Munchkin Keeps Drawing Treasure for Steve Jackson Games

[MarlaDesat]

Munchkin Keeps Drawing Treasure for Steve Jackson Games

Munchkin, Zombie Dice, and Ogre (Kickstarter Edition) top sales in 2013 for Steve Jackson Games.

Steve Jackson, founder of Ogre Kickstarter [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/steve%20jackson%20games]. The Munchkin line accounted for over 75% of sales. Dice games, like the popular Zombie Dice, made up 7.6% of total sales. Smaller games like Castellan, Illuminati, and the GURPS roleplaying system rounded out the list.

The top priority for 2014 is keeping Munchkin products in print. "Because Munchkin sales keep getting stronger, keeping things in print has taken a lot of work," writes Jackson, commenting on the state of business as of August. "We just reprinted Munchkin Fu, Munchkin Impossible, and Munchkin Quest, each of which had been out of print for some months." In 2014, Steve Jackson Games has already announced new Munchkin sets, including Munchkin Panic [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/136835-Munchkin-Steampunk-Coming-in-2015-From-Steve-Jackson-Games], based on Fireside Games' Castle Panic.

Jackson reports that the company is still planning to crowdfund a new edition of Car Wars. The company's first Kickstarter campaign, for the classic tank warfare game Ogre, launched in 2012 and shipped (after some delays) in 2013. Completing all outstanding commitments from the Ogre campaign, including work on a Car Wars relaunch, is listed as a priority for 2014. In less games-focused news, Steve Jackson Games launched the Warehouse 23 shopping cart [http://www.warehouse23.com/] in early 2014, allowing customers to purchase both digital and physical products in the same order. The web store improvements launched a year later than planned, having been a priority in the 2012 Stakeholder Report. The store remains buggy, and debugging work on the store made the priority list for 2014.

Have you picked up any games by Steve Jackson Games this year? After spending a while playing Munchkin Cthulhu, I've been drawn back to the original set. Perhaps it was the Kneepads of Allure?

Source: Steve Jackson Games' Report to the Stakeholders for 2013 [http://www.sjgames.com/general/stakeholders/report14.html]


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[Doclector]

I've picked up a couple. Zombie dice, which is goddamn essential for nerdy parties, and cthulhu dice, which is not so good, but worth getting because the die itself is damn purdy. Maybe when I can get a good load of friends regularly playing games it'll be worth investing in some munchkin stuff.

 

[Pyrian]

It's kind of depressing to think of venerable Steve Jackson games as being basically "Munchkin plus some other stuff".

 

[sjard]

I've picked up half a dozen of their games this year... Can't remember which exactly since I have most of their library.

 

[sjard]

It's kind of depressing to think of venerable Steve Jackson games as being basically "Munchkin plus some other stuff".

Better to think of it as Munchkin allowing SJG to do the other stuff. How many other, effectively independent, game companies like SJG still exist after 30+ years at all without having changed owners?

 

[PMAvers]

It's kind of depressing to think of venerable Steve Jackson games as being basically "Munchkin plus some other stuff".

Better to think of it as Munchkin allowing SJG to do the other stuff. How many other, effectively independent, game companies like SJG still exist after 30+ years at all without having changed owners?

Honestly, this. The Ogre Designer Edition was pretty bloody amazing, and was sold basically at a loss. They could totally afford to do it since it was something they wanted to do due to all the Munchkin money.

 

[webkilla]

I bought Munchkin a good while back... and later on got the first four expansions

Endless hilarity.

If anything, then I wish that they would package the expansions with blank cards - like with Cards Against Humanity

 

[sjard]

If anything, then I wish that they would package the expansions with blank cards - like with Cards Against Humanity

I'm pretty sure the expansions all come with 2-3 blank cards. I'd have to check my library to be certain, but I know i've got quite a stack of blanks now.

 

[iblis666]

I rebuy munchkin and all its expansions once in a while as decks break down from use but I would fork over $20 this instant if they made a munchkin android game either as the card game with solo and group play or a turn based dungeon crawler

 

[Callate]

Mmmmmmehhhh.

I don't hold anything against anyone for liking Munchkin. It's kind of fun, in small doses, and it's not a bad "introductory" game to get people of a certain age group into playing board/card games, particularly if they're familiar with the tropes from a related medium (computer RPGs, tabletop RPGs) but for some reason haven't crossed over into board/card games.

But I have somewhat the problem with it that I did with Chez Geek. Once you've read all the jokes on the cards, a lot of the fun of the game fizzles. And however much the rules may claim it's okay to splurge all the different expansions together into one big mess, it tends to screw up the card distribution something awful to actually do so... And it's already a game almost entirely dependent on luck, before you start upping the probability of running a whole game without getting an artifact or having a hand full of monster boosters but no monsters.

I'm glad it keeps bread on the table, but I hope it's the seed money for other, better things.

 

[vansau]

They had a banner for a Judge Dredd Munchkin expansion on display at PAX, too.

 

[sjard]

They had a banner for a Judge Dredd Munchkin expansion on display at PAX, too.

Yes, this was just announced a couple three weeks ago (add a week for the 2000AD announcement of it). It is a 15 card expansion for Munchkin Apocalypse.

http://www.sjgames.com/ill/archive/August_23_2014/Announcing_Munchkin_Apocalypse_Judge_Dredd