Rob Huber of Rattlebox Games and the "[toggle Gaming]" community on Facebook recently interviewed Keith Matejka of Thunderworks Games. His interview is re-posted here with his permission:

Rob: A question that I am always on the lookout for from any designer is, “What do gaming and game design mean to you?

Keith: Gaming is the fuel for relationships to me. In a world of digital isolation, board gaming has become how I am able to enjoy myself and the people around me. I love the competition. I love exploring new ideas or new settings with friends. I love sitting around a table and just enjoying each other's company. It enables social interaction around a common appreciation for games, where all daily worries can be put aside.

Rob: I couldn’t agree with you more. What you described there is basically the heart and soul of toggle. We will have to get you to come out to a toggle event sometime and share the love! Feeling that way about gaming in general, what do you love about Dual Powers?

Keith: I love Dual Powers firstly because of it's clever use of the Calendar system. I like the level of confrontation in it, as 2-player games often can be very confrontational. Dual Powers has a great mix of cat/mouse between two players. I love the length! There's a lot of game in those 45 mins.
It makes a great lunch hour game, or it's easy to play it multiple times in a row to really explore the design.

Finally, I enjoy the theme. I wasn't familiar with the time period when I first played it, but the more I learn about it, the more interesting it has become. I like that I'm learning about history in the most fun way possible.

Rob: I can’t wait to get my hands on it! I play a lot of games at two players and love a game that is balanced for that. My copy of ‘Carcassonne: the Castle’ is one of my most played games. It sounds like this won’t take any longer to play. Now that you have a few successful games under your belt, what excites you about this particular Kickstarter?”

Keith: This Kickstarter is exciting to me because it's different! Thunderworks is probably best known for Bullfrogs and Roll Player -- both fantastical in theme. This game pushes it in a different direction, especially with Kwanchai's unique and amazing looking art.

Also, this project is fun for me, because I've gotten to work with my friend and great designer, Brett Myers. It's a nice change to go back and forth between my own designs and designs from other people.

Rob: It was great talking now I am even more disappointed that i didn’t get to try Dual Powers at Protospiel Milwaukee last month!

During the Russian Revolution, Joseph Stalin helped seize control of the Pravda newspaper -- an organ of the Bolshevik movement -- and helped organize an armed display of strength by Bolshevik supporters.

When the provisional government cracked down on Pravda, Stalin protected Vladimir Lenin (the editor at the time), moving him between safe houses in Petrograd and then eventually to Razliv. Stalin remained and acted as leader of the Bolsheviks in Lenin's absence.

Eventually, Stalin and others directed the Octobor Revolution, consolidating power for themselves. Stalin become one of four leading the government alongside Lenin.

After Lenin died, Stalin outmaneuvered his rivals to control the party and would become infamous for his brutal dictatorial rule (1929-1953) during which millions of his own citizens died.

Lenin was politically active as a Marxist from an early age. By the time of the revolution and the formation of the Provisional Government, Lenin immediately opposed it. Lenin believed the government to be imperialistic and that the people should be ruled solely by the workers, peasants, and soldiers.

Lenin pushed for an armed uprising in Petrograd in 1917 where the government clashed violently with the demonstrators. Throughout 1917, Lenin would come and go from Petrograd, at times fearing for his life, but all the while continuing to agitate and plan the overthrow of the Provisional Government.

In October, Lenin's Bolsheviks besieged the government (October Suprise) and Lenin became Chairman of the new Council of People's Commissars and the first head (1917-24) of the Soviet state.

An associate of Vladimir Lenin, Grigory Zinoviev arrived in Russia in April 1917, shortly after the Russian monarchy was overthrown. As a Bolshevik revolutionary, he spent much of his time with Vladimir Lenin plotting the overthrow of the newly formed provisional government, the Petrograd Soviet.

While Zinoviev and Lenin shared the same end goal, Zinoviev disagreed with Lenin on one major point -- Zinoviev opposed the use of force. Pressure from within the Central Committee eventually let Zinoviev and others to resign, leading Lenin to declare Zinoviev a "deserter." Eventually, Zinoviev regained his favor, and as an outstanding orator helped win public support for the new Communist regime.

In the years to follow, Zinoviev became a central figure in the Communist Party leadership in the Soviet Union. He later was a victim of Joseph Stalin’s Great Purge, even though Stalin and Zinoviev had been close political allies for a time.

From an early age until his death, Lavr Kornilov was an ambitious military man. Having been promoted to the rank of Colonel after the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05), and having served as military attache to China (1907-11), by the start of WWI Kornilov was tasked with commanding an infantry division.

When the February Revolution of 1917 transpired Kornilov was assigned military control of Petrograd (St. Petersburg) where he attempted to restore cohesion in a deteriorating Russian Army. Kornilov didn't remain in Petrograd for long, resigned and returned to the front.

In August, Kornilov was promoted to commander in chief by newly appointed Prime Minister Alexander Kerensky. The two had widely differing political views and their distrust of one another came to a head when Kerensky sent troops toward Petrograd in an apparent coup attempt (Kornilov Affair), which Kerensky promptly quashed by dismissing Kornilov and barring his troops from rail access.

