Welcome to our blog! Here you will find all of the updates for the current year. Click the links 2013 & 2014 or 2015 to see our previous posts. Thanks for reading!

December 13th, 2016: A new direction...again.

A couple of months ago, shortly after my last Kickstarter campaign, I posted a very long post about how I wanted to move SDP to a Print on Demand model because it was going to be an easier way to go about continuing to do the design thing without having to deal with pitching my ideas to other publishers. For the past couple of months I've been committed to that and started to get everything ready for the transition, but deep down I knew I really didn't want to go down that road.

I've been doing this little design and publish thing for three and a half years or so with minimal success, and while it was always designed to be that way, I've grown tired of putting the effort into it anymore. I still plan on designing for fun and plan to even pitch an idea here and there but right now I'm in a place in my life where I need to prioritize my time and focus on the things that make me happy. Dealing with the regular hurdles and commitments that a publisher has to deal with just isn't giving me enough happiness in return for the time and cost.

I have a young family that I want to spend as much time with as I can. Both of our children have shown interest in games and spending time playing with them brings me much more happiness than setting up a Kickstarter page or spamming my social media pages with links to my products. I also have a regular gaming group, where I've been able to enjoy all sorts of new games. In the past six months or so since finding this group, I've come to realize that I really just want to play games and learn from them. The more I play, the better my designs can get. I look forward to our meetups more than I do filling out tax forms and trying to find money for game art.

I think I started designing games because I had nobody to play games with really. Designing and then playing around with the prototypes gave me a small taste of what I was really after. It didn't help that I was just then also really getting into the hobby so I went deep down the rabbit hole trying to consume everything I could and ingrain myself into the community the best that I could. I saw other people start their own little companies and figured I could to that too. I also saw many of them fold up after a couple of months or after their first Kickstarter campaign failed to meet its goal. But I ignored all that because that wasn't going to me, but the truth is, it was always going to be me because I didn't really know what was involved. It's not just design a game and order a thousand copies from a company that physically makes them. There is SO much that goes on behind the scenes, so much time, so much money, and so many other resources, resources that I still don't have.

So what now? Well, SDP has been dissolved as a business already. I'll be taking down the facebook page and have already started converting my twitter account into a personal one (frankly it has always been one). I'm still going to keep working on the designs I've been plugging away at for a while. In fact, both Easy as Pie and Herd the Flock are with some blind playtesters so I'm pretty excited to get notes back from them. I also still plan on attending UnPub 7 in March to show them off. This page will stay live probably until the domain expires over the summer, at which time I'll take it down for good. I'm still working on figuring out where to post my design stuff but I'll likely just share pictures and little tidbits on Twitter so follow me there if you don't already.

I want to thank everyone who supported SDP over these past three and half years. I'm so happy to be part of this great community and I look forward to moving into a new chapter of my gaming life.

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December 1st, 2016: Ramping up for a fresh start in 2017.

1) The holidays are always a slow time here for updates but it doesn't mean I'm not working hard to bring you some great games. I've had some major breakthroughs with the two games I'll likely be bringing to UnPub 7 this March in Baltimore. Easy as Pie and Herd the Flock are my main focus right now so everything else is taking a back seat while I try to get these ready.

2) A little more about Easy as Pie:

From the Current Game Design Projects page: "16 card abstract with tile laying and hand/deck management where two players compete to finish 3 full pies using a variety of actions."

The game has morphed some since this description and while there are still 16 cards, there are also two "pawns" and nine tokens. Previously there were 9 additional cards for a total of 25 and no pawns but when the gameplay changed, tokens had to be added. This might make things a little difficult to produce in a POD format because my options are limited if I want to keep the price down so I may just pay for a very very VERY tiny print run of these to be produced instead. The "best" way to do this would be ordering the tuck boxes and cards from one place and the pawns and tokens from another, so I can put them together myself. This game still needs a lot more work than Herd the Flock.

3) A little more about Herd the Flock:

From the Current Game Design Projects page: "Card fishing game where try to become the best shepherds by herding the most valued sheep. Some cooperation will be needed to keep the sheep alive because there are hungry wolves that are lurking on the edges of the pasture, looking for an easy meal."

This game supports two to four players and has scaled well so far in playtesting. Adding some new wrinkles that put restrictions on players has made things much more interesting. Implementing hand limits, locking out sets, and forcing cards to be traded in rather than kept when used, keeps things on the board constantly changing and gets things moving. If I can get it really clicking and it is well received, this could be the second game we release in 2017. The first being Tricks for Treats.

4) Speaking of Tricks for Treats, the art will hopefully be finished this month so I'll have more to share on that part of it soon. After that, all that's left to do is format the rules onto cards and set it up for printing on Drive Thru Cards. I'm still debating if I want to release it when it's ready or together with another title like Herd the Flock. The reason to do that is so people can buy multiple games to save on shipping. There are a lot of great games already on that site that people could pick up as well so we'll see.

5) Book news: I haven't been working on doing anything for either of my novels. Book one still needs to be edited and I hit a big stalling point on book two when I lost a portion of it. I may or may not finish book two anytime soon, or ever, but I really do want to get book one finished and published. That will be a big goal for 2017 which I will talk about in the end of the year update like I did last year.

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October 31st, 2016: Happy Halloween! A quick update with some big news.

