge at ~18% below MSRP and another 40 can get the all-in pledge with a gnome ornament hand painted by Chris and exclusive promos that won't be available in retail. So, if you want these cute little gnomes to be a part of your holiday this year, it's a good idea to back now before all the physical copies are spoken for. There's also a PnP option and an opportunity to sign up for a prompt to order from the second run in Jan 2025, so no one has to be left out in the cold. ⛄ From the CreatorKey Mechanisms:
Thoughts from Playtesters: Tomten's calendar mechanic keeps everyone engaged on every turn. Nobody feels left behind.
Its Christmas theme is not only pleasant but also well integrated with the game progress tracking and the scoring mechanism.
I especially like that there are basic and advanced rules. It makes it much easier to introduce the game to someone who isn't as into board games.
We liked the strategy of timing your work actions to prevent your opponent from gaining a card, and the challenge of gaining enough tags to optimize our final scores.
Public Domain ArtThis project is also an inspiring example of how a creator can get resourceful and make a game that is both fun and eye-catching without the need for generative AI art. To create Tomten, Chris adapted public domain art from holiday cards that a Swede, Jenny Nystrom, illustrated around the turn of the last century. What a perfect match for the cozy holiday experience this game seeks to create! And how awesome that Chris was able to find illustrations all from the same artist and credit her on the project long after she had passed from this world. I don't know about the rest of you, but I can't wait to see this project delivering in only a couple of months! 🎁👀 📣Announcements Announcements Annooouuuncements! 'Tis the season for a boat-load of Kickstarter campaigns from community members! We'll do larger features on many of these in the coming weeks, but here's a quick overview of what's live as of today:
So many fun games to choose from, all with very put-together campaign pages. Well done everyone! That’s it for now. Stay tuned for more awesome events, community opportunities, and updates about games tested at Protospiel! ~Heather P.S. If you have something you'd like to see featured in our Community Newsletter, you have 3 options -- either submit an official feature request, reply to this message, or, if you're a current attendee or alumni, post in the #🙌share-your-wins channel in the Protospiel Online Discord server to let us know the details. We'd love to celebrate you! |
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We love helping our community of game designers and playtesters find encouragement and connection through our virtual conventions and the supporting content like our Twitch streams, YouTube channel, and Community Newsletter. It lights us up to see all the amazing milestones Protospiel community members are reaching with their game designs.
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