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Episode 15: The Creative Crew!
130 Plays9 months ago
A long time ago… in a windy city, far, far away… Your hosts Nick Sperry is joined by the tandem of Mark Uhl (Strata Strike) and Andrew Nuckols (Curled Paw Creatives) as they talk about the creative process behind their game component shops! This episode marks the second of our ongoing interview series, as 312 talks to folks from all corners of the X-Wing community and beyond!
Editor's Note: This is the second episode in our interview series. Not the 3rd.
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Transcript
Introduction of Special Guests
00:00:02
Speaker
You are listening to the 312 Squadron podcast. Today, for our third episode of our interview series, we have two very special guests, Mark Yule and Andrew Knuckles. Most of you might know them as their alter egos, Strata Strike and Curled Paw creatives, respectively. Guys, thank you for joining me today to talk about all the things.
Mark Yule's Graphic Design Journey
00:00:23
Speaker
Yeah, thanks for having us. Yeah, thanks.
00:00:26
Speaker
So I obviously know you guys a little bit better than most people. And Andrew, I've obviously been able to hang out with you and talk to you in person a few times. But Mark, I have not met you yet in person. Soon enough, that will happen. But I do want to ask you guys, for those who maybe just know of you or your shops, do you guys just want to give me a quick breakdown on who you are and your backgrounds and what got you into creating gaming components in general? Yeah, absolutely.
00:00:57
Speaker
Mark, you can start. Yeah. So my background is a professional graphic designer for about 15 years. And then I got into enhancing games probably about in 2011 or 2012. Actually, that's when Strashright kind of was born. And then so I used to play Magic a lot way back in the day. And then I would paint these cards. So I would see these cards on eBay. And they were like called altered Magic cards back in the day.
00:01:25
Speaker
I guess they're still called that but this was before magic would do these full art cards and then I started painting those and I did that for about four or five years and then I was just selling those on eBay and it kind of got me into all of that and then
00:01:40
Speaker
Later down the road, getting into X-Wing and seeing what people were doing, seeing Kirlpaw Creative and what you were doing, like, oh, this is really cool stuff. And so, man, I got to get a laser cutter and try this out. And knowing that these laser cutters could use Illustrator, I was like, oh my God, this is going to be amazing. And I love just making my games as cool as they can be and getting all the cool components. So that's kind of how I got into the whole doing all this stuff.
Andrew Knuckles' Path to X-Wing Components
00:02:06
Speaker
and you like wood. You're a wood guy. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, starting out with the wood. I was, I didn't want to, I saw a lot of people were doing acrylic and it's like, well, and I ordered stuff from, from Andrew. So it's like, well, maybe, you know, I haven't seen a lot of wooden components yet, so maybe I'll go there. So yeah, right on. Yeah. So I got into the, I got into the, the game pretty late. We didn't even start the shop until 2014. And whenever we, um,
00:02:34
Speaker
like we bought the lasers have knowing and no intention of doing anything for like anytime gaming or anything like that. We actually bought it because we wanted to get into doing wedding invitations and all sorts of other like wedding related things. And 2015 happened whenever we were going to the opening night for Force Awakens oddly enough. And we were hanging out in the Barnes and Noble and we saw
00:02:58
Speaker
the YT2400 and the Star Viper expansions for X-Wing. And I was like, well, these are cool. I just like Shadow of the Emperor. I'm just going to buy them because I like the models. And there's this game. I'm just going to put this over to the side because I don't care about that. And over the course of the holiday, my wife and her mom basically bought me the core set because they're like, oh, there's a game of this. You should probably play it. You like Star Wars. And, you know, fast forward, you know, it's where I was like, oh, this game is actually really, really fun.
00:03:27
Speaker
We and I was like, well, I have a laser cutter. I can, you know, look at making, you know, some components for myself, just because I've been a graphic designer for about 15 years at this point. And we, you know, I kind of made stuff. I was like, Oh, cool. I can just, you know, do everything in Illustrator. It's really easy. And then after I kind of made stuff that I liked.
00:03:49
Speaker
And people at the local shop are like, oh, this is really cool. You should really like, you know, kind of get into the, like, you know, sell us your stuff. I'm like, okay, yeah, sure. I can put a couple of things on the shop.
00:03:58
Speaker
And I looked at what other people were selling them at, particularly Team Covenant. And I was like, oh, these guys are playing, like, like making people pay like $45 for a set of templates, which is absolutely absurd. I refuse to, to be part of this. So then I, I interrupt to thank our sponsor Team Covenant for sponsoring this. They're not sponsoring me. I could talk to them all I want.
00:04:25
Speaker
But basically I felt that they were overcharging by about half of what it was. So I just undercut it by half and put them up on the shop. And then we went to Japan on our honeymoon and I came back and I had so many orders that I had to quit my job. So just to fill them. So there we go. That's it. So
00:04:49
Speaker
a couple of follow up things.
Origins of Curled Paw Creatives
00:04:51
Speaker
So I asked Mark about, you know, his obviously you guys have your own your own styles and honestly, just the way you guys identify as shops. So Mark has, you know, these not just precision cut like wood components, but primarily what I think is just right. I think of like my awesome scum template set with the tray that Mark made for me several years ago. But with crowed paw,
00:05:16
Speaker
I think of cats. And so I want to know, you know, I mean, it's not just not just, you know, acrylic cats, but every time I bought something from you, I get those awesome little cat tokens. So just and I know that that that Holly is a huge, you know, partner in helping you with everything. So just like, you know, how how is your partnership with your cats and your partner been a part of your shop? Well, so what you know, it's one of those weird things where
00:05:45
Speaker
If I would have gotten onto Etsy with the intention of doing X-Wing components and acrylic gaming stuff for third-party support, I probably would not have had the same name that I have now.
00:06:01
Speaker
Um, but it was kind of one of those weird coincidence. So basically whenever we started, I wanted to do, um, custom, um, canvas prints. Cause I had like a large format printer and I had posters and all this other kinds of stuff. So I wanted to be a little bit more creative with the, with the name and whatnot. And I didn't, I didn't want to have like some, uh, like guy name. So we chose cold pot creatives because like both Holly and I were both graphic designers. We went to the same school. That's where we met. And.
00:06:31
Speaker
uh, we love our cats. So, you know, we felt that was kind of like the natural, natural position for it. And, uh, and then, you know, X-Men kind of blew up. And at that point I was, it was too late to change the name, um, of how the shop works. So I was like, well, I guess I'm just curl pod now. And, uh, which is fine. I mean, cause it's the unique name and, and, and it's actually really helped out build the brand out as I've gotten, you know, further on into other games and that kind of stuff, because then people would look at.
00:07:01
Speaker
the shop and the name and it is so unique compared to everything else in the space that it definitely really does stand out whenever people are trying to hawk it on Reddit or whatever.
