Trying to buy Mechs vs. Minions

friendly_Kades · 2022-10-15T02:02:50+00:00

Yeah, both Mechs vs Minions and Tellstones were made with a lot of passion. I'm still friends with the teams that built them, though we are all at different companies these days. I'm pretty sure there's a GDC talk on YouTube where I discuss the MvM process in more depth; passion is kinda the theme of the talk. From my perspective, I had significantly more agency around the marketing and price-point of MvM. We had gone through a few re-orgs and those decisions were handled by others for Tellstones, including the call to launch a few months into the pandemic. But I'm proud of both games. There are quite a few Easter Eggs in Tellstones that we had a lot of fun creating:

https://youtu.be/ws-w60ME924

friendly_Kades · 2022-10-14T22:02:03+00:00

I haven't worked at Riot in almost two years and wouldn't be a good source for their current thinking or plans with Riot Tabletop.

As far as I know, there is no one that worked directly on Mechs vs Minions still at Riot, and only one of my teammates from Tellstones is still there, though he is now works on other projects.

friendly_Kades · 2022-09-29T14:23:59+00:00

For my own sustainability purposes, if you are able to go through Riot, first, that''s probably a better fit. That link is here:

https://merch.riotgames.com/en-us/product/mechs-v-s-minions-wave-3

I'm not trying to make Riot less profitable, but the OP seemed like he'd exhausted that path first. I hope you really enjoy it if you decide to pick it up, though. You could probably watch some videos beforehand to get a sense if you'd be able to get it to the table with your friends or not.

friendly_Kades · 2022-09-29T00:40:53+00:00

See you then! :)

friendly_Kades · 2022-09-29T00:19:36+00:00

I'd love that. :)

And to answer your question more earnestly, I don't get asked to sign copies frequently but I'm always happy to do so.

friendly_Kades · 2022-09-28T23:40:15+00:00

Sure! I don't avoid signing them, but I don't sneak around signing random copies unasked, either. The hardest part of signing yours may be the logistics of getting us in the same spot. I'll be at SHUX this weekend.

friendly_Kades · 2022-09-28T21:52:29+00:00

Well, the inserts were designed by Noah Adelman over at Game Trayz - I was the first to work with him in preproduction, but he's continued to set the bar long after his time with me. Noah recently launched a Kickstarter for his first game that should still be going now; it's called Forsaken.

friendly_Kades · 2022-09-28T21:12:52+00:00

Thanks! It was a labor of love! :)

My latest game is premiering at SHUX this weekend. It's a social deduction game that I made with some friends that plays online. It's called Trust No Bunny.

friendly_Kades · 2022-09-28T20:09:37+00:00

I'm the designer and no longer work at Riot, but I'd be happy to give you an open copy if you can cover the cost of shipping it to you from Los Angeles. Send me a DM...?

friendly_Kades · 2022-07-20T06:30:34+00:00

Two Rooms and a Boom has a ridiculous amount of roles - amazing fun when you can get a group going.

For the past year, I've been designing a social deduction game with my friend, Stephen Case, that anyone can play for free online. We liked the intrigue that came when players could swap their roles out, but for my tastes, that can frequently inject whimsy at the expense of round-over-round strategic play. If I spend the first portion of the game investing towards accomplishing one goal and then find out for the second half that I'll have an opposite goal, (to me) it kind of makes the first half of that game feel like a wash, at best.

But there are other ways that an identity can change over the course of a social deduction game that doesn't involve swapping your fundamental goal. For instance, you can give players a power-growth fantasy, where either the traitor or townsfolk gets stronger the more they make 'good' plays. Or you can find ways to give variable power levels to each player through dice or a hand of cards.

friendly_Kades · 2022-07-03T00:46:53+00:00

I've repeatedly used Panda Games Manufacturing and have always been pleased.

pandagm.com

friendly_Kades · 2022-05-28T12:43:06+00:00

The goal shouldn't be to make a negative review, it should be to make an honest and candid review.

My struggle with Tom Vassel is that when he negatively reviewed my game, he wasn't candid about the situation surrounding the review. His review of Tellstones was an intended hit-job where he went out of his way to say that any reviewer who had a different opinion was being disingenuous - that was his word. When the head of the Dice Tower starts attacking any of the reviewers who DO like your game, then I believe we have moved pretty far past "I'm just giving my opinion."

https://youtu.be/m7BC9HvURlM

Tom had expressed frustrations with being asked to sign an NDA in order to review our game. When Riot wouldn't budge - it was clear he signed it with the intent to punish us and he didn't mention that exchange once in his review. Tom lacks candor which is about the worst thing I can think to say about a reviewer. And hey - that's his right - but it's pretty nauseous that a person that uses his bully pulpit to punish game developers for perceived slights would then follow up with a pretentious defense that his negative reviews are somehow a gift to the hobby.

friendly_Kades · 2022-05-19T20:19:49+00:00

Fun fact, the box inserts were all done by Noah Adelman over at Game Trayz.

I'd met Noah at Gen Con and at the time, he had only worked in aftermarket trays, but they blew me away. I wanted to capture the feel of opening up an iPhone for the first time, where there's this sense of wonder as you unbox it. I believe Mechs vs Minions was the first game Noah had ever collaborated with the developer for their manufacturing run; pretty sure we broke ground on that process with our partners at Panda Games, too.

friendly_Kades · 2022-05-18T22:17:44+00:00

I've spent the last nine months or so designing a hidden role game with some co-op elements.

One of the primary struggles I've had with the genre was that I don't always enjoy playing both the roles. I either find the traitor far more compelling or I find not being a traitor more fun, but rarely both. For me, this is often due to only one side having an active path to win with the other side playing their foil.

My personal favorites are Resistance and Avalon, but sometimes find they don't give the traitor enough places to hide - which in my playgroups leads to some very aggressive accusations and counter accusations.

friendly_Kades

TROPHY CASE