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Allow Me To Mansplain with Kervin Queliza
31 Plays1 year ago
"Didn't your mother tell you? It's an activity you enjoy with friends or acquaintances around a table that sometimes, but not always, involves joking and laughing with each other."
Are you talking about a party game? Specifically, Allow Me To Mansplain by For Why Games? Game creator Kervin Queliza joins the podcast to talk about the game, his interest in interpersonal communications, and the company's upcoming game project. You'll have to listen to learn more.
VIsit the For Why Games website.
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast and Today's Guest
00:00:01
Speaker
Running this podcast has really given me a fascinating look into the world of games, specifically having a chance to talk to people and learn more about where they came up with their ideas, what fascinates them about games, what drives them to create games for people to play.
Exploring 'Allow Me to Mansplain'
00:00:17
Speaker
For example, today's guest, Kervin, is really fascinated by the way that people communicate. And his game, Allow Me to Mansplain, actually dives into that. It's more than a party game. It's actually, I would even dare say, an exploration of people's psychology and their communications patterns.
00:00:36
Speaker
Our game was a little bit more simple than that, but it still fascinates me and I love telling the story about how we were doing something completely different as we looked for a game to develop. We were creating role-playing modules, something we'll probably get back into at some point.
Host's Game Development Journey
00:00:50
Speaker
But as a group, we've always played games together. And one night we were playing a game with Mike, our president's son, Tyler, and he just happened to say, hey, wouldn't it be cool if
00:01:02
Speaker
there was a pro wrestling game similar to what we were playing. Two years later, and we're just a few months away from our first crowdfunding event and hoping to get Dial Boggle Dave's Rumble Throwdown out within the next year to year and a half. But it makes me think back on all those conversations that we're having with game creators and why they chose the topic, the subject matter, or just even that first conversation that spurred them on to build the game that they have brought to market.
00:01:31
Speaker
With that being said, let's get into today's podcast. All right, everybody. Welcome back to Should I Play It? And today I have Kerven Kaliza, and I hope I said that right after asking him from For Why Games to talk about his game.
PAX Unplugged Experience
00:01:56
Speaker
Allow me to mansplain. Kerven, how are you doing today?
00:01:59
Speaker
I'm doing well. I'm a little hoarse from PAX Unplugged, but other than that, I'm doing well. That's right. You're right back from PAX Unplugged. That great experience, I'm assuming, is always those guys at PAX doing an amazing job. Oh, yeah. No, it was an absolute blast. I played a bunch of games. I walked the convention hall. I even got to play some of the new Hotness games, which was really cool.
00:02:18
Speaker
Awesome. Cool. So before we get into talking about the game on for why tell me about for why you have a great story up on the website and I'd be interested in hearing more about that. How did you start the company?
Creating 'Allow Me to Mansplain'
00:02:33
Speaker
Yeah, so it started because I wanted to buy a mansplaining game. I literally woke up middle of the night and I was going to impulse buy the game regardless of whatever it cost. There were three games.
00:02:46
Speaker
that I was able to find and they played like trivia games, which was really confusing to me because how people mansplain is dependent on how you communicate and how you talk. And I wanted a game that played a lot more like Taboo. And so I complained about it to everyone in my life for the next three months. And then I was at the local grocery store talking to a friend and he was like, well, what would your game look like?
00:03:12
Speaker
And then we designed 85% of the game in the fruit aisle of an HEB, which is the, which is the local grocery store back in Texas. And then, uh, I was working from home and then we had to go into the office and my coworkers were like, what have you been working on? I mentioned the game and they asked when they could play it. So I decided to make a prototype and brought it in and they loved it. And then they said, well, when can we buy it?
Deep Dive into Game Design
00:03:38
Speaker
And I was like, and so I spent the next.
00:03:42
Speaker
four months, five months doing all the research I could about board game design and self-publishing and manufacturing, listening to every podcast, read every blog. I watched all of YouTube and I decided I could do it. And so that kind of started my journey. Okay. So side question, what does the, you've reached the end of YouTube screen look like? Cause I'm sure. Like weirdly enough, the, the most helpful videos were the ones that
00:04:12
Speaker
were like five or six years old with the most monotone boring guy giving a lecture talking about boring game design. It was weird to think that the least animated and least interesting way you communicate, there was this weird correlation where if you were bland and monotone, you were super helpful. And I didn't expect that at all.
00:04:35
Speaker
All right. Good to know for future video content.
