An Interview With Michael Coe: Tiny Epic Kingdoms, Dungeon Heroes, and More

Joining us once again is Gamelyn Games guy, Michael Coe. Today we get to have a little chat about some exciting news as Gamelyn has launched a Kickstarter Campaign for Tiny Epic Kingdoms!

Michael, thanks again for joining us; we appreciate your time!

So before we get started on Tiny Epic Kingdoms: Last time we chatted we were discussing Dungeon Heroes. We can only assume most of your efforts recently have been directed toward Tiny Epic Kingdoms, but has there been anything new in the works for Dungeon Heroes? Expansions? Multiplayer mechanics?

Both actually, Dungeon Heroes offers a rich canvas in which to paint multiple expansions and variants. I’m currently working hard on putting together a 4-player Dungeon Heroes. Likely, a new game altogether but keeping true to the original concept and engine of Dungeon Heroes. Along those lines, I’m excited to announce that Dungeon Heroes will be coming to iOS this summer!!

If yes, do you have any estimate for a timetable that these plans will be unveiled?

I’d really like to have something ready to show this summer. I plan to release Dungeon Heroes on iOS at Origins this year. I hope to have a new DH to demo there are well.

You recently posted photos of a hard copy of Fantasy Frontiers over on Kickstarter; How soon will Fantasy Frontier show up in the mail for backers, and on the shelves at our FLGS?

Fantasy Frontier is on schedule for an estimated delivery to KS backers in May. It will be released to general distribution at Origins 2014 in June.

Describe the feeling of actually holding, and opening a copy of your game after so much time and effort has gone into it. Is there anything you would have done differently with Fantasy Frontier? Or any lesson you learned that will be applied to the Tiny Epic Kingdoms campaign and production?

Assuming you played with LEGOs as a child, do you remember the feeling of completing a large set? Setting that last brick into place… taking a step back and looking over your masterpiece? There was an intangible and magical experience that went along with that. An experience that is difficult to capture as an adult. That is how it feels to open a copy of a game you made!

So far, the conception through production of Fantasy Frontier has been a dream project. The plan I set forth has been both enjoyable and successful. The only thing I would have changed, and will not likely do in the future, are the GIANT Meeples. Yes, they were their own project as well but I offered some with Fantasy Frontier too. They look great! But ultimately they are too heavy and I end up losing too much money on them.

Okay, let’s talk about Tiny Epic Kingdoms! So...It’s a game about kingdoms that are both tiny AND epic… Give us, if you would, a quick overview of the game—its style and mechanics!

Tiny Epic Kingdoms is the biggest game you will ever play in a small box. It is a quest and conquer game. Players will use a community action selection system to eXpand, eXplore, eXploit and eXterminate. TEK manages to deliver a rich 4x experience in a short and small package. Something that has not been done this well in the past.

How did Gamelyn Games end up with this title?

Scott caught wind that I was taking submissions for small games and gave me a holler. I looked it over, played it, and told him, “You let me publish this game and I will do wonders with it!” The rest is history in the making.

What has been different about preparing to publish a game that you haven’t designed?

Getting to know the game inside and out. Getting the game to the table enough to be accused of eating, sleeping, and breathing Tiny Epic Kingdoms. As a publisher, it’s important to have a second-nature relationship with the game you're creating. This occurs naturally as the designer but takes some special attention when not.

What can you tell us about any stretch goals that you have planned for the campaign?

Stretch goals of all sorts have been unlocked. This includes many material upgrades, extra factions, extra maps and even a mini-expansion is on the horizon if we can reach 200k.

If all goes as planned, when will we see Tiny Epic Kingdoms hit the shelves?

The game is scheduled for an estimated delivery to the KS backers by September 2014. I would like to release into general distribution at this year’s BGG.CON in November.

Okay...time for a TINY and EPIC Lightning Round!

Favorite Smurf?

uh… papa!

The theme to 2001: A Space Odyssey or Flight of the Valkyries?  

Space Odyssey

Billy Barty or Kenny Baker?

ooO both legendary and both in movies I love. I’m going Billy Barty on this one!

Favorite short story?

The Neverending Story! That’s short right!? ;)

Great Wall of China or the Grand Canyon?

Not fair; I live near the Grand Canyon so I may suffer from a case of “the grass is always greener”... nah, I don’t! Grand Canyon!

Thanks so much, Michael, for joining us today. And head on over to the Kickstarter campaign and get your very own copy of Tiny Epic Kingdoms. They're CRUSHING it, and have already knocked off 17 stretch goals.

Thanks for reading!

Michael Coe Founder of Gamelyn Games - an Interview

We’re very excited today to have a chat with Michael Coe, founder of Gamelyn Games, and designer of Dungeon Heroes, about the newest title scheduled for release from Gamelyn Games, Fantasy Frontier!

