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Side Room Games – November Newsletter

Hey everyone – lot’s going on so let’s get to it!

Grove on Kickstarter – Ends 7 November!

The sequel to the award-winning Orchard, a small box solo game of harvesting fruit

In case you hadn’t seen, GROVE is live on Kickstarter and the campaign closes Sunday! It is the citrusy sequel to the award winning Orchard 9 card solitaire game. Its 18 cards feature orange, lemon and lime trees and a new ‘wild card’ element, glades. These open spaces without trees, combined with a new scoring mechanic, offer more ways and opportunities to increase your harvest and create a greater variety of gameplay and strategies compared to Orchard.

You’ll also find a cheeky squirrel, who can either help or hinder your fruit picking, as well as a wheelbarrow – useful if you manage to get an extra large haul. The card backs feature recipe challenges with various scoring conditions and target scores. These provide a win/lose condition (as an alternative to the standard game’s ‘beat your score’) for those that prefer it – and add even more variety to the game.

Multiple languages are available and backing now (even if just for $1) locks in the discounted Kickstarter price when the pledge manager goes live. Go check it out!

Here’s a quick update on the rest of our projects:

  • Elements of the Gods: The production proof was amazing! If you didn’t see them, check out the pics on the Kickstarter update. We were able to work with our manufacturer for a few minor tweaks based on how things fit & looked. Full production should start this month & fulfillment can start near the beginning of 2022!
  • Maquis: Fulfillment has begun! Most of the copies have headed out or are on their way and our backers in the UK, Canada, and Australia should start to see them this month. If for some reason you’re not in those areas and haven’t gotten a shipping notification or received the game let us know and we can figure out what the issue may be.
  • Mechanical Beast: We’re a little behind schedule on this one. We had some tweaks to do but the bulk of the files will head off to our licensing partners soon. Then we can start pre-production. So likely looking closer to March 2022 for fulfillment but all things considered not too bad of a slip.

We also have signed another game! Spice Empires from Theodore Karvounis won 1st place at Epitrapezio 2018 and as soon as we played it we knew we wanted to publish it. 

All great empires want to conquer the famous Spice Islands, but who will prevail? At the King’s order, you sail to these lands, eager to discover new sources of the most valuable goods. Build new settlements to strengthen your dominance, ports to take control of the maritime trade and forts to protect the colony and fend off your heinous rivals. Remember that plenty of esteemed people wait in your motherland for your ships, expecting to find them full spices!

Players explore the islands, discover spices and place buildings, either cities, forts or ports. Cities help them control the islands, ports let them trade the spices and profit while the forts let them attack their enemies’ buildings. The board is modular and the spices are placed in a random fashion so that each time players explore a different map.

This one is likely late 2022/early 2023 so stay tuned for updates as we make progress on it. It’s going to be great!

As for our next game we’re still trying to determine which is next for early 2022. It will either be Village Builder or For Northwood. We’re hoping to have a decision made this month and we’ll let folks know what’s coming next and when to expect it!

Finally, the 2022 54 Card Game Design Contest on BoardGameGeek officially kicked off on 1 November! If you’ve ever wanted to design a game, or just test out & give feedback to up and coming designs, now is your chance. Some great games have come from this contest, both published by us and picked up by other publishers. It’s always fun to see some of these new designs really blossom into fantastic games so go check it out!

As always, if you have any questions or issues feel free to drop us a line through our social media outlets or send us an email at support@sideroomgames.com. Until next time!

The SRG Team

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Side Room Games – September/October Newsletter

Hey everyone – as usual last month was so busy we forgot to send a newsletter! So double duty this
month – let’s get to it!

Grove Coming – October 18th!

GROVE is the citrusy sequel to the award winning Orchard 9 card solitaire game, coming to Kickstarter on 18 October! Its 18 cards feature orange, lemon and lime trees and a new ‘wild card’ element, glades. These open spaces without trees, combined with a new scoring mechanic, offer more ways and opportunities to increase your harvest and create a greater variety of gameplay and strategies compared to Orchard.

You’ll also find a cheeky squirrel, who can either help or hinder your fruit picking, as well as a wheelbarrow – useful if you manage to get an extra large haul. The card backs feature recipe challenges with various scoring conditions and target scores. These provide a win/lose condition (as an alternative to the standard game’s ‘beat your score’) for those that prefer it – and add even more variety to the game.

We’re also working with multiple licensing partners and will have quite a few options on top of the standard English edition we print. So sign up for a launch notification – this one is going to be great!