Gameplay Mechanics and Dynamics
00:04:38
Speaker
Thanks for sharing that. So mansplaining, you know, how did you turn that I mean, tell me how the game works because I'm fascinating reading through the rules. I actually I love the fact that you publish the rules on your website. I think that's pretty cool because it gives in what I don't want to steal my own thunder for later on. But it gives it gives you an idea for what you're getting into before you actually get into it. So, you know, talk a little bit about how the game plays and and the experience that you get playing it. So it plays.
00:05:05
Speaker
Very similarly to taboo. The biggest difference being you start your turn with an opening line that a man normally says before they mansplain. Something like, at least my mother knows. Or if you were pretty, or maybe someone would have told you. And then you have to mansplain a topic from one of three categories. It's define, explains, and compares. Unlike taboo, you can pretty much say anything. But I purposely chose words or phrases that normally
00:05:35
Speaker
aren't explained, or people never really talk about. And so after you, so it would be like, at least my mother knows about how to put on this footwear, where you use your hands to use to laces and make bows or whatever, right? And then after you keep going until they say something until your partner thinks they know
00:06:05
Speaker
what you're mansplaining and they say, I think I know how to tie your shoes. And then you would respond, are you sure you know how to tie your shoes? And then if they say yes, they'll lock in your answer. And then if you accidentally say one of the words, a part of the word or phrase, someone from the other team will cut in and say, well, actually you broke the rules. You said this, and then they get a point instead. Okay. So a little bit of.
00:06:30
Speaker
a little bit of taboo in there, like you said, a little bit of even jeopardy, like you have to actually form your answers in the form of a question a little bit. So pretty neat experience. And before we get into the crux of the conversation, I'm curious, the one thing I've noticed about party games is that they, I don't wanna say they grow stale quickly, but once you know the cards,
00:06:55
Speaker
You kind of it loses its its appeal
Impact of 'Allow Me to Mansplain'
00:06:58
Speaker
a little bit. So, you know, I saw that there was expansions, which helps a lot with variety. But kind of curious, have you have you run into that at all with with this type of game? Because everyone's brains work so differently, I have not experienced that at all. And normally. If anything, it's the poor explaining of things that make me that that keep it fresh. So, for example, my favorite thing
00:07:25
Speaker
for an explain card was you had to explain how an automatic door works. And there are a handful of men who when they played the game said, quote, you walk up to it and it moves. And then their partners would be like, hey, could you give me more? And they said, no, that's literally it. And then we just stood in silence for about like 10 or 15 seconds until he realized that really wasn't sufficient.
00:07:50
Speaker
And then when women get that card, they'll say everything from when you go to a grocery store and you grab a buggy and you walk to motion sensors to when your child playing the force trying to enter a building. That's a good one. I like that one. That's still my favorite explanation that I've heard.
00:08:11
Speaker
All right. So, I mean, we kind of screwed around the issue and everything. But I in your words, if I'm sitting here and I've got a copy of the game in my hand or if I've got my shopping cart and I'm on the website and I'm ready to go and we'll talk about the shopping cart after with you. But if I'm ready to go for it and I just got to I got to spend that money, why should I make that purchase? Why should I play it? The comment I get the most is the the game plays very real and because especially with those opening lines,
00:08:41
Speaker
they'll touch nerves. And the game is purposely made that way. One of the biggest reasons why I wanted to make the game was people get mansplained to you all the time. And it's not going away anytime soon. I think it's important to be able, if I can have a chance at inserting a memory or a funny story or ridiculous explanation that you can associate with the word mansplaining, maybe it'll be more tolerable the next time it happens. Also, the game
00:09:10
Speaker
shows a lot about how you communicate and how people communicate around you. And so, and a lot, and one of the best things about my game is that when people play the game, it leads to a lot of really cool side conversations about how or why. And before you know it, you're not even playing the game anymore because there's so many tangents you've gone to. And I think for me, that's one of the best signs of a party game is that, yeah, you're playing a game, but it leads to other types of conversation that is more fulfilling or memorable.
00:09:41
Speaker
I like that. That's a that's a great explanation for it is a little bit more deeper meaning to it. And you're right, because those party games do the ones that are the most well designed and well written. They tend to become more than just a game like you can actually do something with them outside of the context
Distribution Challenges and New Projects
00:09:56
Speaker
of the game. And it becomes fun and memorable. We talked a little bit before this about, you know, obviously, I hope that people are interested in buying the game who are listening to it. But right now you are your your store is empty.
