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Five Games I Have Recently Made

My day job these days is making tabletop games!

Over the last few years I have made several games that I am quite proud of, and that I think are fun to play.

It’s hard to even know how to talk about them, because there is SO MUCH I WANT TO SAY.

I want to describe each title in loving detail, explaining precisely what makes each experience fun! These games (and the myriad of work involved in creating, producing, and distributing them) have fully occupied the last several years of my life.

But, that is the kind of overwhelming thinking that gets posts like this never actually written or published. I have been trying to figure out how to approach the topic here on the blog for the last month!! It feels too big!!

So let me start by saying a few things about ALL FIVE GAMES AT ONCE:

  • These are all social games about conversation. There is strategy involved to greater or lesser degrees, depending on the game — but the intended experience is always a fun talky time among friends, and each game is designed to provide a scaffolding to have really fun conversations.
  • These are all limited-run games from a pretty small games team. We launched two of them with Kickstarter, but not the others. Two of the below are in major retailers right now (Keep it 100 is in Target; Humblebrag is in Barnes & Noble) — and to be real for a second, those are REALLY RARE OPPORTUNITIES for us where sales performance, especially during the holidays, will really heavily affect our long-term prospects for these and other titles. So I encourage you to patronize those stores, if you can!

Here is some more about each title! You can also watch videos about all of them here, or, embedded below. I am in some of those videos…but which ones???

Keep it 100 is a game for 3-8 players, about trying to predict how people answered our unusual survey questions – like a mix of Family Feud and Timeline.

We conducted hundreds of surveys to make this game, and the results are really fascinating!

Humblebrag is a game for 2+ players that plays like Scattergories meets the card game B.S.

  • It’s a trivia game that’s not just about what you know… it’s about what you can convince the other players you might know.
  • Crafted with the help of a several-time Jeopardy! champion!
  • This game also has a free bonus cards offer! See more info about it here!
  • Humblebrag is exclusive to Barnes & Noble in the US this season, but you can also get it in the UK.

TBH is a game for 3-8 players that, if you are anything like me, quickly moves from being a standard party game into something akin to a light roleplaying game or quirky storytelling game.

  • The game provides dilemmas that players can use to develop outrageous scenarios.
  • The object of the game is to correctly predict how the other players will respond to each dilemma… but the written scenario is just the starting point.
  • Players can flesh out each scenario in a “followup questions” round that can be as straightforward or as wild as your group wants to make it.
  • This is my favorite of all the games I’ve made. If you like my sense of humor, you might like TBH.
  • The base game is suitable for teens and up, but an optional NSFW expansion deck is also available. (The expansion deck does fit in the main game box for storage.)
  • It’s available at many game shops and online (including outside the U.S.), but I now also have stock in the Wondermark store on TopatoCo!

On the Rocks is nominally a drinking game, but it’s really an icebreaker/conversation-starter game.

  • It’s the simplest game on this list: Draw a card with a question on it. Ask one, two, or all the other players to answer (depending on the card type). Award the card to your favorite answer. Players can also choose to drink to avoid having to answer at all!
  • There is a whole line of Truth or Drink games, some of them more adult — but this one is the “safe for work” edition that works well for families, acquaintances, co-workers, and other less racy environments.
  • I led the writer’s room that wrote all the questions, and I also designed the box!
  • This game is also now available at TopatoCo. (And outside the U.S.)

Lineup is a game for 3-8 players that’s kind of a mix of Keep it 100 and TBH. Players are asked a series of questions about themselves to answer secretly, always with a number. You score points by guessing whose answers (among the other players) will end up being lowest or highest in the group.

  • There are a lot of fun topics covered in the game, from personal beliefs, experiences, habits, and hypotheticals.
  • The base game is suitable for teens and up, but again, an optional NSFW expansion is available too.
  • This game comes with dry erase components, so you also get sweet markers in the deal!
  • The easiest place to get Lineup right now is on Amazon in the US and UK.

Of course I’ve got all my usual stuff in my own online store and my TopatoCo store too!! What a world we live in, what a world indeed.

Wondermark Fall 2021 FAQ


TBH games are shipping now!

As we move into another holiday season, it’s high time for an update on how things are going here at the ol’ jape-foundry!