1) Jeremy has decided to leave SDP to pursue other personal projects outside of game design. As I reported in the last update, he does have plans to publish Stop the Germs! so I'll be posting more about that later on. While I'm sad to see him leave, I wish him the best in his future en devours. He's doing some really cool stuff outside of game design and art that you can check out on his website and on Twitter.

2) So what does that mean for some of the Current Game Design Projects? Well, I'm going to forge ahead with Wicked Pizza on my own while using as much as the old art as possible, because it's just too good to lose. Jeremy will be taking the name and art for Bug Bomb with him, but the mechanics that we came up with for that might get re-purposed in a future design of mine. Everything else will be the same for the most part. The biggest thing to come from this is finding new artists to work with. I already have one finishing up the art for Trick for Treats but I'll need to find others going forward as I try to navigate this new Print on Demand style publishing.

3) Lastly, I want to do a quick plug for a Print and Play game I did a few years ago called Roll a' Lantern. It's available on the Free Games page and could be perfect for any Halloween party you may be attending tonight.

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October 19th, 2016: Now that the dust has settled, it's time to move forward.

1) Stop the Germs! update: After the campaign ended, I decided it was in everyone's best interest for me to relinquish the rights of the game back to Jeremy. Many people have reached out asking what the next step was for the game and whether we'd be running another campaign. Since I no longer own the rights, I will not be involved in any future crowdfunding campaign or publication of any kind. I know Jeremy has some plans that he's working on and once he's figured out his best course of action, I'll pass that info along.

2) The Current Game Design Projects page has been updated to show what we're working on right now. Because of the change to a print on demand model, it's been decided that card based games will be our focus going forward, at least for now. Here is a full update on each project:

• Tricks for Treats will be published on Drive Thru Cards in January. The game in currently done so all that is left is getting the art done. We've got an artist working on that right now and we can't wait to share what he's done.

• Herd the Flock has moved up the list because it's getting closer to completion. It's seen some table time as of late and it's really coming together. The game will be marketed more as a kid's game that teaches some basic math skills while also adding some strategy that adults will enjoy. We hope to make this our second publication in 2017.

• Easy As Pie is a brand new design that Dan just came up with yesterday. It's a 2 player abstract game with some tile laying and hand/deck management. If we can figure this thing out, there's an outside chance that it could make it as the third publication in 2017.

• Wicked Pizza is currently getting an overhaul now that Dan and Jeremy have time to work on it again. The game will be drastically different from where it started and how it currently sits but the amazing art will be carried through. 

• Soda Jerks was on our Free Print and Play Games page but Dan pulled it down to see if he could possibly turn it into something worth publishing under the new model. A new set of rules and prototype have been made. It just needs to get to the table now to see if it'll make the cut.

• The Last Donut has seen some rule changes recently but even with playtesting, the game just doesn't quite work. It's been moved down the list for now because there's still a chance it game be saved before it's moved into the "Dead Games" folder.

• Bug Bomb is going to be another co-design by Jeremy and Dan but there hasn't been time to work on it until now. It's uncertain when this will start to be built but it'll stay on the list until there's more time to devote to it.

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September 7th, 2016: This is going to be short update but Stop the Germs! is live on Kickstarter!!!

1) Yesterday at 11a.m. EDT, Stop the Germs! went live on Kickstarter. We had an amazing first day raising $1340 of our $6000 funding goal. We are very happy with the results so far and hope to keep things going again today. We weren't really sure how people were going to respond to a game that came inside of a pill bottle but so far it's been pretty much all positive. There have been some questions on the price which Dan spoke about here but other than that it's been a fun ride so far. If you haven't checked out the campaign page yet, please take a second to do so. Any support you can give us would be greatly appreciated. If you're not in the market for the game, please consider sharing the link on social media for us. That would be a HUGE help because the more eyes we can get on it the better. We'll do a few more mini updates like this throughout the campaign and won't likely have much else to report on in the meantime.

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August 2nd, 2016: July was a slow month but our Kickstarter for Stop the Germs! is only a month away!

1) Stop the Germs! launches at 11a.m. EDT on September 6th, 2016. That's 5 weeks from today so  go set your calendars to remind you to go check it out. We've selected a printer for the standard cardboard tile version of the game and we're also working with another company to see if we can include a deluxe acrylic version as well. We should have more information on the latter some time later this week.

2) Stranded No More: Captain's Revenge didn't get any additional work done to it since the last update and now the contest entry deadline has ended. The game is contest ready and voting will open up on August 28th and close on September 4th. That gives people a little over a month to play any games that are contest ready and then vote on their favorites in a variety of categories. We're hoping that third time is a charm as we try to place for the first time in one of the Solitaire Contest categories. The game can now be found on our Free Print and Play Games page if you're interested in checking it out.

3) Dan will be attending an Unpub Mini event on Saturday, September 17th in West Chester, PA. It will be held at The Games Keep from 1pm until 10pm. Dan will have a table set up from 1pm until 5pm. He'll be bringing both of the games he brought to Unpub 6 this past April, Stop the Germs! and Tricks for Treats. Stop the Germs! will be nearly halfway through it's KS campaign by that date so showing it off might help grab a few more backers. As stated in the last update, Tricks for Treats had a major overhaul in the rules so we're looking to get more feedback on those.

