December Newsletter, Live! (Dec 3 2025 Livecast)

Hey, good morning. I'm Jamie from Stonemire Games and today is a newsletter day, December newsletter 2025. Our last newsletter of 2025 kind of though. On December 31st, I have another newsletter. Uh that'll be our kind of our January leading into 2026 newsletter. But yeah, we have some news today. Nothing big for the next year, but um I'll go over some of the stuff from the past year on my other screen.

I'll share that in a few minutes. But right now, I just hope you are doing well, that you're having a great week so far. Um, it's very snowy and cold here in St. Louis, but it's warm inside here, and so I'm wearing my new world world of Wingspan shirt here. Um, yeah. Yeah. I just hope you're doing well.

Some topics for today that we're going to cover. We're going to talk a little bit about game design, uh, or game day, a little bit about game design as well. Um, I have some questions involving houses and Instagram and uh some recent post about love languages and small box games or big games in small boxes as well as some other non-gaming media that I've been enjoying recently.

Um, let's jump in with that because that is a fairly low-key topic. Some stuff that we've been enjoying. We just started the show Plurabus last night. We watched the first episode and I thought it was really, really interesting. It's by the creator of Breaking Bad. Um, I guess I don't want to give anything away because I really did not know what to expect from the first episode and I think it's fun to go into it not knowing, but there is a science science fiction like a science-based science fiction thing that happens in the first episode.

That uh caught me off guard. Um, we watched Zoo Zootopia 2 on one of these snowy days. We went over to the theater and saw Zootopia 2 and thought it was charming, delightful, beautiful, really, really good movie. Um, I uh we've also watched now the first four episodes of Stranger Things season five, the final season.

And uh, wow, it ends on such like a a big moment. I I really really enjoyed where Stranger Things uh, ended this first part of season 5 and I've been completely enamored with to the point that I've already completed it. the video game Dispatch, which is um it is an animated superhero show uh I say show show slashgame because you're watching a lot of cutscenes but you're making some story decisions in those cutscenes and you are also playing two different mini games.

There's a hacking miniame and then the main miniame is you on the job dispatching superheroes to deal with different problems in the city. It's kind of an intense miniame that I really really enjoyed more so than I even expected. And uh for someone like me who doesn't do a lot of who doesn't do dexterity um video gaming like I I that is not something that I I'm good at or really that I enjoy all that much.

This was not that. This was real time, but it didn't involve any dexterity elements at all. I just sent different superheroes into battle based on what I thought they would be good at doing and I had a blast at doing so. It's it's eight different episodes that you play through. Um, it's not familyfriendly, I would say.

Definitely not little kid-friendly. Uh, it's pretty intense. A lot of cursing. Um, but I really loved it. Dispatch is a video game that I highly recommend if you have some downtime this uh this cold winter season and just want something not cozy. I wouldn't call it cozy, but a really, really good video game.

Uh, Garrett says, "I'm curious if you have heard any updates for the full digital implementation for Tapstry. Seemed like seems like it's been been a bit since we've heard anything." You know, usually those developers, they this particular developer team, I don't hear anything from them until occasionally they post on Board Game Geek with an update.

So, I only know what you know, unfortunately. Oh, Julie says that she's enjoying the speculative fiction speculative fiction element of Plurbus. I'm excited to dig into season or episode two um hopefully tonight. Uh Stuart says, "Do you have any snowy wintry game recommendations?" That's a fun question, Stuart.

Snowy wintry game recommendations. Hm. Let me look at my shelf to see if I have any snowy or wintry games currently on my shelf. I don't think I do. No, not really. Um, I guess Parks is maybe the closest game that I have to a snowy wintry game. Um, I do love the Everdell line of games, but I haven't played Silver Frost.

That's I think their wintry one. Um, yeah, I'll put that question out there, though. I I'm sure I'm missing some pretty obvious snowy, wintry, icy games, but maybe with a cozy feel to them. Uh, anyone's welcome to share their recommendations in the comments. Dead of Winter. There we go. G Money suggest dead of winter.

That's a good one. And there's a Carstone Winter Edition. That's another good pick for it. And Jack Mock. Yeah, I'm still looking to try this one sometime. I think you have recommended this a few times. I'm looking forward to trying that in the future. And you talk. There we go. There's a good icy creating like an icy um uh uh zigurat.

Uh that's a that's a that's a good one. Jeff Snow Planner. So yeah, some good suggestions here in the comments for snowy wintry game. The White Castle, too. Yeah, it has a wintry vibe to it. We played So I hosted a game day. There was a lot of snow on Saturday here in St. Louis and it cleared enough for people to come over for a game day on Sunday.

We had around 25 people here, which is more than we can technically fit in our in our little condo, but we made it work. And we played or I played The Gang, Fairy Ring, uh World Wonders, a sixplayer game of Vantage, uh and separately on Oh, and also Mysterium Park. And separately, a few days before that, I played the game Thiefdome, a new um pick up and deliver heist game from the creators of Clans of Calonia.

I had fun with that. But yeah, a really, really fun game day. Really crowded day, but it was fun to have a lot of people around. And I managed to burn not one, not two, not three, not four, but four frozen pizzas in the oven. I I think I had the oven just set a little bit too high for these pizzas. And all of them burned a little bit, but they were still all eaten.

They were technically edible. So, didn't didn't burn it too much, I guess. Hilda says that Silver Frost is fantastic. Hilda, what's your take on the um the new Everddale game that's on Kickstarter right now? I'm intrigued by it because I like the idea of the upgrading cards, but I'm still like I don't get Everdell to the table often enough and it's on my shelf, so I'm hesitant to add another Everdell that I may not also get to the table often enough.

Um, Ice and Idols, that's a wintry one. Yeah, Anthony is talking about how he's excited about Sanctuary. played it a few times recently. That's great. Less time than Arnova with good vibes. Looking forward to How to Save a World game this month and the Bark Avenue expansion. I haven't played How to Save the World, but I have played Bark Avenue.

It's delightful. Uh Glitch Arcade says, "My game my game day group has bringing has been bringing lots of newcomers to board games recently, which is awesome. I love welcoming new people into the hobby. What would you recommend showing them?" Um, that's a great question. I I have some videos about this, but I think the number one thing is to ask them if they know Well, don't ask them if they know anything.