00:07:15
Speaker
Yeah, no, for sure. And I highly recommend that anybody ever goes and, you know, maybe if you've already bought components from Andrew, curled paw before, go to the about page on their Etsy. You'll see a whole brand out of staff, including their cats. And it's very detailed and it's awesome. It makes it because it makes my day whenever I
Mark's Lifelong Gaming Passion
00:07:35
Speaker
read it. I obviously every day, Andrew, every morning, it's a routine. I go to your Etsy page, I go to the website. It sounded really weird the way I said that, like it makes my day every time I read it.
00:07:44
Speaker
But I mean, yeah, we do love our cats. Unfortunately, two of them, Mandy and Skipper, have since passed away over the years. But we do have the new member, which she hasn't been added to the staff yet because she's still in training. But we have Mio, and she's a little ball of energy.
00:08:02
Speaker
But we still have Lando and he is absolutely the supervisor. No. Yeah. Oh, that's that's awesome. I'm going to I'm going to include Mark in the conversation again. Poor guy couldn't talk about his cats as much as he was able to. I put him on the put Andrew at the spot with that one. But Mark with well, really both you guys, but we'll start with Mark. What is what is your relationship with gaming? What is it like with gaming in general? Because you guys.
00:08:29
Speaker
are in the X-wing community are known for making components for X-wing, but you go way beyond that. So like, what is that relationship like? Well, I've always kind of grown up with games. My parents had board games and early on, I think I got into magic in 1995.
00:08:45
Speaker
So I played board games for that, but then that really got me into like TCG games and like, wow, what is this? And, um, and then I became obsessed with that as a kid. And then throughout the years, I mean, then I played chess and like middle school and it would do competitions. And then, and that kind of drove me like in the competitive side of things is like, there's just so much pressure and you're trying to do, you know, the best you can, your heart's like racing, but at the same time, it's all fun.
00:09:12
Speaker
But, uh, and then, then as I got older, trying to get in those magic tournaments as like a teenager going to the media play, like those old stores are like, they'd be in the back of Best Buy and a table or, or whatever, or some of your local stores. But, um, and, and then kind of just been playing games ever since, just like I'll buy, I have a whole library of just board games and a lot of times I'll just buy them, just see what kind of components they have. And then, uh, you know, kind of do your research on what are you going to make for this game.
00:09:41
Speaker
And then if I really like it, like there's a game called Terraform Mars. It's probably one of my other favorite games. I make all kinds of components for that. But you see these games and they just have cardboard or something really cheap in them. You have all these cubes that got to go on them. And of course, if you have a cat or something, they just come knock all your cubes off. You're like, oh, they don't know where you're at. So, man, there really needs to be something for these games that you can, you know, keep track of your cubes that I'm flying everywhere.
00:10:11
Speaker
And, uh, but yeah, I mean, that's just kind of how I got into it. And then, uh, and all the gaming stuff and playing, we did, uh, during worlds we did, I wasn't able to make it worlds, but we, every year we do, we get a cabin with a bunch of friends and then I bring like a whole carload of board games. And then we just game all weekend and.
00:10:31
Speaker
try to check out all these new games. But yeah, that's that's kind of what I do with all these games.
Introduction to X-Wing and Community Experiences
00:10:36
Speaker
That's that's awesome. And Andrew had talked about, I mean, I'm going to also ask this follow up for him, but like about what he noticed with X-wing and why maybe he got into it. But why X-wing for you? I know you don't necessarily have the same kind of relationship with X-wing. So, you know, as I do, as Andrew, like what about X-wing? What what did X-wing attract you? Well, then I got into a buddy of mine, went to DragonCon, a big convention here in Atlanta.
00:11:01
Speaker
Uh, he learned the game from the little demo and then he came back. He's like, Oh, I gotta show you this new game. It's like it's Star Wars, the ships and everything's flying. I'm like, Oh, that sounds really cool. And he showed me the little miniatures. It's like, wow. So what do you do? And then, you know, you went the whole idea of flipping the dial and not knowing where someone's going. I was like, wow, never played a miniature game. I was always into card games. It's like, this is kind of neat. And, uh, it was just kind of neat how you had to strategize and like, think about where you're going and what you're doing. And it's like, Oh, this is.
00:11:29
Speaker
I don't know. It was just really cool. And then the ships always looked really good. And I was like, all right, I guess I'm gonna go get a starter set. I think they're on sale at Target at the time for like 20 bucks. They were like on clearance. I don't know if they just weren't, it wasn't a big thing at Target, you know, but it's like, all right. So I picked up some of those and then we started playing. Just, it was just me and him. And then our local game store, there was a, there was some people playing there. And then that's when that kind of, okay, they're starting to play every Sunday.
00:11:58
Speaker
So we would just start going up there every Sunday. And it was just this big growing group. And then I think I met Andrew at the regional in 2018, maybe? That sounds about right. Yeah. That was the one that James Ayers won, I think. Yeah, it's at Gigabytes Cafe here. I think we're doing the team group. But playing against the people, and it was just this awesome game that
00:12:28
Speaker
really love the community of it all. It's like, wow, these people playing this game, I mean, they're a little bit, I think, older in general than some of these card games. Oh, way older than card gamers. Yeah. I was just like, all right, this is maybe this is more the vibe.
00:12:45
Speaker
I'm liking being around, you know, and then everybody played, even though it was competitive, everybody's super nice. Like, even if you lose, it's like, Oh, I mean, that was a good game. And then you talk about the game afterwards. It's not like some, I would go to these magic tournaments, like the big, uh, regional of those, the opens and stuff. And then there's just some salty people. Like if, if you're playing and, and they lose, they just like, you go to shake their hand, they just get up and walk away. You're like, wow. Okay.
00:13:12
Speaker
You know, it's like, OK, but actually it's totally different. I mean, you just play and you're like, oh, that was a good game. And then afterwards you're just talking about it. And it's like, all right, I like these. You know, this is a great community. So that's what really attracted me to this game. That's awesome.
Strategic Appeal of X-Wing
00:13:27
Speaker
Andrew, besides like, you know, the connection with the shop, like from as a from a player perspective, because you've you have some hardware. You've certainly, you know, played very well when you played X-wing. I recall pretty well at Gen Con, not this past one, but the one before you kind of just decided to show up last minute. You borrowed a buddy's list and then you just casually made final table and all barely lost Duncan Howard. So like, what is your relationship with X-wing been like as on the player side? Oh, man. OK, so
00:13:56
Speaker
I feel that this actually it's really it's really funny the correlation between player or people that play X-Wing well and enjoy playing it that also played chess when they were younger because I really do think that if you if you enjoy playing chess you will enjoy playing this game just because of the fact that you have it's very similar to how chess plays where you have to you have to
00:14:25
Speaker
Think of the best possible trade value that you can get out of whatever piece you have on the board to your opponent's piece. You have to think multiple turns ahead. You have to have visual information at all times to really figure out how you're going to basically piece together the puzzle to actually get a win condition out of the game.