4) A couple of designs by Dan have been added to the Current Game Design Projects page. First, T-Rex Penny Farthing Racing which is a resurrected design that has been shelved for quite some time. The use of standard sized playing cards will replace a large fold out board to create modular race tracks that the top hat wearing t-rex will race around on their penny farthing bikes. To give you an idea of what that might look like:

Second, a very quick playing real time dice rolling game called Easy as Pie, where players race to see how many pies they can eat in 5 minutes. All players continually roll their set of 3 dice and resolve them until the sand timer runs out. But in order to get more pies, players must roll three of the same symbol in order to get more pies to eat from a selection of laid out on the board. Some pies take more bites to eat than others so when selecting a card from the board, a player can either take one for themselves or make another player eat a higher bite count pie instead.

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June 29th, 2016: A lot of things have been going on since the last update but just like the last one, it's been a mixed bag. Included in this post are updates on Wicked Pizza, Stop the Germs!, Stranded No More: Captain's Revenge, and Tricks for Treats. Also, a sale on Stac that starts tomorrow!

1) Dan lost his USB that contained all of his game design stuff and both of his novels. The good thing was he had backed up everything that was on it before the end of 2015 and had been uploading most of his new work to Google Drive. The bad news is about 20% of the second novel has been lost along with a lot of picture files that aren't saved in an editable form. The majority of the work has been recovered and steps are being taken to prevent this from happening again. We're hoping that the USB will turn up at some point.

2) Another bit of "bad news" is that we've decided to push Wicked Pizza back in the development queue after speaking with the publisher who had it. We say had it because we've also decided to pull it from consideration for publication with them so we can do it on our own once it's ready. The conversation was very helpful and constructive but until we can identify the solutions needed to get the game where it needs to be, we're going to push forward on some other projects that are a little closer to being complete.

3) One of those games is the one we'll be Kickstarting on September 6th, Stop the Germs!. We've received the review copy tiles and have put a few sets together that will go out at the end of this month so the reviewers can do there thing ahead of the launch date. We're very close to lining up a printer for the tiles or even the entire game so it'll be full steam ahead on this game through the end of its campaign. Below is a picture of one of the review copies:


4) Dan's done quite a bit of work on Stranded No More: Captain's Revenge for the 2016 Solitaire Game Design Contest on BGG. You can now play the current verison by downloading and printing out the file in the game's work in progress thread or by clicking here. This year's contest has assigned volunteers to give feedback which has already been quite helpful in shaping the game. The submission date is July 31st so please go check it out and send us some feedback before then.

5) Some news we're really excited about is the overhaul of the rules for Tricks for Treats. The game is still a trick taking game but the bidding mechanic has been removed which also removed the somewhat confusing scoring phase as well. In their places are a very straight forward scoring section, trump suits, and what Dan is calling and "Optional Take That" mechanic. Now each round a trump suit is selected and each time a trick is won with a card from that suit, the player who won the trick has the option to play that suits Trick. All four Tricks affect the treat cards, that players win when taking a trick, in different ways that match their suit. So far the response has been really positive so we're hoping to publish this some time in the beginning of the new year.

6) To mark the one year anniversary of Stac launching on Kickstarter, it will be one sale starting tomorrow and go through the weekend. It was be available for the original Kickstarter price of $15 including shipping inside the US. There are less than 30 copies of the first print run left so please order yours now because we don't know if/when another printing of the game will happen.

7) The Current Game Design Projects page has had some shuffling around and an addition of one new design called temporarily being called Orders, Inc. It's a resource management game where player's fulfill orders for various objects. As the game comes together, we'll have more details here.
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May 31st, 2016: Some bad news but them some good news and some exciting news followed by some bad news. Also updates on, Wicked Pizza, Stranded No More: Captain's Revenge, Herd the Flock, and book number two.

1) To get the big bad news out of the way, we've decided to push back the Kickstarter campaign date for Stop The Germs!. It was originally scheduled for June 21st but after some very big hiccups in the production process for the review copies, we didn't have much of a choice. First, we made the decision to move from vector art to hand drawn so that set us back a little but then we encountered some big problems with the printers we were planning on using. It's not worth going into detail about what the problems were but we've found a different printer for the review copies but we weren't going to be able to get them back, sent out to reviewers, and have them get those reviews done before the launch date. Because we were spending so much time on working that stuff out, we were falling behind on other tasks that needed to be done so rather than killing ourselves to try and jam it all in with no guarantee any of it would be ready, we decided to postpone. But the good news is, this is still happening!

So the new launch date is scheduled for September 6th. This date was chosen because it's after the big conventions are over and because summer vacation for those in the US will be over. We could have just bumped it a month to get everything done but to make this campaign as successful as possible, we need to consider all of the factors. We believe that we'll still be able to fulfill the backer rewards before the end of the year despite the later starting time.

2) The really exciting news isn't definite but if it does happen, it could mean big things for Stop The Germs!. Because it's not definite, we're going to be a little vague and not name names until we've worked out something official but we had someone reach out to us and ask if we'd be interested in having the game turned into a mobile app! All of the details still need to be worked out but we'd be stoked to see the game in digital form as well. One of the things we'd like to do is include some sort of special opportunity for backers of the physical game if possible. More details will come in the next update as we start working on this more.

3) Back to the bad news, The Last Donut was not selected as one of the finalists for the contest being run by Button Shy Games. When we found out there were 73 other entries and saw the names of some of the other designers entering the contest, we didn't get out hopes up. However, we did receive the feedback from the judges as overall some really good things were said about the game. The one constant from all of the judges was that they like the theme. It sounds like the rules still need some work but we're going to take the feedback and make the game better. As far as future plans for this game, if we can get it right, we'll be publishing it without crowdfunding.

