[TAG] TAG turns Six!Hard to believe it’s been six years since me, Robin, and Dave sat down and decided to throw our lot in together and form Triple Ace Games. Dave may have moved on, but TAG is still here and still going strong. I should clarify that TAG is technically already 6 years 1 month old—tomorrow marks the anniversary of the official launch of the company to the world, but we’d been working behind the scenes before that getting things ready.
This isn’t a state of the company speech, though I’ll touch on something of that in due course. It’s more of an annual reflection of what has transpired since TAG came kicking and shouting into the RPG industry.
But first some words of thanks. During those six years we’ve been blessed with a lot of friends and helpers. Some we knew already, both personally and as fans of our previous works, others we’ve met along the way. Whether you’re an industry insider, a reviewer, a customer (old or new), a helper, a freelance author or artist, or just someone who clicked Like on our Facebook page to get freebies, we’d like to thank you for helping us to be the successful games company we are today.
So, what have we actually achieved over the last 12 months?
Well, Robin has joined the company as a full-time employee. That’s a huge milestone. Not only does it mean TAG now pays two full-time wages, but it gives us more hours in the day to work on new material.
That extra time has already enabled us to fund two Kickstarter projects (
Tales from the Sands and
Hellfrost Expansion II). Between them the funding resulted in four new books being printed, plus the forthcoming
Hellfrost action deck. I’ve seen some of the art for the latter and I hope you’ll believe me when I say it rocks! Coupled with these has been a steady release of PDF products.
One project that came into being this year that we’re particularly proud of is
Rocket Race. Okay, very few of you have ever seen a copy and you’re probably getting a little tired of us talking about it, but it marks another important milestone for TAG—our debut into the family games market.
Just under a month ago, me, Mrs. Wiggy, Robin, and Vince Kingston, were sitting at UK Games Expo enjoying some beers. It was the night before the show officially started and we were all staring at a copy of
Rocket Race. We all shared a collective thought. Had TAG just invested a lot of time and money in a massive flop or were the 100 copies of the game we’d produced going to fly off the shelves? Don’t get me wrong—everyone who’d seen the quality of the game, yet alone played it, loved it, and we were quietly confident in our hearts. Our minds, though, knew that nothing is guaranteed.
Long story short, we sold out very quickly and the reviews and feedback have been very positive—so much so that we’ll be looking to Kickstart a distribution edition later this year. TAG producing a non-collectible card game? Like I said earlier, it’s an important milestone in our growth and confidence.
So what else is on the horizon over the coming year? In addition to the PDF releases there’ll (hopefully) be at least three more Kickstarters—something for
Hellfrost (more on that very soon, hopefully), something for
Leagues of Adventure, and, of course,
Rocket Race.
Why so many Kickstarters planned? It’s simple—they allow us produce printed material quicker and, in some cases, give birth to books you wouldn’t otherwise see.
Tales from the Sands is a prime example. Without Kickstarter, the four adventures would have been produced as PDFs, the same as with the original
Hellfrost adventures. A print version might have happened, but it would have taken at least a year—quality books are not cheap to produce, especially in distribution quantities. Thanks to your support, we were able to bypass the PDF phase and go straight to print.
While we’re gamers, TAG is a business, and businesses need money to produce the goods. PDFs sell, but print not only sells better, it allows us to reach a wider audience. Feedback tells us we’re doing the right thing both by TAG and by you.
And that is just about that. Six busy years have passed us by, and another is just about to dawn!
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Wiggy
Triple Ace Games Creative Director
wiggy@tripleacegames.com
