11 minute read
Japanime Games
Middara
Japanime Games has partnered with indie studio Succubus Publishing to publish Middara through their extensive channel of distributors and retailers - bringing the surprise smash hit JRPG board game to a much wider audience. Middara successfully funded on Kickstarter in 2015 with a followup campaign also successfully funding in 2019, and Succubus Publishing has been hard at work fulfilling Kickstarter pledges and orders for the game. Act 1 of this extensive tabletop game, Middara: Unintentional Malum, includes over 40 miniatures, an 80-hour campaign, an integrated story-driven campaign that includes a free audiobook app, and unique gameplay elements in an original, sprawling narrative dungeon-crawler board game/rpg hybrid. A “Story-Driven Tactics Board Game” is at the heart of Middara - with an innovative role-playing lite, turn-based tactical miniatures experience that has no true equivalent in the tabletop industry. The brainchild of Alex Hansen and Brooklyn Lundberg, owners of Succubus Publishing, Middara initially launched on Kickstarter in 2015. After a second, supplemental crowdfunding campaign in 2019 that raised over $2.5 Million, Middara is entering its third production run and will be open to retail and distribution customers. The first act of the game is just the jumping-off point. There are two further acts which will begin production 2022, as well as multiple scenario and character expansions, upgrade packs, PVP scenarios, and more to follow! Japanime Games has partnered with Succubus Publishing in order to bring Coming this incredibly ambitious project to life with manufacturing, printing, and distribution to retail. Q4 2022 In Middara, you and up to three friends take the role of dynamic heroes fresh out of training. You begin with your MAST - Magical Aptitude and Skill Test - that introduces you to the core gameplay mechanics, but once you’ve ‘graduated’ this tutorial stage you will progress into intense encounters and story-driven set piece action as you adventure to defeat ancient evils and solve an unfolding mystery - no spoilers though, it’s a story you’ll want to experience for yourself!
You can customize your character to your heart’s content, with over 160 unique items and 110 different abilities you can mix and match to create your ideal hero. The heroes themselves have names and unique abilities, but the way you play them is yours - and there are tons of playstyles, item and ability synergies, and cool strategies you can develop as you play. If you want to play a healer who rocks a flintlock or a magic user who fights wearing full plate armor, you can do so - the choices are endless!
One of the most exciting parts of Middara is the story! Middara: Unintentional Malum Act 1 plays out with an extensive, 80+ hour campaign directed by an innovative, choose-your-own-adventure AI system: as you act, react, and play through different scenarios and encounters, consequences unfold, hidden loot is uncovered, and new story beats are unlocked! There’s even a nifty decoder tool included in the base game that is used to reveal mystery items, hidden events, and surprise enemy spawns when certain criteria are met. As you and your friends adventure, your actions will slowly influence events in the narrative - and the ending you
get can vary wildly by the time it’s done. The campaign book comes in at over 500 pages - a whopping tome in its own right that guides players through the story and scenarios - and when paired with the Middara app which can act as a “dungeon master” for this immersive dungeon crawler, you start to see the full breadth of this ambitious game unfold. Act 1 is just the beginning, with Acts 2 and 3 planned for 2022 and additional encounters, bounty packs (large “boss” enemies you can hunt down with your friends), additional character packs and even high end resin miniatures to complement the base game’s 40+ hard plastic models. Succubus Publishing plans for Middara to be around for a long time to come - and Japanime Games is here to help! Japanime Games is partnered with Succubus publishing to manufacture and print future production runs of Middara: Unintentional Malum Act 1, as well as the first printings of Act 2, 3, and beyond. Utilizing Japanime Games’ manufacturing, marketing, and distribution networks, Middara will be able to reach a much wider range of customers both online and in the retail and convention spaces - and the partnership, which went into effect March 10, 2022, will be ongoing for the foreseeable future. Japanime Games & Succubus Publishing previewed Middara at GAMA Expo Coming 2022, and will continue to do so at future conventions throughout the year - the game is currently on sale through www.middara.Q4 2022 com and will also be available through www.japanimegames.com in Q2-Q3 2022.
