Silly but Real: April Fools 2022 for Stonemaier Games – Stonemaier Games

Silly but Real: April Fools 2022 for Stonemaier Games

Today is April Fools Day, and we’ve continued a tradition we started a few years go (and added something new).

In 2020, we created two silly (and very real) products for April Fools: a magnifying glass for small text in games and a chocolate-colored candy egg tray so you don’t confuse Wingspan’s plastic eggs for edible eggs.

It took a little bit of convincing for people to believe these were real products, as it’s much more common for companies to advertise fake products on April 1. But these were real (and they required quite a bit of forethought–you can’t just make a new product the last week of March and have it ready on April 1).

In 2021, I just made a silly “announcement” instead of making a silly product.

This year, we added something new to our April Fools collection. It’s slightly less silly than the 2020 products, but still quite a departure from tabletop games: We created 8 custom-stamped discs for disc golf!

Disc golf became my go-to outdoor activity during the pandemic, and I’m fortunate to play on a weekly basis with a wonderful group of people (all of whom also happen to be tabletop gamers). So I thought it would be fun to create a series of “signature” discs, each paired with a Stonemaier Game and a disc-golfing friend.

We partnered with my disc golfing manufacturer of choice, Innova, to make these discs right here in the US. There’s a limit to how many we can make per print run, and that was probably a good thing, as I have very little information as to how these will sell (and even if they do sell, this isn’t a profitable endeavor–some things are just for fun). I ran a poll last year with one of our subscriber lists to have a rough idea of how many of these discs we needed to send to each of our fulfillment centers; most are in the US.

If you haven’t played disc golf but you like dexterity games and/or you want an excuse to play a strategy game outside, I highly recommend giving it a try. You’re basically taking a short hike and occasionally throwing a disc at a big metal basket. You might be surprised by how many courses are in your area, and you really only need one disc to try it for the first time (they’re different than traditional frisbees, and each disc is weighted and shaped to do something different when it leaves your hand).

If you want to delve deeper into the sport, here’s a rather famous starting point from last year, one that I think is perhaps the greatest moment in any sport, ever.

You can select your disc of choice here, and if for some reason it’s already sold out, just enter your email for a back-in-stock request–we’re happy to make more if there’s demand. [Update: They sold out very quickly, but we’re going to start a reprint right away, so make sure to make back-in-stock requests for the discs you want. Thanks!]

For bonus silliness this April Fools Day, I asked Stonemaier Ambassadors to submit photos of their pets in game boxes, and I filmed a video including all of the photos and my top 10 favorites:

Which other real (but silly) products have you seen companies share today?

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50 Comments on “Silly but Real: April Fools 2022 for Stonemaier Games

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  1. April Fools Week: Cat Cards, Cat Shirts, Cat Charities, Strategy Cats, and Cat Coworkers – Stonemaier Games says:

    […] 2022 April Fools Article […]

  2. As of Feb 2023 there is not a disc for the games Expeditions, Rolling Realms, Smitten, Euphoria, or MyLittleScythe. Not knowing which discs are available to be printed, my suggestions:

    Expeditions: Katana disc for the Character who caries a Katana. The name could be “Akiko”

    Rolling Realms: a Roadrunner or Wraith disc, both are excellent Rolling discs, could be named “Die” 😂.

    My Little Scythe: Wolf disc for the character and name of the disc “Tag”.

    Smitten: any of the cat discs my vote is the cheetah, but there are others (polecat, panther, jaguar, puma, lion, and leopard) since smitten is so fast to play, but also a lightweight disc. Cheetahs can be made in their super light weight class like 150g 🤔

    Euphoria: I couldnt find a easy match up, but perhaps the destroyer for the way we destroy workers knowledge. Invader since we tunnel under the cities and secretly invade. Groove for the workers finding their groove. Aero for the faction in the air. Charger for the electric charge resource. However there is no “Euphoria” disc name registered, so perhaps you guys could make an actual disc with Innova 🥳

  3. […] Silly but Real: April Fools 2022: I’ve found that my favorite approach to April Fools–one inspired by other companies–is to use April 1 as a day to launch a real product that is outside the realm of our standard guidelines. This year that manifested in a line of custom disc golf discs. I love the opportunity April 1 presents to look beyond our normal constraints and hopefully bring joy to people in unexpected ways. […]

  4. […] would be a good time to share my love of this giant dexterity game with the Stonemaier community. Stonemaier worked with Innova to create a line of discs with custom stamps inspired by many of our games, and much to my […]

  5. Can you tell me what plastic line the various discs are made from? Given the pictures, I’m guessing some are Champion plastic and others are either DX or Pro plastic, but if you have additional info, that would be great!

    1. At this point they’re all made from Champion plastic (a few from the first batch were DX; we’ve since upgraded them to Champion in reprints).

    2. I sent a like awhile back on the discs, asked if there was a way to buy 1 of each of all the discs manufactured local or online, no response back in April.

      1. I don’t recall seeing that, Victor, but yes, the discs are available for anyone to purchase on our webstores. If any happen to be currently sold out, just fill out the back-in-stock request. We’re currently on our 5th print run.

