TOKYO SERIES Pre-order Store

Introducing Tokyo Coin Laundry & Tokyo Tsukiji Market, 48h, Heavy Cardboard plays Metro, Kota Nakayama designer diary!
about 6 years ago – Fri, Feb 02, 2018 at 10:19:44 PM

I'm happy to introduce 2 of the 3 upcoming TOKYO SERIES titles, TOKYO COIN LAUNDRY and TOKYO TSUKIJI MARKET! Here's a brief sneak peak into the games:

TOKYO COIN LAUNDRY is the next framework game in the series, featuring miniature washing machines, detergent, magazines, and clothes! Just like JIDOHANBAIKI, this title will include many games created by guest designers and myself. Some of the overarching themes involved will include hidden information, deduction, and collection. This will all be possible because the washing machines will have functioning doors, so they can be opened to have clothes placed inside!

TOKYO TSUKIJI MARKET is the next very heavy game in the series, themed around the bustling Tsukiji Fish Market. The gameplay is very open ended in strategy, with nearly endless options available. One option will be to purchase or rent miniature model ships for fishing, which will hold actual resources on them, that can be sold in your market stand to other players! Once those fish resources are purchased, they can be used to 'enter the market' for other specific resource trading or efficiencies.

One of the many cool things about the game, is that there are a lot of unique markets included, and not all of them can be used at the same time in the game, so every time you play it will be a custom experience! Stay tuned for more info on this heavy hitter and the third upcoming title :)

We are literally at the closing hours, and I want to make triple sure everyone understands that this is the only time to get free metal currency and a challenge coin! If you back for any amount less than $35 through Kickstarter (even if you plan to upgrade your pledge later), you will not receive a challenge coin or free metal currency. The time to pledge is now! 

Let's also strive for the last stretch goal, I know we can put in a group effort to get the word out. I can't thank you all enough for your support and encouragement on this project, I am dedicated to delivering the best possible Tokyo experience!

My friends over at Heavy Cardboard will be doing a live stream play through of TOKYO METRO Saturday at 10:00 MST, 1700 UTC, 1800 CET. I will also be there in the chat to answer questions, stop by the event if you can! 

And now, on to the designer diary:

1 - Can you give a brief overview of what your game is about, and where the inspiration came from? In Battle Shipment, drinks are added to crates one by one, until enough crates are full, in which case they are shipped out. Then players must reveal a secret card, and continue filling crates. In the end of the game, the remaining secret cards are revealed. The players score their cards based on which crates were filled in a certain order. My image for the game is that the crate is shipped when it's full.  

In Lost Bottle , each player has hidden cards, so they must try to determine what their opponents cards are. Each card could be a shape or a color, so when one of each is hidden, the game will be a deduction game. Using this, players attempt to give bottles to their opponent, which will be assigned to different areas based on their cards.

2 - What did you think about designing under the constraints of using only the components provided in the game? I like this situation with many limitations. I would like to try it again if I have the same opportunity.

3 - If you could make a game themed around anything in the world, what would it be? Internet. And logistics.

4 - What is your favorite thing about Japan? If you don’t know anything about Japan, what is your favorite thing about Japan? Please answer. I live far from a big city, but I can travel to it in about 2 hours.

5 - What is something unique about you that we don’t know? Nothing.

6 - Please give a short description of what you’re up to next, and where people can find out more about it! Now I'm trying to make new games for Osaka Game Market 2018 and Tokyo Game Market 2018 Spring. I will post information on them on the Game Market website. Additionally, I also try to make a new game for TGM 2018 Autumn.

A special thanks to Kota, as he made two games that are both fascinating and fun! I was really blown away with how much depth and strategy these accomplished, with such an incredibly simple set of rules. This is Japanese design at its finest. 

You can find out more about Kota from his BGG page here.

And now I'll see us out with a long exposure shot taken at Tokyo Disney Sea:

Final push on the horizon, HOJO Toryo designer diary!
about 6 years ago – Wed, Jan 31, 2018 at 10:07:37 PM

We are nearing the end of the campaign, and it's incredible to see how far we have come! Just check this list of unlocked content and quality upgrades:

• SPOT UV box and cards
• Form moulded miniatures
• Resin drinks
• High quality linen 310gsm ivory core cards
• 5th player Metro pieces
• Printing inside of the boxes
• Trade in challenge coin

And even cooler, FREE metal currency! This will be the last chance to get the metal currency for free, as only Kickstarter backers at $35 or more will get the $25 metal coins at not extra cost. Be sure to spread the word and tell your friends who may be interested, as this opportunity will disappear in just 3 days!