4) A quick update on Wicked Pizza: we have a call scheduled for this week with the new head of development at the publisher where the game is currently being considered for publishing. We're hoping that this call will give us more insight to what their plans are for their new company structure and the future of our game.

5) The initial rules set for Dan's entry in the the 2016 Solitaire Print and Play Contest has been written. Stranded No More: Captain's Revenge puts players in the world where Captain Oscar Locke has escaped the island from the first game of the series and is now looking to get revenge on those who mutinied against him and stranded him on that island. The game will be compromised of a player map, a few cubes, and a lot of dice. The contest doesn't officially start until tomorrow but we'll be creating a work in progress thread for people to follow along with.

6) Recently, Herd the Flock has seen some work and is now no longer a two player game. It now supports up to four players and many rules changes have been made, including a twist on scoring. If you'd like to check it out, the print and play file is available on the Current Game Design Projects page.

7) It's been a few months since book number two has seen any work but Dan wrote a new chapter a few weeks ago which brought the word count to 41,718. The events leading up to the ending have changed but it's still undecided if it will end the same way as originally planned.

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April 29th, 2016: BIG news, smaller news, and a giveaway.

1) First, the BIG news. We'll be publishing Jeremy's game Stop The Germs! this year. That's right, Simple Design Publishing and J Peet Designs have come to an agreement to publish the game Dan showed at UnPub 6. This may not come as a surprise to many since we've had it on our Current Game Design Projects page for a while now and we did have it at UnPub but now it's officially official. A lot of work has gone into the game and will continue to go into the game until it hits Kickstarter in June. We're aiming for a launch day of Tuesday, June 21st and the campaign will last 29 days until Tuesday, July 19th.

We couldn't be happier to make this happen and it's an exciting adventure to sign another designer's game. Once again, we'll be utilizing a less than traditional packaging, like we did with the bag for Stac, only this time the game will come in a prescription bottle. The hex tiles that make up the game fit perfectly inside the sample bottles we've received. And just like we did with Stac, we'll be building each copy by hand. The bottles and labels will be printed by one vendor, the tiles another, and the rules sheet/player aids another. Everything will be delivered to Dan, where he'll spend a great deal of time putting each copy together and then shipping them out to all of the wonderful backers we hope will join us for this new project. Assuming a successful Kickstarter campaign, the copies will be received by backers before Christmas, and in all likelihood, before Thanksgiving.

2) The smaller news is the game formerly known as Fish Out of Water has transformed in a game called The Last Donut. After a lot of outside playtesting, we found out that a lot of things didn't work so as we started to fix the things that were broken, the theme didn't fit as well so we re-themed it. Now the game takes place in a police station and there's only one donut left. Players will use a variety of skills and actions to try and find that last donut either in the box or in another officer's hand. If you'd like to give it a shot, you can print the files here.

Because the game is still only comprised of 18 cards, we've decided to enter it into a contest by Button Shy Games. All that's left to do for the contest is shoot a quick video before submitting our entry. We're hoping it's good enough to win and even get a chance at being published as a part of their Wallet Line. Even if it doesn't get picked up for publication, as long as it is well received, we'll look into publishing it ourselves in some capacity.

3) Remember at the end of last year how we were nearing 750 follower on Twitter and wanted to do a giveaway once we reached 1000? Well that time has almost come. At the time of this post, we sit at 994 so we've started to get everything ready to launch a giveaway. After reaching out to a few other designers and publishers for their permission, we've come up with a great little "travel bag" of games. The "travel bag" will be 4 games that all fit inside one of the included games, Stac. Inside the bag that doubles as a board for Stac will be: a copy of To The Edge, Avignon: A Clash of Popes by John du Bois and Button Shy Games, & Mint Tin Mini Apocalypse by David Miller/subQuark. Below is a picture of everything you'll have a chance to win and once we hit the 1000 mark, we'll announce how to enter on Twitter.

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April 15th, 2016: This week, Dan recaps his first Unpub experience.

Last weekend was a whirlwind of emotions and experiences. It started on Friday which was a real mixed bag and left me unsure if I'd want to return in the future. You'll soon read why this had nothing to do with the convention itself but rather me and my personality. Saturday was absolutely amazing in so many ways, despite the fact that I was exhausted by 8pm. Sunday was a slower day that I cut short in order to be back home in Delaware by dinner to spend time with the family before the weekend ended. The following is a more VERY detailed version of each day followed by a summary of what I learned and a checklist for next year/those of you who have never been.

Friday
After dropping Christine off at work, I drove straight to the convention center, or rather, straight to the parking garage that was a half mile away from the convention center. Getting into the city around 8:30 a.m. assured me that most of the morning traffic would be over. There was a little bit of a back up as I got off the highway but once I got through that I was able to navigate my way to the garage I had prepaid to park in right next to Power Plant Live! I walked briskly down the main drag of the inner harbor while lugging my backpack and tote bag.