00:14:46
Speaker
And like I played competitive, not, I'm not saying competitive chess, but I was a very good chess player when I was in middle school and high school. And I, you know, I never really amounted much in the chess community, but it definitely was. I'm one of the better players, you know, that I, in my group of friends, I guess. And, um, I think that really directly translates over to X-wing and that's kind of what called me to it. Whenever I first started playing, I was like, Oh, this is fun. That's a good little casual thing.
00:15:16
Speaker
And I think after the first couple of games, I kind of saw a little, I kind of saw the matrix a little bit and I was like, Oh, this has like a really good, like strategic potential that, and I've never really played a tabletop game before that what I, what I would consider like a tabletop game. So when I was a kid, I went to the summer camp and we had like civil war reenactment, um, like, like tabletop battles.
00:15:41
Speaker
But that was like, guy was using like a DOS computer to, to calculate the bullet mounts and all, you know, all sorts of weird stuff. And it was just a bunch of dice where this was, you had actual strategy involved with it to where you had the blind dials. You, if you had good.
00:16:00
Speaker
visual one-to-one of how far the templates move you and where they move you and everything like that, that really helps you get an edge on your opponents. And I definitely think being a graphic designer has helped with that just because I'm always used to looking at visual distances on a computer of like, oh, this is visually balanced or whatever.
00:16:19
Speaker
And it really does add in that extra level of like, if you can do that, then you're already ahead of other players. And I think that really drew me to the game. And then everything else on top of that, I'll be that guy. I'm a degenerate. I loved basically the last phase of first edition X-wing, which was combo wing. I loved it. So you can burn me down for that if you want.
00:16:46
Speaker
Ghost Fen with Dash crew on there, where I had an accuracy corrector bubble of range 3, and if you had less than 2 agility on your ship, you die in 2 turns. I loved it. It was amazing. I'm going to make the... not the analogy, but really the...
00:17:06
Speaker
the reference or whatever you call it to over to you, the Magnus Carlson of X-wing then obviously is what it sounds like. Unfortunately, I'm not that good. I have had some success, but to be good, you have to make the right decisions and you also have to be very lucky. And there are definitely games where
00:17:32
Speaker
uh, especially even at the, the past, uh, the Gen Con that I got final table without any prep. Um, I think it was like the second to last game. Um, I was out like 100% out and my opponent just didn't make the right choice by attacking the one thing that they had to, to get the win condition that I, I felt was obvious and they didn't. And I.
00:17:55
Speaker
then rolled just a straight fire shot that I had no right of actually getting and I ended up winning. And it's definitely one of those things where it's like, to be good and to place well, you have to be lucky. And that has definitely been part of my moniker going into a lot of these games and where I'm like, oh, I did well at a tournament. Well, there's a couple of games in here that if my opponent was, it just happens.
00:18:26
Speaker
That was my world's experience this year. I lost my first game by three points and then the second and third game by one point by the same score. Yeah, it's like, oh, it's just painful sometimes. Yeah.
00:18:41
Speaker
Yeah, the luck component wouldn't, you know, we'll get into it, but, you know, when adding random order after dials, the road, that road role also just adds even more of a factor in terms of luck. If somebody, you know, playing a high initiative, aces can move last the entire game via because of the road role that also has, you know.
00:18:58
Speaker
And I think that's one thing that keeps players honest in any game is dice. I think X-Wing has ebbed and flowed with how much of a dice game it is and it isn't. It's really interesting. Go ahead.
00:19:14
Speaker
I was just going to say, I think that's why I like second or first edition the most at the end, because there was very little dice variance in the game at the time, because then I could make concerted, educated decisions on what was going to happen. It's so unfair. No, it was. It absolutely was. And I have no problem admitting that it was totally ridiculous and very imbalanced, and it didn't need to change. However, I enjoyed it. Fair enough. Fair enough. I hear you.
00:19:45
Speaker
Yeah, that's how I that's how I felt playing before this battle over a door stuff came out and that it things kind of equalized I'm like god damn it I Stop the rising tide sank my ship a little bit here
00:19:58
Speaker
Oh, man. Yeah. As somebody who like X-wing is really the only game from like, you know, the gaming perspective board games, tabletop games that I'm like really, really into. I do have a collection of board games. I do enjoy playing them. But one thing with board games is that you need people to play with. And even though I have a local community that likes to play board games, it's just like since covid and stuff, there just isn't as many time opportunities like hang out. It's just not as much of a thing like just getting together and playing just games. And some people are really good about doing that. But for me,
00:20:28
Speaker
I have so many multiplayer games that just sit there. It's weird.
00:20:33
Speaker
X-Wing is like my game. Obviously, you can play it online. You know, all the in-person stuff that I've been a part of streaming, playing all that stuff. But similar thing, where it's just like to Mark's case where I just I had my roommate bought me the Force Awakens Core set is like, you know, this game is on sale.
Business Challenges in Gaming Components
00:20:49
Speaker
It's out of you. And man, did I just dive so deep into the rabbit hole. Everything I was like, art, 75 percent off by the conversion. I'm like, I'm buying a hawk. I'm buying an E-Wing. Like, yeah.
00:21:02
Speaker
the throwback, man, that was right as first edition was transitioning to second. So like I it was second edition just come out a few months of prior. And I didn't know that. So I bought all this stuff and then realized I couldn't use it. So I bought more stuff. I had no problem buying more stuff. That's how they get you. That's how they get you. But I got to say, man, the buy in for X-Wing, especially at that time, was so aggressively consumer friendly. Like I loved that time.
00:21:33
Speaker
I didn't feel bad about it, because for my dollar, I was getting so many ships. The conversion kit really was, even though I know people are like, oh, they're making you buy all this new stuff to play this new. First of all, it's a business. It has to happen. Second of all, it was easy to convert a lot of things, at least in my case, at that time. So it's funny, too, because if you look at the conversion kits,
00:21:56
Speaker
It was actually a terrible business decision from their perspective, just because they lost a ton of money on allowing players to use older ships and that kind of stuff. It's one of those things where it kept the game alive and it kept people in the game, but at the same time, from a business perspective, FFG ended up losing the license to AMG for it.
00:22:23
Speaker
You know, it's just it was an interesting design choice for them to allow players to keep it. Because that's just not that's not how it normally works with tabletop games, for my perspective, for my. Yeah, it's interesting you say that, too, because it's like it's like it was in the interest of cost cutting and it's a cost them a lot of sales at the same. It did. Yeah. Yeah. Like you try and lose on the short or you try and gain in the short, but you end up losing in the long and it's it's tough.
00:22:51
Speaker
Um, just cause like, I mean, like even as a, uh, like just running a, an online business that does this kind of stuff, like I run into that same kind of, uh, problem. Well, question a lot of like, do I, do I plan for now and, and possibly lose out in the long run based on, you know, a type of product and I'm trying to come out with, or do I, do I really try and play the long game with whatever product I'm trying to make?