Also on the horizon, we have an embroidered bag for the currency, and 3 component unlocks. Let's push hard for the final stretch goals!

And now it seems very fitting, for me to happily introduce HOJO Toryo:

1 - Can you give a brief overview of what your game is about, and where the inspiration came from? 空き缶・ペットボトルを押し付け合うゲーム。コンポーネントから。/ This game is about giving PET bottles to other players, it is inspired from the components.

2 - What did you think about designing under the constraints of using only the components provided in the game? 数量よりテーマが制限されるのが難しく感じた。/ I found the theme more difficult to work with than the actual components.

3 - If you could make a game themed around anything in the world, what would it be? 所得格差、麻薬問題など。/ Income disparity, drug problems, and so on.

4 - What is your favorite thing about Japan? If you don’t know anything about Japan, what is your favorite thing about Japan? Please answer. 英語が話せなくても暮らしていけるところ。/ We can live without speaking English.

5 - What is something unique about you that we don’t know? ボードゲームの早作り。/ I can make board games very quickly (One week or less).

6 - Please give a short description of what you’re up to next, and where people can find out more about it! 過去作の英訳版をぼちぼち作っていこうかと。/ I am going to make English rules for my early games.

Thank you HOJO for creating a great game, with a deep social theme. To find out more, check out the BGG page for HOJO Toryo.

Stay tuned for the next update, as I'll be setting a time for the KS live event, and unveiling 2 of the 3 new TOKYO SERIES titles coming to Kickstarter in January 2019!

To see us out, here is a photo of a very nice construction worker I met one day on a walk in Shinjuku:

Stretch goal details, Kenichi Tanabe designer diary!
about 6 years ago – Sun, Jan 28, 2018 at 11:19:17 PM

First off, 150k! You are all amazing, I can't wait to meet everyone at conventions and a few of the top backing cities this year! Let's play some games, that is my main motivation for all of this after all! 

Right now I'm looking into the logistics of how many cities we can play giant games at. So far the top five (you can see this by clicking on the 'community' tab from the project page) are:

Singapore, London, Sydney, Melbourne, and Tokyo. I should be at UK Games Expo this year, as well as Tokyo Game Market, so all five will likely be on the docket! If you're interested in joining, or watching on a live stream, give a shout out in the comments :) 

Some new goals are on the horizon! There should be a good push at the end of the campaign, let's all share links and tell our friends so we can hit these extra stretch goals. It's the last chance to get the free metal currency, tell the world! Haha. 

 

Click the image above to download the newest Jidohanbaiki rulebook, which includes 4 new games from Japanese designers! (Note they have yet to be professionally edited). These games are incredibly different from anything else yet shown. I have really enjoyed playing them, I'm very grateful to all of the Japanese designers! Go check out their other work and use their vending machine ads when you play the games.

On that same subject, I'm very pleased to have interviewed my good friend Kenichi Tanabe of Colon Arc! Kenichi is a very talented designer, and Colon Arc + Dark Flight have some exciting collaborative projects coming! 

1 - Can you give a brief overview of what your game is about, and where the inspiration came from? The game is the simple memory game. The players just take one of the bottles. But if it's matched at the color or the shape with the other player, it's discarded. But the taken bottles are in the fist without looking. The bottles are moved from the right fist to the left fist, and from the left fist to the case. (Scored) The players just remember the bottles in the fist of other players. It's based on my old game "The tarot of the black cat". I like this card game. I don't like the heavy memory game. But the light is very good.  

2 - What did you think about designing under the constraints of using only the components provided in the game? Every time, I do it. Because it's a good guide for the design. Already I made many games from a lot of approaches. But when it's fixed totally, the game is a small and a simple at many times.  

3 - If you could make a game themed around anything in the world, what would it be? I would like to make the"Industrial Revolution".  

4 - What is your favorite thing about Japan? If you don’t know anything about Japan, what is your favorite thing about Japan? Please answer. I like 4 seasons, foods and mangas.  

5 - What is something unique about you that we don’t know? I like the technical card games. So I played many card games from 1998. I cannot count them, but maybe it's 1000 and more. Additionally, I went many countries. So I touched some cultures.  

6 - Please give a short description of what you’re up to next, and where people can find out more about it! Now I'm preparing two new games for the Tokyo Game Market 2018 Spring. You will see some images on the Twitter or Facebook.  