Ask them what types of themes they enjoy in general, like movie themes, uh uh book themes, TV show themes, and try to find a thematic pairing for them. and or start with uh I don't know honestly I would start with some of the the new cooperative games that are a little social like so Clover just one start out with something like that and then ramp up into something a little bit more complex and probably not cooperative but I like leading with a few cooperative games before you get into some of the more competitive games um or games that feel a little cooperative like uh Inc and Gold isn't actually cooperative at all but it feels like you're in it together um I think leading off of some of those games are a good way to start in my opinion.

But also, I think it's good to ask questions and see what people are interested in, whether they have had some exposure to modern gaming and they they know they like something and then you can recommend something based on that or if they like a specific theme, you can go from there. Jeff says, "Coworkers and I are going to Sweet Art for lunch." Oh, I love Sweetheart, Jeff.

Um, I usually just get their standard fried chicken sandwich. This is a a vegan fried chicken place. Um, and Jeff, they have, in my opinion, I I would say the best chocolate chip cookies in St. Louis. I I think their chocolate chip cookies are excellent, and I'm amazed every time I eat one that it is a vegan chocolate chip cookie.

I highly recommend getting more than one because I think you will want more than one if you go to Sweetheart. Hey, Ivan, good to see you. I hope you're doing well. Yeah, World Wonders. So, a few two of the games that were new to me this weekend that I played at the game day were World Wonders and Fairy Ring.

And both of them uh I had no idea what to expect, but I really really enjoyed both. Uh World Wonders is a polyomino game where you're placing mostly it's flat tiles, but every now and then you're placing a big chunky wonder and it has just a really good set of mechanisms in it. You're you're just it's one of those games where you're spending all of your money until you have no money left for the round.

but with a little twist being that whenever you buy a wonder it you have to spend all the rest of your money no matter how much it is. Uh so I thought that was a really neat twist for for adding some tension and timing to the wonder decision. And then fairy ring was a really really neat twist on a drafting game where you're drafting cards like in seven wonders sushi go but you were also moving a fairy around the table around all the different cards that the players have played.

So, picture seven wonders, but where I have a token that I'm moving around the table onto all the stacks of cards that other players that all players have played. And whenever I land on a stack or card type where I have that card type, too. Not only do I trigger it for the opponent, um, because I've landed on their card, but I also trigger that card type for me and I get to score based on that.

Um, so really, really neat twist on drafting in uh in a in a lighter family-friendly game in Fairy Ring. really really enjoyed that. Santa's Workshop. There we go. Garrett, that's a that's a great uh holiday season wintry game. Santa's Workshop. I do delight in that one. Aaron recommends Wandering Towers for newcomers.

Yeah, if anyone has recommendations for newcomers as well for if you are welcoming new people into the hobby. Uh I think this is a good question to ask all the time because I think it can evolve constantly with new games released that are that are welcoming in different ways. So yeah, feel free to throw out your suggestions there.

Here we go. Dont. That's the same as ink and gold or very similar to Ink and Gold. Still Clover just one. Yeah. Red Stash Game says, "What is your favorite component hook for a Stonemer Meer game and a non Stonem game?" Uh, I'll I'll think of maybe recent games for this one. Um, or games that I've recently played at least because I I there are many different games where I I have different component hooks that I really really love.

Stonem games. Let's see. Um, okay. I'll go with custom dice in Tokido Duo. Tokido Duo has a little dice draft that you do every round. And I really like the custom dice in any game, but I like the custom dice in Tokido Duo. And then a non Stomyro games. Let's look at this list of games that I played this past weekend.

Um, I don't know if Fairy actually Fairy Ring did have Okay, this is a tiny touch. This isn't like a a a stand out on the table component hook, but fairy ring drafting game. And in most drafting games, you don't have a player mat that relates to the draft itself. But this game has a little player mat where it has a slot for the card that you pick where you pick the card, you put it face down in that slot until it's your turn to play that card.

And it also has a horizontal slot next to this player mat incorporated into the player mat for all the cards that you're passing to uh to the the next player. I thought that was a neat little thing. Like it not necessary but ve very helpful to organize those cards and remember, okay, this is the card that I'm actually drafting.

These are the cards that I'm that I'm passing. Just a nice little component touch. Sometimes it's the little things that I think add up to a big difference in games. Jeff also says that he enjoys fairy ring, always having to shift plans as opponents play on their tableau. Yeah, it's a little difficult to predict exactly where your fair is going to end up.

So, it encourages you to go with a diverse array of cards so you trigger cards more often. Um, but it also gives you the the do do you consider like playing a card that gives you multiple movement options instead of the the one movement option? Really good u decision space there. Austin says, "How's all the play testing been going lately?" Yeah, this is one thing I wanted to mention.

Not mentioned specific products, but I did I have a a regular monthly play test night with some other designer friends here in St. Louis and we had one last night and it was really delightful to see what some of my designer friends are working on and to get their opinions on something that I am working on as well.

So that's going well. We also do play testing. I play test a lot with Megan because she's very open to that. I appreciate that. And play test with my co-workers as well. Megan I Megan play tested something with me very recently. What was it? Um I'm forgetting what it was now. Megan play tested something last week that was really helpful.

Oh yeah. Yeah. A game that I'm working on. Hopefully it's going well for you too, Austin, with your with your clock game. Chris says, "Will there be any more Red Rising games?" We have been working on something else in the Red Rising universe of games, Chris, but uh we haven't decided if we're going to make it or not yet.

So, sometimes we work on things to see if it's if it's a good fit, if it will work for a series of games, a brand of games, or just a new game, but we don't announce it, I guess, until we know it's actually going to be a thing. And so I don't have any announcements there for you yet. Uh Garrett mentions Fromage as a welcoming game for gamers.

Worker placement, but you're limited to one section of the board per turn in a really clever way. It's also got a really quirky theme and a lot of variability. That is I would say that's a good level up game, Garrett, because there is a lot there's a lot to understand about the different mini gamess, the four different mini games in it, and even just the interactions on your mat.

