ThunderGryph Games Journal – October 2019

Dear Journal readers,

I hope this message finds you well!

As some of you noticed, there hasn't been a September Journal update. Development and Spiel Essen really took all of our time, I'm sorry about it! Hopefully now that our games are all being produced I can focus more on keeping up with our monthly chat.

This Journal will bring 2 seals to your collection, make sure to always click the wax seal at the bottom of this email, it is the only way we can grant the seals to you. Our next Journal will contain information on what you will be unlocking with your 10 seals!

I hope you will enjoy the read.

BOARD GAMES JOURNEY

We live in a world that keeps changing frantically due to how fast communication travels nowadays. The board game industry has been growing exponentially over the past few years and overproduction is something we have been facing for a while, given the wide range of choices that allows you to be more selective regarding what you will bring to your shelves and your tables. This is bringing much more innovation in many different fields of developing a board game, and that’s a beautiful thing.

As a team, we are constantly inspired by many ideas coming from our colleagues and I couldn’t feel prouder about the direction that the industry is taking. Board games are not just focusing on entertainment, but on giving you a mind stimulating exercise surrounded by a beautiful gaming experience.

The clichè “the journey is more important than the destination” applies perfectly to board gaming. The experience starts when you unbox the game and read the rules and will evolve with each match you play, as communication among players evolves and gets stronger.

With all the incredible games launching today, it is much harder to commit to a game for many sessions; so hard indeed that it might be the most difficult task to achieve.

Creating an experience that you will want to explore further with each game is what I like to call a board game journey.

We recently revealed the main idea behind categorizing our games by creating collections of titles that share a vibe of gameplay while exploring different settings and mechanisms; and we shared both Made in Wonderland and Play&Go. 

Tang Garden and Iwari will be part of 30 Journeys, a line of games that will always be very close to our hearts. Our goal for the line is to craft experiences that you will want to develop more, creating a deeper connection with the game on your Journey of discovery.

The most difficult thing was to develop games that had minimal rules with a very modular structure to allow players to explore the game further and create new interesting ways to play with the components.

Both Tang Garden and Iwari will release in Q1 2020 and I really hope you will enjoy the Journey as we have envisioned.

With 30 Journeys, we have revealed 3 lines of games with a 4th one coming next month!

Creating cohesion between the different titles is one of the things I enjoy most about working in this industry. I would love to know your thoughts about board game collections in the comment section down below.

SPIEL ESSEN 2019

Spiel Essen is one of our most anticipated conventions of the year and it is just around the corner!  Our team, designers and illustrators will be there to chat with you and play our novelties.

We have created a small section in our website with all the necessary information if you are headed to Spiel and would like to stop by the booth.

We are also 2 days away from closing our pre-orders! Buy any games from our Spiel Essen catalog (both shipping and pick-up applies) and automatically gain a chance to win a ThunderGryph Silver Ticket: A free all-access pass to all our released games in 2020, shipping included!

UPDATES

HATS & Rolling Ranch

• We recently signed a very exciting new distribution agreement. While Hats and Rolling Ranch are available to be ordered from our website, it will take just a few weeks more to get into your FLGS. More information coming very soon.

Tang Garden

• We recently published an update with an unboxing video of Tang Garden and a special surprise we did to Francesco, the game designer.
• Today in our latest update, we revealed the final look of the add-ons and metal coins.

Iwari

• In our September’s update, we revealed the final look of the totems and the metal components
• In our latest update, we shared the rules and the player aid along with the last gift for all of our backers!

Stormbound & Moonlight

• Because of our delay with Tang Garden to be delivered in Jan 2020, we had to delay all of our pipeline and the releases of both titles. We will be revealing a bit more of our schedule and planning of 2020 in our December journal update.