Getting ready for UnPub 7 with some pie...

Last year I attending my first convention, UnPub 6. I had so much fun last year that I immediately signed up to go again this year. For the third straight year, it's at the Baltimore Convention Center but the dates have been moved from April to March, St Patrick's Day weekend to be exact, March 17-19. So if you'll be in the area, come play some games for free! For those of you unfamiliar with UnPub, here is a quick description from its own website: "The Unpublished Games Network, called Unpub, is the hub for all information regarding the Unpub Network and our events. The network is a growing community of game designers, publishers, players, retailers and artists working towards the creation of new and unique table top games that will keep people entertained for generations to come!" For the seventh year in a row, they are holding a convention where designers can show of their games. Some games are near completion and others are very much in their infancy. The goal is to get feedback from an array of playtesters. There is also a "Designer Day" where there are all sorts of panels about all things tabletop.

Last year I was there as more of a publisher looking to get feedback on games I wanted to publish. But now that I'm only doing the designer thing, I'm there to get feedback on games I want to pitch. There will be a bunch of publishers there so maybe I'll get lucky and have some interest in the games I'll be bringing. I'm pretty sure which two games that I'll  be bringing with me this year, one for sure and the other is a strong possibility. The latter is Herd The Flock, a hand management and set collection card game for two to four players where players take the roles as shepherds trying to herd sheep to their flock using a card fishing style mechanic. This one is in a rougher state than the one I am definitely bringing. But that's a good thing because I can try and work out the kinks before I get too invested into it.

The game I am bringing for sure is a two to four player abstract game called, Easy As Pie. In Easy As Pie, players take the roles of flies who try to collect whole pie and ice cream tokens to score points. The first player to reach the threshold of points, which is dependent on the player count, wins the game. Players simply collect the tokens by moving their pawn onto a card that has one. But in order to get the tokens on the board, a whole pie must be created by connecting four pieces of the same type of pie. To do that players will push a row or a column and then take the card that got pushed out of the 4x4 grid and place it in the newly created empty space. When four pieces of the same type of pie come together, a token gets placed on the board.

I've had a lot of interest already after posting some pictures on Twitter. In fact, I've sent out print and play files to seven different people so I'm hoping to get some feedback soon. If you're interested in trying it out, send an email to danieljisom at gmail dot com. Here are a couple of the pictures I've shared recently:

Components

Table/Sell Sheet

I'm really excited about this design especially, but we'll see how it gets received in March. I'll have more information like my table number and what times I'll be showing these off, in a future post. One last note, today is National Pie Day so go out and celebrate by having your favorite type of pie. My favorite is Strawberry Rhubarb, but sadly those ingredients are out of season until summer so I'll have to get something else on the way home.