The game ideas have really been flowing this past year! I have five games signed with publishers and many more games seeking publishers. Three recent ones I’m most excited about are Ringyō, Shades, and the Troubadeck.
Ringyō
A worker placement game about sustainable forestry in feudal Japan.
1-6 players, 60 minutes, ages 10+
Status: Seeking Publisher
Japan faced a major deforestation problem in the 1600s, so samurai began overseeing planting projects to keep their forests strong and erosion-proof.
In Ringyō (meaning “forestry”), players act as the Daimyo (feudal lords), simultaneously placing their samurai in their own domains. They must strike a balance between cutting trees to develop their cities and maintaining their forests to avoid flooding. At the end of each round, just like in feudal Japan, each player must travel to Edo (ancient Tokyo) to spend their resources there, proving their loyalty to the Shogun.
Shades
A social deduction game where humans and robots see the world differently.
3-6 players, 20 minutes, ages 8+
Status: Seeking Publisher
Robots are red, humans are blue, I am the Void, and now you are too!
Humans and robots are working together (mostly) to survive the growing Void, which threatens to reduce everyone to nothingness. Humans, wearing blue glasses, see the world in words, while robots, wearing red glasses, see the world in terms of 1s and 0s.
With alliances shifting between the humans, robots, and the secret Void players (the player(s) with the lowest number in front of them), you’re never sure exactly who to trust in this unique twist on social deduction and bluffing.
The Troubadeck
A deck of chord cards to inspire music makers.
1-8 players, 10 minutes, ages 8+
Status: Seeking Publisher
Kickstarted in January 2024 for the Make 100 project, the Troubadeck is a deck of chord cards that can be used for music-making inspiration. While the deck can be used as a standard deck of playing cards, Charlie is also developing a series of games for music-learning edutainment.
Charlie is custom composing all the chord progressions and drawing all the silly medieval animal art.