Available Now! Coming Q4 2022
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Coming Q2 2023
Galactic Era from Seajay Games is an epic space empire builder for 1 to 6 players, playable in 3 hours. It brings some innovative features to the genre: choice of alignment (darkness or light), diceless combat, and technology trading. Also included is a rich background story inspired by UFO and ET witness accounts. galacticera.net
With Puppet Masters, pick one of 27 playable characters, two of 18 thematic decks that fit your play style, shuffle them with your opponent’s and play! Bid on powerful minions, slay the unclaimed for gold! Equip items and powerful spells. Dominate, manipulate and destroy! Be the last Puppet Master Standing. Austin Koepp, ackoepp@gmail.com puppetmastersprojects.com
Décorum from Floodgate Games is a passive-aggressive game of cohabitation, where you and your partner decorate your home in a way that makes you both happy. But different things make each of you happy, and nobody says exactly what they need. Can you compromise, or is it time to move out? MSRP: $44.95 rich@floodgategames.com Restoration Games Key of the Kingdom is a hilarious family game-night adventure featuring a giant folding double board, whimsical characters, and diabolical challenges. Fantastic illustrations by Andrew Bosley. Available now. “With kids, I found this game to be a blast,” said Tom Vasel, The Dice Tower. retailers@restorationgames.com Cat in the Box: Deluxe Edition from Bezier Games is the quintessential quantum trick-taking card game for 2 to 5 cool cats, and where your card’s color isn’t defined until you play it! Hypothesize how many tricks you will win, and plan them carefully so you don’t create a pawsitively catastrophic paradox! beziergames.com
Meeple Mountain
goes to GAMA Expo
Meeple Mountain was given the opportunity to attend this year’s GAMA Expo in Reno, Nevada. Justin offers his thoughts on the biggest annual tabletop trade show in North America.
By Justin Bell When our fearless leader, Andy Matthews, reached out to see if I would be willing to go to GAMA Expo in mid-March, I jumped at the chance. GAMA (The Game Manufacturers Association) runs a trade show every spring to give approximately 300 retailers the chance to meet with publishers and learn more about the games retailers want to stock on their shelves. GAMA also runs the Origins Board Game Convention. For the first time, GAMA extended invitations to about 25 media outlets, including Meeple Mountain. It was a fantastic opportunity to see the industry up close. What kinds of games will retailers look to stock? What games will publishers push to the retail channel? How will publishers connect with the media to ensure their newest games see the light?
I spent three days in Reno; one day was spent mainly in seminars and industry sessions, while the next two days were a mix of meetings with publishers about their newest games and the games which will hit shelves later this year.
Sound interesting? Come behind the curtain with me as I tell all!
Oak looks magnificent on the table
That’s the line I heard more than any other from various publishers and media walking the expo hall floor during the show. And in this case: quiet is a beautiful thing.
You see, GAMA Expo has the look of a big convention: publishers with booths, people wearing badges, lots of large, colorful ads for upcoming games.
Except there are only about 1,400 people at the event. Spread across a massive trade show floor, and with only two days of expo hall time (as opposed to three or four days like many other conventions), this gives the entire affair a much more leisurely feel.
Retailers have lots of space to stroll each aisle and take in the products on display. Publishers get lots of quality time, by sending plenty of staff (marketing, sales, executives, volunteers, game designers) to chat with retailers about their products. Media can comfortably interact with publishers to chat about current and upcoming games.
Win, win, win.
This is in no way a sign of disrespect for fans. As a guy who loves crowds, I still enjoy going to shows like PAX Unplugged and Gen Con to demo more games, take cosplay pictures, and soak in the raucous, almost party-like atmosphere.
But GAMA Expo was different. Intimate. A great opportunity, between the daytime expo hall events and the evening networking events, for media to have more casual conversations about not just the tabletop hobby, but life in general.
Take, for example, a few of the conversations I stumbled into while at the show. I had the chance to chat with AJ Porfirio of Van Ryder Games (Final Girl) and Keith Matejka of Thunderworks Games (Cape May, Roll Player) about the success of some of their recent games, in between joking about lots of other random topics.
I spent time speaking with Conor McGoey of Inside Up Games about the success of their recent Kickstarter for Earth, and how the mix of content creator coverage for the game gave audiences a wide array of opinions on the game. And I had the chance to chat with many of the other hosted media at GAMA Expo about how we differ in covering the biggest games, all while socializing in a room called The Safari (a hotel suite complete with a large elephant overlooking a hot tub, with tusks on the entrance).
These types of random meetups popped up a dozen or more times over the 3 days I was in Reno.
The Horizons Fellowship Program
GAMA, like other member associations, had its share of honest conversations about inclusion over the last few years, particularly as it relates to the lack of diversity in the gaming industry.
In the wake of this, GAMA created the Horizons Fellowship program, aimed to create more diversity in both the publishing/design and retailer space. I had the chance to attend the graduation program on the third night of the show and it was an amazing display.
GAMA, through sponsors such as Chip Theory Games (Too Many Bones), was able to sponsor 4 retailers and 5 publishers at the trade show to give chances to BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) that wouldn’t otherwise have been available.
GAMA received 40 submissions for the 9 spots that were covered by sponsors. It’s a great program and one that inspired me to not only join GAMA but also offer my expertise in the DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) training space for future initiatives with member organizations. Kudos to GAMA for taking steps in the right direction to bring more inclusion to the tabletop industry.
Creature Comforts, from KTBG copy
Tokyo Sidekick, from Japanime Games