Um, I like the recommendation, but I don't think I would lead off with it. I would probably ramp up to that would be my suggestion. Uh, for forage. Yeah, I do love Let's go to Japan, too. Valerie says, "It's the hardest part of play testing that you can't actually talk about it." Yeah, we have so many play testers at Stomy Games, both for multiplayer and solo, uh, that are really, really good at not spoiling anything in advance.

I really appreciate that. I know it's hard not to do that and I appreciate the lead play testers for doing that and the lead play testers for emphasizing that confidentiality to the other play testers they bring in for those play tests. Champion faction says heard about the indie games night market at packs unplugged from the leader games podcast.

It was a great event. I know it's not an event for some games but what do you think of it and how can it contribute to the hobby? So, my understanding of the night market is that it was inspired by the Japanese market market in the Tokyo games market where it's kind of little bespoke games, usually really small print runs of of smaller bespoke games, which I think is great.

I think that's great for creativity that you can make something to sell in small batches at times um without trying to make something for everyone or for a really really big market. I think that is a great creative challenge to say, I want to make this game for 12 people. I want to make 12 copies of this game.

Not for the exclusive side of it, but because I think there are 12 people who would really enjoy this game. Um, but I don't necessarily think there are 10,000 people who would really enjoy this game. I think that is really cool. Uh, I would say that's the main thing I had to say about it. I I think it's neat for creativity.

Jeff says, "Have you had any contact with Pierce about the last book?" Um, I do hear from Pierce and I email with Pierce every now and then. Um, but uh but I don't I don't ask him about the last book. I think authors probably get questions about the next book all the time. And I don't as as excited as I am for the next book, I don't want to be one of those people that's kind of like uh bugging them about it because I I think that can sometimes disrupt the creative process.

Um I'm even cautious and maybe I shouldn't be so cautious about this, but I'm even cautious to tell him, hey, I'm excited about the next book. But I probably that should be okay. I think I think like when I think about my games, I'm fine with people saying, "Hey, I'm excited about your next game." I think it's different when someone says, "I've waited so long for the next Wingspan expansion." That's because we're making trying to make something awesome for you in the next Wingspan expansion.

Um, so yeah, I I guess I just got to hit my words carefully for expressing my excitement about what is to come in the Red Rising universe. See a lot of suggestions here for winter games and uh and uh games to welcome newcomers into the hobby. There there's a bunch of them in the comments if you want to check them out.

Austin says that he he's doing a play test this evening and he's gearing up for a blind play test. So yeah, that is something certainly to be nervous about because the rule book has to be really really good and you're also play testing the rule book so you know that it can't be it's not going to be perfect.

Um, thanks also for saying that the rulebook writing tips have been helpful. I'm I'm glad to hear that. Good luck with that process. So, oh, here's another play testing comment. Play tested the updates for a really great disc golf board game made by a local for the second time recently. It's looking really good.

This one may come by your desk at some point in the near future. That's exciting. Yeah. Um, I can't say that like games based on sports are something that I'm looking that I that I'm looking for as a publisher. um or even as a gamer honestly because if I want to play disc golf, I'm gonna go outside and play disc golf.

I'm probably not gonna try to distill it onto my tabletop. If I do, I'm probably gonna go for a game of Croinol. But I love that you are having fun with it and that the designer is having fun with it, too. Um let me throw a question out there to you all. One of the questions of the day related to game design a little bit.

So, uh we love living where we are. We have a small condo in St. Louis and it's a good size for us. Um it's probably the one room short of what would be ideal for Megan and I. And so just for fun, I have been on Zillow the last few months just kind of looking at houses on the market, looking at different neighborhoods, different things that I might like in a house, um a small house, uh because we don't we definitely don't need a big house.

But I found independently of the house search process, but also tied to it, that uh it's a little bit like a game. Like when a new when Zillow throws a new uh a new house in my in my inbox, I get excited about looking at the photos of the house, looking at the specs for the house. Um there's a little jolt of of uh endorphins or or dopamine or something that I that happens when I get to see it.

even though I'm not buying these houses, I'm not actively looking at most of them, it's just fun to see the the options and it I'm wondering if there is a game there. Um, is there any game that like that you all can think of that has that feeling of looking for houses or I just wanted to see if anyone can relate to that aspect of looking for houses even though you're not actually looking to move in the very near future where the the part the looking part of the process and seeing what shows up in your search results is the part that is fun.

Um, and what makes that fun? I'm trying to see if there is something there that could be a part of a game or could be a game. Um, but maybe it's just me. Maybe maybe I'm the only one who enjoys that that process. Uh, Valerie mentioned Ticket to Ride as an intro game. Yeah, I think that's a great great idea for an intro game as well.

Also, today is a newsletter day, so I need to talk about the newsletter a little bit here. Uh, I'll throw that up on my other screen and zoom in a little bit so you can see it better. Here we go. So, this is the newsletter where I revealed the teaser answers for what I talked about in early like early or late 2024 about what was to come in 2025.

One of them was what has wings but cannot fly. And this was referring to fish in fin span. Finn fish fish don't exactly have wings but they have you know they have body parts that that are that are anatomically similar to wings. And flying fish do have wing like uh you know fins and whatnot that are that are very similar to to wings.

This was a tough one. What is both more and less? Uh this was hinting at Between Two Castles because uh we the essential edition that we released in 2025 had more it had all the stuff from the Between Two Castles series. It had the the expansion in the core box as part of the core game, but it also costs less than the combination of the two products and it has a shorter name than those two products independently.

At last, what can you win or when can you win by losing? And this was referring to Origin Story, uh, a game where one of the things that you can decide to do in any given round is try to go nil, try to not to win no tricks, zero tricks in the round. And so you can actually score points, score four points as a villain if you declared yourself a villain and you ended up winning no tricks.

So there most likely will not be riddles for 2026 because on December 31st, I'm just going to tease what's coming that year. And I'm not going to do it in riddle form. I'm just going to tell you a little bit about what we are making in 2026 or what we're planning to launch on our web store and get to you in 2026.

