Links: Limitations in Game Manufacturing, Reconciliation in Game Design, and A Song about Eurogames

The board game, emblazoned with Corbiere's signature vivid art style, teaches its players about Canada's colonial history.

Players in The Truth in Truth and Reconciliation are assigned various roles: the Indigenous, the Crown and the Church. Those who are Indigenous must try to survive long enough to carry on their traditions without running out of the four "currencies": culture, identity, language and land. If they don't manage to lap the board four times, they go extinct.

But not all roles are created equal. The Crown and the Church players can leave the "Rez" at the centre of the board at any time, while the Indigenous players must roll certain numbers in order to leave. "Truth and Consequence" cards are played throughout the game, which usually involve the Indigenous players losing different forms of their currency.

UV varnish: no problem [producing this] in Europe. But: I always try to avoid it and convince my customers not to. UV varnish is a polymer, a plastic. It means that the item is impossible to recycle. Yes, I know, games are not meant to be recycled. But they will eventually. So it costs extra to pollute the environment and offers nothing but some shine (which is almost impossible to see if the game is shrink wrapped).

A publisher has to do everything he can to increase his sales and his profit. But I hope that there will be a certain change in everybody's mindset towards a more sustainable manufacturing and demands for higher social standards to combat the inequalities of the world. It will not come by itself and without effort, but the ones who wield the power are the consumers.

I absolutely agree that consumers have to rethink first. I am a gamer myself, but I have stopped backing games in Kickstarter that are produced in China. I will miss out on some games I would have purchased, but that is a conscious decision. I would be happy to pay more for a "local production", local being either in the US or Europe because these are the two locations where 90% of the games will be shipped to. By that we at least avoid the 40% or 50% that goes to one of the two continents to be needlessly shipped across one of the oceans. I am also not buying add ons like metal coins as I have more than enough coins of any kind and when we game we usually use Iron Clays anyway or miniatures since I really do not need the 56th orc.

I like printed meeples, but knowing that the price for a printed meeple compared to an unprinted one can increase by 200% or more, I am quite happy with unprinted. Or one colour printed ones instead of heat transfer which is done by printing on a plastic foil which is then applied to the item with heat - I don't want plastic where it is not absolutely necessary, and that is certainly not essential.