Michael, thanks for chatting with us!

So, tell us a little of the Gamelyn Games story; how did you arrive on the gaming scene?

Gamelyn Games is a rapidly growing games and toys company based out of Arizona. My wife Brittany and I started Gamelyn Games shorty after I transitioned out of Crash Games, the publishing company I had previously founded with Patrick Nickell. Brittany and I are both family focused individuals and we actually just started a family of our own! We truly share a passion for providing families and friends with awesome games and toys. We both grew up as gamers and little inventors and I’ve had a burning passion all my life to create games and share my ancient ideas… yes, I’m getting old, so we set out to make our dreams come true!

We’ve started to hear the buzz coming out of Gencon about Fantasy Frontier, but for those who don’t know the game, can you give us a quick overview?

Absolutely! Fantasy Frontier is a 2-4 player euro game that delivers an epic airship experience! Players compete for victory points by creating geographic patterns, building settlements and through aerial combat. The game boasts a synergetic package of tile placement, pattern recognition, worker placement and resource gathering.

What inspired the creation and design of Fantasy Frontier?

It all started when I was about 5 years old with The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin! I say that jokingly but maybe there is some truth to it. I did absolutely love the airship toy and I had the whole crew! I’d be lying if I didn’t say that ever since then I had an affinity for airships. It seems every time one showed up in a new video game that game quickly became my favorite; Mario Bros. 3, Final Fantasy 2, Chrono Trigger, Warcraft 2 and many others.

In addition to my love for airships, I love map making. I began playing D&D at eleven and once I had a turn at being the DM I was hooked. I would create my own worlds vast with adventure. I’d spend hours creating maps of the worlds and their key areas and then bring them to the table for players to explore.

Fantasy Frontier is a product of my dreams to create a game of airships and cartography!

What is the “hook” for Fantasy Frontier? That is to say, what one thing about the game sets it apart from other games?

The emphasis on map making from atop a fantastic airship sets Fantasy Frontier apart! Also, the theme; as much as people have been calling it steampunk (and I take no offense to that) it is actually high-fantasy. Naomi Robinson has done a magnificent job capturing that theme.

Lastly, the integration and execution of a euro game with optional take-that elements.

Like so many indie (and established) game publishers, you’re funding this title through Kickstarter; you’ve also had plenty of success in the past bringing games to market through crowd funding. What bit of advice would you give an up-and-comer looking to kickstart a project?

Create a complete project plan that includes a pre-production schedule, marketing strategies, a production schedule, and a post-production plan. Do your research about Kickstarter, taxes, production and shipping costs, marketing costs etc. Sound overwhelming? It can be, but remember a wall is built one brick at a time.

Your BGG bio says you’re also a professional actor! Whoah! Do you still act, or are you just making games for a living?

I haven’t acted in some time, but I still love it! I plan to return to acting once I am able to make games full time. I work an average of 80-100 hours a week between my day job and Gamelyn Games. Once I can cut out my day job, I’d love to return to acting.

Hypothetically speaking, if you were trying to impress someone at a party or social gathering while talking about your acting career, whose name would you drop when listing off folks you’ve worked with?

Kathy Bates, Kate Mara, Gregory Smith, Chris Pratt… I’ve been very blessed to have worked with some really awesome and really talented people in the acting industry.

What are some of your favorite games to play right now? and why?

Board Games: Chess, Carcassonne, and Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small. I really enjoy many others but these are recent visitors to the game table. Chess for the epitome in strategy and tactics that it is, Carcassonne for capturing medieval landlording in an approachable package, and Agricola All Creatures… for the breeding…lol =D

Video Games: Legend of Zelda (NES), Adventures of Link (NES) and Pilot Wings (SNES)… why? Because it they make me feel like a kid again alright, you want the truth? There it is!

Word on the street has it that Eric Vale, of Dragon Ball Z fame, will be doing (or has done by now) the voice work for the Kickstarter video of Fantasy Frontier. Any other cool surprises you can tell us about coming during the campaign?

The coolness of Eric Vale doing Fantasy Frontier is a hard act to follow. I am working on some fun ideas for the campaign stretch goals but can’t let the cat out of the bag quite yet.

We’ve had some conversations offline about the review we wrote for Dungeon Heroes. We wanted again to thank you for understanding our point of view. We’re also very curious if there are any plans for the future of Dungeon Heroes? Dungeon Heroes has a very bright future! The game has been received tremendously and the stores can’t keep it on the shelf. This is all fuel for the 4 player version I am currently working on. I’m also exploring additional expansions to the current 2 player system. So, lots of good stuff in development. Dungeon Heroes lends itself well to expandability and my well of creativity for it is deep.

