❖ Version History ❖
April 25th, 2025
You know, sometimes the craziest moments of this entire company’s existence happen entirely by accident… and today is absolutely one of those days.
Circa this time last year, in 2024, Ben & I had found out that we have a table top gaming convention that exists very close to home: The Rising Phoenix Gaming Con, in Milford MA. This is a happy-go-lucky little con that happens for x3 days annually every spring, and when we had first heard of it we were devastated to find out we were too late to table there during our Kickstarter of Phoenix Farm (which ironically was happening concurrently to the 2024 convention timeline). But, we swore that we would be back in 2025 once we had the game in hand.
Fast forward to 2025, we’ve got ourselves all set up for the adventure: table space reserved, phoenix farm officially published, and a brand new prototype to entice people with on Royal Threadcount. On opening day of the convention, I peer to my right & discover another small business shop titled: Legendary Wares, which specializes in hand-made fabric dice bags:
We spend nearly three entire days at this convention, and while it is busy, it is a bit more relaxed than our typical tabling environment at the CTRenFaire. This gives me lots and lots of time to get acquainted with the other vendors, especially our esteemed bag-making neighbor.
The most important piece of this visit happened mid-conversation with Kirsten, because I noticed that she was selling a bag that had Japanese designs on it:
I told her that I simply needed to buy this bag to carry around my own copies of the game & bought it immediately. I honestly couldn’t believe that the fabric utilized all of the same patterns from the game! Taking a closer look at it, there’s literally: Asanoha, Seigaiha, Karakusa, & Ume patterns, all contained within one overarching Ichimatsu pattern!
It was so cool & so beautiful to see, and it specifically got me talking to Kirsten about how I wish we could utilize the bag as a part of our release of the game. Excited about the prospect of a collaborative business move, we spent most of the next two days discussing how we could accomplish such a task.
Kirsten explained to me that she would be happy to collaborate, but that we might not be able to use the same fabric due to stock & supply complications. She then mentioned to me that we could probably find something else or potentially make our own fabric when the time came. I agreed that this would be a spectacular combo if we could pull it off, and started talking about how this collaboration might work & what the timing would look like if we were to get serious about this.
The first & most important element to the conversation was to make the bags a little bigger than she currently had designs for. While the look of the bags was amazing, they were not tall enough to actually fit the game box within & cinch close. So, to solve this issue, I sent her home with a copy of Phoenix Farm & told her that if she could find a way to fit this box in the bag then we would be in business.
It was a little bit of a hail-mary business play, with no certainty that it would work out, but we were both excited to see what might come of this collaboration! Be sure to check back into the future of this Design Journal Journey to see how things pan out later!
