Welcome to the What If? Blog. If it’s your first time here, welcome, I sincerely hope you enjoy your stay. To my seasoned readers welcome back, it’s nice to see you again. Today I’m joined by Rory from Postmark Games. We’re going to dive into partnerships, ideation, the print at home genre and much more. Make sure you find a follow Postmark Games on instagram and check out their website. You can also read another post that Rory contributed to on the Print and Play genre here.
Joe: Welcome to the What If blog! Can you start with a short introduction, who are you and what brings you to the world of board games design?
Rory: Hi Joe, thanks for having me. I’m Rory, a graphic designer and game designer living in Oxfordshire, UK. I also co- run a small publishing studio called Postmark Games that I founded with fellow designer Matthew Dunstan in 2021.
My journey into board games really started with an interest in video games. As a kid, I would make little video games using a program called The Games Factory. They were all pretty terrible, and I’m not sure I ever finished one, but I was obsessed with the idea of making stuff people could play. I went on to study Games Art and Design at university, and after graduation got a job as a graphic designer. It was this shift into graphics that got me thinking about the aesthetics of board games and I soon found myself exploring that side of gaming.
When I started making analog games it was really from the perspective of wanting to create beautiful objects, but as time went on I gradually stopped seeing it as making ‘objet d’art’. With Postmark Games we only make print at home products, and whilst we try to make them visually appealing, the games only ever exist as physical objects when a player chooses to engage with them.
Joe: Thanks for the intro. I’m really keen to explore ideas with you in this post, mainly because of some of your games that have really opened my eyes to what is possible in the pnp genre. I know that you’ve been on the blog before and talked about pnps, but I wonder if you might start with your rationale for choosing pnps as the Postmark genre?
When I started making analog games it was really from the perspective of wanting to create beautiful objects.
Rory: There’s a few reasons that Matthew and I chose print at home as the format for Postmark, but I guess the biggest was so we could focus entirely on designing and releasing games. Matthew is a very prolific game designer and when we started, I was working full time as a graphic designer. Between us we have a lot of skills needed for creating games but not really those needed for manufacturing and distribution. For me also, I like making games that don’t have a huge physical impact. You can play most of our games digitally (using a tablet or browser) and I think it’s cool that we have a viable gaming option for folks who might not have the space, or desire, to buy physical products.
Joe: That’s a solid rationale, I particularly like the low impact nature of your work. It also ties nicely with some of your games themes, particularly Waypoints.
You know I’m a big fan of Waypoints, and I wonder if you’d be up for a bit of time travel today. I think the movement mechanic in that game is brilliant, really clever and incredibly thematic. If you are keen, can you tell me a little about the game, that mechanic and how that idea came into existence?
Rory: Thanks Joe, it’s great to hear that Waypoints has resonated with you. The game was our third Postmark design after Voyages and Aquamarine. Both of those games are about exploring a map and we knew we wanted to continue on with that theme. If memory serves me correctly, Matthew and I were working on an entirely different design but hadn’t quite cracked it. During one of our chats, I mentioned the idea of contours as a game mechanism and it must have triggered something in Matthew, because he went off and designed the core loop of what would become Waypoints. Even in its proto state we were both convinced that this should be our next release, so we shelved what we were working on and started creating Waypoints in earnest.
I think when you’re making a game, product design always has to be a consideration. Your design can be wonderful to play, but if it’s not appealing to folks then you might struggle to get it out there. Even though Waypoints needed a bit of development we knew it was the right game to pursue. Along with its unique movement mechanism, the game had a sense of exploration that really doubled down on the vibes of our previous two games. It also helped that contours and grid lines lent themselves immediately to a theme. When we first released images of the sheet folks were already guessing how the game was played, and that’s kind of a gift in game design.
Even in its proto state we were both convinced that this should be our next release.
For me personally, the joy of Waypoints is that it presents players with choices they might make on a real hike. Do you spend your time and energy climbing this mountain, or do you stick to the lowlands and travel further that day? There’s often a lot of heavy abstraction in roll and write games, but I think with Waypoints we’ve created something that links more directly to its source material.
Finally, Matthew and I have a mantra at Postmark that a game sheet should look beautiful when you start, and beautiful when you end. The topography of a Waypoints map is like an invitation for folks to create their own stories. I always love seeing the completed game sheets after a game. There’s a narrative in the choices the player has made and that’s something we strive for in all of our designs.
