connor.alwaysawake.games
Board game designer, illustrator and indie publisher
Store: https://www.alwaysawake.games/
Portfolio: connorwake.com
204 posts
494 followers
282 following
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Sorry, not at the moment. Shipping would be $30 and customs was getting complicated. But I do have a print and play available: alwaysawakegames.itch.io/out-of-sorts
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Thanks for ordering a copy! Hope you enjoy!
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Kit (used to be ConvertKit) has a free newsletter tier up to 10k subscribers: kit.com/pricing It’s been working fine for me, just doesn’t come with many features and auto adds you to it’s “Creator Network”.
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Hand to Hand Wombat does this, but I'd love to see more!
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This game also demonstrates why I now use the term "tuning" instead of "balancing." This game required a ton of tuning: number-tweaking, math formulas, virtual simulation, etc. But that technical stuff was not in service of "fairness" but rather the right emotional experience.
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Oof yeah this one frustrates me so much. Video games don’t even have this issue. Part of me thinks it’s cause they need competition to justify play. Take that justification away and suddenly they start getting insecure. Probably applies more to board games cause it basically is a toy box.
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Thanks for all the help playtesting it! And thanks for backing it! Hope you enjoy : )
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No, but that’s a good idea. I’ll try and out those together soon!
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I HIGHLY recommend submitting. Especially if it’s weird/otherwise unpublishable.
This space is ripe for new and experimental forms of game design. If you have something cool—come share!
I cannot wait to see what gets made for this year’s Indie Games Night Market!!!
www.newmillindustries.com/ignm
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I really appreciate you making the PnP and sharing it with people! It means a lot, especially as an indie publisher. Glad you’re enjoying it!
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I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
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Hi! Sorry, yeah I just did a tiny print run and I’m shipping them out myself, so I had to stick to US only for now (shipping was more than the game too). Thanks for tagging me, this is really cool to hear!
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Yeah party games are great examples! The points could most often just be rephrased as goals and people would have just as much fun. We’ve just defaulted to points being the shorthand for explaining goals.
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Also, people always say “this is more of an activity than a game” and they mean it in a derogatory way which I’ve never understood. Activities are great! They’re all play and no judgement. So games with that “complaint” against them are another good place to look.
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I think part of it is that they don’t need tension. They can focus more on exploration, creativity etc. If you do want tension, it can be tension around completing self imposed goals. There’s plenty of sandbox games where technically there’s a winner, but no one really cares. Just lean into that
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I couldn’t be mad lol
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Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for playing!
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Love a good London Fog too
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In first place, winning the 2025 Cardboard Edison Award: DOT COM by Sammy Salkind! It's an app-assisted economic strategy game where your money is burned away in real time! cardboardedison.com/award
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Thanks! According to Procreate it took 15h23m. A lot of that was staring at it and making tiny tweaks at the end.
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I dont know if it helps to try and categorise it like that. Honestly I’d just recommend it to your friends who are up for a weird game and see what they think. Some people will hate it and some people will find something new they didn’t know they were into