Giant Fire Breathing Robot

Variant: Interview With Michael Mindes, Founder of Tasty Minstrel

A while back, I had the pleasure to interview Jay Cormier and Sen-Foong Lim, the developers of Train of Thought by Tasty Minstrel Games. Tasty Minstrel has been making a bit of a splash recently after its successful Kickstarter campaign for Eminent Domain.

I wanted to get to know a little more about Tasty Minstrel and the founder, Michael Mindes, was kind enough to sit down for an interview despite an incredibly busy work schedule.

Follow me past the cut to learn about why Tasty Minstrel was founded and what kind of games we can expect to see from them in the future.

Giant Fire Breathing Robot: Tell me a little bit about why you wanted to start a game company.

Michael Mindes: I love games, and wanted to be involved with the industry as a career. I decided that I needed to make this happen myself.

GFBR: On your website, you indicate that family was a big motivator. Is that something that you grew up with? Did your folks play a lot of games?

MM: My family did not play very many games with me as I grew to be more of an official gamer. However, growing up we played the standards of chess, Monopoly, and Sorry.

GFBR: What kind of board games interest you as an individual?

MM: As an individual, board games that interest me most need to have a good immersive theme, streamlined rules and game play, and interesting strategic decisions.

GFBR: Any previous experience in the gaming industry (other than as a player)?

MM: Nope, none. I imagine some would have helped, but not nearly as much as my experience as a Financial Advisor.

GFBR: As a new company, what was the most difficult challenge in getting established and getting your games to the market? What mistake or unexpected situation has Tasty Minstrel been confronted with and overcome?

MM: New challenges come up all the time. The most consistent is coordinating all of the pieces that have to come together like artwork, manufacturing, final design, and marketing, in such a way that the game shows up as scheduled. This still is very elusive, but we are closing the gap between desired delivery and actual delivery. Mostly by getting started on the whole process much earlier.

The biggest challenge came from a horrible manufacturing problem on our first print run where we had to scrap 30-40% in addition to all of the replacements that were sent out, and labor to preemptively fix the problem.

GFBR: What makes a game a “Tasty Minstrel game?” What do you look for when deciding whether a particular offering is a good fit for Tasty Minstrel?

MM: The first requirement is that there are two subjective quality bars. Both myself, and Head of Development Seth Jaffee, have to like the game, which at this point is a feat in and of itself. After that, we look to improve the design further from the initial submission and move forward from there.

While this is happening, I look at (educated guesses anybody?) the potential market size, cost per unit, desired price point, initial expected sales (for capital recovery), desired artwork style, and more. We like to see:

• Great game play.
• Immersive and well-integrated theme.
• Ability for us to execute on the scope of the game. (Currently it would be difficult for us to create a game with the scope of Twilight Imperium 3, Descent, or Runewars.)
• Ability to price it well against the competition and retain a healthy margin.
• Possibility for a hit within the game’s subcategory—like dice games, Euro games, party games, etc.

The bottom line is that we want great games that we can apply chrome to and that can be sufficiently profitable for our efforts.

Founder Favorite

 

 

GFBR: This may be a bit like picking a favorite child, but of the games that Tasty Minstrel has released or announced, do you have a personal favorite that you enjoy playing?

MM: I have 3 children. They are all my favorites. When it comes to Tasty Minstrel’s products, my favorites are Eminent Domain and Jab. I like them all more than others in their game subcategories, but I could play Eminent Domain and Jab for days on end.

GFBR: Your success with Eminent Domain on Kickstarter has really encouraged a lot of people to go a similar route.To what do you attribute your success there?

MM: An existing fan base, being able to contact the fan base, giving people what they want, structuring rewards to incentivize supporters to sell other people on our game, being honest and transparent. Oh, and having a great game to start with. That way when people wanted to print and play the game immediately, they loved it and they sold others on Eminent Domain.

Kickstarted

 

GFBR: Why did you decide to use Kickstarter instead of more traditional backing that you presumably used for Homesteaders or Jab?

MM: All other Tasty Minstrel Games have been financed directly out of my pocket. At the time I refused to add any more money to Tasty Minstrel, hence Kickstarter.

GFBR: Can we expect more Kickstarter games from Tasty Minstrel? Eminent Domain expansions?

Yes and Yes. We are organizing or working on both currently.

GFBR: One thing that makes Tasty Minstrel unique is its Friday game giveaway. What prompted that? As your list of games continues to grow, do you see this as a continuing feature of Tasty Minstrel?

MM: I started doing it, and it worked to get attention. So I keep doing it. I do not see a reason that I would stop doing this.

GFBR: Having reviewed a number of game designs, what advice would you give to a startup designer who wants to pitch their idea to a publisher?

MM: Seth does most of the reviewing of game designs. Still I have some advice:

• Have a finished and polished game (to the best of your ability). As finished and polished as you think it is, we will still feel that there is more to be done. However, if you present something that is not finished, then that will be the last time we review your game.
• Feel free to shop your design to multiple publishers. Unless they ask you not to because of interest. Get a date by which you can expect a response and follow up.
• Invest in your own game. Have confidence in your creation without dropping too much money.

 

GFBR: What else can we expect from Tasty Minstrel in the future?

MM: Great games.

 

A special thanks to Mr. Mindes for taking the time to chat with me. Even though it has only existed since 2009, Tasty Minstrel has already got a fairly impressive list of publications under its belt. I’ll be eagerly looking forward to the newest releases and you can always see the latest Tasty Minstrel news here on the Robot.