PLAAY Connect 04.28.22
It’s been a busy month! Here's the latest news from PLAAY HQ…
Print and PLAAY!
Our in-house print equipment is up and running! It has been quite the journey, and not without a few hiccups. But we're excited for what lies ahead, and there's a not insignificant mix of comfort and anticipation in knowing that we captain our own ship to a larger degree than ever before.
What does it mean for PLAAY gamers that we are printing in-house? Well, for one thing, it means we intend to be around for the long haul. It also should help us hold the line a little on price increases. And, we'll have much more say-so and flexibility going forward regarding product quality and product offerings.
10th Anniversary Baseball America cards
Our first in-house printed set, and we think you'll be super pleased. We released the 2022 Baseball America cards in standard format a few weeks ago. But to celebrate the league's tenth season, we've ALSO created a special deluxe card set for the 2022 season. These cards present Baseball America’s legacy in full color, standard baseball trading card size cards! Each of the twelve league franchises has been assigned a city, nickname/mascot and team colors.
This commemorative card set features the same players as the standard edition, over 300 players in all, plus a set of 36 umpire cards (four bonus umpires) and 18 different ball park cards--one ball park card for each team, and a half-dozen "alternate site" parks where you can show off the league to new fans!
Welcome to your own, personal baseball universe! We hope you enjoy the tenth anniversary season of Baseball America--NOW AVAILABLE!
• See these cards in action in tonight's Baseball America All-Star Game! 4pm MDT, 6pm EDT!
Highlight Maker Hoops Official Release is May 16th
We've been really pleased with the response to HMH, and despite its departure from the traditional way of depicting basketball on the tabletop (or, maybe because of it?) the game appears to have found its footing with tabletop sports fans. My feeling has always been that people would enjoy this game a great deal, if they gave it a chance--so, thanks for giving it that chance!
When the game becomes available able, all of the previous card sets will be available again as well as some NEW hoops-related products...
• Highlight Maker Hoops PLAAY-mat: a long time in the waiting, I know, but it WILL be worth the wait! We've ordered extra so everyone who wants a mat will be able to get one!
• 1973-74 American Pro Season: Created by Michael Owens, a perfect companion to the previously-released '73-74 National Pro Season! You can host realistic inter-league games on your game table with our suggested rules tweaks.
• Team Color Pawn Assortment Pack: Add splashes of team color to your HMH play with this collection of colored game pawns! You get three each red, yellow, blue, green, purple, brown and orange pawns, to match the colors of the teams you're playing!
The "how-to" guide will also be available--but not right away. We're needing to re-tool the layout of the booklet to accommodate a section on rating for experience, and clarifying the underlined qualities section. We will also come up with a slightly revised cover, which alludes to BOTH Highlight Maker and History Maker game player creation (yes, the the cards you make will work with BOTH games!).
So, when will the History Maker expansion be available? At this time, we don't have a firm release date. We're still compiling full--play play-test results, and because games take about 90 minutes to play, the results are slow in accumulating. If results are solid, we should be able to announce an official release date sometime after our convention this summer.
How-To Guides are (slowly) returning…
I mentioned that the hoops "how-to" will be a little delayed, truth is we haven't been able to get the other "how-to" guides re-formatted and back on line as quickly as we would have liked. We re-introduced the baseball "how-to" in the new booklet format last week, and should have hockey available next week. After that, we'll have soccer and golf. The Second Season football how-to is proving to be more time-intensive. I wrote that over 20 years ago, and I have to say it pains me a little to re-read it now, my writing style back them was much more colloquial (probably a by-product of my daily radio work). Part of me wants to just re-write the whole thing, part of me wants to leave it as-is as a nod to PLAAY games' roots. In any case, I won't have the football how-to back online until probably football season. Thanks for your patience!
Construction Zone: 2021 Pro Season for SECOND SEASON
The new football season is easily the most time-intensive creation on the PLAAY calendar. I've gotten a good start on it, with complete team card and fringe player ratings for all 32 teams, and I'm currently about a quarter of the way through with the player grades and finder columns. After that, I'll finish the preliminary pages: standings/summary, injury exemptions, set notes, etc. This will be an interesting set, there was a lot of parity in the league in 2021. There was also an unprecedented number of players, thanks to COVID protocols. While previous seasons probably represented 90-95% or more of the league's players when the fringe player list is included, the 2021 set will fall far lower. There were numerous players who were on a n active roster for a single game or two, mainly for depth reasons--practice squad players who suited up but never got a whiff of actual pro action. I've decided not to include those players as fringe players. To do so would require much more time and energy--not to mention space--that we typically allot.
The 2021 Pro Season for SECOND SEASON will be available first part of July, as the real pro teams are headed to training camp. This has been our traditional release date for the past 22 years!
What Else is in the Pipeline?
Between PLAAY Classic and PLAAY NOW, we have quite a few games and card sets in the works. But, unfortunately, time is beginning to loom, and it seems reasonable to concede that not all of these will fit into our available time. Here's our tentative release schedule, up through PLAAY-Dot-CON 2022.
• 04.28.22, Baseball America 10th Anniversary Deluxe Set, History Maker Baseball
• 05.16.22, Highlight Maker Hoops Official Release
• 06.13.22, Course Collection EIGHTEEN, History Maker Golf
• 06.27.22, 2021-22 English Pro Season, Soccer Blast
• 07.11.22, 2021 Pro Season, Second Season
• 07.11.22, 2022 Football America, Second Season
• 08.01.22, Dodgeball World Tour (PLAAY NOW)
If we're unable to do everything, probably the golf course collection will be pushed back to fall, and, if necessary, Football America. I'm pretty sure we'll have time to do everything else.