So, uh I'm not I'm planning I'm not planning to share specific names or boxes. I'm I'm just going to talk about what is coming in in but in not not in riddle form. I'm just going to say this is something that we've been working on and we plan to have it at this time of year in 2026. Also in this newsletter, let's see what else we have.

Okay, so I shared all the stuff that we had that we released in 2025. A bunch of promos for Rolling Realms, promo birds for Wingspan, and then a bunch of games this year. Some new games like Vantage and Origin Story and Finsspan. Those were our three new games. And then we had some sto newer versions of older games like Between Two Castles and Tokaido Duo and Tokaido along with Smitten 2, kind of a a new version of of the original Smitten, but a lot of releases for us.

We're going to slow it down a little bit in 2026 because this was a lot of stuff to release in one year. Here's the progress chart for this year. Recent releases are the the bird promo packs, Tokato Crossroads and Matsuri origin story. And then coming up soon, we have the Wingspan expansion in late January.

I'll start talking about that on December 31st and then more in detail in January. Let me go back to your comments for a minute and then we'll go over here and look at the annual survey and a few other things in today's newsletter. Let's see. Um, okay. See, I was talking about searching for houses. Garrett says, "Legacy games have this feeling of opening a new envelope or box can be really exciting.

That discovery element of legacy games." Julio says that it sounds like a card river type of game where you get excited when a new card is added to the the card river. Get to see what what you might be able to do with that card. Um, board game. Eric mentions the ad exit advent calendar. We have a chocolate advent calendar.

In fact, I would say my chocolate of the day is Tony's chocolate because we have a Tony's Chocolone uh holiday calendar. I don't know if it's specifically advent calendar, but it's a 25day calendar here. But yeah, the idea of opening these calendars and seeing what's inside the box. I can see how that's related to this.

Um ST 1791 says, "I think you're on to something. I cruise Zillow and have zero interest or intent in buying or moving." Yeah, what is that? Why? Why is it? But it's fun. It's fun to look at what's out there. Yeah, window shopping the game says Garrett. That's essentially what it is. Luke says, "Oh, this is a little bit different um from this topic." He says, "Last month I play tested two games.

One was far along and I was testing some new cards. The other was only play tested a few times. It's weird how emotionally each game feels so different for me." I can definitely relate to that, Luke. The different play testing games at different processes, different times in the process can feel really different.

Board Game Eric says, "I would think any TCG like Magic or Pokemon would give you the same feeling when opening packs." And it does. Yeah, it does. That's that is a little similar to looking at new possible houses that are out there. Um, it is a little similar to opening a new pack of cards. Valerie says she bought her house in 2013 and yet still to this day she looks at the MLS weekly to see what houses are priced at and loves she loves looking at the pictures.

So that's 12 years later after Valerie bought the house. I think it's for me to know how much I think my house is worth, but also al also the thrill of dreaming what else I could own or what layout or upgrade I could do. I love my house and never want to leave, but it's fun to look at what's on the market.

When I was in St. Louis, I looked at houses there, too, just for fun. Yeah, I Valerie, I completely relate to this. It is It's a little bit like, for me at least, it's a little bit like looking at the places in the world that I could go. um like on Instagram looking at pictures of other countries of places I could go knowing that someday I I hope to actually go there.

But for now, just the fantasy of seeing where I could go or where I could live or feature that I could have in my house. That is fun for me to do. I really enjoy that. Um games says, "I know several people said looking at house ads like you said and also heard the same for secondhand car sales." Oh, interesting.

The joy of browsing without buying. The joy. I like that. The joy of browsing without buying, even calling the sellers for more info and effort. The joy of that. Uh yeah, I totally relate to that. I didn't connect it to the cars, but um when I was looking for a car a few years ago, I watched a lot of I wasn't browsing looking for used cars, but I was researching.

The researching process was a lot of fun. Thinking of what I could have in a car. In fact, I'm kind of doing that now. I'm not even really on the car market, but I I like looking thinking about a car I could have someday. um while also maybe enjoying the car that I currently have. Julie does the same thing.

She says, "I love house window shopping. It's fun to look at possibilities and figure out what you want." Yeah. I guess I'm learning a little bit about myself when I'm doing that. I'm learning about what I want or what I like that I already have, too. Uh the floor plan is the only game I can think of in that space, but it sounds different from what you might do.

Yeah, I can think of it. There's floor plan and there's dream home. Dream home is maybe a little bit more similar or dream house, dream home about like kind of designing your perfect home, your ideal home. Castles of Lewig does it a little bit too, like what rooms would you have if you own if you had a castle, but it's a little bit different because in in the Zillow process, I'm looking at a lot of different houses.

Um, and that is satisfying for me. Austin says same thing. I love looking at potential new houses. The fantasizing aspect is very fun. It really is. It really is. Uh, Stephen says, "I bit I I've just started dabbling with the idea, but I wonder if the idea of a monthly vantage challenges inspired by your other Star Mario games piques curiosity for you.

The idea of monthly vantage challenges inspired by your other Oh, I see, Stephen. I see what you're saying. So, instead of using movies as inspiration for some of the vantage challenges, say, "Okay, here's the vidiculture challenge." Um, create a vineyard in in uh in Vantage. um or or for side. There are I'm thinking of spoilers right away, but that's okay with the monthly challenges.

I think it's for people who have gone deeper into Vantage. I like that idea a lot, Stephen. Um Stonemire inspired Vantage monthly challenges. Garrett says, "Are you definitely staying in St. Louis or looking elsewhere, too?" I'm only looking in St. Louis. Uh, I think it would be, you're right, that I could expand the search to other areas and get us probably a similar feeling.

But for me, part of it is, uh, not just looking at the house, but looking at the location within St. Louis. I'm no I'm not looking to move outside of St. Louis. And so, I I like looking at these different neighborhoods and imagining what it would be like to live there. What can I find that's within walking distance of these houses?

Um, that is that is fun for me to think about. Another comparison here from uh Draet Yorn says, "Going to a high-end clothing store and trying on suits and shirts I can only dream of being able to buy." That's neat. Yeah, I haven't actually done that. Maybe online a little bit, but but maybe not in person, but yeah, it is.