I’ll talk about comics, merch, and future plans.

Pretend you’re the bold text, asking me questions. I’ll then…answer those questions!

➡️ How have you been?

My family is doing better than many (we’re safe and healthy).

But as other parents of small kids will know, these last 20-odd months have presented a set of…particular challenges.

My kid isn’t old enough for a vaccine yet, and we don’t have family very close by. Our daycare closed down and we don’t have a regular babysitter. So we spend a lot of time chilling at home.

I had heard that parenting is tiring, but I didn’t realize how much of that would be from straight-up mental exertion. After all, a 4-year-old has nothing better to do than to make everything a battle of wills.

So we’re all fine here — but, like, completely brain-tired 100% of the time. This is a good foundation for the next question.

➡️ What kind of update schedule will the comic have?

As I was posting the latest comic, near the end of November, I realized that it references “Halloween.”

This is a little window into how long comics take me to make, these days, in snatches of borrowed time here and there. I think I first wrote it in mid-October.

So! That’s just the way of the world, at the moment. I’ll continue to make comics, but I can’t predict when, or on what kind of schedule, they will post.

I recommend making sure you’re on the email list!

➡️ Will there be a Wondermark calendar this year?

I wasn’t able to make a new calendar this year. Sad as I am to say it, I think the era of the Wondermark calendar may now have passed.

I will try to redo the existing designs for the coming year as downloadable versions, as I’ve done the past few years. I’ll mention them here if that does become available.

➡️ What kind of Wondermark goodies are still available?

• I’m still shipping things regularly from my store — my holiday cards, for example — and from my TopatoCo store, which sells apparel and comic prints.

• A few of the card designs are out of stock, and it looks like I won’t be able to reprint them before Christmas. So, stock on some designs is limited!

• I also just got a notification from Amazon that they’re going to start charging me extra for my inventory of books sitting in their warehouse. So please feel free to grab copies from there, if you are so inclined. It’ll help me clear them out!

➡️ What have you been up to otherwise?

A few projects are ongoing at the moment:

• Over at Dave Kellett’s sci-fi comic Drive, I wrote a 14-part guest story (beginning here) that’s currently running, alternating with the regular Drive story.

• I’m also posting my original script pages as free posts on Patreon as Dave releases each episode.

•  My party game TBH wrapped up its Kickstarter back in the spring and was delivered to backers in September/October. (If you pledged and haven’t gotten a copy yet, we probably didn’t get your address! Drop me a line if you’re still owed a copy.)

• “Friends of Malki” (people who heard about the KS early) also got some TBH bonus cards sent directly from me! If you got a TBH game, but didn’t receive the 2 bonus cards I sent separately, drop me a line. I’ve got some left.

• You can buy copies of TBH now! They ship directly from the factory, so they take a few weeks to arrive, but they are definitely shipping.

• I have another new game coming out in January! It’s called Keep it 100. Then another one in April or May. That one’s called Lineup. Then a few more after that, I think.

➡️ Wow, you’re making a lot of games.

Here’s the other big news (and big reason that comic-makin’ time has become more scarce).

A while ago, I accepted a full-time position as director of product development for Cut, the Seattle-based video company.

My mandate is to make social games based on their values of sincerity, communication, and empathy.

That sounds kind of heady, but it’s actually really fun. TBH is the first game I made following that brief.

I’ve also creative-directed six new expansions (three still forthcoming) to their Truth or Drink series. And as mentioned above, we’ve got several new games on the slate for next year.

I’ve been able to lead an amazing creative team, and I’m really proud of the stuff we’re putting out. Plus, it’s steady work, which was a cool thing to have going into the “year-plus of no conventions.”

➡️ Can we hear more about that?

I’d like to set up a newsletter or something that is exclusively about the games we’re making! Behind the scenes, things in development, and so on.

We just haven’t figured out the details of the newsletter yet. Hopefully in the new year — I’ll make an announcement when that’s live.

➡️ So what happens now?

I’ll keep making comics, and posting to Patreon, at the pace that I can! Please join the WM email list if you haven’t already to ensure you don’t miss any updates when they do happen!

➡️ I’ve got some other question!

Makes sense! I’m just making up these questions, after all. Leave a comment on this post — or this post’s mirrored version on Patreon — and I’ll answer it!