00:10:11
Speaker
Um, and so I want, I just want to provide the context because anybody who goes to the website and we'll get into that. I want to make sure that they know exactly what's going on and talk about your, your, your sojourn from Texas to Massachusetts. Yeah. So I, I live, I currently am in Massachusetts, but, uh, my main residence is still back in Texas. I worked remotely, but the job wasn't fully remote. The job was like remote from the state of Texas.
00:10:39
Speaker
And my boyfriend lives up here in Massachusetts. And so I was like, Hey, I guess I'm going to find a job that lets me work fully remote. And in the process, I might as well be in Massachusetts. So I've been up here the last four months. I got to experience my first fall. Fall is not overrated. I thought it was going to be, uh, definitely is not. And then, so I, when you have a board game, you have to figure out how you're going to fulfill your board game, AKA, how you're going to send it to customers. And because.
00:11:08
Speaker
My game is so small and I was in really no rush because all the games are getting small and they're all in my house. I decided to just ship them on myself. So not everyone chooses to take that route, but I did. And so, you know, I've been here in Massachusetts for four months. I did not include any of them in my carry on. Carry ons are limited, of course. So, yeah. So I'm going to be moving up here probably the next month and then my store will be open after that.
00:11:38
Speaker
Awesome. So for everybody who's waiting, you know, your weight won't be that long. We'll get these games up here. So the game is available or will be available on your website. And I understand that you have something in store for the future to talk a little bit about where to find the game and what's coming up for for why games.
Introducing 'Marsh Hollow'
00:12:00
Speaker
So the game is exclusively on my website and the current I was
00:12:06
Speaker
After my game published, I fully intended to promote the game and try to get it into retail. But I'm a content creator on TikTok, and I made a TikTok talking about how I wanted to make a marshmallow cultist board game. And everyone loved it, not even kind of loved it, very much loved it. And so I made a few more videos about it, and then I realized, I think I need to make this game sooner than later, because you got to give people what they want, right?
00:12:33
Speaker
So my marshmallow cultist game is going to be called Marsh Hollow. And the point of the game is that there are these marshmallows that are traveling the world to find mallow flowers so they can do this fire ceremony. But when they do the fire ceremony, they burn everything in its sight. They make their way into your forest, and some of the marshmallows don't want your forest to burn. So they scoured the area, found water guns, and then you play animals who hold those water guns
00:13:01
Speaker
And you're going to try to put out marshmallows that are on fire and to shoot them to break the focus of the prairie marshmallows. So ultimately they're fired. So many is not completed. When is this coming out? Because I want to try it. It's mid next year. It's going to be a polyomino rolling, right? So polyominoes are the pieces that are like need to go if you think of Tetris. And so you're going to place them on a map and you're going to use them to advance your way across the map. It's also a cooperative game.
00:13:29
Speaker
So there's powers and things you can do to interact with other people's boards. And the feedback I've gotten so far has been really good.
00:13:38
Speaker
Awesome, so we're talking about mid, for anybody who's listening to this at any point, we're talking about mid 2024 that the game will be in, I assume a Kickstarter game found or something like that for crowdfunding.
Crowdfunding Plans for 'Marsh Hollow'
00:13:49
Speaker
And if you want, I will plug you for yourself. If you want more information, I strongly suggest following forawaygames.com, which is your website. And you have any, I'm sure you have a social media presence as well. You already mentioned TikTok, so.
00:14:06
Speaker
Mine's exclusively just like my TikTok as well, which is just for like...
00:14:10
Speaker
Awesome. So Kervin, I really pumped to have you. I am sorry that you're coming off of the, uh, the conference and have the, and fill in the, the conference, uh, hangover as I like to call it, but it's been a pleasure to talk to you. I do want to mention that Kervin actually did volunteer and help play test our game, um, with grim steel games. And so I've gotten to meet him in person. He's a neighbor now in Massachusetts.
Closing Thoughts and Future Collaborations
00:14:34
Speaker
We're happy to have him up here. I am sorry to say that now you're going to experience your first messages winter, which is not as much fun as the fall.
00:14:40
Speaker
But you'll survive it and we'll get into next year and get your new game out to Kickstarter. And hopefully we'll have you back to talk about it when it's crowdfunding. So that would be amazing. Yeah, absolutely. The invite's always open. Kerven, thank you so much, everybody. Make sure you check it out. Thank you for listening, as always. And we will catch you on our next episode. Take care.