I could see how that that comparison works here. Here we go. Oddwillow says, "I've been window shopping for a new storefront for the game shop. We own our building and we'll probably stay for several more years, but the thought of opening a second location in a different city is a possibility. It's funny buying a place and feeling like like you're out of space right away.

Yeah, I can I can definitely relate to that. Uh Mark says he needs a new place for to make a space for his game collection here. Oh, and Jeff says that the quorum is the frustrating side of home designing. Uh yeah, I haven't played that, but I I I've heard that it is it a game that tries to make fun out of that frustration.

Thank you all for for relating to this question of the day about the fun of or how did how did someone say the joy of I really like the way that um one of you said this the joy of browsing for fun. I can't find the exact comment now but yeah I really like here we go the joy of browsing without buying.

That is there's something satisfying to that. No worries Stefan. Um, yes. So, that is one of my questions of the day. That that idea of are there games that already capture that feeling or what is the joyful aspect of of looking at things that you know you're not going to buy right now or in not within like the the near future, but you're still having fun browsing through them.

I'll segue over back over to the um the annual or the the monthly newsletter and let's take a quick look at the monthly survey. We don't have to talk about the questions in detail here unless you want to. But um if you are a subscriber to the Stonemire Games newsletter then you may have seen that there is a demographic survey for 2025 and uh I've asked the survey that you answer for yourself just you as an individual and I will select for every thousand people that fill it out and so far we have a few thousand people have filled it out.

I will select uh some winners to get a Stillmire Web Store gift card that'll be good for all of 2026 for for anything that we release in 2026. You can use that gift card. Um so yeah, I really dug deep into these questions this year. Some of them are similar to previous years, but I dug deep into what can I really learn from these questions and uh and hopefully get actionable information out of these questions.

So, I'll give you a little bit of insight into what I what I'm looking for here. So, for example, when I ask where you live, that isn't just for fun. We ask this because we want to make sure we are sending the right quantities of new products to each of the regions that we serve because we have four different fulfillment centers.

So, um and we're also always wondering like are we serving Asia in particular as best as we can uh because we don't have a fulfillment center in Asia. We have it in Australia which leads to some higher shipping cost to Asia. So it is something that we we think about for our products. Should we start considering again having a film center in Asia?

Um which of these do you do you use the most frequently as the best combination of convenience and helpfulness when deciding if you want to buy a tabletop game? So yeah, last year this question I asked this question or something similar to this and it opened me up to um getting some sponsored playthroughs because we had more people than I expected who use watching playthroughs to make buying decisions about game purchase decisions about what games they they want to buy.

So this is uh this is a really helpful question for us to decide how where do we send our games to content creators and what type of content do we create for the games uh to be of the best service for you. I often ask a sleving question and how many of your games have you sleeved the cards? Almost all of them, almost none of them or somewhere in between.

And really for this one, I the most interested in the extremes. I I included somewhere in between because it is a legitimate answer, of course, but I I don't have much I can learn from that, but I am the most interested in the extremes for how many people are are sle all their games versus people who are sle um very few of them.

That is a question that impacts how how important do we design inserts and boxes around the idea of sleeved cards. This is one that I that I changed up this year a little bit. If you hear about a new game that you're really excited about, how long do you want to wait before paying and receiving it? And the obvious answer might be right away.

But I don't think that's actually always true. If you look at your shelf of games, um, you might have plenty of games that you're excited to play in the next week, few weeks or months, and you may not need that new game right away. And so, um, I kind of added a little phrasing to the to the questions to to guide people a little bit here.

So, one week or less, I'm ready now. One month or less, I want to build my excitement for a game that I know is shipping soon. That's kind of the Stommyer process. Six to eight months or less, I can wait, but the game should be ready to print. This is something where I I think about crowdfunding. Do people care um and I do care in general.

Do people care when they crowdfund a new game? Do they care if the game is actually ready to go to print or are they just like, "Okay, whenever it's ready years from now, I'll I'll I'll take it." Uh that sort of thing. I asked I'm curious about where people went the most for buying games this year. And uh if there's a place, this is a new question.

If it's different than this answer, is there a place that you are hoping to buy more games from in 2026 that's different from the main place that you bought games from in this year? So, I'm curious to see the difference between where people are buying games and where people are hoping to maybe shift their buying to.

Are you hoping to buy more directly from publishers? Are you hoping to buy less from crowdfunding, more to to local stores? Things like that. Um, some questions. Let's see if there's anything new here that I've added for this particular year. No, I think that's it for uh for the newer questions. But yeah, it's about it's a 12 question survey and I I really really value your answers.

So, if you can take a few minutes to answer that survey and you'll be entered in a drawing to do that. Uh Devil Sher says, "Where's there a link for this survey?" It's in our newsletter. So, uh, if you didn't get the newsletter that I sent today, it will be in the description of this video once it goes up on YouTube, and it's also on the news page of our website.

I I've already archived it there. So, you can just click on if you go to the news page on our website and go down to to the December 25, 2025 newsletter, you can see it there. Let's see. Uh, Garrett says, "Were you able to get Dispatch working on the TV or did it end up playing at your desk?" I played at my desk and actually I didn't mind that Garrett because I did use my keyboard quite a bit and it kind of felt like I had a second job for a few days and that second job was dispatching superheroes to solve problems and so I I really felt like felt very official being at my desk playing this dispatching miniame.

Um so I didn't mind it as much. It wasn't something that I played along with Megan. Um but that's okay. Megan was doing other things at the time. LB Jeeper says, "I think instead of how long do you want to wait, it should be willing." It could be, but I want to know how long you want to wait. I I don't want to know how how patient you are.

I want to know if you hear about something really cool. Does that mean that you want it right away or does that mean that uh that you want to think about it for a little while and get excited about it and then play it in a month or play it in five months? Uh because there are certainly products that I buy where I am just not ready to play them right away.

I'm in the middle of playing some other games. Um but in general for me for example, I want a relatively short anticipation gap. Um somewhere within a few weeks is my my ideal sweet spot. But for example, I'll give another example like the uh the Mandalorian promo pack for Star Wars the deck building game.

I'm really excited about it. I will play it as soon as it arrives. However, I didn't need to order it from an online game store. I did I don't need to have it tomorrow. And so, I ordered it from a local game store, my my preferred local game store here that I often order from. And they said they'll get it to me in about a month.