00:23:17
Speaker
Yeah, let's go into that a little bit without, you know, obviously whatever you guys are comfortable talking about, but just like the business side because, you know, you guys, I strongly do believe
Balancing Business and Personal Life
00:23:25
Speaker
this. I'm not just kissing your ass when I say this, but you guys do offer prices that I think are very approachable and very fair for what you're getting. The quality, the look, the style, design, all that stuff. So like how much
00:23:38
Speaker
Where is the balance for you guys? You obviously want people to be able to come to your store and look at the prices and not immediately click off because, you know, you want people to buy your stuff, but you also want to make some money. You want to cover your costs. You want to be able to. This is America. So where do you guys draw that line, Mario? Whoa. We'll start with you. I think it comes down to it's kind of like, yeah, it's like you said, it's like maintaining a middle balance.
00:24:05
Speaker
If you go too cheap, you might be super busy and just have like, you can't do anything else. And also you're kind of the balance between what kind of customers are you're looking for. Like if, if it also, you know, if you're kind of doing the Walmart, if it's really low, then you're also kind of sending out a signal that maybe it's not as high quality. So you kind of, you set the prices where you want people to be able to afford it.
00:24:31
Speaker
You kind of balance like how much work am I putting into it? It needs to be worth it to me. And then just trying to maintain that good balance. And I know I'll put my prices slightly like higher just because I mean, it takes a lot of time, especially with the wood stuff. I mean, there's so much prep into the sanding and staining.
00:24:51
Speaker
that there was times where I questioned like, why did I start with wood? It was like, this is, when it worked early on, when y'all had to make like one order or two, I was like, yeah, this is cool. Didn't expect it to be like, okay, now I'm spending five hours sanding. And sanding is not fun if you ever sanded wood. It is like the most daunting just back and forth and like, what am I doing? Why did I do this? But- As Larry David would say, you respect wood. Yeah, enthusiasm for it.
00:25:21
Speaker
But eventually, over time, I got some machine. I got a drum sander, and that thing saved my life. So now I just run wood, and it sands itself. So that's definitely helped with that kind of stuff. But as far as all the pricing and stuff, yeah, it's just making sure that it's worth the time that you're putting into it. Because at the time when I did start doing the pricing, I was like, well, I had a full-time job, and I was doing this on the side. I was like, I'm just going to put it up for what it's worth to me now. If it sells, it sells. If it doesn't, then I'm making the stuff for me.
00:25:51
Speaker
essentially. And then if other people want it, then that's cool. And then and then it started selling. So I was like, OK, cool. And then started doing full time.
00:26:00
Speaker
Yeah, I think there's a good balance for sure. That's an important angle to approach it from, too. It's the same thing with what I'm doing right now with you guys and content creation for X-Wing. Starting off knowing that it's already such a niche but awesome community, it's never supposed to be purely about just how can I maximize the dollar. I've never even had aspirations like that.
00:26:24
Speaker
because it starts to feel like a chore and then you're not you might cut corners and you might you just you'll burn out. Right. So I think that's definitely important, even though it's still easy to feel burnout when you get overworked and overloaded, which I know you guys have spurts throughout the year. And, you know, Star Wars Unlimited has come out and Andrew and I were talking about how busy he's been with that. Yeah, like adding adding to what we're talking about when we throw over to you, Andrew, like also how do you guys maintain and prioritize a social life on top of that?
00:26:55
Speaker
Um, okay. Well, so, um, uh, the, I think the biggest, um, it's tough cause you like Mark had some really good points about, um, what finding your balance of, of when you're, when you're creating a product of, you don't want people to look at your price and just get out of here, but you also don't want people to look at your product and think, Oh, this is cheap.
00:27:20
Speaker
And it's this is not the same quality as I'll say the the next person on the search result which Etsy unfortunately is very competitive with with search result placement and that kind of stuff that you really need to to kind of like try and hit and Now I'll definitely say this I've been very fortunate with the support that I've had for the shop over the years And obviously if you're listening to this and you bought anything from me, seriously, thank you
00:27:46
Speaker
But it's definitely one of those where if you are a successful shop, Etsy is going to prioritize you over other people that have smaller shops just because I have 80,000 sales or whatever. So from like, from my perspective, which, you know, I do have a relatively successful shop. When I, when I look at making a new product, I try and, I try and look at it from the amount of time that I have to spend on a single order. And.
00:28:16
Speaker
When it comes to that, unfortunately, like if I'm doing like a double-sided token, which I try and very limit how many, how many I have in a set, just because of how much, how much longer it takes to do this, basically to do a double-sided token run, it's basically about three and a half hours compared to about.
00:28:37
Speaker
two hours for the same yield. And so like, so like you have a 12 by 24 sheet because we, I know Mark, Mark and I both had Zing 24s and you have a 12 by 24 sheet and I can get, I'll say 300 tokens out of that sheet. If it's double-sided is now taking me almost not, it's about one and a half times to do what it normally would be for just a single-sided for the exact same yield. So now I have to look at, okay, well, this set has,
00:29:06
Speaker
four different double-sided tokens that all have to be on separate sheets of acrylic just to make yield worth it. And that, that to me is probably too expensive for me to do, to offer it at, you know, whatever level that I want to try and offer it at. So like a good example is Pokemon tokens that I sell on the shop. I sell them for like $7 a set, but you really need two sets to have like a good play set for the game.
00:29:32
Speaker
but I have to sell it at $7. So when someone comes on and because Pokemon or TCG players are very cheap and that's not a knock. They just, they have dice. They have other ways to get these kinds of effects and encounters in the game that they're used to paying for. So you have Pokemon tokens at $7 a set. You really need two to buy. So I always get basically most people buy them for two sets.
00:30:00
Speaker
But you need to have that price point of get them in the door at $7 and like for X-wing people like the community as a whole was is used to purchasing
00:30:15
Speaker
Like third party stuff because they want to enhance their game. They want to have like the style points of playing against your across your opponent. Whereas like TCG players don't necessarily care. They just care about the efficiency of playing. Kind of what you were talking about is there are a lot of salty players and the only, the only thing they care about is just winning. Where like, I think X-wing and tabletop games in general are much more community based.
00:30:39
Speaker
So you want to have things to talk about. You want to have these kinds of components and really cool pieces that you can create a conversation with, with your, with the opponent or, you know, your friends or whatever. And, um, I feel that I'm getting off of a tangent here. Um, what was the question? I want to say something with the double sided tokens, not to mention that if, when you flip it over and they get off, but like,
00:31:06
Speaker
that millimeter and you're like, Oh, well they're out of center. You're like, I just wasted all these, all this time. And then you got to throw it all away. Yeah. Double-sided tokens. I know a lot of people ask me, can you do these double-sided and I do very limited double-sided because I mean, it's such a pain. It is. It is a very big pain, especially with like the Zing 24 machines that we have. I mean, they're fantastic machines and they, they run, they're intended for very long production runs.