In September, Kornilov was arrested and imprisoned. He soon escaped and would lead an anti-Bolshevik army until his death a few months later.

As a moderate, Alexander Kerensky played active roles in both the Petrograd Soviet as vice chairman and in the Provisional Government as minister of justice. While the Soviets tried to prohibit its members from joining the government, Kerensky remained and became a liaison between the two governing bodies.

In May 1917, Kerensky became Minister of War but was criticized for an unsuccessful military operation during WWI. His blundered offensive was quickly overshadowed by the Bolshevik uprising in July. It was then that Kerensky succeeded Prince Lvov as Russia's Prime Minister.

By October 1917, Kerensky's government had lost nearly all support and the Bolsheviks seized control. Kerensky fled to France and later emigrated to the United States at the start of WWII.

Georgy Lvov graduated with a degree in law from the University of Moscow and entered politics when he was elected to a ministerial position in the First Duma (1905), the legislative assembly during the late Russian Empire.

As leader of the Union of Zemstvos during WWI, Lvov provided relief for the sick and wounded and procured supplies for the army, winning the respect of many politicians and army commanders.
When Emperor Nicholas II abdicated the throne in 1917, Lvov became the first head of the Russian provisional government.

Unable to satisfy the radical demands of an increasingly volatile public, Lvov resigned his position after a few short months and was replaced by his Minister of War, Alexander Kerensky.

It always surprises me how much art influences a potential player's interest in a game.  I love mechanics, but when people ask about my games or games in general, they want to see what the art looks like and what the narrative of the game is. 

So, when I was showing off the full art copies of Roll Player over the last few months, I breathed a sigh of relief when people say stuff like "Wow, that looks good!". 

What looks good is so subjective.  I know what I like, but I don't know if other people will like the same thing.  As art can really drive the interest (sales) of a game, selecting the right artist for a game is critical for it's success.

With that in mind, these are some of my favorite illustrations for Roll Player from John Arios​​a.

I've been preparing all the materials over the last 6 months for the new game, Roll Player.  One of the questions I often get from playtesters or friends is "When it is going up on Kickstarter?" That was actually a tough question to answer, as there are a TON of things that all have to get done before you can press that launch button. 

In the Spring, I was saying late Summer. 
In the Summer, I was saying September.
In August, I was saying October.
In October, I FINALLY drew a line in the sand and said Nov. 10.

So, there is it.  The official ​​ launch date.​​​

​There are quite a few things to consider when picking a launch date.

1) Is the project ready?
I like to have the game as close to 100% complete as possible before going to Kickstarter.  This project has a LOT of artwork, and I was happy to have John Ariosa working on the game with me. The problem was I couldn't really afford to have it ALL done at once. So, I gave John work when I had cash, and when he was available. This meant, that it took a long time to get all 53 or so illustrations done. Once they were done, my graphic design, Luis Francisco could start doing more serious passes on stuff. Locking down the Character Sheets too a long time, as they are super critical to gameplay. It's the real focus of the game. It has to be highly functional and look amazing too. Finally in September the game was close to ready, but I still needed time to get review copies in people's hands and they needed time to get their work done as well.  So, I put it off until Nov.

2) Is the timing okay?
Conventional wisdom says there are more opportune times to launch KS campaigns than others. The KS creator community does a fair share of data mining to try to figure out the best time of year to launch, which days work best, etc... The data says that usually Tuesdays are the best days to launch in the mid-morning with a 30ish day window​​. Also, it's best to avoid other large campaigns out there since you want to minimize the competition for your customer's dollar, especially if the competition is a similar game in theme or mechanic. The easy example right now Jamey Stagmaier's juggernaut of a game on KS right now called Scythe. It looks amazing and is standing clearly in the KS backer spotlight right now. One of the advantages to waiting till Nov, is that I can avoid some of that and try to get an opportunity to be in the spotlight while my campaign is running. Another consideration is proximity to Christmas. Historically, Kickstarter campaigns have not done well if run during the busy shopping season.  So, I clearly don't want to wait too long.

There always seems like there's some reason why "now" is a bad time to launch.  The game looks great. There's no way to avoid all competition, as more and more KS campagins are launched every year, especially in the board gaming area.
​
In the end, I have to launch it when I'M ready.  And I'm getting pretty close to that.  ​I'm excited and anxious.  I love this game and I think my fellow gamers will too. 

Till next time.

Keith

I played a ton of prototypes that weekend.  A few of them were interesting enough to follow up on after the convention, but while I was there, I was shown a cool little 16 card RPG game from a friend of mine, James Ryan, and his boy.  The character creation process for his game was basically just drawing two double-sided cards and picking which side of each to play with.  It had me thinking about the character creation process in RPGs like D&D or Shadowrun, or Vampire from when I played a lot of RPGs.  It also had me thinking about the hours I spend agonizing over stats and abilities when I'm creating my character in video games like Fallout,  Skyrim, or Baulders Gate.  It hit me that moment "What if I made a game out of the character creation process?"  No quests.  No monsters. Just making a cool character.