And I'm perfectly fine with that. And I'm actually fine with that because I get to be excited about it for a month. I get to get to think about how awesome it's going to be when I get to play it in about a month. Um, yeah. So, want is the intended phrase in there, not willing. Chad says, "I would like there to be an option for the for the sleeping question for only games that shuffle a lot, which is totally fair." Um, that I would put in the category of like rarely, right?

Uh, and how many games have you sleeved? The cards almost none of them. I think that would be in that category because I think there are there are very few games where you are shuffling the games constantly throughout the game. Mostly just deck building games and also I guess some trick- taking games as well.

HVJ17 says, "The first thing I do with any new game within 24 hours is open it and get it ready to play. I learn it and I run through several rounds so I know how the turns work." Cool. Yeah, that's nice to get into the flow of a new game that way. Mark says that he would highly appreciate an Asian fulfillment center to save a bit on shipping, but there is a limp market for English copies because some countries prefer localiz localized versions instead.

I totally hear that, Mark, and I I would love to find a solution for it. Even if it isn't for all of our products, for maybe our new products, I think that is something that we might explore in the future if we can find a good partner that can sync well with Shopify. The problem is um our tricky thing is that we have an entirely different Shopify web store for each fulfillment center and it is not cheap to maintain them.

it is not cheap to create them and just the Shopify fees alone are quite high and so I honestly don't know if there is enough for of a market for us in Asia um based on what we know so far uh that would result in us even breaking even on that investment it's a fairly large investment for us to do so it's a tough if it's a tough sell right now for us to consider but we are still thinking about it we do actively think about it um and we'll see what we can Yeah, here's an interesting answer from Stefan about uh about a new game that comes out.

And actually, I'm a little similar to this, too. When a new game comes out, I that a lot of people are excited about. I'm I'm happy to get excited about it, too. But I kind of want to build that excitement. I want to layer all that excitement or I need to often before I actually buy it. So, he says, "I tend not to buy a game when it comes out.

the more hype, the more time I want to wait even a couple years. I guess I'm I'm not dissuaded by other people being excited by something that that often I find that contagious. I I I like um I like getting excited about things and I like seeing other people get excited about things, but um I need I often need more than one like really excited review or one excited post for me to also get really excited about a game.

I I need a few of those before I'm really ready to actually buy the game or put it on my list of games to try at a convention. Um, let's see. Board Game Eric says, "When I hear about a new game, I typically want it right away, but crowdfunding games has made me more patient through the years." That's true.

Yeah, I I kind of like a balance between the two. I there are certainly games and products that I hear about and I want to have right away. There's some that I want in the near future and there's some games on on crowdfunding and I do crowdund games. Um I back games where I back it and I kind of forget about it and whenever it shows up I'm fine with that.

I'm fine with it showing up and and giving the game that way um without really thinking about it all that much. I think that I I think that isn't ideal for excitement. Like if if something takes so long that I've forgotten that I ever even backed it, then that the excitement is completely gone by the time it arrives.

And it's really tough, I think, to build that excitement back up. Every now and then it happens if a game like really breaks through and a lot of people are really excited about it upon that delivery. Um, but I think that's pretty rare. Darren says, "I think on buying games, on the buying games front, a lot of people are limited in their options, particularly not having to store locally and have to use online shops or crowdfunding or the publishers website.

There's lots of ways to buy games online that aren't just online retailers. I personally use online stores that I know have a brick-and-mortar presence. However, I do not like store only promos. I get why, but it means it excludes a lot without having that option." Yeah, I I understand why retailers love them, but I don't I think you know my opinion.

I don't love anything that's exclusive that that where you say upfront the only way that you can get this thing is at this specific convention or from this specific web store or this specific crowdfunding project or this specific retailer. Um because it excludes everyone else who isn't there. I I I don't know.

I I'm I'm not a fan of that. Papa Patrick says, "My birthday is in June, so I wait six months for ma maximum for games that I want." It's either a birthday present or a Christmas present. That's a neat way to space it out throughout the year very specifically. Uh Jeff says, "Have I posted my Geekway mini list?" You know, Jeff, I will do that.

That I've been looking for a blog post to post this week. So, I'll I'll post my Geekway mini list um on my personal blog uh either today or tomorrow. I'll think about that. Yeah, Geekway Mini is coming up in January. Hopefully, we'll have a little better weather then, Jeff. Um so that we don't have any issues getting out there to play the games.

But I'm looking forward to it. The devil's treasures relating to the comment I said about crowdfunding that one of my favorite things is to forget that you backed a game and it's like a surprise gift from your past self. And I love that too. I love that too. It's just sometimes exciting for me to remember why.

It's difficult for me to remember why I was excited about it at the time when I backed it. I have to kind of refresh myself on why I was excited. And it's one of the reasons why I think it is really important if you're crowdfunding a game when you do start to deliver that game. I think that is a really really important time to create content about the game to send it out to content creators to review it and make playthroughs and things like that because people need to get geared back up into that excitement both the backers and people who haven't heard of it before.

It might be interested in buying it now that it's available for release. More game Eric says, "I appreciate how Stommy Games releases new games. When you guys announce it, I know that I don't have to wait long before it becomes available." That I I appreciate that, Eric. I'm glad you like it. That is the model that I prefer that I that we're able to make something that we think that we that you'll love and we have it ready to send to you at that time.

Um when we do the full reveal uh yeah we're we're it means that you can get excited about it and then a few weeks later when you are still excited about it hopefully uh that you can actually get it to your table. Aaron says that he has a great deal of patience. I understand how tumultuous the process of producing a board game is.

Totally get that. Yeah, I mean there's a lot of uncertainty that goes into making a board game. That is why though, Erin, in my opinion, that um you can remove a lot of that uncertainty by having the game ready to go when you put it on Kickstarter or crowdfunding or or Game Found or wherever. Um rather than saying, "Hey, here's here's a I've made the first few elements of this game.

It looks good. I can make something that looks good that has a few core mechanisms that that's playable, that's fun and functional, but I still have a lot of work to do after this. Um, I think that's I think that adds a lot of uncertainty to the process that I have compassion for, but an empathy for, but I I I I'm kind of baffled that you wouldn't do that work up front.