Here’s a quick update on the rest of our projects:

  • Elements of the Gods: The production proof is on its way! It got held up for a bit in customs but we’ve seen movement so any day now it should arrive. Once it does we’ll get some pics of everything up on the Kickstarter to show it off. From what we’ve seen so far it looks amazing! If all goes well full production will start later this month & fulfillment can start near the end of the year/beginning of 2022!
  • Maquis: Fulfillment has begun! Most of the copies have headed out or are on their way. The only exception is for our backers in the UK, Canada, and Australia as those copies are still on their way to the local fulfillment centers. There are a few backers/late pledgers who we will need some additional info from to complete your order so be on the lookout. So, if you don’t hear from us directly don’t worry – you should be good to go!
  • Mechanical Beast: We’re a little behind schedule on this one. We’re still putting the finishing touches on the art assets and expect that to be done by the end of October. Then we can start pre-production. So likely looking closer to Feb/Mar 2022 for fulfillment but all things considered not too bad of a slip. You can check out some of the latest art assets on the update we posted this week.

Finally, be on the lookout for the start of the 2022 54 Card Game Design Contest on BoardGameGeek. It’ll likely kickoff on 1 November and we’re looking at some potential rule changes for this year. You can check out the discussion on BGG in the Design Contest Forums!

As always, if you have any questions or issues feel free to drop us a line through our social media outlets or send us an email at support@sideroomgames.com. Until next time!

The SRG Team

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Side Room Games – Jul/Aug 2021 Update

Hey everyone – as usual lots going on so let’s jump into it!

Mechanical Beast – Another Success!

The Mechanical Beast campaign went great as expected and we’re excited to get this one printed up! We’re working on the final file prep this month & next and are hoping to start the pre-production up in October. So stay tuned for updates as things progress. The Pledge Manager just got approved on Gamefound so go check it out if you missed the campaign!


Here’s a quick update on the rest of our projects:

  • Elements of the Gods: After some back & forth with the manufacturer we’re getting close to finishing up the production proof and approving the full print. We’re expecting the final proof to get to us around the middle of the month with slight updates to the miniatures and a better storing system to make the box way more usable & storable. Stay tuned for pics once the proof arrives!
  • Maquis: Production is a little bit a head of schedule and should complete by the 15th of August! From there it’ll take some time to get the games to the various fulfillment centers (and to our licensing partners). So games should start making there way to backers & late pledgers in September. Be sure to get your shipping information updated in the pledge manager by 31 August!
  • Grove: The crowdfunding campaign is coming in September! No official launch date picked yet but once we have one we’ll let folks know. We’re getting review copies printed up as we speak and should have those out to reviewers by the end of the month. And stay tuned for announcements on the various licensing partners we have – expecting the same or even more support for this one as we had on Orchard!

We also have a few other announcements… We’re happy to announce we’ve signed By Torchlight by Barny Skinner to a publishing contract! This one got a top-5 finish in crowded field in the 2021 9-Card Nanogame Print & Play Design Contest on BoardGameGeek and we think it deserved an even better standing. It’s a small box design (think Orchard/Fallen Angels) of dungeon crawling, looting treasure, and killing monsters. It really is a “minis-game” feel in a tiny travel box. It’s definitely unique to us and a thrilling adventure that you can spend a ton of time on or knock out a level & pack it up for later. This one is going to be fun to put together in a finished product. Expect more announcements as we go and a crowdfunding campaign coming in 2022!



Finally, the 2021 54 Card Game Design Contest on BoardGameGeek wrapped up in July and there were some amazing entries! We’re proud to announce that we’ve signed For Northwood! by Wilhelm Su to a publishing contract and will look at crowdfunding it also in 2022! It was the big winner in the contest with a 1st place finishes in the Best Solo Game, Best Artwork, Best New Designer, and Best Overall categories. It was also our top pick from the SRG team and well deserved. I personally love trick taking games and to have one as fun & engaging as this is in a solo variant is a real treat!

As always, if you have any questions or issues feel free to drop us a line through our social media outlets or send us an email at support@sideroomgames.com. Until next time!

Dustin

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Side Room Games – Mar/Apr 2021 Update

Hey everyone – last month was so busy we forgot to send a newsletter! So double duty this month – let’s get to it!

Maquis: 2nd Edition – Breaking SRG Records!

This campaign was bonkers!!! Most backers & funding by far for Side Room Games, so thanks to everyone who helped make the campaign a success. We’re really excited for this one (we say that all of the time, we know, but we’re serious every time! ?). File prep for the English version is complete and we submitted the new print and play files to BoardGameGeek so they’ll be available soon. The plan is still in line for our licensing partners to get their translations completed this month and start printing in May. If anything changes we’ll let you know!

