PLAAY Connect: 01.27.22

We've had a lot on our plate lately, which has made us less communicative than we'd like, including fewer YouTube streams. We hope to get back into the community swing as soon as we can. In the mean time, here's a general update from PLAAY HQ...

Knee-Deep In The HOOP-LA!

Thanks for all the hoops love, greatly appreciated! I hope people like it as well as I do. I have seen a few folks who are waiting for the full-play version, which is perfectly understandable and fine with me. The highlights game is a different basketball experience, to be sure. I think those who pre-ordered will find the highlights version to be pretty engaging and fun. Kind of like trying a new food, that maybe doesn't sound that tasty in hearing about it, but once you try it, you love it.

Please be sure to read the two HOOP-LA blog posts from last week, especially the first one ("Happy Hoop-LA Week!"), which includes a "Frequently Asked Questions" section that covers probably 90% of the questions we're getting about the game.

Quick post-script: If you placed multiple hoops orders hours or days apart, we will TRY to ship them all in the same package, but it's possible that they'll ship separately. The further apart the orders were, the more likely they'll ship in different packages. But, they will ship.

WHEN will the Basketball Games and Card Sets Ship?...

This is still a bit up in the air. We heard from the Konica-Minolta rep on Monday, he said that they are waiting for a module for the Duplo finishing equipment, which they didn't have on hand. It's the perforation module--pretty important. Sounds like we may get the equipment delivered next week. If we do, then we will probably be closer to the early April delivery time frame--I know that sounds odd, but we would want to use the equipment to produce and finish the hoops game print materials. We don't want to use the hoops game as a guinea pig for our learning skills. Once we get comfortable with the DIY process, we'll start cranking out the hoops games.

If it turns out that delivery of the equipment will be delayed an extended period of time, then we'll use our established network to get the games printed, finished and shipped. This would happen sooner, most likely mid-March, if we went that route.

Convention Update!

We WILL be at Dice Tower West! We're now planning to be in Las Vegas Thursday through the show's close on Sunday afternoon. We have a nice contingent of PLAAY Gamers planning to show up and help us get the word out! What will we be doing? Venue, location, advance ticket sales have closed but walk-up tickets will be available at the door. Let us know if you're thinking about attending, we'll include you in our on-site plans!

..and don't forget, PLAAY Dot CON is ON! We're at 75% capacity now, we'll have an update next month.

PLAAY Games YouTube Channel

One quick schedule change, we're moving our Pro Football Showcase demo to Thursday, February 10th--that's the Thursday BEFORE the, ahem, Big Game. Once the word got out about this free download for SECOND SEASON football, it quickly rose to the most-downloaded item of the new year. You can read about our concept of a pro football showcase pre-empting the (now rather tired) idea of a "developmental" spring football league in our pair of blog posts on the topic of "Spring Football," and watch how the Showcase is done with SECOND SEASON and/or SECOND SEASON Express, Thursday the 10th.

We're not doing a pre-PLAAY of the Big Game this year. We'll let Fast Drive Football do the heavy lifting for us on that front.

We are planning a second "Sports Game Antiquities" series, which will feature, among other games, the old Sports Illustrated "Decathlon" game! It's one of the few Olympics-like sports games ever produced, and with the Olympics right around the corner, we thought it would be fun to get it on the tabletop for everyone to see. Thanks to Dr. Thomas Cline--a long-time friend of PLAAY--for sending us a copy of Decathlon from his vast sports game collection.

COMING SOON: Binge Week Racing!

Once football season is over, Binge Week Racin' happens with RED WHITE & BLUE RACIN', starting Thursday February 17th! We've got two new card sets, the 2021 Pro Season and the 2022 SCRAM Season. SCRAM has a new racing venue to start the season--”The Hawaii Hundred,” a road course race on the Beaches of Waikiki! The traditional season-opening SCRAM race is at the indoor Northern Lights MotorDome, Minnesota! Brrrr! Not THIS year!

We'll do our annual season-opening stream featuring the new venue to kick off “Binge Week” on Thursday night, February 17th. Then, the following Thursday night (the 24th), we'll stream one of our favorite RWBR events, the "Star-Crossed 300!" We created the RWBR Star Crossed Driver set as a free download a couple years ago, featuring a collection of drivers who completed their NASCAR careers without ever having won a race. We give them a chance to fix that on our game table! Larry Pearson won the inaugural Star Crossed 300 (June, 2019) and Mike Skinner won the 2021 edition. Who'll get to taste Victory Lane Champagne THIS year? Tune in and find out!