I think that that is a better way to serve your customers, the people that you've asked money for. um in my opinion. Um yeah. Yeah, that's my take on it. Hilda says, "I'm super thankful for all the content creators that take the time to create really great overviews or how to play videos on new games.

It helps me not to not to impulse buy every new game that I'm excited about, and it really helps me decide what may be a good fit for our game tastes." And Hilda, I think that sums it up perfectly. That's why I send so many of our games to content creators. I want people to be able to either really get excited about a game and then buy it or realize before buying a game, one of our games, that it's not for them.

I don't want someone to spend money on a game that isn't for them. And that's what what content creators are really really good at at helping people decipher. Colonel Kurt says, "Have you watched the documentary Igniting the Sparks, the story of Magic the Gathering? I think it's recommended watching for any gamer or game designer.

Do you watch many game or game design documentaries?" I don't I haven't um but I'm very curious about this. Igniting the spark. Let's see if I can find it. Igniting the spark. The story of Magic the Gathering. Where can I find this? Well, I have a search up for it. I will search. Oh, it's on it's on Prime.

Okay. It's on Amazon Prime. Awesome. Yeah, thank you for sharing that. What year did it come out? Oh, the first episode date was August 5th, 2025. So, it's fairly recent. That's really cool. Awesome. Yeah, thank you for that recommendation. I will definitely check that out. All right, Jeff, enjoy your chicken sandwich or fake chicken, vegan chicken.

Uh Dustin says, "After buying the game shortly after Gen Con, my son and I finally played Vantage this weekend for the first time." Oh, thank you so much for giving it a try. Uh Dustin says, "It's unlike anything else we've ever played and we love it. I know it was stated that it was 100% standalone, but given its success, are there early plans for expansions or sequels in the future?" Definitely not expansions, Dustin.

um that is I I I put everything into this game and it's so interconnected within this planet this web of everything interconnection in this planet um that uh that I don't think expansions are even possible but I kind of put it out there up front and say there's no expansions everything that I think you will want to do in Vantage is their advantage for you to do um I am open to like I really like the action system advantage and I also like the first person perspective so it's something that I might explore in the future but after spending eight years working on it Um, I'm just kind of enjoying people having hopefully a good first experience like the one that you did and people hopefully playing it for the second time and the and the 10th time and maybe even the the 20th time if you if you go deep into it.

So yeah, thanks for playing it. Donj says, uh, another Eric agreeing with the other Eric. I love buying my Stomire games and after I receive it, I can get to it when I want. Uh, you guys do great getting the games out in a timely manner. Thank you. Yeah. Uh I do think there is a certain type of customer service that comes from saying, "Okay, you spent money on something.

We're going to get it to you in the next few weeks at most." Um there's a there's a pay there's an immediate payoff happening there. Let's see. Uh Omar, hey, good to see you, Omar. To add to the previous statement, I love that you have put the work into the game prior to the hype before release. Each release matters to your company reputation and the care and pride show.

Thank you, Omar, for saying that. Um, we do put a lot of work into our games upfront so that you can just hopefully enjoy them when we release them. And it doesn't mean our games are always going to be perfect. I think, in fact, I don't think any game ever released has ever been 100% perfect upon release, but we do try really hard to do that.

We or at least try really hard for you to have a good first experience with the game and a good second experience in fifth and 10th. Um, yeah, thank you for saying that. Robert says, "Has the decision been made on a second print run of the World of Wingspan t-shirt for those Worms Span players who missed out on buying one?" You're right, that Worms does appear on the shirt, Robert.

I think, well, currently we haven't made the decision on it yet. Uh because I think some sizes are still in stock in various web stores, but after this live cast, I will take a look to see what our our inventories inventory levels look like for the shirt. Um yeah, thank you for bringing that to my attention.

I I haven't looked at those inventory levels in a little while. Chad says they are making a lot of different IP versions of Magic the Gathering like Avatar, Marvel, I think there. Yeah, Final Fantasy. Uh, what IP would you like to see in the game? Um, and I did play I played the Lord of the Rings one, I believe.

Yeah, I played that one. Enjoyed that one. You know, honestly, there are a lot I would love to see Red Rising up here and there. I think that would be huge for Red Rising. I'd also I wouldn't mind seeing Star Wars. I know it's not going to ever happen because Star Wars has their own collectible card game, but um but it would be neat to see.

Um there are probably other answers to that question, Chad. What is your answer? Do you have an IP that you'd love to see in Magic the Gathering form? I do think it's neat, like even though I don't I don't play many of those sets at all, but I think it's neat to see how flexible the Magic the Gathering system is and how I love reading design diary entries about how they took that system and applied it to specific world building elements in these intellectual properties.

I am fascinated by that and I would I would love to have a system like that at Stillmire Games that is so flexible that we can apply it to a bunch of different things. I guess we do have it for Rolling Realms. On realms, you know, can apply to so many different games. Um, so yeah, I guess we do have it in one way.

We have it. Uh, but I I I I really admire that about Magic. Chad mentions Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles if they haven't already. I think they have or they have that coming next year. I'm 99% sure there is a Magic Teenage Mutant Mutant Ninja Turtles release date. Let's see. It is coming on March 6th and that I think will be a lot of fun.

I am cur very curious. Well, I've seen a few posts about what they're doing with that, but I'm curious to see it in detail later or in in a few months. I guess it's coming up soon. Yeah, I think we've covered the topics for today. Let's see if there's anything else in the newsletter that I didn't cover that we might want to look at for a minute.

We talked about the annual survey. Please fill it out if you want to if you want to help guide Stone Games for 2026 and the future. the teaser answers for all the stuff that we released in 2025. And we have links to our latest newsletters. I need to put out one for Vidiculture. I I just have a list for Vid Culture, but I don't actually have a newsletter for it.

We have our normal progress chart. Bunch of code names. I didn't I updated this a little bit, but I didn't add anything new to the progress chart this month. And then games that I've been playing recently. I don't actually I didn't even add to it for the game day. I should have added to that from from this past Sunday.

