Our last instalment was just before PAX. If you're following us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or TikTok, you know PAX was amazing for us. There was barely a minute we weren't demoing The Score on every table we could find. We ran something like 400 games! And we also had a lot of fun making a complete roleplaying game in an hour on a panel. We also got to catch up with the local design scene and all the incredibly talented local designers. PAX has now started to turn the spotlight onto the local tabletop industry and audiences seem hungry to know more. For example, Gameology is looking to promote local talent, so go here and nominate our games!

​The very same weekend was Essen Spiel, the world's biggest and most important game convention that happens every year in the German city of Essen. We weren't there but Goliath who distributes our collaborative card game There's Been A Murder was and they had a big booth to show off just how much fun murder can be! Until recently it's only been available in the US but we now know it is being exported (and translated) into Europe and Asia. Hopefully Australian stores will have it soon too. With all of this, we got word that sales of There's Been A Murder have topped 100 000 copies! Incredible again! We are so flattered!

We had hoped to get more Relics materials out this month but unfortunately it's still being developed (our head of layout has had to move house multiple times, among other things). But every Halloween we bring you a totally free one-page RPG horror extravaganza, like our ENnie-nominated gothic masterwork Two Faces. This year we have something a little different. In 1985, Freddy Mercury and Kenny Everett snuck Princess Diana into a gay London nightclub disguised as a man. This game retells that night with a horror twist. This is Princess Die. 

Can you survive until morning? Only the dice know...good luck and see you in November! (evil laugh)

Over the last few months, we've been very privileged to be assisting some of the newest Australian designers in producing their first game. Ryo Goh, Alice Maignan and Chloe Stager are all Grade Six students at the German International School and for their Social Entrepreneurship class this year, they have been working to produce a board game. The class focusses on creating a pitch for a commercial product that will produce both funding and awareness for a social issue. In this case the product is an exciting board game of koala movement, and the issue is the great risk of extinction that koalas continue to face. 

We went out to the school and helped the girls understand the basic steps of game design: making a paper prototype, testing ideas, iterating on design and playtesting, and then on to making a shinier version. Coming in to help there were the amazing folks at Launch Tabletop, who are about to launch their site for making prototypes, smaller print runs and personal game design projects. Their helpful staff took the girls start-up money and produced some dazzling prototypes. 

Next week, the girls will be presenting their work not just to the class but to an Impact Partnership Manager from the World Wildlife Fund. There's hope that the game will be perhaps of interest to them or sold to other school students, with all the profits going to help koala research. And we may even be able to offer the game to Tin Star Games fans. 

We'll have more photos next Thursday, so stay tuned!