We have some other goodies for Binge Week Racin' including an all new RED WHITE & BLUE RACIN' PLAAY mat, a new commemorative SCRAM Racing t-shirt, and the long-awaited RED WHITE & BLUE RACIN' How-To Guide. So don't miss the fun!

COMING SOON: 2021 North American Pro Season for SOCCER BLAST

For those who have been asking about a 2021 MLS set for SOCCER BLAST, there's good news: we'll have that set available shortly. The MLS now has 28 teams--wow. Almost as big as the NHL and MLB. To whet your appetite for domestic pro soccer, we've included a free download of the two championship teams, Portland and New York City, in the "freebies" section below.

Speaking of soccer, we are planning to put out an AFC Richmond set inspired by the hit Apple TV series "Ted Lasso" (which it seems everyone has watched--even Sean Payton mentioned the show in his "I'm stepping down" press conference). We'll make it a free download, paired up with 2019-20 Man City. The show features a fictional version of the 2019-20 EPL season, and the Greyhounds have to defeat Man City in the final game to avoid relegation--can they do it on your tabletop? Don't expect them to be rated highly--after all, you don't get to the brink of relegation unless you're pretty terrible. As the show's first season unwinds, they start off poorly but once people start warming to Ted's ways, they seem to be playing relatively well. Then all of a sudden, relegation looms. Hollywood, go figure.

Anyway, watch for that offering sometime in late February.

HISTORY MAKER BASEBALL Plans for 2022

We have our much-anticipated 10th Anniversary Baseball America cards scheduled for early March with the 2021 Pro Season cards/PDF ready to roll toward the end of the month as Opening Day beckons.

The Baseball America set will have two versions. There'll be a standard version, presented on perforated stock (and digital format) in the classic black and white style shared by all previous seasons. In honor of the league's 10th Anniversary, there'll also be a special commemorative edition of the card set. Player ratings will be the same, but the look will be amped up to celebrate ten years of tabletop baseball heritage. The commemorative set will feature pre-cut, full-color enlarged (baseball card sized) cards created in a contemporary trading card design, with enhanced team identities--cities and nicknames/mascots. We're really excited about this set! Watch for more info soon.

2023 Wrestling America Federation for FACE TO THE MAT

Another set in the works is the 2023 Wrestling America Federation set. We had hoped to have this out early this year, but now it's looking more like summer time. We are also planning to have both Roller Rumble and Dodgeball on the PLAAY NOW site by summer, in both boxed/printed and digital formats.

PLAAY NOW News

We're busily working on the ROLLER RUMBLE re-skin, which will feature essentially the same game with a cool new 21st Century look, each skater pictured on his/her card. It’s an art-intensive project, but we hope to have some samples to show you soon. Dodgeball World Tour is also happening this summer, re-introduced in both digital and printed versions. We have a third PLAAY NOW game that we hope to get in the mix in 2022 as well, assuming we don’t have any snags in development. Stay tuned!

FREEBIES

• By popular demand, Mark Zigler has created the 2021 Women's Pro Season cards for HISTORY MAKER GOLF!

• Here are the two championship teams for the SOCCER BLAST 2021 North American Pro Season, Portland and New York City.

• S.T. Patrick of Sports Sim Magazine has created a method for rating managers in HISTORY MAKER BASEBALL; it works well as a blog post, but even better as a downloadable, printable document that you can tuck inside your game box! Click the button below and get the scoop!…

See You In February!

Hope to have you in the online audience for our upcoming 2022 Pro Football Showcase and 2022 SCRAM Season-Opener Hawaii race on the PLAAY Games YouTube Channel. As always, Sam and I appreciate this community SO much--thanks for all the joy you bring to our lives! Questions/comments, you can always reach out to us via e-mail!

PHOTO FINISH

Pete Adams just wrapped up his 2018 SCRAM season with RED WHITE & BLUE RACIN’ and writes, "Julee Justus was incredible with 6 wins, 13 top fives and 21 top tens. Jordy Pettis was second—199 points behind!! Considering that the winner gets 45 points and second gets 39 (without leading lap bonuses), it was quite the rout."

Pete is now shifting gears to the 1984 NASCAR season with RWBR--he actually attended six races in person that year, including both Dover and Pocono races, and the fall Charlotte and Darlington (Southern 500) events. Below are two photos Pete took at Pocono in July that year. "I was a big Ford fan at the time. Ricky Rudd was kind enough to stop and pose next to his car for me. Also a photo of a young Bill Elliott."