I felt like I had caught lightening a in a jar.  True inspiration.  A spark. 

I was playing a basic version of it in my head before the end of the day.  I was leaning on all the RPG "stuff" I knew from playing those kinds of games in high school and college, adding in as much computer RPG creation details to add as I could muster.

- Character Sheets? Check.
- Dice? Check.  
- Attributes/Abilities?  Check.
- Weapons and Armor?  Check.
- Traits and Skills? Check.

I had a working prototype in a day or two.  I playtested it many times on my own over the next couple weeks.  After two weeks, I attended Gamehole Con in Madison, a boardgame and tabletop rpg convention.  I was ready to hold my first playtest with other players.  

I've been playtesting and making changes almost every day.  It's a much bigger project than Bullfrogs, so it's pushing me to learn/manage more and difficult things than the last project.  

Off on another wild adventure. :)

It feels really good to be on the back side of designing a game, putting it up on Kickstarter, navigating the madness of running the campaign, making it through production relatively unscathed, and getting games out to all my backers.  The questions I get most from people is about fulfillment. How did I get games to people all over the world and how did I plan for that?  

Self-publishing a board game is all about logistics and moving stuff around. Fulfillment is the last part of the Kickstarter portion of this process, and it's where project managers fall down the most often. So, I was nervous about how it was going to play out. 

When I was planning the project, I was tempted to fulfill the whole thing myself. There's something kind of "DIY romantic" when I think of inviting all my friends over, providing pizza and going about the merry work of packing boxes and slapping address labels on them. In the end, that seemed like WAY too much work, and I suspected it wasn't nearly as fun as I dreamed it to be. I ended up trying to find a partner that specializes in this. So, after getting a handful of quotes from companies I had heard of (and a little soul searching), I ended up going with Fulfillrite. Why?

Communication
These guys don't mess around.  When you email with a question, they respond very quickly and often follow up with a phone call, if it's a complex issue.

Rates
Fulfillrite has competitive rates including specific Kickstater fulfillment reduced rates.  They're also always looking for opportunities to reduce costs for their customers.  They are able to ship at lower rates with the USPS than I am able to (as a low volume shipper).  So, many times, it was cheaper to have them mail packages for me than for me to do it myself.  Also, in the time I've been using them, their payment fees have actually gone down.  Does that happen? 

Speed  
The team at Fulfillrite got the shipment of Bullfrogs from the port on a Monday.  By the end of Tuesday, all 800+ packages were out the door off to my backers.  It was amazing.  I had games on their way to me in Wisconsin on a separate truck to hand deliver to local backers.  I had backers as far away as the UK and Australia getting their games before I was able to hand a copy to the guy in the neighboring office at my work!

Backerkit Integration
I used Backerkit to manage my backers and pledges. Backerkit integrates directly into the order/shipping system at Fulfillrite. It was amazing simple to use. Group a bunch of backers in backerkit, press the "Send to Fulfillrite" button, and the orders just populate in the Fulfillrite system and the folks at Fulfillrite get to work sending them out the door. This saved me an AMAZING amount of time.

Ease of Use
Fulfillrite has an reaally great web portal that I log into.  I can see my inventory, and I can alert them of incoming shipments, add money for shipping, etc.. Most importantly, add orders on the fly, even after the Kickstarter has been fulfilled.  As I get orders for copies on Amazon.com or ebay, or on my website, I can just add the order on their web portal, and I don't have to worry about it anymore.  My partners over at Fulfillrite take care of it.  

This is especially nice for international orders.  I REALLY dislike filling out international shipping forms.  Bullfrogs had a lot of international backers (especially in France).  I'm so happy I didn't have to fill out all those forms!

If you're running a Kickstarter, figure out who you're going to use for fulfillment early.  Get lots of quotes from different companies with sample quotes going to a lot of different countries.  Shipping is tricky and expensive.  Don't dig yourself into a hole.  The easiest way to avoid falling down is finding good partners.

I'd love to hear about other KS projects completed their fulfillment.  Who did you use (if anyone)?  What was your experience?

Till Next Time

Keith

Finding a good game group, for me, was critical for my growing obsession for board games.  I had started exploring games online, but until I found a fun group of folks to enjoy them with on a regular basis, I was just an outsider looking into this fascinating hobby.  With that in mind, I always try to be as welcoming as possible to potential new players.  If the folks in my regular group weren't so friendly on that first night I decided to show up and see what this gaming group was all about, this blog wouldn't exist and neither would this little game publishing company.  


So, what makes a good game group?  For me, here are a few of the important things.

• Welcoming and friendly people
• Players with good sportsmanship
• Regular location
• Access to food and drink

• Wide variety of gaming tastes
• Multiple game "teachers" or people who have collections and want to lead games
• and (drum roll) ..... Willing to play my prototypes and give honest feedback.

For any designer, it's critical to find a group of people who enjoy playing prototypes, have no reservations about being honest and have their own great ideas they're willing to throw into the mix (and not be mad if I decide not to include them).

What do you look for in a gaming group?  

Till next time.

Keith