By 9 a.m. I was sitting down at a small table near the entrance to our hall where the Unpub staff was setting up the registration table. I still had a while to wait before others started to show up so I took the time to brush up on the rules of the games I'd be showing and to go through my teaching spiel. As I sat there, reading and looking around, I noticed a guy who had to be Daniel Solis sitting a couple tables down from me. His hair gave him away immediately. I'm not one to just go up and start talking to people so I spent five or so minutes talking to myself about how I should just go over there and say hi and that I wasn't really bothering him by doing so. After building up the courage to go talk to somebody that I recognize as a "well known designer", I strolled over, introduced myself, and briefly chatted before returning to my table. That wasn't so bad, I thought to myself. If I could keep doing that all weekend, I'd be golden.

By 9:30 a crowd had started to form near the registration desk and as the clock neared 10, the doors were about to be opened. I stood close to a circle of people but not in it. Daniel Solis noticed, waved me in, and introduced me to those who now surrounded me. I recognized a few people from their Twitter handles and they mine. One of those was Lauren Woolsey, who like I, participates in the #boardgamehour Twitter conversations on Monday afternoons. Now that I had two people I was semi comfortable talking to, things were getting easier. The doors opened shortly after, breakfast was served, and people started grouping together in various places throughout the room. I quickly ate before proceeding to find other people I recognized from Twitter. After formally introducing myself to Ben Begeal, he in turn started pointing people out left and right. It helps knowing somebody who seems to know everyone in the room. After chatting for a bit, I spotted Chris Rowlands who was sitting with Matt Christianson. I sat with them and talked for a while as we waited for the registration line to shrink. By the time Stephanie Straw joined our table, I had already met over a dozen people that I've interacted with on Twitter in some form or another.

After registration, I set up a table in the open gaming space so I could go back and forth between that room and the panels in the main room. Having never been to an Unpub event of any kind, I wasn't really sure the etiquette of getting players to the table so I sat there for a while just looking around and listening to people's conversations. Luckily Tony Miller and John Prather (someone I followed on Twitter already and the other I do now) were gracious enough to sit down and play Tricks for Treats. Thankfully, they were both familiar with trick taking games (something I thought most people were but soon found out, not so much) so I was able to explain the rules and get through an entire game that lasted six rounds before one of us broke 50 points. We chatted a bit afterwards and I got a TON of great notes from that playtest alone. They then introduced me to Ian Zang who was hosting one of his games being played by the previously mentioned Chris and Matt along with two others.

I spent the next few hours walking around, looking at the other games that were being played, and going in and out of the main hall to catch parts of the panels. Somewhere in there I ate various snacks that I had brought with me followed by getting a hug from Ben Pinchback (not a long story but it involves twitter and bgg). John Burns sat down to play Stop The Germs! and near the end Lauren Woolsey stopped by to watch. The three of us talked for a while about what could be improved before playing John's game I.G.A.R.. Afterwards, I caught the majority of the League of Legends panel featuring Eric Lang and Rob Daviau. This was by far the best panel of the day because it was both entertaining and informative. Shortly after that panel ended, the Unpub staff/board had some announcements about the following year's event. It was all very exciting until they dropped a bit of a bomb on everyone when they stated that anyone in attendance that day could pre-register that day before tickets went on sale for everyone else on May 1st.

This was the part of the day where I was unsure what I should do. I had had an okay day but only got in a couple of playtests and I met a few people but everyone there seemed to know a lot of people there while I really didn't. It felt like grade school and I was the new kid who moved from out of state. I questioned whether it was worth registering early or if I was even happy I came this time. While I ate more snacks out of my bag, I talked to Christine on the phone and she suggested I just register and then get a refund later on if I don't end up wanting to come because at least I'd have a spot if I did want to.

So I got in line behind Daniel Newman (another twitter person) and introduced myself. We chatted as the line moved only to find that the line was now for the Silent Auction winners and that we'd have to wait. We did and I got the time slot I wanted. I spent the remainder of the night walking around, stopping at the tables being used by those I was somewhat familiar with but didn't play anything else. I left around 8 p.m. so I could get some rest before a long day.

Saturday
The garage that I prepaid to park in on Saturday (and Sunday) was just a block from the convention center but before I left my car, I consolidated everything down into my backpack so that I didn't have to lug around a handled tote bag as well. The Quiver card case that held my prototypes got strapped to the backpack which made everything much easier. I got inside for early entrance shortly after 9 am.

By 10 a.m. I was playing a game called Halfling Harvest by Brian Hahn. After I got done playing that, Matt Wolfe recognized me (felt good to be recognized by somebody else) and we talked for a bit before I sat down to play Tsunami at Yeti Beach, which is in the same universe as his now published game Avalanche at Yeti Mountain. I strolled around for a while after that and stopped at the vendor booths before playing another game by a designer from North Carolina, Mark McGee. His game, Five Elements, was an interesting combination of hand building and the Rondel mechanic. I only had an hour or so before my table would come available but I was able to play a game that I really wanted to by Ben Pinchback and Matt Riddle called Songbirds. While I didn't get to play a ton of games that weekend, which was entirely my fault, Songbirds was my favorite. I then grabbed a wrap from the convention center food vendor and ate some more of my snacks from my bag.

