CPG has returned from the Tokyo Game Market and the Tabletop Game Alliance Trade Mission. We had an amazing time making new fans, playing Japanese games, eating the best food, and visiting a variety of animal cafes. A lot happened, so we’ll hit the highlight reel that’s relevant for folks reading this.
Folks that purchased Hair of the Dog at Tokyo Game Market received a Japanese version of our rules. These PDFs can be found on the Hair of the Dog homepage. We are working on a Japanese version of the Bonus Modules book. That should be ready in the next month or two. We’ll also revise the PDFs as we get feedback, so please let us know if you see a typo or a joke doesn’t work.
We held off on translating the extra modules because we weren’t sure if Hair of the Dog would be popular. We ended up selling all 48 copies we brought. Thank you to everyone who came to our booth and pet dogs with us.
Based on this success, we’re exploring a few localization and publishing contracts. We can’t divulge anything yet, but we are hoping for a fully localized version of Hair of the Dog in Japan. The next few weeks of play evaluations, meetings, contracts, and negotiations will determine what same that takes.
It was also amazing to see the Japanese gaming and convention scene. We went to board game cafes, RPG clubs, and publishing companies. Public gaming felt more accessible than here in the US. People were more inclined to meet in cafes and share games with each other. From the game purchasing side, there seemed to be less emphasis on the production than on the game play and value: fewer large miniature-filled games than in the US. We at CPG loved all of this, since we focus on player interaction and imagination.
Everyone at the Game Market was pleasant. While we’ve had plenty of wonderful convention experiences before, it was staggering how nice and respectful folks were. Extra shout outs to our booth master Noah for constantly running Hair of the Dog demos and to Arclight for helping with the booth and logistics.
Going to Tokyo with the TGA and Secretary of Washington State was an incredible experience. While the economic benefits of getting these localization deals is obvious, the intangibles are equally important. Watching a difference audience learn and play games is enlightening; seeing the board game culture gives us fresh ideas on how to improve things back home; and seeing a bunch of games developed without as much influence of Kickstarter and the rest of the American game zeitgeist will help our own design ideas.
Now that we’re back and recovering from the jetlag, we can look forward to the next conventions. We have a few more coming up and we’re going to bring the latest version of the Far Away: Corporate Espionage expansion.
· KublaCon (May 24-27. Burlingame, CA)
· Evergreen Tabletop Expo (June 1-2, Renton, WA)
· PAX West (August 30-September 2, Seattle, WA)