00:31:33
Speaker
Yeah. But they are incredibly manual and they use stepper motors and sometimes the stepper motors are like, there's so many variances that happen when you're trying to do double-sided tokens that it's just an absolute pain in the ass. And I try and limit it as much as I can. And I do have a lot of people that are like, well, I'd buy these if you had double-sided. I'm like, I don't want you as a customer then. I get the same thing. Sorry, I'm not going to do it. Yeah, it's a lot of extra work.
00:32:02
Speaker
And once you get it going and you have kind of like a good production and like, you know, schedule involved, then it's fine. But you have to think of it from the perspective of scale. So like, particularly with Star Wars Unlimited, because that's like the new hotness right now, at least for my shop, is
00:32:22
Speaker
I've had so many orders that the only thing that is stopping me from getting orders out is the double sided tokens because it takes me because I have basically three different colors that all are double sided because I hate myself. And, you know, that is basically the bottleneck to where
00:32:40
Speaker
I have one, because I have two lasers, I have one laser that is only doing double-sided all day long, that's it. And then the other machine is doing everything else that the shop can do, and that's the fastest I can possibly get it out. And it's frustrating whenever you have a three or four week lead time, because that's just how long it takes the lasers to cut, and that's how many orders I have to fulfill.
00:33:06
Speaker
So it sounds like neither of you guys have a social life now. I'm just kidding. Where do you guys boundary? What's the, what's the boundary for you guys? Where you're like, listen, like I, I, I love what I do. I'm going to do this all the time. 12 hours a day or whatever. But like, we're like weekends are for me or this day, you know, twice a month and try to do this. Like what do you guys.
00:33:27
Speaker
I'm sure it ebbs and flows. You have good months. You have bad months for your social life. But what about that? How do you guys do that? So for me, on Sundays, so I go play X-Wing at like 1.30 on Sundays. And that's my sacred time, to get away. Because I have to. I mean, you just got to step away. And I got to enjoy the stuff that I make. And I got to go play games. And that's why every year I go get a cabin and like, all right, we're going to just play games. I got to get away from my machines, because when they're
00:33:55
Speaker
For me, they're downstairs. So it's like, all right, you know, I'm going to go run the machine and just keep running back upstairs, run back downstairs. So if it's like on a weekend or something, I just want to kind of catch up on things. But usually I've tried to make it like a normal job when I can, or like normal hours, I guess. But like Andrew is saying, Star Wars Unlimited is so hot right now. It's like, it's just going until pretty much it goes to sleep. And then when I wake up, I'm like,
00:34:22
Speaker
Before I'll go get my coffee, it's like, I might as well just run downstairs real quick, start something, and then I'll go back up and eat breakfast. Like, it just needs to keep running. So, and then same thing with, uh, now Christmas time, like holidays. This is all I'm doing pretty much nonstop. And then, then it kind of slows down in summer, but I try to maintain that one day of, of being able to play games still and go play X-Men stuff.
00:34:46
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's basically the same for for me. Essentially, like I think this is one of the biggest things that you really like if you if you as a listener or anyone that is trying to like do their own thing and like be their own boss, whatever it is. It's always grass is always greener on the other side because it does sound like a really nice thing until
00:35:09
Speaker
you kind of hit the realization that the only person that can do the job that you have committed yourself to, like if you're selling things or whatever, when someone purchases something, that's a contract that you have to fulfill. And it's definitely one of those where you have to treat it like a nine to five job. Even though I can clock out at two o'clock in the afternoon if I want to go play games or whatever,
00:35:36
Speaker
most of the time that's probably not going to be the case if you are busy, especially like right now at Star Wars Unlimited. I've been up at six o'clock in the morning all the way till nine or 10 o'clock at night cutting all day long, running both the lasers and the UV printer and everything like that to try and stay ahead as best I can. And it's definitely one of those where obviously, preferably this would be a temporary
00:36:00
Speaker
thing and and at some point it levels out to where I have a good medium to where I could go back to nine or eight o'clock in the morning to five o'clock at night and then I can have the rest of my evening because most of the time like I did it was a clock in clock out like just normal eight hour day that is what I did and then I go and you know do whatever I want for the evening clearly like this past month and a half because the star was limited I haven't done any of that I've maybe had
00:36:28
Speaker
three total days off of what I would consider where I'm not actually working. I probably should be running the lasers right now, but I'm not because I'm on here. And that's fine. It's just one of those moments to where it does very much ebb and flow. Obviously, holidays are always really busy. Summer, it slows down, particularly right before the holidays. So August, September, and October are generally really slow.
00:36:54
Speaker
And, um, you know, it's just, you know, you just try and need, you have to find a balance otherwise. And it definitely helps having it in the house to be able to do it. Where like, if I had to run this, um, when like, and like all the lasers were at a whole different location, this was, that would be a whole different problem. Um, mostly because like, I wouldn't be able to see my wife.
00:37:19
Speaker
I wouldn't get to do anything besides because I can still, while the lasers are running, I can at least do other things like possibly play a game or whatever while I'm still doing it. It's just every 45 minutes to an hour, I have to get up and change out of sheet.
00:37:36
Speaker
What would you guys say is your favorite part about doing what you do and what's something that like I don't know hate is such a strong word, but like what's something that you dislike about the strongest about what you guys.
00:37:54
Speaker
I think the one thing I do like a lot is the feedback. It's kind of cool when people buy your stuff and then they write a cool review and they're like, oh man, and then it's just how much they like it or whatever they're doing with it. Or there's one time where
00:38:12
Speaker
is a game called Santorini's like, hey, my me and my daughter play this game. Like I said, most games that come to board games are just a piece of cardboard, don't hold anything. So that game, you build these structures. And if you knock it over, it's it's kind of a pain because you got to keep stacking these buildings. And he's like, I play with my nine year old daughter. She's not the most agile with or whatever, you know, with these
00:38:35
Speaker
Pieces and they fall over. Can you build something that can hold these pieces in place? So yeah, let me let me go buy the game I've never played it. So let me go get it and check it out. So I built him that piece for the game and The review he gave me back and like oh I can play with my daughter now and we're not knocking over pieces and you just made the experience so much better Little things like that are just super cool. I don't know. That's that's one thing I probably enjoy the most
00:39:02
Speaker
Um, as far as hating things, uh, or just like, I don't know. I mean, I'm pretty much like everything, you know, the aspect of being your own boss and doing that, I guess the, uh, I have lots of ideas and then not having the time to.
00:39:20
Speaker
be able to execute all these ideas that can be frustrating cuz you're just constantly having to just always something you gotta do so taking the time to just okay i'm not gonna produce. Things orders i just need to you know test run and make new products that's.
00:39:39
Speaker
You know, that's the part I wish, like back early when I wasn't as busy, like that was the fun part. And that's, that's fun to make new things, but when you can't get to it, it can get a little frustrating. Like, man, I really want to make this stuff and I just don't have the time. So it kind of gets the, in the opposite direction where you're like, now I'm just producing all the time, but you know, so yeah, I guess that'd be the dislike.