        1. No problem, I couldn’t remember what I did back in April. Could you send me the links where the discs are for sell though? Thank you Mr. Jamey Stegmeier

  6. The Big News: Lessons Learned from Announcing Viticulture World and the Wine Crate – Stonemaier Games says:

    […] that changed the formula for this announcement: First, we reserved the early April e-newsletter for our April Fools products. Second, I’ve been thinking a lot about the announcement-review-preorder-fulfillment gap, and […]

  7. […] Products: After Libertalia: Winds of Galecrest and custom disc golf discs, our lineup for 2022 includes a major expansion to Viticulture (announcement coming on April 13), a […]

  8. Jamey, this looks like it was a lot of fun, and I’m happy that it was so successful. Two things: I wish that Champions could get first dibs or advance notice on this kind of stuff. I get that it takes a away from the April Foolery surprise, but it’s still a small disappointment. Also, the legit April 1 promos like this are missed by people like me that avoid the internet on that day due to so much noise and, well, just awful attempts at humor.

    To be sure, the disappointment is not too severe — I’m sill renewing my Champion status today :-)

    Looking forward to getting my copy of Libertalia to the table soon, and getting Rolling Realms in front of a group larger than one ;-) COVID’s still making things difficult for some of us to get together. . .

    1. Thanks John! We actually did give Champions advance notice and first dibs about this product–we sent a Champion newsletter on March 31 with that exact information. :) It’s probably in your spam folder.

      1. Jamey, you are spot on, and apologies for not being more vigilant. You’ve been added to my white list (again). As always, thanks for your super-fast replies 😊

      2. Jamey, you are spot-on here. I’ve white-listed the domain (again). Thanks as always for your super-fast responses.

      3. I didn’t get the Champions email because the thing expired the day before, and I hadn’t gone and clicked through to set it up again. Sigh.

  9. I loved the magnifying class, and I hope you don’t mind me sharing my own April Fools joke here. I’m pretty happy with how it went – just believable enough right up until the end.

    One of the common criticisms about Micro Dojo is that it was just way too small (a design decision to fit as much as possible in that envelope), and that I should produce a bigger version. I updated the campaign to say that Macro Dojo would have a bunch of new stretch goals for a bigger size, going as far as 3d printing some giant meeples at home, mocking up an ‘outdoor edition’ playmat on Google Maps satellite, and eventual photoshopping the meeples next to Burj Khalifa.

    It was the most engaging post of the entire campaign, so I’m glad it hit just the right note to make people laugh. And who knows, maybe a big version will come along one day :)

  10. Man, the disadvantages of living on the west coast and sleeping in on my Friday off….. Hopefully you’ll be printing more of them, I want them all :)

      1. Oh, thank goodness! I saw the email too late (was at work) and searched too early this AM so didn’t see them. That you got Innova to make them is fantastic. I wanted some more discs now that the weather is getting nicer, so this is perfect!

      2. Awesome!! I absolutely put in my email for the out of stock notices. My family loves disc golf and we have a course right down the road from us.

  11. Nice work on the discs. I’m sure this will get a lot of new players out. For people who already play, it would be nice if you listed the plastic type of the discs.
    As there was so much demand, maybe you would consider going further and getting one of your excellent artists to do a disc with really special art. Or team up with a disc golf artist like http://doubleramdisc.com/
    I would also be in favour of a Stonemaier logo stamp. Or Stonemaier cat logo :)

  12. I guess I was looking for a reason to finally get into the sport. Picked up one of each type. I also second the idea of a cat eared Stonemaier shirt!

      1. Any chance you might make a My Little Scythe disc, maybe a beginner style disc that could be good for kids? Or a Rolling Realms disc?

        1. I think there’s a good chance we’ll make signature discs for both of them at some point. :)

  13. I am a Disc Golfer, could our local stores here in town sell those discs? Albuquerque, NM

    1. Victor: Your store probably has a ton of Innova discs, but the custom Stonemaier discs aren’t a retail product (I don’t think Innova would like us selling their discs to stores :) ).

    1. In the reprint (which we’ll start right away), yes, we’ll send a greater variety to our non-US fulfillment centers. :)

      1. Hi Jamey, when can we expect to see it in the Canadian web store? I always found disc golf quite interesting and this might actually push me to try it out!

          1. These are cool, I have played disc golf once, and would be interested in a full set. Do you anticipate additional disc’s coming to the Canadian store if you do a reprint? Would you consider bundling different weighted disc’s and selling them as a set of 3 or 4?

          2. Is there any way to put in a back in stock request for…. a product that is in stock?

            In particular would love to get a couple of these for my frisbee keen family, but am in Europe (UK) and Red Rising is one of the few Stonemaier titles I don’t think any of us own!

  14. I don’t have an answer to your question, but any chance you might consider selling cat ear logo shirts in the future?

    1. You know, I thought about that as I put on my Stonemaier Games t-shirt this morning. I like that idea!

      1. Throwing in my 2 cents, we would also buy a couple if you printed some. Might be worth sending out a poll because I’m sure a ton of folks would be interested!

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