Twitter: @colonarc @atckt(Personal)  

Facebook: colonarc

Thank you Kenichi for all of your hard work and help with this project and my other games! 

On a final note, I plan to schedule TWO Kickstarter Live events toward the end of the campaign, at different times of day so that hopefully everyone who wants to catch one can do so. Feel free to throw out suggested times, keeping in mind that I'm in Tokyo. 

I hope to do a Q&A, followed by a short overview and teach of a few of my favorite games for Jidohanbaiki, and then a walk through Tokyo highlighting residential architecture and vending machines! 

Inside box printing, new goals, designs wanted, Michael Fox designer diary!
over 6 years ago – Wed, Jan 24, 2018 at 12:21:38 AM

Stretch goal unlocked! So why is it cool to have printing inside of the boxes, and does it serve any purpose? Why, I'm SO glad I asked that excellent question!

The printing inside of the box not only looks aesthetically pleasing, but it will also serve a practical purpose with spots for colors and numbers that will be used in a few of the games! For example, one game requires cards to be secretly assigned values that only one player can see, and now you can stand up the box lid, tuck the cards under certain slots, and the box is part of the game! You'll see more examples crop up later in the series as well.

Now that we've hit the 125k mark so quickly, it's time to add some new stretch goals! There have been some very good suggestions from backers and play testers so far, if you want to weigh in or give suggestions feel free to comment below. Let's all be sure to be respectful of everyones suggestions, and keep in mind that I will have to make the final call on what is practical :) I believe at minimum there will be the option for a clear marker that aids in train movement in TOKYO METRO, giving indication of where the train started movement from. Some gameplay aiding tokens are always a plus!

If you thought TOKYO JIDOHANBAIKI was only about the guest designers, you can think again! The whole fun of the game being a framework is that it offers new and creative games to come to life. I plan to release a second rulebook down the road with more guest designed games, and many games designed by you! The gamer! 

If you would like to design a game after you receive your copy, please write up the rules and send them to [email protected] . I'm looking into setting up a forum on the Dark Fight website as well, that will be a creative space for discussion of the games and submissions of new ideas. Let's get designing!

And now..

1 - Can you give a brief overview of what your game is about, and where the inspiration came from? Sure! I’ve only visited Japan once, but when I was there, I did what I *always* do when I’m in a foreign country - and that’s try out as much weird and wonderful soda as possible. It sounds daft, but it’s true - I do it everywhere, much to the consternation of those I travel with. Most people want to check out legendary landmarks or places of historical interest, I head straight to the nearest equivalent of a 7-Eleven. It’s also an excuse to explore away from the usual spots and get myself familiar with where I’m staying.

Anyway, when I was in Japan, this was even easier for me than normal - all I needed was a few coins in my pocket and off I wandered, looking for random vending machines to try out stuff I’d never tried before. And that’s where the game idea came from - turning the whole experience into a betting engine where you know some of the information but shouldn’t always go for the safe selection. The idea is that each of the three players represents one of the three owners of the machine, trying to guess which will be the most popular drink types. If your bets come off, you can get rich quick, but you can also consider what other people have selected, then maybe make even more money. Of course, that’s if the fickle soda-drinking public are buying what you’re selling…!

2 - What did you think about designing under the constraints of using only the components provided in the game? Most of the time when I design something, it’s pretty open - blank cards, tokens, meeples… and they can take me in countless different directions. The moment I opened the Jidohinbaiki box, I knew where I was going to go. The idea hit me pretty quickly, and it only took a bit of tweaking and testing to make it work (and more importantly, make it fun).

3 - If you could make a game themed around anything in the world, what would it be? Man, the answer to this changes on a daily basis, it’s like asking what your favourite songs are. At the moment I’ve been playing a lot of Battle Royale video games, stuff like Fortnite and PUBG, and I’ve been wanting to mess around with the idea of taking that to the tabletop world. 100 players, one single game, one single winner. It’s the kind of thing that could only really be played at a convention, and testing would be horrific, but one day… maybe...

4 - What is your favorite thing about Japan? If you don’t know anything about Japan, what is your favorite thing about Japan? Please answer. Honestly, it’s the people. I think the time I spent there was so enjoyable because I made a concerted effort to speak with as many different people as possible. They were welcoming, they were helpful, they answered my questions when I wanted to know about daft stuff… it was wonderful. I can’t wait to go back again some day - hopefully to a major event like Comiket or Tokyo Game Market, just so I can experience a vaguely familiar event in a wildly different situation.