Pride in Customer Feedback and Product Use
00:40:03
Speaker
Mark and I are very similar, it feels like, because a lot of the stuff that I dislike about doing your own thing is I'm busy enough to where I need another employee to help with production and run things, but I don't make enough money to afford an employee that I would pay fairly.
00:40:26
Speaker
And the problem is because of that, all I'm doing is producing and fulfilling and I'm not actually designing anything new. So at least from my shop's perspective, whenever I am like for me to sit down and design a new product, it takes a lot just because I have to carve out a moment in time between doing just like normal shop production for sales that already exist to actually go through and build and test and, and
00:40:56
Speaker
find a spot and sometimes like I can, I can kind of like rush through like, like expedited design, like Star Wars unlimited was something that I had intended to do. But I basically, I had to move my, my timetable up because I had a couple, um, local game stores that wanted my, my tokens in the shop. And I was like, Oh, I have to do this now. So I basically had to just take a whole weekend and be like, I can't do anything else. This is the only thing I'm going to do until this is done.
00:41:26
Speaker
And, you know, it worked out, but it's definitely one of those where it's very frustrating on a general daily basis where I have all these really cool ideas. And I know that I'm probably never going to get to them just because of how, how much time it takes me to just run the shop as a normal thing. And then after that, I have to then.
00:41:49
Speaker
make the time. It's not that I don't have the time. It's like I have to make the time and cut something else out of my schedule to ensure that I can actually do the thing that I want to do. And unless I'm incredibly passionate about it, it's going to be very hard for me to do that.
00:42:06
Speaker
Yeah, time time is basically the biggest problem. I also really wish that most customers would read descriptions, but you know, it's gonna be they don't and there's people don't read they don't want to read that's fine, but I think definitely I think one of the biggest things that I've always loved about doing this kind of thing and like playing the same games that I that I produce or support is
00:42:30
Speaker
is going to a tournament or whatever and seeing someone play with my stuff, even if I like, it's just really cool. Um, and like, it's definitely one of those where I think running a shop like this does have a lot of like imposter syndrome. Cause like people will buy things and you're just like, people don't like, do people really want this? Like, why are they, why are they spending money on my stuff? And then when I see people playing with it, I think it's really cool because it is, it's a very, um,
00:43:00
Speaker
fun feeling, I think even just being like a graphic designer or seeing your stuff out in the open after you've done a project for X kind of years or whatever, and it's really cool just seeing that stuff just kind of in real life, not in the vacuum of like, oh, I just have 600 tokens sitting next to me right now that haven't been fulfilled, but it's just like, well, this is what I made, but are people actually gonna want it?
00:43:28
Speaker
That's that's my follow-up actually for you guys. Is that like I mean your your guys's stuff is everywhere It's gotta be what is that like like you're you know POV Andrew you're tabling somebody who's using all your gaming component you feel a little bad because he just said he gave you all this money to get all these well, that's actually what I gotta do but like or mark you see people using the wood templates and you're like, oh I made those that are you like, you know, but they're playing terribly or whatever like
00:43:55
Speaker
Like, what is that
X-Wing's Community and Corporate Challenges
00:43:58
Speaker
like? Seeing people using your stop all over the place, man, everywhere. So I have a funny story about that. So 2017 Nationals at Nova, I was in, I got to the top 16 and the guy, I was playing a dengar massage at the time, so this first edition, and I got paired against a guy that was, I think it was like Ghost,
00:44:26
Speaker
something or other, basically a hard counter to what I was playing. And I was like, Oh, I'm totally hosed. This is completely out. And the guy was so excited that I was the guy that made all of his components, that he missed every single trigger in that game that would have won the game for him. And, and like, I know, I know it wasn't like intentional. I think he was just really just besides that made his stuff and
00:44:54
Speaker
I ended up winning the game and I felt really bad for it because I'm like, dude, this was your game. Like you had this. And I ended up getting top eight and I got the little, um, uh, the little target locks that I really wanted from that, that thing. And then I ended up getting host and topic by Travis Johnson. But, uh, it was definitely one of those kind of moments where like, cause this was still pretty early on in me doing the shop.
00:45:18
Speaker
for X-Wing where I was like, oh, this is like a thing. This is really weird. And then over the years, I've had a couple of games where like I'd play against someone that, you know, has like all of my stuff. And it's always been really, really just fun. Because like you do, you actually, you immediately have something to talk about with across the table. And I
00:45:39
Speaker
I'm a very introverted person in real life, but whenever I'm at an event or whatever, I'm a very extroverted. I love to talk. I love to just chit chat. Maybe it's my Southern upbringing, who knows? But it's definitely one of those kind of things where I really do genuinely appreciate all the support that I've always gotten from the shop. It's really cool. Yeah, it's really cool. It's cool seeing people play with your stuff. I don't know.
00:46:07
Speaker
I guess think too much about it but I just kind of get paranoid like I hope you know nothing's wrong with it or anything. They come up and there's something missing on this or whatever you're like I hope everything is good. That's always the the biggest scare though is when someone's like hey I really love your stuff but and I'm like oh no.
00:46:28
Speaker
Yeah, it's cool, I don't know. Yeah, I mean, both of you guys have done, for 3.1.2 in general, have done a lot for us. And Mark, for all the patrons watching this early, Mark does all of our Patreon stuff right now, which is just amazing help. He's been an awesome partner, but both of you guys have partnered with us a lot. And it's fun because people know you guys, and so they trust when we do all this, and you do custom stuff.
00:46:54
Speaker
Just like I do a lot hard and I know you don't like doing that, but it is. Well, it's not that I don't like it. The problem, at least for me, is it's very hard for for me to get it into the production schedule and also on my mind, like consistently to make sure I get it done at a proper time. Yeah, no, that's I get it. I mean, I do appreciate that you guys have been willing to do that.
00:47:18
Speaker
I think it's it's cool to be like, oh, like we want our squadron logo or we want like you made these custom red flags dressed up. It's the stupidest thing for me, Andrew. That's the help of Ryan Staniszewski putting the O.P.J. together and then sending it to you. It's just like all this stuff is just it just for like an online league. But I had them made in person so they could use them. And they're there. I still use them there. Yeah, nice.
00:47:43
Speaker
yeah and our when we stream in person we have all the curled pot like chad tokens jumbo tokens which i need more stress tokens from you still yeah follow up with that later but i i run out there's too many ships on the damn board these days way too many stress ships uh
00:47:58
Speaker
All right, so let's just look before we wrap up here. Just got a couple more questions. Let's talk about X-wing in particular here. What is the sense? And neither of you guys are, you know, Andrew, you kind of take a step back. You still are involved with X-wing in some ways, but not the same way as a player. And Mark, you still you play, but maybe not a ton competitively right now. I obviously don't want to speak for you guys. But what is the sense that you guys are getting about the game right now, like the quote unquote state of the union of X-wing?
00:48:25
Speaker
Like, be honest, too. I mean, we're not chills for AMG here, which I try to be honest and respectful. I'll let Mark start since he's actually played the game more than a year.