Around 2:30 p.m. my table was available so I quickly got it set up with sign holders that held "sell sheets", an opened bag of assorted candy, a box of hand sanitizing wipes, and of course both games all laid out. The candy and hand sanitizing wipes, that I put out to catch people's attention, were useful in the setting and each fit the theme of one of the games. I don't know how well they helped but by 2:35 p.m. I already had people sitting down to play. It was pretty much none stop gaming between Tricks for Treats and Stop The Germs! until after my table time ended at 7 p.m. all the way until 8 p.m.. By then I was totally exhausted and my voice was raspy despite sucking on candy and drinking copious amounts of water. Overall the feedback for both games was very positive and I wrote down pages and pages of notes. Because my table was from 3 to 7, I wasn't going to be able to eat dinner at my normal time so I held myself over with snacks and candy the candy I had put out for playtesters.

I'm not going to go into every playtest but one that really stuck out to me was my final playtest of the night. It was around 7:15 and I had just started a game of Stop The Germs! with a couple when a young boy and his mom stopped by and watched for a minute. The mom asked how long we'd be because her son really wanted to play. I told her we just started but it'd be around 20 minutes. The kid seemed deflated as his mom lead him away to find another game to play. I continued my rules explanation and the couple that were already sitting with me, played their game. Just as the game ended, the boy showed up again, his mom closely behind. I didn't get a lot of notes from the couple because they could tell how much the boy wanted to play so they gave me some quick feedback before giving up their seats. The kid and his mother listened to my spiel and played the game with very few questions. I was surprised at the strategy the kid was able to employ for being so young but his efforts ultimately fell short as his mom was able to edge out a win. After chatting for a while after the game ended, I found out he was 10 years old and that he had been waiting to play the game all afternoon. It was that comment along with all of the fun I had during the rest of the day that cemented the fact that I'd be coming back next year. I left shortly after knowing I'd need to be on my game in the morning. Before going to bed I got some food on the way back to my family's place.

Sunday
I arrived at the garage around 8:45 a.m. and once inside the convention center, grabbed an overpriced breakfast at the hall's vendor. I was one of the first people in the doors that weren't technically supposed to be open yet but I was allowed to stay inside. I got my table set up but then there was a long wait between then, the doors opening, and the first playtester to sit down. A traffic back up due to the many things going on in the city that day caused the people to trickle in slowly. I used the time to talk to Jason Kingsley, Charles Wright, and Tam Myaing who were at tables around mine. I also went over and introduced myself to David Chalker, Chris Kirkman, and Jason Tagmire.

At some point people started to come in and play. Before I left, Lauren Woolsey and Andrew Tullsen came over separately and played two player games of Tricks for Treats with me. Both agreed upon some of the rules changes that I wanted to make, so it seemed coming to this event was worth it just for that. I started packing up just before my table time ended at 2 p.m. so I could get home before dinner. But before leaving the city, I stopped at Jimmy John's to grab lunch because I received a gift card to there that was generously donated by Crash of Games. (Thanks again!)

I got home just before 4 p.m. and even though I wished I could have stayed longer, I was happy to be home.

Things I Learned
1) GO TALK TO PEOPLE - This is one of the most important things I took from the weekend. It might be because of my personality but if you have it in you to go up and talk to people you don't really know, you'll be much better off.

2) Have short games/options - I noticed a lot of people with 60+ minutes games sitting around a lot because many of the people attending said they wanted to play as much as possible while they were there. Thankfully for me, both of my games played pretty quickly, under 30 minutes. Also, I could set both up and just slide one aside once people declared what they wanted to play. There was one thing I was able to do with Tricks for Treats, because of the type of game it is, that most games probably can't. I was able to just play a hand or two of the game because the gameplay doesn't change from round to round. This allowed me to show people the game, get an impression from them and then either play more or let them move on to another table. You'd think I wouldn't be able to get a lot of good notes from that limited gameplay but I really think that I did.

3) Never assume - Remember how I said I thought most people knew what a trick taking game was? Yeah, a lot of people don't. Just because the mechanics you're using are popular or you've played a lot of games with them growing up doesn't mean everyone has. Assume the people who sit down have never played any game in their entire lives. Work the explanation of a mechanic into the rules.

4) Make it pretty - Try and make your prototype as pretty as possible. I'm not saying you have to have it review copy ready but as much as your friends don't mind marker on index cards, the general public does. I had cards printed through Drive Thru Cards for Tricks for Treats and Jeremy put together some nice looking tiles for Stop The Germs! It definitely made a difference.

5) Have stuff to give away - As I mentioned, I had candy and hand sanitizing wipes for anyone to take. I don't know how many people stopped because of those things but a lot of smiles and a few comments were made about them so I think that worked. Another thing I gave away was my 1 card game To The Edge. I gave one to every playtester and mostly everyone I talked to all weekend. It's nothing special but it was seemingly appreciated by all. I had business cards but giving out the game worked better I thought.

6) Be recognizable - I quickly realized that many people probably don't know what I look like because my picture on social media is the company logo. So I stuck one of my business cards in my badge holder and left that side facing out at all times. It really helped people realize who I was. I heard a lot of "Oh, I know that symbol" when I introduced myself. My suggestion here would be to do something similar or make your profile picture a picture of you.

7) Keep your talking to a minimum - If you're going to be teaching all day, you are going to lose your voice if you're not used to doing that. It's loud in there so you're straining your voice by talking louder as well. Make sure you can convey everything you can with the least amount of words needed and then sit back and say nothing unless there's a question.

8) Eat full meals - Find time to eat full meals when you can. My strategy of snacking throughout the day worked but it would have been nice to enjoy some local fare. That being said, pack some snacks to have with you because your food budget will get blown out of the water if you eat out for every meal.