5 - What is something unique about you that we don’t know? I have a minor obsession with game shows - I’ve loved them since I was a kid growing up in Ireland, and have a very trivia-heavy memory. I’ve been on a couple of shows in the UK, and have even managed to win some decent money! If they ever brought Jeopardy back, I’d be first in line to apply!

6 - Please give a short description of what you’re up to next, and where people can find out more about it! Well, I’m continuing my day job with the awesome folks at Hub Games (formerly known as The Creativity Hub) and we’ll be publishing some very interesting games over the next year or so. I also do game videos over on the Little Metal Television channel on YouTube, and you can find me on Twitter anytime - I’m @idlemichael on there. Come say hi!

Thanks for the awesome game Michael, it definitely has a great balance with 3 players which is hard to achieve!

And as Michael mentioned in the interview, he made a really cool and instructive video for how to play his game!

To close out, a shot I took during rush hour on the metro!

Languages, Izakaya, Jake and Zach Given of Lay Waste Games designer diary!
over 6 years ago – Sat, Jan 20, 2018 at 11:43:20 PM

Thanks to all game components being free of language, all of the Tokyo games can be played 100% with only a translated rulebook! The main game will include an English and Japanese rulebook, and there is already work under way to translate the first three titles into: Greek, French, Spanish, and likely German. 

If you have a specific language you would like to see the games translated into, please comment below!

All three of the rulebooks just received an update, you can view the changes now by clicking the rulebook images on the campaign page. Metro has gained more clarification, Jidohanbaiki had visuals added and text edits, and Jutaku gained a new mix game that uses all three games titled:

Izakaya is a game about building a small city using worker placement and Jutaku pieces as a puzzle element. You will also have the opportunity to place drink shops on street corners, raising all surrounding building values! Here are a few shots of the game in progress:

You can read the full rules in the Jutaku rulebook here.

And now, on to my favorite part of the updates!

1 - Can you give a brief overview of what your game is about, and where the inspiration came from? 5 Can Stub is a poker-inspired set collection game where the “betting” takes the form of buying cans from the stockpile and placing them in the vending machine. Any that emerge are added to your “hand of cards” in the pursuit of creating the best poker hand (or the best basket of cans!). 

2 - What did you think about designing under the constraints of using only the components provided in the game? This was incredibly fun, especially with the unique components. When you begin with limitless possibilities it can be an ironically paralyzing constraint. By limiting the design process to a set of components, it forces you to laser focus on creating the best game experience you can within that framework. Plus when you jump into someone else’s sandbox you are immediately met with ideas and inspiration you wouldn’t have come up with on your own. 

3 - If you could make a game themed around anything in the world, what would it be? We’ve been dreaming about making a tabletop game that would essentially be a sequel to the original Final Fantasy on NES. It was (and still is, we both play this regularly!) such a pivotal experience and shaped our preferences and expectations of games for years. 

4 - What is your favorite thing about Japan? If you don’t know anything about Japan, what is your favorite thing about Japan? Please answer. I know very little about Japan, but I’ve always had a fascination for Samurai and in particular the intricate process of forging Japanese blades. 

5 - What is something unique about you that we don’t know? We were both members of the Boston-based rock band Bang Camaro. 

6 - Please give a short description of what you’re up to next, and where people can find out more about it! Our reprint and expansion of Dragoon is releasing shortly, followed by the release of our latest game Human Era, plus Heads will Roll - a dexterity game designed by Matt Fantastic and Alex Cutler - will be sold for the first time at Pax East. You can learn more and sign up for our mailing list at www.laywastegames.com .

I can't end without mentioning the rest of the amazing team at Lay Waste Games, they have all helped me immensely! First up, Nick Nazzaro, he's an amazing artist! I'm finding inspiration with everything he puts out, and he has a really good perspective on life and creativity. Just check out this sweet ad he made for the vending machine:

Jon is a crazy amazing business guy with even crazier ideas! I've learned a ton from him, and he is always helping me out with nothing in return. I'm really happy to have him as a friend. You can check out a conversation we had on his podcast here.

Alyssa is always working behind the scenes to make the magic happen! I can't thank her enough for the support she's given to Dark Flight (including making sure we weren't homeless once!), and she has the best attitude around! 

I hope to build a dedicated hard working team at Dark Flight that's even close to what Lay Waste Games has put together :) Go checkout their work!

I think a fitting end to this bubbly update is a Harajuku girl! Stay tuned for some super cool news in the next update!