by Well, Hello There!
Let’s jump straight into it.
As the title of this post states, RAMSTAR Games has created a Print and Play version of Honey Bomb. Hooray!
Why? you might ask. Well, there are several reasons.
The big one is that we cannot present Honey Bomb to you in person the way we’d like to, and we feel that interacting in the real world is really key to the success of most board games. As I stated in previous posts, the Covid 19 pandemic cancelled all of our outreach plans back in March, plans that would have had us meeting you in person. We had events organized at local gaming cafe’s, board game retailers, conventions and even a tournament with a group out of Rockton, Ontario. Those opportunities are gone. And we’d hoped to conclude our play test sessions and bring our finished game to GenCon where we could present it to you in a fully developed, professional format. But, with GenCon also being driven online, our plans (and yours) were not to be, at least not this year. (Fingers crossed for a safe GenCon in 2021!)
Another reason we’re offering up a Print and Play version of Honey Bomb is the preservation of tactility. We could have very easily created a digital version of Honey Bomb on Tabletopia or Tabletop Simulator, but we’d lose the ability to touch and manipulate the game pieces, which is soooo important to Honey Bomb and board gaming in general. If the only thing that mattered were games themselves and not their format, then we would have moved into the digital realm decades ago, but we haven’t. We still hunger after the special experience that board gaming offers, the opportunity to use the cards, the meeples, the boards and playing surfaces to bring us together with our loved ones for an immersive, interactive and physical experience that can only be achieved with a physical product.
Loves me some crafting!
Lastly, we’d love to hear what you think about Honey Bomb. We can’t do that unless you get the chance to play it. We didn’t get a lot of opportunities to get feed back about Honey Bomb before all of our opportunities were universally shelved. As you know, player responses during game development are very important. To hear your thoughts on the game, how it plays out, what you really like, and more importantly what you don’t like are things we’re still interested in knowing. Of course, without the game in hand, there’s no way for us to achieve this goal.
So that’s why we’re offering up a Print and Play version of Honey Bomb, for you to try out in the comfort and safety of your own home with your gaming bubble, your family, your friends. We want you to try it. We want you to enjoy it. We want it to be the game that helps bring you together with your family and friends and offers up a great, fun experience time and time again.
The whole game has been formatted to fit on 5 sheets of regular sized printer paper. It’s designed to be double-sided to approximate the actual game of Honey Bomb. Be sure to select duplex or double-sided from you printer menu in order to achieve this. The Print and Play version is also a little smaller than what we’ll be offering as a finished product through our Kickstarter in Spring 2021, but it’ll give you all the same game play and an approximation of how the tiles will be formatted when we bring it out. If you’re feeling really intrepid, you could print out the PDF on single sided sheets and put a layer of card between the images for a more tactile experience. If you do, I’d recommend investing in a Cricut Cutting Machine so you don’t get carpal tunnel syndrome hacking all the pieces out with a pair of scissors 😉
There is one small caveat before you can print out your personal copy of Honey Bomb, and that is it’s only being made available to subscribers of our newsletter. It’ll come to your inbox as part of your welcome email package. Once you have your copy of Honey Bomb there’s no obligation for you to remain signed up for our newsletter, but we hope you’ll choose to stick with us and join us on our journey into game making.
There are exciting things afoot despite the havoc being raised by the pandemic, and we consider you and your family to be intrinsic to that excitement! We know you and your family will have fun with your copy of Honey Bomb. If you have any feedback please leave us a comment below or send us a direct message to info@ramstargames.com . You can also send us a message through our contact form if you prefer. 🙂
For now, that is all.
Rockin!
Sean