Also, here’s an update on some of our ongoing projects:

  • Elements of the Gods:  We’re putting the finishing touches on the files and will start printing this month. So just a bit behind schedule but we built in quite a bit of margin so overall we’re doing great. Mike dropped an update to the Kickstarter campaign showing off some of the tweaks & improvements to the 3D models and some of the new art & graphic design so check it out!
  • Black Sonata & The Fair Youth Printing has completed for new English versions and they should be on their way to the fulfillment centers soon. We’re working through our UK & EU fulfillment adjustments (Brexit + VAT = ?) but that should all be behind the scenes and no impact on your end. Once that’s squared away we’ll start taking orders again on our site. One note:  for US & Canadian customers, we are working exclusively with The Gaming Goat so if you’re looking for copies head here!
  • Mechanical Beast:  A little slower going than planned but progress is being made. (Note to self – spread out projects where you use the same artist and graphic designer… ?) We’re still planning on a Kickstarter launch soon and it’ll likely be in the first half of May as long as we stay on track. We’ll also throw up some pics on social media and BGG once we get the review copies in hand. 
  • Grove:  In case you missed our announcement in February, the sequel to Orchard is coming soon! Mark was able to come up with another hit design (as usual, he’s half-man, half-amazing). Still looking for a summer crowdfunding campaign so stay tuned. And, if you want to try it out early the print & play files are available on BGG.
  • Village Builder:  We also announced another amazing title we’ve signed – Village Builder by Janine Viglietti! This one is another great solo game (with a 2-player variant) and won the 2020 Solitaire Print and Play Design Contest on BGG, finishing 1st overall among other great finishes in the contest sub-categories. Depending on how the year unfolds it’ll be coming in the fall or potentially early in 2022 (we keep getting busier and busier!). As with Grove, the print & play files are available on BGG so check it out.

As usual, I’ll keep plugging our 2021 54 Card Game Design Contest on BoardGameGeek. There are going to be some awesome games coming out of this one – probably too many for us to publish! Luckily we’ve had good luck in getting entries from previous contests signed with other publishers and I expect that to continue this year. Definitely check them out, give them a playtest (easy print & play builds ?), and provide some feedback. And, if you have a design that’s been tinkering around in your head you should definitely get it down on paper & get it entered!

As always, if you have any questions or issues feel free to drop us a line through our social media outlets or send us an email at support@sideroomgames.com. Until next time!

Dustin

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Side Room Games – Feb 2021 Update

Hey everyone – it’s been a busy month so let’s dive in with some news!

Maquis: 2nd Edition is live on Kickstarter!

Maquis: 2nd Edition is live on Kickstarter! This one has some new content (missions, spare rooms, and resources) as well as some general clean up of the rules to help explain some of the finer details of the game and improve playability. For our previous backers & customers, the new content is available to purchase as a mini-expansion and you’ll be able to fit it in the original box with some maneuvering. The campaign has gone fantastic so far, breaking our previous backer number record at Side Room Games and it’s on pace to pass our funding level record too! ?

Also, here’s an update on some of our ongoing projects:

  • Elements of the Gods:  The pledge manager on Gamefound is live so if you didn’t get a link please let me know. We’re still in file preparation mode over the next month and should wrap things up by March. Be on the lookout for some pics on a KS update & through our social media outlets!
  • Black Sonata & The Fair Youth We’re resolving some of the missing/lost packages from fulfillment so if you’re still waiting for delivery reach out to us and we can investigate. We’re also in the preproduction phase for another print run, so if you missed out on the latest Kickstarter & preorders we’ll have stock soon, likely later this spring. 
  • Fallen Angels:  As above, we’re resolving shipping issues so if you’re waiting let us know and we can help. We also still have copies on our site available!
  • Mechanical Beast:  Still working art development on the tiles and things are coming along nicely! We’re on schedule and looking at an April/May launch date for this one.
  • Grove:  In case you missed our announcement last month, the sequel to Orchard is coming soon! Mark was able to come up with another hit design and I can tell you it’s fantastic. We’re looking for this one to hit Kickstarter this summer so stay tuned. And, if you want to try it out early the print & play files are available on BGG.