So what does “down time” look like for the Coe family? Or do you get much of that? I make time for “down time” because that is the time I get with my wife and daughter, the two most meaningful aspects of my life. We spend time going to the park, the mall, going out for dinner and even sometimes the arcade, Jolene (my daughter, 10 months old) loves going out and meeting other kids and seeing the wonderful world we live in. We also spend good quality time at home just relaxing and playing with Jolene, teaching her new things. She just took her first two steps the other day! Good times!

Okay...5 Questions/5 Words (or very short phrases) to answer them! Aaaand GO!

• Favorite dirigible? Ooo… that’s tough… I’m going to cop out and say that I love them all equally. They are all my babies after all. =)

• Favorite urban legend you wish was actually true? LOL! I don’t wish any were true! That’s just macabre! There are lots of fairy tales I wish were true though.

• Best part of an Oreo—Cookie or Stuffing? The 10 year old me would have said the stuffing, but the current me has grown an appreciation for the synergy that the stuffing and cookie have together.

• Favorite toy when you were a kid? Wow, that’s a hard question. I was big into toys as a kid, but I think I loved my Ninja Turtles and Jurassic Park collections the most.

• Name of your first RPG character? Jolene, a Paladin in D&D advanced 2nd edition. Also, the name of my mother and now my daughter. ROFL… wow I’m a geek, bad!

Michael, thanks so much for taking some time for us, and congratulations on all of your success so far!

For more information on Fantasy Frontier you can follow this link RIGHT HERE to the Kickstarter campaign, or visit www.GamelynGames.com.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to look for us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube AND now on our very own podcast!

Kickstarter Weekly - Aug. 30, 2013

Well, our little experiment last week resulted in a much different outcome than we thought it would. Thanks again everyone for the feedback! We're back to normal for now, until we decide to rock the boat again! Speaking of new things, you may have missed it yesterday, (we had a little hiccup with our email delivery system!) but we have officially launched the Theology of Games podcast! You can find it on iTunes by following this link RIGHT HERE!!! We're very excited about this, and would love any and all feedback!

Anyway, there's lots of stuff going down on Kickstarter this week, so let's jump in!

Fantasy Frontier - Gamelyn Games

We're really excited for this one! Gamelyn Games, which brought us Dungeon Heroes, is bringing us this worker- and tile-placement game that has players exploring a new frontier in steampunky dirigibles! Check back soon for an interview with Michael about this, and all things Gamelyn Games! The campaign is chugging along and is about 20% funded after just 24 hours.

A pledge of $45 gets you in on a copy of the game, and you can check out the campaign, right here!

The Cards of Cthulhu - Dan Verssen Games

Yep, it's another Cthulhu themed game. This time featuring a solitaire to 4-player system, </begin obligatory Cthulhu game description> players take on the roles of investigators trying to save the world from eternal torment, from the elder gods. </end obligatory Cthulhu game description>. The game system looks interesting on this one, and they've blown past their funding goal within the first 24 hours.

They've unlocked a lot of stretch goals and a $30 pledge gets you in on the fun, and you can check out the campaign, right here!

Infamy - Mercury Games Inc.

This is Mercury Games' sophomore Kickstarter voyage after a successful first go-around. Infamy is a bidding-based game set in a cyberpunk realm,

$45 gets you a copy of the game and they're limiting the amount of pledges to 2,000, although it doesn't seem yet that their going to be turning folks away. You can check out the campaign, right here.

Burning Suns - Sun Tzu Games

It's really hard to tell a whole lot about the game play of this from the main video on the campaign. But check out those sweet die-ships! The game looks to be just the beginning of what will expand into something larger if they get the chance to bring it to market.

For a pledge of 45 pounds (About $69 usd) you get the entire game, plus anything else that is unlocked during the campaign. Speaking of which you can check it out here!

Funded!

A few campaigns have closed recently...

Templar the Secret Treasures - Queen Games

So you're basically hiding treasure in an Abbey and trying to keep it safe. Looks like a fun game, but you're going to have to wait until it hits the shelves! You can take a look at the campaign, right here!

A Duel Betwixt Us - Game Salute

The game was 624% funded. Yeah I'd say that was successful! We're pretty excited about this one. You can check out the campaign here, and our interview with co-designer Laurence Honderick too!

Whaaa happened?

Privateer - Ensignia Games

For some reason unbeknownst to us the campaign for Privateer has been canceled by Ensignia Games. This is a shame because the game looks great. We've reached out to Ensignia to see if they have any plans to relaunch the campaign. (The first one was doing great, just about $4,000 short of the goal with over 3 weeks left!) We're really hoping that we see this one re-launch soon!

That's it for now! Is there something cool you're backing that we missed? (I wouldn't doubt it!) Let us know!

Thanks so much for reading, please take a few seconds and subscribe to the blog over on the right. And look us up on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube! And don't forget the brand-spanking new podcast! Just click this little ol' link here to find that!!