Junemanji!
We Can't Go Solo
by Mark
May has been a tricky month for all things Misplay. We've shared how heavy the load of the end of a school year becomes. By some metrics, our output and progress on our game design projects were quite low. And yet, we took small steps; we dug deeper into MMA Gauntlet, and the show did indeed go on. May might have been a difficult month for balancing our other obligations with The Misplay passion project, but it was also a study in finding support, working in community through the joy and creative spark of collaboration.
The Misplay, in all its forms, has always been about the learning process, especially from our mistakes along the way, and growing as a result of those lessons. One of the lessons we learned this month was that we cannot do everything we want to for the show and the game in isolation or alone as "just Jason and Mark." We know that will continue to be the case, whether we are talking about commissioning the art for a game, problem-solving design challenges, or, I don't know... crowdfunding the eventual maiden game from The Misplay Games. Despite an admittedly slow month, The Misplay has grown.
It remains incredibly surreal to me that Peter, my childhood best friend, has joined The Misplay as the lead game designer for "Star Crossed Realms" or "The Dating Game." Peter is the mastermind behind the idea, pitch, and initial design of the cooperative deck builder. We should probably make the switch to a different working title when we discuss the game on the show and in other media due to copyright and trademark considerations of other IPs we love and have drawn inspiration from. The tongue-in-cheek title of the game tips its hat to those IPs, but Jason keeps pushing us closer to being a legit business.
Jason and I frequently talk about how there is so much more happening than what we are able to document in the short-form podcast we release every two weeks. Jason has continued to drive the business aspects of The Misplay forward. He has been following up with our attorney about the final version of the partnership agreement and finalizing and submitting the applications for a couple of our own trademarks. I give Jason a hard time about the business stuff being incredibly foreign to me and decidedly not “the fun part,” but looking at the tangible documents we're about to finalize is pretty cool, even to me. The Misplay is small, slow-moving also, and definitely legit!
As we close out the last few days of the school year at what seems like breakneck speed, we can see a glimpse of what the summer will hold for us. Last time we got to work together, Jason and I calendared out the summer recording schedule, updated and revised our next steps for what we're going to be working on for the next couple of months, and set our sights on our trip to Gen Con at the beginning of August.
If you happen to be attending Gen Con as well, touch base with us on Discord. As always, we are incredibly humbled and deeply grateful for the detailed, well-thought-out, and encouraging feedback and ideas our audience sends in Discord. We see you, we've read your thoughts, and we are going to get back to you once we aren't buried in report cards, promotion speeches, and closing out our classrooms.
Gen Con
by Jason
Mark mentioned Gen Con, but he didn’t know I wanted to talk about it too. Yes, we will be attending, and it will be the first time for both of us. We will be going as attendees and observers, but we'll be wearing all the hats: board gamers, podcasters, and board game designers.
Mostly, we just want to grasp what it is and what it feels like to be there. We're "tagging along" with our experienced friend of The Misplay, Mike C. He has all the tips, tricks, and secrets to share, and we've signed up for all the events he's attending. As gratitude, we are even going to let him with some late night games of Magic: the Gathering.
Next time, we hope to participate as The Misplay in some capacity. We will be looking at how podcasts engage with the event, the resources available to us, and doing as much networking as possible. We’ll also try to record a live episode while we are there.
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