As usual, I’ll keep plugging our 2021 54 Card Game Design Contest on BoardGameGeek. There are going to be some awesome games coming out of this one – probably too many for us to publish! Luckily we’ve had good luck in getting entries from previous contests signed with other publishers and I expect that to continue this year. Definitely check them out, give them a playtest (easy print & play builds ?), and provide some feedback. And, if you have a design that’s been tinkering around in your head you should definitely get it down on paper & get it entered!

As always, if you have any questions or issues feel free to drop us a line through our social media outlets or send us an email at support@sideroomgames.com. Until next time!

Dustin

P.S.  We have another announcement coming soon on another title we’re going to publish… A perfect fit to our catalog. We’ll let the village know about it once it’s ready to start building… ?

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Side Room Games – Jan 2021 Update

Hey everyone – let’s dive in with some news!

Maquis: 2nd Edition coming 1 February!

Maquis is coming back to Kickstarter! This will be the 2nd Edition with some new content (missions, spare rooms, and resources) as well as some general clean up of the rules to help explain some of the finer details of the game and improve playability. For our previous backers & customers, the new content will be available to purchase as a mini-expansion and you’ll be able to fit it in the original box with some maneuvering. 🙂

Also, here’s an update on some of our ongoing projects:

  • Elements of the Gods:  The pledge manager on Gamefound is live as of today! Backers should have received an invite this morning. If you didn’t please send me a note and I can investigate. We’re working on getting the files prepped over the next month or so and should wrap things up by March at the latest. Next month we’ll share some of the updates & final versions!
  • Black Sonata & The Fair Youth We FINALLY got all of the issues resolved for European backers and games have gotten out to folks. There are still a few areas where delivery is a little behind but they all have left Collext. And with the last-minute Brexit deal it’s a huge sigh of relief for us since things will stay EU friendly. Because of general delays, if folks haven’t received packages by the middle of the month we can start looking into things. By then I’d expect any undeliverable packages to return back to Collext. We’re also in the preproduction phase for another print run, so if you missed out on the latest Kickstarter & preorders we’ll have stock soon, likely later this spring. 
  • Fallen Angels:  These also made it to Collext for EU fulfillment right before Christmas and are starting to arrive to the last backers in the EU. Much like above, we’ll give it some time to make it through the standard delivery timelines and then we’ll assess if there’s any issues to resolve. We also still have copies on our site available! 🙂
  • Mechanical Beast:  Here’s some more art in development! We really like the way the tiles are coming together. Still planning for launching after Maquis, likely around the April timeframe.

Finally, I’ll keep plugging our 2021 54 Card Game Design Contest on BoardGameGeek. There are going to be some awesome games coming out of this one – probably too many for us to publish! Luckily we’ve had good luck in getting entries from previous contests signed with other publishers and I expect that to continue this year. Definitely check them out, give them a playtest (easy print & play builds), and provide some feedback. And, if you have a design that’s been tinkering around in your head you should definitely get it down on paper & get it entered!

As always, if you have any questions or issues feel free to drop us a line through our social media outlets or send us an email at support@sideroomgames.com. Until next time!

Dustin

P.S.  If you’ve made it this far, you may want to stay tuned over the next week or so… We’re meandering out of the Orchard and have found a lovely little Grove we’re quite fond of… 😉

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Side Room Games – Nov 2020 Update

Hey everyone! Wanted to give folks an update on a few fronts, including some changes to our current Kickstarter campaign & statuses on our current & future projects. Let’s roll!

Elements of the Gods – Kickstarter Exclusive!

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Two significant things we wanted to let you know about in regards to Elements of the Gods. First, we’ve decided to do our best to help supplement some of the shipping costs for backers so we’re decreasing our planned prices for fulfillment. Take a look at the shipping section on the campaign page for specific costs for your area. We’ve also lowered the additional amount needed if you’re looking for multiple copies or a group buy.

Secondly, we’re also making this game a Kickstarter Exclusive, our first at Side Room Games. This means that the game won’t see a larger distribution for the English version and only retailers who back will be able to have it in stores in a limited quantity. Any leftover copies after fulfillment will only be available on our site at the planned MSRP of $60.

Also, here’s an update on some of our ongoing projects:

Black Sonata & The Fair Youth For European backers, the games did finally make it to Collext and went out the first week of November! If you hadn’t seen any of the comments on the KS page, for some reason the unloading process at the port took way longer than expected; the ship arrived 7 October, so almost 3 weeks! 🙁 It sounded like the port is really busy right now (Brexit panic!?!? :-/ ). So games are on their way and folks in the UK & Ireland have already seen them come in. I’m really hoping that other countries start receiving this week and I appreciate everyone’s patience on this!

