Hey Reader!

David Kessler here.

July is an exciting month for games tested at Protospiel Online. Two games from the early days--we're talking 2020--have found a place in the world this month. Scattered Nexus was tested at PO in October 2020, and again in May 2023. Sinoda was brought to PO in July 2020, and later in January 2022. Congratulations to the creators of these games!

​The 2024 Edition of Scattered Nexus is live on Kickstarter​

​Scattered Nexus is an ongoing passion project that will span a few years. This battle card game takes everything designer Eli Beaird loves about card battlers and indie comics, and puts them together in one box. In addition to making games, Eli also has an indie comic. When trying to get his wife into card games, he made a game about his comic. As he showed it around to his comic creator friends, he discovered that many indie comic creators wanted to be part of a game, but were too small to get a chance. So, he thought that if they joined together, then there could be a game for all of them. Thus Scattered Nexus was born. He has pledged to partner with 90 indie comic creators to feature in the game.

The 2024 edition features 6 new comics. The game is fully playable with just this most recent set. Scattered Nexus already had 20 comics featured, and those are also available through the Kickstarter.
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Kudos to Eli Beaird for his inspiring approach to building community among indie comic creators through his game.

The Kickstarter is open until July 31.

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​Sinoda is on its way​

Bill Murphy and Scott Kelly of BS Games are self-publishing their brand new abstract game, Sinoda.

Boxes of the game are on a boat to Canada right now!

In Sinoda, you win by capturing your opponent’s pieces. But there’s a catch. The pieces are all four sided dice. The value of each die indicates how many points it is worth, and how many spaces you can move it. This makes for a surprisingly deep tactical abstract game, where players need to balance the strength of their pieces against the value to their opponents.

Since abstract games normally do not attract large followings, Bill and Scott chose to self publish Sinoda without a crowdfunding campaign-–a path to publication that designers do not often consider. Scott has written up a history of the development of this game on their website. It details the process of designing the game, from conceptualization to production.

​BS Games has also been working with students, providing internships to help them graduate in game design. The interns are learning a lot, and also helping with the launch of Sinoda!

If you pre-order Sinoda now, you can get a special limited edition with unique pieces.

📣Announcements Announcements Annooouuuncements!

This month, the Protospiel Online Discord server rolled out a free-to-join community section and became the official Discord for the entire Protospiel network of conventions!

All channels under the Community Lounge and the all-new Live Discord Events section are now available to existing server members AND anyone who registers for our free Discord community though our website.

These sections now have a variety of new ways for our members to engage with one another. You can see a full rundown of everything these two sections have to offer in the Community Lounge FAQ.

Since there are lots of options to consider, we recommend focusing on the new prompts for the clubhouse channel -- post an introduction of yourself or try out the new /help command to get answers to one of your burning questions.

ALSO, Badge sales for our August 23-25 2024 convention weekend are opening next week! Keep an eye out for our opening badge sales announcements on Discord and email.

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

~David

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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, 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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