AdMagic makes ‘difficult and sad’ decision to shut down Print and Play after financial strain from division became ‘overwhelming’
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Welcome to the latest BoardGameWire newsletter!
This edition is coming to you a few days later than usual thanks to a heady combination of family illnesses (nothing serious, everyone’s fine) and other life surprises - and as a result it’s even more chock full of news than usual.
Our top story covers AdMagic taking the "difficult and sad" decision to shut its popular Print and Play operation, which has become well regarded across the industry for both its prototyping services for big releases and rapid turnaround of print and play designs for budding developers and designers. AdMagic CEO Sharo Spiro told BoardGameWire the operation had been a “financial burden” to the rest of the business for several years, adding, “My team invested a lot to keep Print and Play open as long as we could, but unfortunately, the amount of hand work and the time it takes to do the high quality of work done through a small company like Print and Play, costs more than we could actually sell the jobs for.”
We also have a report on tabletop game industry trade organisation GAMA‘s board of directors apologising for some of its elected leaders being “rude and disrespectful” during a “heated” annual general meeting at the recent GAMA Expo trade show. The board also apologised to GAMA staff for fuelling a discussion that distracted from the spectacular success of this year’s GAMA Expo trade show, which attracted a record 3,827 attendees in its final year in Lousiville before a move to a more spacious home in Baltimore.
And we have details of the successful turnaround of formerly financially struggling board game publisher Elf Creek Games, which has now begun fulfilling a wave of overdue crowdfunding campaigns after returning to profitability under the leadership of Genius Games founder John Coveyou. The publisher said it has broken a three-year run of losses since bringing in Coveyou to restructure the company last July.
Plus there’s all the rest of the essential news from the board game industry, designer-focused advice and articles, and our regular jobs roundup.
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Mike Didymus-True - Editor
AdMagic makes ‘difficult and sad’ decision to shut down Print and Play after financial strain from division became ‘overwhelming’
US-based tabletop game and card manufacturer AdMagic is shuttering its popular Print and Play arm, with company founder and CEO Shari Spiro telling BoardGameWire the operation had been a “financial burden” to the rest of the business for several years.
Spiro told BoardGameWire it had been a “difficult and sad decision” to close the company, which had provided prototypes, promos and components for a string of big-selling titles, as well as fast turnaround print and play services for budding developers and designers.
GAMA board apologises for directors being ‘rude and disrespectful’ to members during heated AGM
Tabletop game industry trade organisation GAMA‘s board of directors have apologised for some of its elected leaders being “rude and disrespectful” during a “heated” annual general meeting at the recent GAMA Expo trade show.
Multiple members of the organisation expressed their disgust during the AGM that board members had suggested people only attended because free food was provided, while others were upset at the way they were shouted at and talked over during a fiery discussion on changes to the non-profit’s bylaws.
On one of the occasions the free food claim was mentioned by a member during the AGM, board member Matt Loter, also known as Matt Fantastic, said, “That was me, you can just blame me, that’s fine. No one else on this board.”
Elf Creek Games back to profit after John Coveyou-led restructure, begins fulfulling overdue Kickstarters
Elf Creek Games has begun fulfilling a wave of overdue crowdfunding campaigns after returning to profitability under the leadership of Genius Games founder John Coveyou.
The publisher said it has broken a three-year run of losses since bringing in Coveyou to restructure the company last July, with the profits allowing it to get Santa’s Workshop into the hands of backers, as well as starting to pay some of the backlog of royalties it owes designers.
GAMA Expo squeezes in another record attendance ahead of trade show’s shift to Baltimore
North America’s biggest board games industry trade show, GAMA Expo, has sealed another record attendance as it prepares a move to Baltimore to contend with rapidly growing demand.
More than 3,820 attendees showed up to this year’s event in Louisville, Kentucky, up almost 12% on last year’s previous record of 3,425 – which had already left the show pressed for space across the exhibition hall and its extensive programme of seminars.
Tabletop game marketing specialist OffDutyNinja acquired by Game Brands
OffDutyNinja, the tabletop marketing specialist which has worked on $25m of crowdfunding campaigns since its 2018 launch, has been acquired by industry peer Game Brands.
The combined company will operate under the OffDutyNinja name, with Game Brands adding its web design, search engine and answer engine optimisation, and blog content creation offerings to ODN’s marketing and crowdfunding services.
Spiel Essen expands again to ‘max out’ venue space, now bigger than 15 American football fields
The world’s largest board game fair, Spiel Essen, says it has reached the limits of its expansion at its long-time home after boosting floor space again this year due to “overwhelming interest” from exhibitors.
Organiser Merz Verlag said it has expanded this year’s exhibition space to fill all eight main halls at Messe Essen, covering an area of 81,200 sq m – larger than 15 American football fields.
Universal to become exclusive Stonemaier US hobby retail distributor, for roughly $1.5m of annual business
Universal Distribution has agreed exclusive rights to distribute Stonemaier Games titles into US hobby retail, which amounts to about $1.5m of business each year.
Universal has become an authorised US hobby distributor for Stonemaier’s games, which include the massive-selling Wingspan series and other popular titles such as Scythe, and will take on sole distribution rights in August of this year.
Man vs Meeple’s Ryan Schoon, Ludo Fact’s Mark Burke join GameHead as marketing, operations managers
GameHead, which rebranded from GamerMats two years ago as part of a push into board game publishing, has expanded its team with a pair of senior hires.
Ryan Schoon, a veteran presenter at the Man vs Meeple YouTube channel, joins Gamehead as marketing manager, while former Ludo Fact USA account executive Mark Burke comes on board as operations manager.
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How do the deals for licensed games happen? Some good insights on the RPG side of things here from Thomas over at Rascal
Design Zone
Erica Bouyouris and Sen-Foong Lim from the Ludology podcast chat with Liqin Gu and Mitch Zhang from Longpack Manufacturing, about the ins and outs of how boardgames are made - and why they're predominantly made in China
Matthew Dunstan asks: Is the first game you design always terrible?
A great BlueSky thread from Elizabeth Hargrave, in which she asks about pitching data and success rates
Eric Olsen, inventor of Flip 7 and Co-Founder of Messy Table Games, reflects on a remarkable year… And reveals what’s next! - Mojo Nation
W Eric Martin over at Board Game Beat interviewed designer Ionah Nguyen about what she learned from failed two Kickstarter for her game Tech Race
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Designer Diary: Pampero by Julián Pombo - BoardGameGeek
Skeleton Code Machine looks at the Thief's Market pie cutting mechanism, and how game theory experiments (and fierce pirates) show that players may not always act in a rational manner
The Decision Space podcast discuss what makes games difficult, why we sometimes enjoy it - and ask when does it go too far?
Joe Slack from The Board Game Design Course tries to answer the question: “should I pitch or self-publish my board game?”
Danielle Reynolds chats with her Tricky Kids co-designer Steven Ungaro about his “zero-to-three-games-in-a-year-hero” design journey
Designer Diary: Expanding Lands of Galzyr by Sami Laakso - BoardGameGeek
The Tabletop Takeaway podcast team take a deep dive into Star Wars Unlimited, asking what limits should there be on deck construction, and should all cards be usable as resources?
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Designer Diary: WunderWaffen by Walter Obert - BoardGameGeek
Job Watch
US - Marketing Manager, Trade Marketing - Wizards of the Coast
US - Social Media and Community Managers - Blue Orange Games
UK, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden or Norway - Global Marketing Project Manager - Asmodee
All these jobs are from the very excellent Tabletop Game Jobs Facebook Group - head there to take a look at all the latest listings
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