THIS WEEKEND: I’m playing TBH in a charity stream!

All this weekend, my friends at Draw4Charity are streaming games in a marathon to benefit the charity Child’s Play.

On Saturday, July 10, me and some friends will be playing my game TBH as part of the event!

Starting at 2:30pm Pacific / 4:30 Central, and going as for long as we need to play a rousing game — possibly up to 3 hours! — I’ll be playing along with Your McHenries (Sara & Tom), Jess Fink, and Eric Colossal.

Here is the link to watch at the appointed time! Hope to see you there!

It’s the last day to back TBH on Kickstarter!

Today’s the last day to back my new game, TBH, on Kickstarter!

We’ve just hit our 1000-backer stretch goal, which means every backer will now get a free pack of Kickstarter-exclusive bonus cards!

These are cards that won’t be in the post-Kickstarter edition of the game, and won’t be available to anyone after today.

The game itself will be widely available in (probably) August, but only Kickstarter backers will get these bonus cards.

The cards that will comprise the bonus pack were made as Mad Lib-style fill-in-the-blanks by our backers! They suggested terms, and we made them make sense (kind of). For example:

(click the images for a closer look)

AND…MORE LIKE THIS

In our final few hours, we’re now hoping to hit 1100 backers, which would mean increasing the bonus pack to include even more cards!

I recently posted a video on the ol’ (very ol’) Machine of Death Kickstarter campaign to explain why I felt TBH might appeal to folks who backed that project.

And I wrote a bit too:

I think you’ll like TBH if:

  • You like the creative storytelling aspect to Machine of Death. TBH has that in spades.
  • You thought the storytelling in Machine of Death got repetitive. The topics in TBH are about many different things – not just, you know, homicide.
  • You thought the storytelling in Machine of Death was too unstructured. TBH gives you a prompt and then provides a specific framework for exploring it.
  • You thought Machine of Death was witty and well-written. Not all the same people are working on TBH, but a few are, and it’s my same creative sensibility overseeing it all.
  • You thought Machine of Death didn’t go hard enough. TBH has an optional NSFW expansion pack that’s full of butts and boobs and stuff. (If you want that.)
  • You think this is a weird time to be thinking about death. TBH doesn’t skew as dark as MOD, in that it is not a game specifically about murders.
  • You think Machine of Death could have used more gameplay structure. Unlike MOD, which relied heavily on subjective elements, TBH works like clockwork as a game, with a simple but elegant competition/scoring mechanic that involves all players at all times.
  • You wish there could be more Machine of Death. The success of TBH (if it’s successful) may pave ways for more MOD, who knows!
  • You are glad Machine of Death is gone. TBH is a totally different game.

(read the whole post)

…And I mentioned one other thing in that post too! I figured out how to do a personalized incentive for this campaign.

As a special incentive for Friends of Malki, if you add 50 cents to your pledge (at any tier), I’ll send you a handwritten thank-you card AND a special bonus game card. 

Look for the “Bonus Support” field on Kickstarter when you pledge, and add the extra bit there.

*Note that I’ve learned some browsers don’t let you add anything but whole dollar amounts in the Kickstarter UI. Adding a single dollar also works.

Doing the above flags your pledge as, “I heard about this from Malki.” This also helps Cut see how many people I personally have been able to direct to check out the game!

This helps me in a variety of ways professionally, so, I’m happy to do the extra work of writing the thank-yous and mailing them out.

That’s it! This is the last day.

If you’ve already checked it out, thank you! If not, now’s your chance!!

BONUS LINK FOR MORE TBH:

The great LoadingReadyRun played a rousing round of TBH the other night on their Twitch show! So this will give you a great sense of the game, too.

We’ve also been playing TBH on Twitch ourselves lately! Here’s my channel. I want to do more of these soon!

[ TBH ON KICKSTARTER ]

How and why I made a party game in a pandemic.

My new game, TBH, has now reached its minimum funding goal on Kickstarter!

We’re working on stretch goals now, to make the game even bigger and better. The campaign runs through the end of April, and I hope you’ll check it out!

If you visit the page, you’ll see my face halfway down, hosting a “How to Play TBH” video that I shot in my living room.