00:48:41
Speaker
So what I've noticed is over the year, like I've stopped during COVID because you couldn't play in person. I don't play online, so I'd rather play in person. I just came back last summer and then, so I came back and I was like, all right, there's still a few people playing this. I know some stores dropped it around in my local area.
00:49:00
Speaker
But lately, I feel like after Worlds, it seems like people are coming back to games. Like, we just had two new guys show up last week that don't know how to play, and they're interested. And I'm like, oh, this is great. And I think with Star Wars Unlimited and like Lorkana, these other new games coming out are just getting people back into the competitive scene. And I think people want to play one-on-one. I know Magic seems like they've kind of moved towards that commander format, where it's more group playing and not so much one-on-one.
00:49:30
Speaker
that I feel like Star Wars Unlimited and Larkana and hopefully even X-Wing are getting people back to that one-on-one competition going on. So it feels like it's growing. I mean, you got more community things going on with X-Wing.
00:49:45
Speaker
that I've noticed, like, seems like more people are coming back. So I think it's growing. I hope it's growing, but, uh, yeah, so to me, it's growing. It's just gonna, it's kind of slowly, all the players I think that played before COVID are starting to come back. At least, you know, it's kind of the, what I'm getting out of it anyway. Yeah. So for my perspective, I, cause I, I mean, I haven't played since, uh, worlds last year.
00:50:10
Speaker
And it's definitely one of those kind of things where, you know, one, I have vested interest in the game because I support it. And it has been a good portion of my livelihood for the, for the past, you know, eight years, but it's definitely one of those things where I don't want the game to die. And I would prefer, I want it to continue because like, I still have all my stuff. And if I ever found the, the desire to play again, then I definitely would.
00:50:39
Speaker
But I definitely think that AMG has grossly mishandled the game in a lot of different aspects. Mostly just because they're really poor communication, not because of the changes that they've made to the game, because the changes they've made are fine. It's not how I want to play the game, but I don't think that that is a reason to boycott the game outright or anything like that. Like if I still played it, I played
00:51:06
Speaker
I've played every version of the game that's existed so far and it's definitely one of those where the game is still good and it's still fun to play and especially if you're playing against people that you enjoy playing with.
00:51:19
Speaker
I think that's the most important part, but I think AMG has really grossly mishandled the communication of the game and whatever their general intention is. And I know that Asmodee gave them this game without them wanting it. And I think that's definitely part of the reason why they've been actively antagonistic to the community, it feels like. And that's the biggest issue that I've had with them.
00:51:47
Speaker
The only other thing is without any communication from them or any kind of idea of where the game's going, it doesn't feel like there's going to be continued support for it anymore, which is unfortunate because at least if the shop is any kind of indication of interest in the game,
00:52:09
Speaker
the, I still do get new players or clearly new players that are purchasing like full sets of like templates and tokens and that kind of stuff. Now it's not as much as it used to be, but it's, there are still definitely new players joining the game. And I think that's a good thing. And I really do hope that AMG does choose to continue, you know,
00:52:32
Speaker
uh, supporting the game over the, you know, coming years or whatever. Cause like, if anything, Asmodee is going to have the Star Wars license for at least another three years, just because of Star Wars Unlimited, um, has about three years worth of sets in the tank. So.
00:52:47
Speaker
Yeah, there's no game like X-Wing, you know, like, you know, Armada is vastly different. Armada is, you know, a bad example, too, because it's the way it's being supported at this point, kind of being pushed off the door. Shatterpoint is so different. It's a cooperative, you know, very different type of game. Legion is like is more similar to like a Warhammer than it is to X-Wing. So the thing is like there's no replacement for X-Wing for X-Wing.
00:53:15
Speaker
But I agree with you. You know, I don't want to go on a rant or anything, but I was definitely very on the fence when everything changed. The first iteration of the meta with at Adepticon before it became Worlds was so egregiously bad that I was really alarmed. It was just like, you know, it was just sloppy. The game wasn't tested enough. So they were using Adepticon as like a beta test for the game. And that we had a time period where I thought the game was in a pretty healthy spot.
00:53:43
Speaker
You know, it was it was the best that we had seen with the rules changes and everything. And now with worlds, the nice thing was we had so many people show up, which is a good sign. It is a thing competitively is playing in Swiss that I saw a lot of people just playing the same things just at a massive scale. You know, looking at the pilot breakdown and the data, you just saw the same few standardized pilots across, you know, three or four factions that were, you know, thriving. Everything else was suffering.
00:54:09
Speaker
And that's the stuff that disappoints me and I think is maybe a reason why some people are maybe just playing casually now or just easing off in general. In terms of what Mark said, growth wise, I feel like it's a little bit deceiving because one thing is we have our own personal confirmation bias with our local stores.
00:54:27
Speaker
We have what we've seen when we know online or when we go to events and then we just know that You know when you when you drop off such a low point and you grow to you know, you lift a little bit It just feels like you're getting growth, but you're still in a net negative and we are a huge hole still in turn Oh, yeah, absolutely like it wasn't massive 2018 2019 this is a far cry from any kind of I'll say healthy game, but it definitely is
00:54:54
Speaker
It definitely still has people that want to play and want to continue the game completely.
00:55:02
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And I think the communities Mark had mentioned, too, has done a good job of trying to cultivate as much of a positive, continuing atmosphere for the game. It's important that it's really up to us at this point, I think, to do that.
Future Plans and Commitment to Gaming Community
00:55:16
Speaker
Because say what you will if you really like atomic mass games. I've interviewed them. I've talked to them, met them in person. They're really sweet, really kind. I'm not saying that a lot of us are really questioning that. And sometimes it goes above the designer. You're like,
00:55:31
Speaker
Oh, I don't know if I like that person because they're killing the game. They hate the game. Sometimes there are decisions that come from the top down and they can't say anything about it. Yeah. They can't say no to it unless they want to lose their jobs, which is their livelihood. And, you know, it's good. Sorry. No, no, no. I mean, like that's that's exactly.
00:55:51
Speaker
how it is sometimes is the people that are the face of whatever we've known as AMG, they're not the bosses of the company. They take orders from other people and the people that are giving those orders, there could be NDAs in play that they can't actually say anything. They can't actually do anything. They may be working on a 3.0 right now all internally. We don't know.
00:56:14
Speaker
It's definitely one of those kind of moments to where over the past couple of years, like they were handed this game and they could have been told by asthma. They were like, well, we're not going to do anything. We're not going to make any decisions for this game until 2025. You know, you don't know. Yeah, true. So I think the big question is like, I mean, as far from their perspective, it's like, how is this game going to make money? I mean, that's what it comes down to. It's.