9) Schedule playtests with "friends" - If there's something you know you want to play, try and schedule a time during open gaming hours if possible so you don't miss out. I noticed very quickly on Friday that people were ready to play almost immediately after the breakfast, likely because they had talked about it before hand.

10) Change your Twitter name - If you're on Twitter...you should be if not already...edit your name to include Unpub & your table number. I don't know how helpful it is but it certainly can't hurt.

Checklist
Here is a checklist of things I think you should have if you go to Unpub in the future:
1) Prototypes
2) Giveaways
3) Sell Sheets/Signs
4) Business Cards
5) Water Bottle
6) Throat lozenges/hard candy
7) Snacks
8) Hand Sanitizer
9) Note pad and Pen
10) Cell phone/camera
11) Cordless charger/extra battery

If you've read this far, thank you. If you skipped most of that and have now arrived here, that's cool too. The summary of everything in this post is that Unpub is THE best resource for designers and I can't wait to go back next year.
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April 4th, 2016: This is the last update before Unpub 6 so it's more of an informational piece of what we're bringing and our plans while we'll be there.

1) Probably the most important thing to report on is where to find Dan while he's there. He'll be there all day Friday, Saturday, and until around 3pm on Sunday. On Saturday and Sunday he'll be at table i4 (see picture below) from 3pm until 7pm and 10am until 2pm, respectively.

2) Dan's decided he's bringing 5 designs with him. Two of them will be available for playtesting at his table during the previously mentioned times while the other three will be available to play during open gaming hours on Friday and Saturday.

Table i4 designs: Tricks for Treats and Stop The Germs!

Open gaming designs: Sheep Soccer, Wicked Pizza, and The Last Donut (formally known as Fish Out of Water! more on that in the next update)

3) There will be a bunch of giveaways both at the table and during other times including:

• Copies of To The Edge to anyone who asks (100 copies)
• Playtester copies of the Treats deck on for Tricks for Treats that link to the current rules (10 copies)
• Assorted candy for all playtesters of Tricks for Treats (100s)
• Hand sanitizer wipes for all playtesters of Stop The Germs! (Up to 100)

4) The Stac sale! From 04/08 until 04/10, Stac will be only $15 including US shipping. Dan will have 20 copies with him at Unpub for those who wish to buy it while they are there. All orders that need to be shipped will go out on Monday, April 11th. There are less than 40 copies of the first print run left so don't hesitate to order one now.

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March 17th, 2016: A lot has been happening since we've started gearing up for Unpub 6 including: 2 new game designs, removing a game from the Free Games page, and making three Current Game Design Projects available for print and play.

1) The first game design that was created since the last update is an 18 card micro party game of bluffing and memory for 2-9 players called Fish Out of Water!, where the object is to be the last player remaining. For a 2 player game, 9 unique non-fish cards with their own abilities and 2 fish cards with the same ability are used. With each player that joins the game, an additional fish card is added to the game. Each player is dealt one card and the remaining are placed in a 9x9 grid (the water), face down. Players then take turns either revealing the card in their hand and using its ability or revealing a card from the water and using its ability. At anytime a player can call "Fish Out of Water!" during another player's turn in attempt to eliminate them. A player being caught with a fish card in their hand eliminates them from the game. While an incorrect guess of a player’s hand eliminates the guessing player from the game. Below are pictures of the game with the first set being the original and the second a set created by a Twitter follower from France who wanted to play with his son who doesn't yet read English well enough to play the game.

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March 4th, 2016: Unpub 6 is just over a month away! Because of that, we've been focusing solely on the two designs that Dan will be showcasing at his table. Which means there isn't a lot of news to report on aside from the work on those games but we'd like to start getting the word out now about what we'll be doing while we're there.

1) First, we'd like to announce the two games that we've registered for the program. Dan's trick taking and bidding game, Tricks for Treats, and Jeremy's tile laying, take that, and memory game, Stop the Germs!, will share table time during both days of UnPub. The reason those two designs were chosen was because they were the two that are furthest along and we figured that for out first Unpub event, having games that were closer to being done would be the best way to participate for the first time. If all goes well, we'll start attending any Unpub Mini events that pop up locally with designs that aren't so polished.

2) Jeremy did some placeholder art for Tricks for Treats that fits the theme better than the stock art that Dan was originally using. Below you'll see the temporary card backs which showcase the four trick suits and the six different treats found in the Treats deck.

3) Giveaways! We'll be doing some giveaways while at Unpub, the first of which will be giving copies of our one card dexterity game, To The Edge. We're printing 100 copies to bring along and give away to other designers, playtesters, and anyone who asks for a copy until we run out. The other two giveaways have to do with the two games we'll be demoing. We'll have individual wrapped hand sanitizing wipes for all playtesters of Stop the Germs! and an assortment of candy to choose from for the players of Tricks for Treats. We're hoping that these giveaways will entice playtesters to want to check out our games. At the very least, it should get people talking.

4) Playtest copies of Tricks for Treats...sort of. We know that not everyone will have time to make it to our table for various reasons, so we're going to try something a little different when it comes to handing out playtest copies. Because the game can be played by combining the 13 Treat cards with a standard deck of playing cards, we're printing copies of just the Treats deck along with an additional card that points people to the rules here on our website. This will allow playtesters to take it with them and play later but always have access to the most up to date rules rather than having a copy with rules that will likely change. Since there are only 14 cards for each copy, we can afford to print out a lot more to hand out then we would if we printed the whole deck.

