2020 Year in Review (Stonemaier Games)

What a tumultuous year this has been! On the last day of 2020, I’m going to revisit some notable moments from each of the last 12 months. These are all related to Stonemaier Games and this blog in some way, though many are indicative of the industry and the world.

January

• Doubling Our Staff: The big news in January was that for the first time in Stonemaier Games’ 8 years of existence, I (Jamey) was joined by another full-time employee, Joe! As our Director of Communications, Joe has provided amazing customer service in a variety of ways. Among his various responsibilities, I’ve been particularly appreciative of the fancy graphics he’s added to my long-form YouTube videos and the measured wisdom he’s provided throughout a tough year.
• Early Wingspan Announcement and Charitable Gift: Before COVID struck, one of the biggest tragedies of the year was the rampant wildfires in Australia. At the time, we knew something you didn’t: That the second expansion to Wingspan, due to release in late 2020, was based on the Oceania region. So we broke from our typical announcement schedule, revealed the Oceania name, and pledged to donate $1 for every launch notification request we received for the expansion through January. We ended up donating a total of $7,439 USD ($10,834 AUD) to WIRES, a wildlife rescue organization in Australia.

February

• Discussion About Deluxe Games: After posting an article about different ways that publishers can consider deluxe vs standard versions of games, I learned a ton from the comments and the poll on the post. This article is particularly memorable to me because it directly impacted some decisions we made regarding a 2021 Stonemaier game.
• Replacement Parts: When the publisher Asmodee announced a new strategy for replacement parts (one that no one seemed excited about), I explored the topic on our blog and assured our customers that we’re continuing to offer free replacement parts for missing and damaged components. No matter where or when you bought it or how long you’ve been playing our games, you can fill out this form and we’ll send you what you need. Also, while people seemed pretty upset with Asmodee when they made the announcement, I really haven’t heard much about it since then.

March

• Pandemic and Rolling Realms: March was when we realized COVID was real, scary, and spreading fast. China extended the Chinese New Year holiday with a full lockdown to prevent the spread of the disease, which was absolutely the right decision, though it halted the manufacturing process for us and many others. With in-person gaming on hold, I designed an infinitely scaling roll-and-write game called Rolling Realms, which I playtested in real time on Facebook Live with hundreds of people (Rolling Realms will get a fancy printed version in 2021).
• Charterstone Reprint: While some of our products can go out of stock temporarily if they sell quicker than expected, it’s very rare for us to let a product go out of print. However, we did that for Charterstone, and March marked the month when the first reprint in over a year was available, just in time for the digital version.

April

• April Fools Products: For the first time, we prepared for April Fools Day with two silly–but very real–products, a magnifying glass (poking fun at a few of our games having text that’s too small) and special plastic trays for candy eggs (so you don’t pop a plastic Wingspan egg in your mouth). We used the proceeds from these products to provide direct aid to people whose incomes had come to a grinding halt due to the pandemic–we basically sent over $14,000 in cash to people who had supported us in the past, no questions asked.
• My Little Scythe expansion: After a few delays due to China’s shutdown and a critical component mistake I made, we finally announced the Pie in the Sky expansion to My Little Scythe.
• Counterfeits and Fake Webstores: Unfortunately, one of the major themes this year was fraud, particularly in regards to Wingspan. You can read some of the details here. I’d like to say the fraud has stopped, but we continue to see counterfeits of Wingspan in English and other languages. If you see a deal for Wingspan that is too good to be true–or if you get a copy of Wingspan where the cardstock feels cheap and doesn’t match the expansions–please report it to the vendor or report the vendor itself.

May

• Long-Term Coronavirus Impact: With it now clear that COVID was going to have a huge and lasting impact, I did a deep-dive analysis into how the virus was (and wasn’t) impacting Stonemaier Games and the broader industry. I’ve continued to add to this article from time to time.
• Inflated Kickstarter Pricing: An odd trend I noticed throughout the first half of 2020 was what appeared to be significantly overpriced core reward levels, especially considering the margins earned by a creator when selling directly to consumers. I theorized that creators were ultimately hurting themselves by doing this, as a fair price is something that can draw in hordes of backers. The article seemed to resonate with people, as it was one of the most-read posts in 2020.

