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.
Three New Games from Protospiel Online Designers -- Community Newsletter Issue 7
Hey Reader!
Emily Vincent here.
We all play games because they're fun, but some games also manage to nail funny. It's a tricky balancing act when you add humor to a game design, making sure that the humor doesn't overpower the game mechanics while also figuring out how to keep things funny over multiple plays. And on top of that, everybody's sense of humor is different, making it challenging to find something that has broad appeal. Striking that balance takes a lot of iteration and playtesting. But all the hard work is worth it when you hear the laughter around the table.
Two New Games by Fertessa Allyse
Not just one but TWO games designed by Fertessa Allyse hit retail in the last couple of weeks, both with a strong comedy bent!
Mansplaining
Mansplaining, a co-design by Fertessa Allyse and Mondo Davis, from Breaking Games, is a party game where everyone's a know-it-all. Try to get others to guess your topic, always starting with "Well, actually..." and sneaking in as many detail words as possible.
| Check out Mansplaining! |
Book of Villainy
From Gold Seal Games, Book of Villainy is a medium weight strategy game in which you play as a B-list villain building a tableau of story cards describing your dastardly deeds.
Fertessa playtested Book of Villainy way back at the very first Protospiel Online in April of 2020. It's so exciting to finally get to see it in its finished, physical form!
| Pre-order Book of Villainy! |
Chomp by Clarence Simpson
Dino Dinner Time by Clarence Simpson, another game tested during that same April 2020 Protospiel Online, went on to become Chomp, one of the 4 small games in the bundle from Allplay (formerly Board Game Tables) that recently funded to the tune of $500K+. Score points for feeding your dinosaurs and fulfilling your goal cards, being careful not to let them eat each other in this 36 card micro game. Pre-orders are still open if you missed the campaign!
| Pre-order Chomp! |
Protospiel Online is coming May 5-7!
Tickets are on sale for our next Protospiel Online, May 5th through 7th! Join us for three days of playtesting with game designers from around the world. Early Bird pricing is available through April 24th!
| Buy Protospiel Online Badges! |
That’s it for now. Stay tuned for more awesome events, community opportunities, and updates about games tested at Protospiel!
~Emily
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!
Hi! We're your Protospiel Online Content Team
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.
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...
Hey Reader! Emily Vincent here. Some of you know that last year I decided to branch out from game design into game publishing. I see so many great designs in our online community and wanted to become a part of bringing those games to tables around the world. As part of this process I applied for and was accepted to the GAMA Horizons Fellowship program, an accelerator for emerging publishers and retailers from historically underrepresented groups in the tabletop industry. I'm excited to share...
Hey Reader! David Kessler here. Bubble Net is live on Kickstarter! Congratulations to Cat Drayer, of Drayer Ink! Bubble Net is Drayer Ink's first Kickstarter, and one of the first games they ever brought to Protospiel Online. Bubble Net is a meditative, multiplayer Solitaire game for 1 to many players, designed and illustrated by Cat Drayer, and developed by George Drayer. In the wild, most humpback whales hunt by lunge fishing - they see a shoal of fish and they lunge at them. It’s not very...