5) Copies of Stac for sale. Dan will have a limited amount of copies of Stac for sale which will cost the same as the Kickstarter price of $15. If you're interested in buying a copy there, it'll be cash only but if you'd prefer to pay online, DO NOT order through the website. We'll set up a separate sale for those picking up at UnPub.

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February 16th, 2016: Despite waiting over a month between updates, a lot has been going on behind the scenes but not so much that something be posted. But after an exciting experience this weekend and something unexpected, that changed.

1) Let's start off with the really exciting news first, STAC can now be played at a brand new board game cafe in Beverly, Massachusetts called The Castle: A Board Game Cafe. Dan was in the area visiting family so he stopped in to check the place out. A week or so before his visit he contacted the owners about donating a copy of STAC to their business and they were more than happy to accept. He was able to demo the game for them and even play a couple times. So if you're ever in the Boston area, please go check them out and play a round of STAC while you're there. Below are a couple of pics that were shared on Twitter.


2) The unexpected thing that happened was that somebody create a Vassal module for our solitaire game Amontillado. Vassal is a game engine for building and playing online adaptations of board games and card games. You can play live on the Internet or by email. Vassal runs on all platforms, and is free, open-source software. We designed Amontillado for the June 2014 24 Hour Contest but never really have it much attention after that. It is available in the print and play format here on our site on our Free Print and Play Games page. We haven't had a chance to try it out yet but we're excited that somebody took the time to create it so anyone can play online.

3) Current Game Design Projects update:
   
        a) Wicked Pizza will be getting a decision from the publisher it is currently with sometime in the next couple of months. We agreed to wait until the new year for the publisher to make a decision because they enjoyed it during their initial playtesting but weren't making any publishing decisions in the final quarter of last year. If for whatever reason they pass on it, we'll be ready to take over an attempt at publication shortly after with a Kickstarter campaign.

b) Tricks for Treats has gotten some playtesting in from a few outside groups and their feedback has been great. There have been changes to both the rules and the Treats cards so we feel like the game is starting to come together. The biggest change came with the scoring both in the Treat card values and the total needed to bring on the end of the game. The same playtesting groups who gave initial feedback should be getting the new version of the game to the table soon. We're hoping to get the game as finely tuned as possible by the time April comes around to show it off at UnPub 6 so a possible Kickstarter campaign can follow in the summertime. If you'd like to play, here are the links to the current card and rules files: Cards & Rules

        c) Another new design has been added to the current projects page. Years ago, Jeremy came up with a game called Bug Bomb but couldn't quite get it to work the way he wanted. After sharing the idea, it was decided that this was going to be the second game co-designed by Jeremy and Dan. The game is card based but there will also be tokens that get placed on the cards during play. How the cards are laid out on the board in order to play makes the game somewhat unique and very eye catching. It's still very much in the idea phase but as prototypes come together, we'll be sure to share. 

4) Book update: Over the past month, book number two has had two additional chapters added to it, bringing the word count to 40,380. What was originally going to be a possibility of breaking the story into multiple books has been changed back to wrapping everything up in just one book. It will likely make the book a little bit longer than Dan's first book but not by a whole lot.

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January 13th, 2016: It's a new year and there is a lot of new stuff going on around here including a new website layout, a new design, and most importantly, a new addition to the staff.

1) As you can see the site's layout has once again been updated. This time we went out and found a template and customized it to our liking rather than trying to work with one of the standard templates provided by Blogger. The front page will no longer be hosting these updates, instead we're implementing a new Featured Game section where each month we'll have a featured game. It may be one of our Free Print and Play games or one of our games that is available for purchase like, STAC, the current featured game.

You'll find little changes throughout the site but one of the bigger ones is the creation of pages for all of our blog posts by year. This page will have the posts for the current year but links to the pages for 2014 and 2015 can be found at the top of the page.  Another change was going back to a header image that we had before but we tweaked it a little by removing the game piece where the "i" in Simple was and adding a slogan. We're not sure if the slogan is final but we thought we'd put it out there to get some feedback. We hope you enjoy the new layout and we'd love for you to contact us if you have any questions or comments.

2) At the end of 2015, we announced an addition to our team after agreeing to a partnership with Jeremy Peet and now we're proud to welcome Christine Isom to the SDP family. Christine as many of you know or might have guessed is married to Daniel Isom. She will be bringing another skill set that SDP desperately needs as the editor for all of our books and games. In addition to editing, she will be writing some of her own works that we will publish, as well as assisting us when it comes to playtesting our designs. We're very thankful that we are able to add another valuable team member.

3) Current Game Design Projects update:

a) Tricks for Treats, our tricking taking game formally for 3 players only, is now for 2 to 4 players. A fourth suit was added to allow for different player counts as we felt 3 player only was too restrictive. Also, two of the three "0" valued treat cards were  replaced with "1" and "-1" value cards. This game is set to be featured at UnPub 6. 

b) A new game was added towards the bottom of the page because it's only in the idea phase right now. Dan has decided to do one last Stranded No More game for this year's Solitaire Print and Play Contest on BGG. There is a map that has been created but no rules have been written at this time. Dan hopes that this will be the best of the, what will be, trilogy of Stranded No More games.

4) Quick book update: Dan's second book finally got some attention and another chapter has been written. The current word count stands at approximately 33,500.