Hey Reader!

Emily Vincent here.

'Tis the season to launch on Kickstarter. As the games we bring to Protospiel Online evolve and grow, we inevitably start seeing them in game stores, at online retailers, and on crowd-funding platforms. It's always exciting to see something you played an early version of become fully realized.

As part of the Protospiel Community, we know that folks are interested in knowing what's going on with our community members and learning how we might support each other. Backing the Kickstarter of a game that you enjoyed can be one of those ways! So in the spirit of keeping us all informed, today we're highlighting two new Kickstarter campaigns that might capture your imagination.

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​InFUNity Tiles​

Did you hear about the math discovery of the "aperiodic monotile" just last spring? It's an "einstein shape" that can cover an entire surface INFINITELY without any repeating pattern. It was just named a Best Invention of 2023 by TIME Magazine, and now Atlas Games is making it available to the world as an actual physical gaming tile.
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InFUNity Tiles is an infinite puzzle. Pieces connect endlessly — but they can also misconnect in "wrong" ways to leave gaps that can't be filled. So it's more challenging than it looks.

The interesting thing for game designers is that the reason the shape works is that it's actually HEX-BASED. Check out how the internal "kite" shapes make a hidden hex grid, in the diagram below. A lot of folks in the game design community were pretty excited when this shape was announced. If you were one of those folks, these tiles could be a new rapid prototyping tool. Perhaps they'll inspire your next tile placement or area control game.

These tiles are made of RECYCLED PLASTIC so will divert 5,000 lbs of plastic waste from landfills. The project is actually designed as a model for the game industry, to show by example that making game components from recycled plastic is possible!

InFUNity Tiles is in its last week on Kickstarter (ending November 16th) and still needs to be fully backed! Take a look on Kickstarter for yourself or gift a copy to a school if you'd rather. This could become a new tool in your design toolbox!

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​Riverbed Hunt​

Riverbed Hunt is a light strategy deduction game from the folks at Odd Statue Games. This is their first game and they funded on Kickstarter in only 41 hours! Play as Tritons, the denizens of an aquatic fantasy world. Each character type has asymmetric goals and win conditions, making for a fun strategic challenge and lots of replay potential.

You may have seen Riverbed Hunt at a Protospiel Online! The Odd Statue Games team is extremely grateful for the invaluable feedback they received from their Protospiel playtesters, making Riverbed Hunt a stronger game.

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📣Announcements Announcements Annooouuuncements!

Elizabeth Hargrave, Geoff Engelstein, and Sen Foong-Lim have teamed up to launch the Tabletop Game Designers Association.

This association, expected to launch in Q1 of 2024, is built on the pillars of advocacy, professional development, and community for tabletop game designers. There are a handful of member benefits set to be available at launch and several more they're planning to add in the future. You can sign up on the TTGDA website to get notified when they officially open.

That’s it for now. Stay tuned for more awesome events, community opportunities, and updates about games tested at Protospiel!

~Emily

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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 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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