All You Need to Know (As of Now)

Who am I?

My name is Cory. I do not have a creative job, but I have this drive to make things and I don't know exactly where it comes from. But the thing is I can’t stop it. I can’t help myself, but when I see something missing I try to make it on my own. My fiancée says my hobby is creating hobbies for myself. So I will get a silly idea for a game and I won’t be able to drop it until I can play it. So when I did that recently with a game that has changed names more times than I can count. I decided that I wanted to show people what I spent so much of my time creating (not something I usually do). And the response I got overwhelmed me, “It’s not there yet, but you really have something”. The most positive and genuine feedback I felt I had ever gotten. And it was delivered in a board game bar (a bar that I just learned is shutting down) after multiple pints. But I will always remember that as the genesis of what I decided to do next. I decided to not stop there. In the past I would make something and show it to a few family members or maybe a close friend and get feedback like “Cool” or “Fun”. Nothing against them but it always felt half-hearted and didn’t really encourage me to keep going. But as I said my hobby is to create hobbies so I would never stop creating I would just move on to a new project. But this time, while sitting in a board game bar watching the Lions and Rams playoff game with 4 friends I decided to keep the project going beyond what I had ever done in the past. Which leads me to the next topic of this inaugural post.  

Why Arch Enemy?

Probably my favorite part of coming up with a new idea is designing a potential company that would house the new product. Advertising may be a second calling in my life because coming up with little logos and company names sometimes will happen before the idea is fully thought out or created. And this was no different at the very start, but as the actual game came together more and more until it was a real playable prototype, I was unsure that making a board game company was my best bet. So instead I focused all my effort into refining the game and making it something that not only I was proud of, but that people enjoyed! I started submitting to board game publishers. I went down my bookshelf of all my favorite games and reached out to every single one of them and wouldn’t stop until I was actually able to talk with someone and get my answer. One after another I was denied and denied again. It wasn’t until I got to the more indie games I have and smaller publishers that they said “Sorry we only publish in-house games, but we recommend starting on Kickstarter. That’s what we did.” Right then I was back to having a goal and doing my favorite part which was coming up with fun company names. In the past it was always product based, but as I looked at Kickstarter publishers had all sorts of crazy names so I thought I could make it anything. But I wanted to make it something meaningful, but also something that would stand out. So I decided to tie it back to my hometown of St. Louis, MO. The Arch is an iconic piece of the city’s skyline so I knew that was an easy piece to use and then the Evil Toasted Ravioli is based on a staple dish in the St. Louis area. Because of these pieces the company will always have ties to where I came from. But enough about how we got here. Let’s talk about the future. 

Where am I going?

Short Answer, I don’t know… I guess wherever I am pulled as I am shouting from the mountain tops to attempt to tell as many people about my game as possible. The longer answer is crowdfunding. Those smaller publishers were 100% right, posting on a crowdfunding site is the clear next move and I am putting all the pieces together to get the project up as soon as possible to attempt to get the games to families before Thanksgiving (a huge family board game playing holiday in my family). But to do that I need help. Not only from game designers, manufacturers, and developers, but from my future audience. I am writing these to bring you on the journey with me from getting a Kickstarter ready game, to the crowdfunding process, to manufacturing it, and finally to my own online store that is able to sustain itself outside of crowdfunding. I am writing this to show you all that I am just a guy with a dream. I am writing this because I am asking you to watch and subscribe to the newsletter (which I promise will never be this long ever, because I am not a writer) and follow on social media and share this with people in your life who are interested in board games. Yes I am making board games for the people who are on the waitlist to buy the next board game from their favorite game designer, but I am also making board games for the people who roll their eyes when someone is reading a rule book. My goal is to bring people together and I need you to do that. I need you to help me by giving me your attention. But I understand that's valuable so in exchange for your attention I will promise the following and if I ever break this promise you have every right to throw me to the curb. I promise to be transparent in all I do, to not expect your attention, but to earn it. I promise that the games I create and the posts I make will be real and not slop thrown together just to get something out there in an attempt to keep your attention. And finally I promise to never waste your time and give back in every way I can. I know I am not the only one on this journey, and people are stronger together, so if you are also interested in doing stuff like this, hit me up! I’m just a regular guy, I promise. 

I will end with this. If you are reading this and aren’t sure if you want to give me your attention, I can’t blame you at all. But I will be here to prove that those promises are not just to you but myself, and if that's the only person I am keeping the promises for, then that is plenty. 

(this was from the night at the board game bar)