00:56:42
Speaker
business decision wise, what are we going to do to make this game make money? And if it, if the money isn't there, it's like, okay, we'll keep coming out with the, the cheaper things, cardboard pilots, but you know,
00:56:53
Speaker
When are we going to see new ships and stuff like that? Who knows? I was just going to say, I think there's a little bit of a delay, but it's like an endless loop where it's like, we're not making enough money. We don't have any product to sell. We're not making enough money. We don't have enough product to sell. We're not making enough money because we don't have enough product to sell. We don't want to make new product because we aren't making enough money. We don't have enough product to sell. If I'm a new player, I pick up the Battle of Yavin scenario pack. I'm like, oh my god, Darth Vader.
00:57:20
Speaker
Uh, how do I get this ship? And it's like, Oh, an $80 expansion to get the ship. I, that's a lot of money for a plastic ship. I know it comes with other things, but that's a lot. And then it's like, Oh, how else can I get it? It's like, okay. Third party might not necessarily know you could buy a third party, but then you still need the cardboard.
00:57:36
Speaker
And then, yeah, it just becomes confusing. And there's no entry that makes a lot of straightforward sense. There's no squad builder anymore, officially. Not that I'm advocating for one, but you kind of have to rely on other people to push you in the right direction.
00:57:56
Speaker
And the games barrier to entry being, hey, just ask the people, the few who are still playing to do all the stuff for you is not necessarily the greatest strategy to make as much money as possible. So it's just it is a business. But I think they've they've suffered and made a lot of mistakes in that regard. There are seven factions, but there's really only two and a half right now in terms of buy in like two point five court score sets. Yeah. And I say a half because Republic is like you have the scenario pack. But yeah, so.
00:58:27
Speaker
And I think a lot of these older players already have tons of ships. So I mean, I hardly have to buy ships because I own most of them.
00:58:37
Speaker
You know, yeah, yeah. But they want new players. There's a lot of these changes were like, we want to encourage a new game for new people. And, you know, if you want to stay, you stay. If you don't sayonara, Sammy, like that's kind of was the vibe. And but but they didn't realize that, like the loyalty and commitment of X-Wing was mostly shepherded by these old players who've been playing for a while, who were the ones doing the recruitment. And when you turn half of them or more of them away, it becomes even more difficult to get money in the cash register.
00:59:07
Speaker
Yeah. So we'll see. We haven't as of, you know, this recording, haven't gotten a store champ store kit reveal, which is a little alarming because we got one at Adepticon last year. We know there's no worlds and if there's no worlds invites, there's no worlds. So, you know, we'll we'll we'll we'll see. I think X-Wing will. There will be a worlds next year. But who knows beyond that? You know, we'll hopefully get some clarity on things soon. Mm hmm.
00:59:34
Speaker
But before we wrap up, guys, do you know, just do you have any for your shops, for you guys? Do you have any, you know, fun, exciting plans for 2024? I assume Star Wars Unlimited is going to play a big role in that, at least for the next few months. Mark, yeah.
00:59:52
Speaker
Again, I have all these ideas and I'll eventually come. So I've been trying to play around with mixing mediums like the wood with the acrylic. So that's been kind of fun. I do want to come out with a X-Wing template that has like the middle layer would be a colored acrylic and then the top and the bottom would be wood. I think that'd be kind of interesting, kind of cool looking. Because a neat thing is when the light hits inside the acrylic and have the wood on top, it kind of lights up the
01:00:20
Speaker
the middle part a little bit. So it's kind of neat. It kind of gives off this cool lighting effect. And then if I can ever figure this out, is to add lighting to these things. Because how cool would it be? Because ultimately, if you could have your tray light up, and it's like if it can make cool sounds even. I don't know. This is like way in the future. And then take a different skill set probably. But stuff like that would be kind of cool. But as far as other games go,
01:00:48
Speaker
I'm always reinventing stuff that I made a long time ago. And how can I redo it now? Because now I look at things a little bit differently. So you'll see some remakes for games. Oh, I just got. So there'll be new products if you've heard of BoardGameGeek. I work with them. And we'll be sending them lots of new products. So you'll see that probably this summer. So that's kind of cool. So those are some of the new things happening for Strash Strike
01:01:19
Speaker
right now. Andrew? Yeah, so for the shop, for the foreseeable future, it's just going to be Star Wars Unlimited for us. The popularity of the game has just been absolutely staggering. Particularly, I mean, like one, FFG actually did really good this time, and they seem to have a really good grasp on their production or their fulfillment line this time compared to a lot of other games that I've seen them do in the past.
01:01:48
Speaker
I think this one, I think this game's gonna last for quite a while and I think it's a really really strong CCG. So if you're at all interested in it and you haven't bought in yet, I would definitely give it a shot whenever products available. So basically they sold out of everything within the first month but they had a strategic reserve of booster boxes from their fulfillment that they're giving
01:02:11
Speaker
uh, local game stores, uh, basically an allotment until set two comes out, which hypothetically will be a reprint for set one. But, um, for the shop itself, I mean, obviously, you know, we have, we have cool, uh, Star Wars Luna stuff. Uh, Stratostrike has some also great stuff. Um, he, he's using the glitter acrylic, which I absolutely love. And, um, honestly, like it's,
01:02:33
Speaker
It's a really, really fun game if you haven't bought into it. And I'm not sure if I'm allowed to to plug another podcast on here, but yes, you have a shout out section. Yeah. So I'm also a host for spoilers intended to podcast about series and films. We love to review movies, TV series, anime, that kind of stuff.
01:02:58
Speaker
We're going to be reviewing the new Fallout TV show that came out this past week upon a time recording on that one that's actually going to release. But we have a lot of fun and you should absolutely go check it out. It's on every single podcast provider, Apple, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music now since Google Podcasts is now defunct.
01:03:20
Speaker
But yeah, we have a lot of fun, so you should absolutely check us out. Mark, shout outs for yourself. I'm at our local game store, Animazing Escape. And then I was going to shout out the guys that I play with, Patrick, Logan, and Sam. Two of them went to Worlds. Actually, all three of them went to Worlds, but one of them was in the LCQ. But yeah.
01:03:40
Speaker
Awesome. And yeah, here we go. I'll do our outro really quick. I'll be wrapped up here. Thank you to Andrew and Mark for joining me today. The X-Wing community and the broader board game and tabletop gaming community at large is lucky to have these two amazing gaming component creators.
01:03:56
Speaker
and members of our Xwing community, please visit their Etsy storefronts, Strata Strike and Curled Paw Creatives. Going to have links in the description below. Did you know that you can get exclusive coupon codes for both Mark and Andrew's stores on our Patreon? Be sure to check out our Patreon page where you can get some awesome exclusive content like those coupon codes, early access to our video interview stream content, podcast content, quarterly rewards and much more.
01:04:23
Speaker
Be sure to follow us on Twitch to catch us live. You can catch our edited content on YouTube. Like us on Facebook, yada, yada, yada. Be sure to join our Discord. Thank you to our aforementioned patrons for making this possible. You can learn about how to become our biggest supporter in the description as well. We cannot do it without you. Thank you, guys. This is the part now where we sign off. So I'm going to say my name is Nick. My name is Mark. And I'm Andrew. And thank you all for watching and.
01:04:53
Speaker
you