Take Voyages While Playing Postmark Games at Home

In October 2021, I wrote about German publisher NSV's "NatureLine", a plastic-free line of games that uses recycled cardboard as a slipcase to keep everything held together during distribution.

New publisher Postmark Games goes one step further in terms of minimizing environmental impact by eliminating distribution all together, with all of its titles designed to be printed at home.

Okay, print-and-play games are not a new thing, but designers and company owners Matthew Dunstan and Rory Muldoon have a couple of reasons for going this route with their new venture. As they explain in a press release:

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Postmark Games was founded to provide an avenue for distributing new independent games directly to consumers at minimal expense and environmental impact. "The pandemic and climate crisis has exposed some of the difficulties in traditional game publishing and distribution. At the same time, there is a new need for smaller games perfect for sharing in different contexts, whether in person or virtually. We wanted a way to design games in answer to these challenges and share them with players, and Postmark Games emerged from our mutual discussions", said co-founder Matthew Dunstan.

Rory Muldoon adds: "The lack of production overheads involved in print-at-home games means Matt and I can focus our efforts on designing and making the best possible experiences in an affordable and sustainable way. I have a great affinity for the dedicated community of print-at-home makers and players, but it's our hope that Postmark Games can bring that joy of instant delivery analogue games to a much wider audience."

So how will Postmark Games survive on the market as a producer of print-at-home games? By turning to Kickstarter for its releases, effectively transforming the crowdfunding platform into a Patreon-style funding vehicle, with backers supporting the creators directly for their creativity given that their production costs are effectively nothing. (From 2013 to 2017, Dunstan ran the print-and-play company Good Little Games with designer Brett J. Gilbert. You can explore the titles released in this line here.)

Here's a succinct description of Postmark Games' first project — Voyages:

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Voyages is a roll-and-write game of open sea adventure and exploration. Each player is the captain of a vessel sailing the seas and requires a single printed game sheet and pencil, while one player also needs to provide three dice.

On a turn, three dice are rolled for all the players. Each player chooses one die for the direction they are sailing, another for how far they sail, and the final die for crew duties aboard their ship. Players score points for visiting different islands, gathering and selling goods for trade, and training their sailors in case they come across the mysterious Dread...

Playable from 1-100+ players, either locally or virtually, Voyages will be supported over time with new expansion content provided for free to original backers of the game.