But otherwise, the campaign is run by a company called Cut. (I mean, truthfully it’s run by me behind the scenes, but I’m doing it for Cut.)

I started working on this game back in the summer of 2020. Cut is a YouTube channel, and they have a series called Lineup that’s all about guessing things about strangers.

I’ve been working with Cut for a while now, advising on their development of a merchandise arm, and TBH the game actually came out of a pitch for a Lineup episode.

It was sparked by the idea of having not just one guesser, but rather, having all the participants guess on each other.

From there, we started playtesting a serious version of the game, all about moral dilemmas. One player would pose a dilemma, and there would be conversation as everyone tried to figure out how the others would answer.

But… There’s a mechanic where the player gets to draw two prompt cards (“Dilemmas”), and then chooses which one to ask the group.

What we noticed rapidly was that players reliably chose the weirder option.

So, we decided to make the game weird.

The game works like this:

• One player draws the card and poses the dilemma to the group. They are the Dilemma Boss.

• The other players all ask clarifying questions about the dilemma. This is the fun part — where the Dilemma Boss gets to make up whatever answers they want.

• Once everyone’s satisfied that they know enough to answer the question, they secretly answer YES or NO for themselves.

• Everyone then guesses how the other players answered. You score points for guessing right!

(Here’s me saying all this in video form too.)

The scoring and guessing is fun, but the real joy is the questions, answers, and the group storytelling that results from it.

Every group takes the dilemmas in different directions. In-jokes are developed. Surprises occur.

In a time when we have been seeking new forms of connection — tired of the same old “how’s it going for you” conversations — it turns out we actually have lots to talk about, if we just start making stuff up.

And yet, somehow, by doing so, we find that the game uncovers real truth and honest conversations. It’s something of a magic trick.

And it’s really, really fun. We’ve been playing this game basically nonstop for months now, as we’ve been testing the prompts. It’s fun every single time.

I’ve been fortunate to assemble a crack team of creative superheroes to help with this game:

• Co-creator Nate Weisman, formerly of Funko games
• Graphic designer Alexandria Ferri Land
• Project manager & writer Sara McHenry
• Videographer & writer Zachary Sigelko
• Writers Maddie Downes, Lisa Wallen, Grace Freud, Daniel O’Connell, Billie Bullock, & Trin Garritano

You may or may not know those names, but rest assured they are a rogue’s gallery of greats. I couldn’t (wouldn’t!) do this by myself, and I sure haven’t this time.

If you like the weirdness of Wondermark, then I recommend checking out TBH.

Kickstarter copies of the game will be shipping out later this summer (just in time for party season to return, we hope), but also, we have an online version you can play via video chat right now! There’s a link to that on the Kickstarter page (look for “Play it Now”).

I’ll have even more on TBH soon. But here’s an account from Trin, one of the writers, which I loved to read:

I remember going to my first TBH writers meeting and thinking, “David Malki hand-picked the most interesting, talented weirdos from the internet to make a party game and somehow I am also here.”

And then after a while I realized on top of that, they’re also thoughtful and kind.

Thoughtfulness is uncommon in party games. I do not feel comfortable subjecting my friends to most of them.

We are making the game that we’d like to exist already. Quite frankly, it should exist already and I am offended that we have to do it ourselves.

Everybody on the team is fascinating.

Sara’s a kettlebell enthusiast who makes sweet comics about her cat, and has probably written your favorite Clickhole piece.

Grace is a powerful cryptid from an unknown realm.

I don’t know what Maddie’s deal is, but she should be in charge of all television.

Billie has an actual degree in computer science from a reputable institution, but decided to make jokes for a living instead.

So we have this crack team of Internet Goofs at your disposal. And our only goal is to make it as easy as possible for you to be hilarious.

We write a little seed of a story that, under your care, will one day grow into the most messed-up topiary. And I think that’s beautiful.

Essentially, your friends cast you in the starring role of a pocket universe, and then attempt to guess what exactly you would do next. That’s the beauty, and also the psychic horror, of the Reveal phase.

Truth or Drink [Cut’s last game] is a game about the embarrassing stuff you’ve done in your past.

But TBH is about who you are.

[ KICKSTARTER NOW FUNDING THROUGH APRIL 30 ]