#652; Putting the ‘Indie’ in ‘Inedible’

Comic Transcripts

NANA: Do you want to make some cupcakes?
MIKEY [[a kid]]: Yes! I’ve been craving cupcakes!
NANA: Great! Let me get out the recipe –
MIKEY: Recipes are for the masses. Why do we have to be content with the recipe? Why can’t we do something different?

NANA: We could put chocolate chips in the batter!
MIKEY: That is so childish and uninteresting! Just following a formula! I’m talking about making art. Taking risks. Shocking the senses with something complex and uncomfortable.

MIKEY: Nobody trusts the eater to be able to handle a cupcake with a darker, more unpleasant flavor! Everyone wants chocolate and vanilla and sugar, sugar, sugar. Life is not just sugar! Real life has vinegar and mustard and salt!

NANA: Is – is it okay if I just want some regular cupcakes that taste good?
MIKEY: Is it okay if I think you’re SIMPLE

#652; Putting the ‘Indie’ in ‘Inedible’ transcribed by in

NANA: Is – is it okay if I just want some regular cupcakes that taste good?
MIKEY: Is it okay if I think you’re SIMPLE

#652; Putting the ‘Indie’ in ‘Inedible’ 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!