In anticipation of the Kickstarter launch of Crumbs! The Sandwich Filler Game, its designer (Jon) and publisher (Scott) will be discussing the process of designing and developing a game from concept to creation!
This week, how Jon and Scott came to meet and play Crumbs!, following a chance message on Twitter:
Jon: At this point of my foray into game design I had a few 18-card games at various stages of development but Breadhead (as it was known), was by far the most developed. It had got to a point where I felt comfortable considering pitching it to potential publishers. But who might it be a good fit for?
Whilst browsing my Twitter feed in February 2022 something caught my eye thanks to an association with the wonderful Ludoquist board game cafe in Croydon. The tweet professed a love of 18-card microgames and the user seemed to also have links with South London. This turned out to be Scott/Minerva who was a Croydon-based board game aficionado who wore many gaming hats including being a board game publisher. I thought there would be nothing to lose by messaging him on the off-chance his interest in 18-card games extended to possibly considering designs other than his own for publishing. What could be more perfect for a first-time designer I dreamt to myself - an independent local publisher who loves microgames? Little did I know my dreams would become a reality…
Scott: After sending Swatch off to print and preparing to fulfil the Kickstarter campaign, my thoughts turned to what would come next. I used that time to develop a couple of game concepts further to explore their potential for publishing, and had begun a co-design with another designer from the playtesting community that I run in South London. With so many ideas in my head I hadn't even thought about other people's games, until I received Jon's Twitter DM!
I get emails or messages from time to time from people looking for advice (often on self-publishing) and I always try to respond, as I only made it this far with the help of other more experienced designers. Jon introduced himself and asked if I would be interested in meeting to try out Breadhead and whether I had considered publishing other designers. I hadn't, as this was the first time someone had pitched a game to me, but I was open to the idea! Never one to turn down a game, I agreed to meet with Jon to see what he'd been working on and show him a few of my prototypes. In my mind, even if it wasn't something I was interested in publishing, at the very least I'd have an enjoyable evening, meet another designer, and I might even be able to recruit him to the local playtesting community I run!
After taking me through the rules I tried my hand at it. I lost! But one of the great things about the game is that you can often identify what you needed to do to win (and when). So I tried again. And lost again! But the opportunities for winning combinations were clear to me now, using single actions to place ingredients across multiple sandwiches for maximum efficiency, and I was hooked. The appeal was obvious and immediate; a tight game of managing your resources, with intuitive actions, making every use of its minimal components that made the game feel much bigger than its size hinted at. I soon asked Jon for the print and play files and made my own copy, which saw a lot of use! I couldn't stop thinking and talking to Jon about the game and its potential, with one overwhelming thought; I had to publish it!
In our next entry, playtesting the game with others and the changes it brings!
Until then, you can save the project on Kickstarter here:
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