Join Us At Denver’s StarFest 2022
StarFest has been a staple on the Denver area convention scene for almost 50 years, going back to the days of the original Star Trek TV show's syndicated "re-run renaissance." But alas, times have changed and event management has announced that this will be the FINAL StarFest. It's a bittersweet moment, but we are joining in to help send this venerable get-together into the books with a bang. PLAAY Games will be part of the fun, we'll have a table at the "GameFest" area of the convention. We'll be showing off our new PLAAY NOW game, "Planet Flipper," designed by Darryl Durstin. The game's theme could be described as "Star Trek meets 'Fixer Upper,'" where you, as the interplanetary real estate opportunist, load up your spacecraft with planet-building supplies and a cadre of droid helpers with the idea of turning a forlorn rock of a planet into a habitable, hospitable, inviting oasis, and then flipping it for profit! Sound like fun? It IS! Get the first look at Planet Flipper at StarFest/GameFest, May 13-15, at the DTC Marriott in Denver!
PLAAY-Dot-CON 2022
It's getting closer--our annual get together of PLAAY Gamers from across the hemisphere happens July 28th through 30th at the Hilton Garden Inn in Highlands Ranch! Two-plus days of games, good eats, and good times in the spectacular setting of the foothills of the gorgeous Rocky Mountains! There's still time to sign up--but it won't last forever! Because we need time to order/prepare our awesome convention swag bags, we will need to close registration for PLAAY-Dot-CON 2022 on June 15th! You can read more about the convention here, and feel free to e-mail us with any questions you might have.
Video Activity TONIGHT: Thursday Night PLAAY Space Double Header!
Training and trouble shooting with our print equipment prompted us to postpone last week's scheduled PLAAY Space YouTube stream, so we're making it up as a double-header! NOTE the special (i.e., different) times...
Part ONE: Baseball America All-Star Game!
4pm MDT (6pm EDT) What the heck, why not have the 2022 Baseball America all-star game at the START of the season, instead of the middle? We'll showcase the league's stars with the new Deluxe 10th Anniversary Baseball America cards, using our East vs. West divisional line-up. Starting pitchers will be Fernando de la Rosa (New England) for the East and Hipolito Amado (San Antonio) for the West.
Part TWO: "Welcome to the WAF" 2023 Debut Show!
5pm MDT (7pm EDT) (re-scheduled from 04.20.22) A special show featuring the new members of the 2023 Wrestling America Federation roster--Gorm Skarde, Ace Magnett, Black Noise, Ricky Romance and many more--PLUS some special guests! Get ready for a ringside "blast from the past," which could have rumblings throughout the federation! Then, after the show, you'll be able to download a free subset of WAF cards for use with your 2023 set!
Coming in June: Game Lab Lightning Round, v6.0!
One of our PLAAY favorite shows! We have a healthy number of game projects in various stages of development, some brand new, some evolutions of on-going game development. The format is simple: We set a countdown clock to 60 minutes, and we begin opening un-marked game boxes at random. Each box contains a game in development, ranging from "rough idea" to "ready to play!" We cap each game demo at 10 minutes--after that, we move on to the next game. So you'll see at least five or six game ideas. We have this on the calendar for 06.23.22—Thursday, June 23rd--don't miss it!
FREE STUFF
Ted Blast-O cards for SOCCER BLAST: Hopefully you read our blog post and/or watched our YouTube stream paying homage to the Ted Lasso soccer phenomenon. We created cards based on the TV show's fictional team, and matched them up in our live stream against the real-life Man City English League club from the 2019-20 season (in which the first season of the TV show was set). Download the cards—the download button is at the end of the blog post—and have your OWN season-finale: will underdog Richmond be able to topple mighty Man City and stave off relegation?
Classic Wrestler Skillsets for FACE TO THE MAT: Here's a collection of wrestling legend archetypes from the past 50 years for use with FACE TO THE MAT Pro Wrestling Game! Years ago, we offered cards based on real wrestlers but discontinued them because of licensing issues. We've removed the names from the cards, so everything is on the up-and-up, legally. Download the cards and make a game of it, "name that wrestling legend!" Or, come up with your OWN names and create your own wrestling universe. NOTE, these cards are presented in the OLD card style, where you write the TV and Grudge Grades on the cards. (But you can always re-print fresh cards if they get too marked up!)
Canadian College Football for COLD SNAP: The annual ratings-maker of our fictional Canadian Pro Football league, Lenny LaFrance, took it a step further this spring! After creating the ratings for the 2022 IPFC pro teams, he set to the task of creating a fictional Canadian college league, with which to supply future IPFC seasons! Pretty sweet. The Association of Canadian Colleges & Universities (ACCU) includes 24 schools, grouped into four athletic conferences: Western Conference (WC), Central Canadian (Ontario) Conference (CCOC), Universités et Collèges du Québec (UCQ), and North Atlantic Coast Conference (NACC). Includes league summary, power rankings and Instant Results chart!
Photo Finish
Here's our new workstation, the Duplo 618 and BizHub 659C, both finally up and running! We're still learning the ropes on this equipment, we appreciate your continued patience! See you next month!