June

• Scythe Complete Rulebook: It may seem odd to sell a rulebook by itself, but an organized compilation of all Scythe rules (core game, expansions, promos, accessories, etc) was something Scythe fans have asked for. So we made the Scythe Complete Rulebook with the help of Matt and Brittany Griepp. The first printing had some unfortunate mistakes due to me not properly consulting with the Automa team, but we fixed them for the hardcover version and the upcoming spiralbound reprint.
• BIPOC Statement and Declaration of Action: We at Stonemaier Games stand against racial injustice, and the responsibility is on us to improve the gaming community (and hopefully the world) but actively elevating marginalized and underrepresented voices. The original statement was the first step in a crucially important journey over the last 6 months (both personally and professionally) that has resulted so far in conversations and fruitful relationships with nearly 100 members of the gaming community who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color and over $42,000 in direct support and games. This statement was followed a few weeks later by a powerful guest post from Elizabeth Hargrave about inclusivity, diversity, and representation.

July

• Pendulum: After years of design and development, we announced our sole game of 2020 in July. Pendulum is a competitive, turnless, asymmetric worker placement, time-optimization game. The reveal of the plastic pieces led to a great conversation about the environmental impact of wood vs plastic. It seems that gamers prefer wooden meeples and custom resources over plastic, a lesson learned for the future.
• Viticulture Digital: At long last, the first Stonemaier game received a full-AI digital adaptation from Digidiced!
• Social Media Uproar: As you can tell from this article, I’m not just focusing on the good aspects of 2020, as it was very much a year of mistakes, learning, and the potential for growth. July in particular has left a permanent scar on me that I honestly haven’t been able to shake free of, as some juvenile posts from my past and my defensive behavior in the present resulted in quite a bit of online (and direct) hate. I don’t use that word lightly, nor can I say it wasn’t justified–that’s what’s weighed so heavily on me. I screwed up, and I’m so sorry. I truly want to live my life with love and inclusion, and the last thing I want to do is hurt or exclude anyone because of how I act or what I say. I hope you will give me the chance to grow and be a better person, leader, and human in 2021.

August

• Tapestry Plans & Ploys expansion: A year after the initial Tapestry announcement, we revealed the first expansion, which was mostly a “more stuff” expansion and a new card type.
• Director of Sales and Internal Brokerage: At the end of August, we welcomed our third full-time employee, Alex Schmidt, to the team. Alex is our Director of Sales, which coincided with us bringing distribution brokerage in house instead of outsourcing it to GTG (with whom we still have a great relationship as our US warehouse and fulfillment center). Alex has already made a huge impact with our distributor and retailer relationships.

September

• Reviewer Dialogue: We send out hundreds of review copies each year from our fulfillment centers around the world, and I have the utmost appreciation for the time and effort reviewers put their reviews. I try to respect a diverse array of reviewers (including, most notably, by the fact that I don’t read/watch reviewers of Stonemaier products, as I want reviewers to know they have complete freedom to share their true opinions without worrying about if I’ll send them another free game in the future after a negative review). However, I made a few missteps this year regarding reviewers that directly contradicted my appreciation and respect; since then I’ve tried to listen and learn so I don’t make those mistakes again in the future.

October

• Charity Auction: Our 8th annual charity auction featured signed copies of the new Wingspan expansion and the hardcover Scythe rulebook, as well as a few other perks. The auction, which featured some amazing content creators, ended up generating $8,161 in winning bids, with Stonemaier matching each of those bids (and Fulfillrite matching the highest bid), resulting in a total donation spread over 10 charities of $16,985.

November

• Wingspan Oceania Expansion: The long-awaited second expansion to Wingspan launched and started shipping in November. It focuses on birds in Australia and New Zealand, and it features some new mechanisms and components related to nectar.

December

• Demographic Survey: Thanks to nearly 4000 respondents, we learned a lot about the Stonemaier community in our 2020 demographic survey.

****

That’s our year in a nutshell! I’m excited about what we have in store for you in 2021. Our goal at Stonemaier Games is to bring joy to tabletops worldwide, and we’ll continue to strive to do that through our games, this blog, YouTube, social media, and more. Thank you for your support!

If you gain value from the 100 articles Jamey publishes on this blog each year, please consider championing this content!

• Tweet