#493; In which Lindsay is tagged in a Note

Comic Transcripts

[[We’re looking at “25 Random Things” from a Facebook page.]]
TEXT: …the body of the note, type your 25 random things, tag 25 people (in the right hand corner of the app) then click publish.)
1. I own close to 100 copies of Vanilla Ice’s autobiography (when I learned it was ghost-written by his manager Tommy Quon, I lost all interest in being a distributor).
2. In the seventh grade, I invented a new eating utensil called the “clingting.” I ate every meal with it for four and a half years. It involved magnets.
3. On a dare, I once broke a window of a police car with my forehead, then blamed it on a homeless guy passed out in a gutter nearby and was awarded a medal.
4. Ever since I saw “The Neverending Story,” I’ve felt that if ever I am truly needed, I will hear a book calling out to me. It’s happened twice and I’ve ignored it both times.
5. I used to be a vegetarian for moral reasons, but ever since a cow kicked my baby brother in the head I’ve switched to an all-beef diet. Those jerks deserve it.
6. I’ve never understood the lyrics to “U Can’t Touch This.” Is he talking about his…

[[ELISE is happily typing away on her gigantic 19th-century difference engine. CHARLES watches her.]]
CHARLES: You know, I think the point is that they’re supposed to be TRUE.
ELISE: You don’t know me very well, do you?

#493; In which Lindsay is tagged in a Note transcribed by in

The past few weeks have been a frenzy of assembling the very laborious, very bespoke first print run of NOODLE BATTLE, the puzzle game I am releasing this weekend at PAX West in Seattle!

PAX has an event called the PNW Tabletop Game Market (Saturday night ONLY), which is a curated selection of short-run games from local designers. As I’ve mentioned in this space before, I applied for a space in this fall’s event mainly as a way to force myself to finish a new game. And here it is!

The drawings are all by Jason Poland, good pal and cartoonist of My Dad Is Dracula. Jason played an early version of this game at Alaska Robotics Comics Camp this spring, and really liked it!

So I said, “Do you want to help me make it?” And so he has! It was his idea to make all the characters fun little animals, and I think it adds a ton of charm.

Because this edition is limited-run, it has been incredibly labor-intensive to make! The boxes and cards were made by a game factory in the usual fashion, but separately. The blank tiles were made by a woodworker dude out of Connecticut. For each game, we have had to:

Cut a piece of plastic and install the box window
Paint all the tiles, hundreds at a time
Apply a sticker to both sides of every tile
Apply stickers to the box (we couldn’t get the box back printed in time, so the whole back side of the box is a sticker too)
Apply the “Nutrition Facts” sticker, which was a late suggestion by my kid that I just had to run with
Fold up the rule sheet (they come from the printer as big strips of paper)
Put all the components into the box and seal it all up

I knew it would be a lot of work and would require some inefficient, expensive compromises AND I WAS RIGHT. But the final product is turning out great, which is the important thing!!

I will have 50 copies with me (if all goes well) at PAX, and then between now and the holidays we will be putting together additional copies to round out this first edition.

I will announce additional copies on Patreon first, once they are available online!! And here too, naturally, before long.

You can also sign up here if you’d like me to email you once the game is available online!