Fallen Angels:  The bulk of fulfillment is complete and games are on their way to backers. I do know there have been some sleight delays since it’s a busy time of the year for shipments combined with challenges brought on by the pandemic. The last subset of games that are going to folks in Europe who ordered multiple copies + some specific countries where it made sense to send from the EU rather than China are on their way to the UK. Hopefully they’ll get there around the end of the month & Collext will get them out shortly thereafter. So surprisingly smooth sailing. 😀

Orchard The latest print run just completed and included versions in Spanish (Melmac Games), Italian (GateOnGames), Chinese (Treetato Games), French (ABi Games), German (Board Game Circus), Dutch (Gam’inBIZ), Japanese/Thai (Mr. Dexker), and Korean (Lotus Frog Games). We also partnered with guf in Australia and GigaMech Games in the US for special English versions in those regions. So, if you’re looking for another copy for you or a friend, there are lots of options headed your way. 🙂

Maquis: We finally have some exciting news… We are in the works with Jake, the designer, and Ilya, the artist to put together a small expansion for Maquis! The expansion will contain 4 extra-hard missions with different objectives & levels of victory. We’ll also have some new safe houses & resources to support these newer missions as well as the original missions. The current plan is to have things ready to go for an expansion & reprint campaign in early 2021 – currently looking at late January/early February but still working the timing. The plan is to do something similar to what we did with Black Sonata & The Fair Youth expansion. This expansion will be a little smaller in size so that should also keep the price down for backers. 🙂 As we get more details we’ll let folks know!

Also, if you’re interested in designing a game or just want to check out some cool ones in development, our 2021 54 Card Game Design Contest is live on BoardGameGeek. Some of them are looking amazing so far. Definitely check them out, give them a playtest (easy print & play builds :D), and provide some feedback. And, if you have a design that’s been tinkering around in your head you should definitely get it down on paper & get it entered!

As always, if you have any questions or issues feel free to drop us a line through our social media outlets or send us an email at support@sideroomgames.com. Until next time!

Dustin

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Side Room Games – Sep 2020 Update

Hey everyone! I think we’re finally at the point where it’s worthwhile to write a blog post every once in a while. 🙂 Not sure if this will be a monthly or quarterly thing but we have so many projects either wrapping up, in works, or about to start some folks out there might be interested in hearing about them. Without further ado let’s get rolling!


  • Black Sonata & The Fair Youth Production is complete on this one and we’re in the process of getting games to their respective fulfillment centers. We had a slight hiccup in getting the shipping set up (lesson learned, get all of this prepped during production as opposed to after…) but we should have games leaving BangWee this week. As most of you are aware from the KS update, shipping will go out in stages and start in September and continue through into October until all of the games are out. 
  • Fallen Angels:  Production has just started – we got the proofs in and they look fantastic! We’re still on pace for fulfillment in November and I’m slightly confident we’ll even beat that for the start of shipping. This one has been smooth sailing so far. 🙂
  • Orchard In case you haven’t heard, Orchard is going global! We have licensing deals in place with 8 different publishers in 9 different languages (Italian, Spanish, French, Korean, Chinese, German, Japanese, Thai, and Dutch) as well as some exclusive deals for English versions in Australia and the US. Production on those will start in September and will hit game stores across the globe this fall.
  • Maquis:  Lots of people have been looking for a reprint and/or an expansion on this one! We are in the planning stages right now looking at expansion options as well as localization partners. We were thinking about later this year but we may shift things around depending on whether or not new content will be ready. So no news yet but we’re working it!
  • Elements of the Gods:  Our next Kickstarter is coming up quickly! We’re still planning for an October/November launch but we’re still trying to get a final date setup. We have some of the review copy pieces in (minis!) and the rest are either in production or on order. Once everything is in hand we’ll pick a specific launch date & let folks know.

We have other projects in development, including Mechanical Beast (BGG 2019 Solo Game Design Contest Winner). These are all slated for 2021 releases. As we get more information on those we’ll keep everyone up to date. One great way to stay up to speed is to subscribe on BoardGameGeek to the game pages (links above) and our publisher page… 😉

Finally, we were able to participate in a speed pitching session a few weeks ago and there were some amazing designs! We have some Tabletop Simulator playthroughs lined up and we’re hoping to snag a few and turn them into Side Room Games titles. 😀

Like I said, lots of projects at various stages. And all of them we’re extremely excited about & can’t wait to get out to our backers/customers! As always, if you have any questions or issues feel free to drop us a line through our social media outlets or send us an email at support@sideroomgames.com. Until next time!

Dustin