Joe: That’s a powerful mantra, and you’ve cracked it with Waypoints. When you’re playing you know you are creating a record of your adventure and it feels like you could hang it on a wall or save it in a travel journal! That concept of creating an artefact as you play is empowering.
There’s a clear synergy in the partnership between yourself and Matthew that is coming through in your answers but also in your games. For a lone designer (like me) it’s interesting to understand how that process works. I wonder if you might explore with me the benefits and (if there are any) challenges of design partnerships?
Rory: Sure. I think co-designing is a great way to make games if you can find the right design partner. Usually the collaborations that work best are those where each individual compliments each other’s skillset. Matthew is more experienced and as such, usually leads on the design. These days I focus more on art and graphics, which are more about creating the product, but can also feed into shaping the design. Waypoints is a good example of this – Matthew designed the bulk of the game but a fair amount of problem solving was driven by the design of the interface.
A typical process for us is ideating on a concept, after which Matthew will create a first stage prototype. If we think it has legs, I’ll start to consider the layout and initial graphic design and create a second stage prototype. From there we’ll start wider playtesting, working concurrently on art and development. On the subject of playtesting, co-designing has a huge benefit in that you can test together, but also with separate groups. Matthew lives in Australia and I live in the UK but we playtest together (over Discord), and with our individual networks as well.
Whilst I started out as a lone designer, I prefer the process of co-designing. You can accomplish much more in a shorter amount of time, and the only real challenges I can think of are that you might disagree on certain decisions (though I would say this particular issue might be a sign that you are working with the wrong person).
Joe: You’ve certainly got a fantastic partnership, I’ll add ‘find design partner’ to my to do list! Working in tandem like you do feels quite powerful and looks productive.
I’d like to pivot, if I may, to your recent kickstarter for 52 Realms. It’s another fantastic game, with wonderfully innovative mechanics. Firstly, tell us a bit about the game. Then I’d be interested in knowing your rationale for Kickstarter as a publishing route, rather than releasing directly on your website?
Rory: 52 Realms: Adventures was a bit of a departure for us. It’s not a roll and write game, it doesn’t use dice (a component we’ve used in all of our previous print at home games), and it’s solo only. We really weren’t sure how it would be received but we’ve been delighted by the response from backers and players.
Kickstarter offers a great opportunity to reach beyond our own personal network… it’s been a contributing factor to me being able to spend more time making games.
The game itself is a mini dungeon crawl adventure that’s driven entirely by a standard deck of playing cards. There’s a printed sheet with rooms and paths, but much of the game exists in the cards themselves, which are used for enemies, abilities, items, wounds, attacks and more. Our hope for the game is that it hits the beats of a well-loved genre whilst keeping a low barrier to entry for printing and playing. With a couple of printed sheets of paper, three tokens for markers, and a deck of playing cards, anyone can delve into their own mini quest.
As for Kickstarter, it’s a tool that we’ve used for 6 out of 7 of the games we’ve published. We’re a small studio of two, and Kickstarter offers a great opportunity to reach beyond our own personal network. Postmark Games has grown over the last few years to the point where it’s now my biggest source of income. Kickstarter has helped with that initial growth, and in an industry where it’s very hard to make a living, it’s been a contributing factor to me being able to spend more time making games. I do appreciate that some people don’t use the platform, and so we make our games available to buy from postmarkgames.com not long after a campaign ends.
Joe: That all makes sense, it looks like it’s a great tool to support the work that you are creating. Perhaps we could round the blog off with one last question – can you give us a hint at anything you’re working on at the moment?
Rory: I usually take a bit of a break at the beginning of the year but I’m slowly getting back into things. As for Postmark, we don’t have anything concrete to announce but both Matthew and I have been playing around with ideas that could end up being our next game. For now, I’m going to try and enjoy that moment of endless possibility that comes before the hard work of actually making something.
Bloody brilliant – thanks to Rory for this wonderful post. I love this blog and the wonderful people I get to talk to each week – I hope you do too! Here’s your ‘to do’ list:
- Follow Postmark Games on Instagram
- Check out their website and see just how wonderful Waypoints is
- Then subscribe to this blog for more sweeeeeet interviews
