I love print and play games. The world it opens up is huge! Way more impressive than you may think. And a whole sub-culture of board gaming. What you can create with just a few simple tools will amaze you.
I spoke with a few people within the industry to learn a little more.
Giang has been involvedin the PnP scene for a long time and I was keen to find out what it was that first interested them in this amazing world!
I'm a crafting veteran but a novice in hardware (things like printer and such). My list of made games has gone way over twenty by now, including both big or small builds
What got you into the hobby as a player?
My group of friends started playing light card games like Exploding Kittens and Uno. Then we started playing Shadow Hunters, and we kept on playing it for months! I started to get sick of it and wanted to find new games to introduce to my folks. Now we're actually playing a new game every game night! If I could build the new games in time!
Print and play opens up games to so many more people like this but doesn’t help with the income for the industry so much! What are your thoughts on this?
Well, it actually depends on the target of audience that you're leaning into. If a company targets the avid or casual gamer then obviously PnP wouldn't be a good choice. However, there are quite a handful of nerds like us that are much more willing to purchase a cheaper, more affordable PnP version rather than a whole big box. It's shipping friendly too, because my region (and I believe many others) has lots of problem with all the shipping shenanigans.
Very true! How do you feel when people have made one if your games at home?
Obviously great, if I am actually distributing the pnp version officially. Other than that, to each their own, if one managed to get their hands on the files without paying anything, they deserved it (haha). I wouldn't really mind because I know once something is on the internet, there will be always be people that can get it free.
What do you see in the future. What’s next for you?
I'm hoping that pnp games will become more widely known. Many people I meet still think that PnP games are not right. And that people get by to play the game without paying the real price. There are real games that are made for the purpose of to be print and play games!
If you could have any other game not made by you in your rosta of designed games what would it be and why?
Gloomhaven. Or Mage Knight. Love the genre, never got to try them out.
Which other designer would you most like to have a games night with and why?
Honestly I've never thought about it. Maybe the couple that made Afternova, Jeff Chin and Andrew Nerger :)
Thanks Giang. There are some amaizng facebook groups for PnP, and I will be featuring more information about this world on this blog over the coming months.