But other games that I haven't me already mentioned, I played Duel for Cardia recently. Really enjoyed that. Dunium Uprising, Plant the Nubo, Rumble Nation, and Inside Job. Those were the two games that I played on board game arena the other day. And uh yeah, I think that's it for the newsletter stuff.

Treat of the day, Helen. Yeah, we have a Tony's Chocolone December calendar, like an advent calendar type thing, and we've been opening that up every day, Megan and I, and either splitting or deciding which of us gets the uh gets the chocolate there. Robert says, "Uh, my worms size 5XL, please for the Australian New Zealand store." Um, okay.

Yeah, thank you for letting me know that that's the one. We'll see if we can restock that specifically if that is a size that we that we make from another web store. Thanks for the heads up about that. Robert [snorts] Red sash says, "Have you ever been excited to try a game, but after finding out what it's what it is about, you get uninterested in playing it?

I heard good things about the bloody end, but lost interest after discovering the theme." It certainly does have a dark theme, a very dark theme for a game. Um, that's a qu I I think I usually when I hear about a game, usually I am aware of the theme. I think when I first hear about it, I would say the thing one of the my turnoffs I would say and there are exceptions to this, but every now and then I hear about a game that sounds really awesome that people recommend and then I learn how structured it is.

And sometimes a game being too structured and saying like, "Okay, here's phase one. We're all doing this. Here's phase two. we're all doing this. If it's broken down into too many phases where all players are doing something in that phase, uh it can be a pretty big turnoff for me. Um because I think I really like games that flow well from one turn to the next.

So I would say more than theme, I would say that is one of the things that I can discover about a game where I can my excitement can immediately go way down. Julian says, "Does Rolling Realms only include Stommy intellectual property? If not, what IP would you like to see covered in Rolling Realms? No, it it actually covers a bunch of different games.

So, even here, so here's a bunch of the promos from a Crusader, not a Stommy game. Uh, Spaceship, not a Stommyire game. What was this one? Uh, Legacy of You, not a Stommyer game. Uh, roleplay. Yeah. So, I would say the majority of the realms in Rolling Realms, uh, the the Rolling Realms Redux is all non Stommyer stuff.

Most of the promos are non Stommyer. And then the core original game box of Rolling Realms that is all Stommy stuff at this point. I think we have so many different So here's like my stack. Here's all of the different uh realms in Rolling Realms. It is so big. It's almost like 70 different realms at this point that we've stopped adding realms based on non Stonewire games, but uh there are a lot of them out there.

So if you check out our website, you can probably pick out a few of your favorite games and you can see them distilled down into realm form um in Rolling Realms. Yeah. War says, "What did you think of thieftdom? I have to play my copy soon." Uh, so one of the things that surprised me about it, I did not realize it was a pick up and deliver game, which is a genre games that I usually don't get excited about, but Thief does some things with it that are pretty cool where some of the the pick up and deliver is that you are stealing things from places and you're delivering them to other places.

Um, and some of those places are static on the board. you're going to those places, you're stealing something, and then you're delivering it to another place. That is fine. That's kind of I would say somewhat standard pick and deliver. The thing that's unique about it that I really did like is that some of the places that you're stealing from aren't places, but they are people.

There are meeples that are moving around the board that you are manipulating around the board. So, there's like a guard or guards that you are moving around the board. And if you cidle up next to them, as long as you don't get right in front of them so they can see you, if you go up next to them, you can steal from them.

You can do the same with uh with uh nobles and you can also do so the same with a carriage that moves around the board. So I really like that that you're some of the places that you're picking up from are actively moving around the board and you are the one moving them. You and the other players are the ones moving them.

So I thought that was pretty cool. A Viking kittens is also enjoying thieftdom. Feels like sneaking sneaking the board game. Yeah, there's there's a lot of sneaking around in thief. Wendy mentions that she couldn't get past the the whailing theme in New Bedford. I could totally hear that, Wendy. Yeah.

And Luke for him is the graphic design can turn him away from a game. Yeah, I often that is often maybe the biggest turnoff when I go to a crowdfunding campaign. If the graphic design both for the game and or the the project page itself isn't clear, isn't well done, that could be an instant turnoff for me.

All right. Um, thank you all for hanging out today as always uh for newsletter day. All right. One more question. We'll answer one more question here from from Papa Patser. You've done almost 1,000 my favorite mechanism videos, maybe even more than that at this point. I think on I think I recently eclipsed 10,000 post about my favorite design mechanisms on Board Game Geek.

Do you plan on doing a special one for episode 1000? Honestly, no. I don't I don't have a plan for that because I think I have already passed it. Maybe not as it's registered on YouTube, but um here, let me look at Board Gamegeeek. Board Game Geek, my blog entries, which is where I post these. Uh, I have 1,50 posts.

So, I crossed over that number a few months ago. So, no, I don't have any plans for anything special, but I do have plans in the near future to look at my favorite mechanisms from the second half of 2025. Um, so that'll be a video in the near future. Oh, a few more questions here. Let's see. Chad says, "Were you able to catch up on Stranger Things?

We're halfway through four, getting ready for five. I didn't watch anything from the past. I just jumped right into five and I I we've watched all all the episodes available for season five so far. Mystery game says, "You have a great kids family product in My Little Side. Do you have any plans to make accessible versions of other games like Wingspan?" We actually did for Wingspan.

Finsspan is our is our more accessible version of Wingspan. Um I would say in general, I'm always keeping accessibility in mind. I I I don't have a a big uh desire to p pursue like my little type games in general other than My Little Scythe, but um it is something I think about all the time for our games.

And so I thought about it a lot for for uh for Finsspan um in particular being an icon driven game. Even for Vantage, uh you it is I would say it's accessible to a lot of different people. Um, but yeah, it is something that I I I would think I think about it for all of our games, not just like that specific genre of my first or my little games.

Anyway, yeah, thank you all for hanging out today. I adore your questions. I adore your answers and I adore you. And I hope you have a great day. I will see you maybe on tomorrow's blog post. I don't know what what it's going to be about yet, but I will find something to talk about. And then next Monday, probably I will talk about the results to the demographic survey.

All right, take care. Have a good day. Bye.