A Published Pōpoki
I started a production timeline in early August with the goal of being able to publish 20 copies of Pōpoki for Game Market West on Sunday, September 27.
Being an “indie” board game developer, though, meant I need to produce a small batch of prototypes inexpensively and fast.
I had heard a lot about Launch Tabletop from my peers in the Golden Gate Gamemakers, and I found the website interface to be incredibly helpful.
Not only could I contain my “project” with a variety of components, I could very easily see weight, cost per component, and cost per unit using their “cost estimator.”
In the end, the finished project arrived eight days later, shrink-wrapped, and ready to sell.
Eventually, I will have a “project” that will contain the dice, cubes, rules, and game board inside the box.
The Box
Well…almost ready.
For Launch Tabletop I decided to only focus on the box, dice, cards, and points cubes.
Missing inside the box would be rules, cat meeples, and a playmat.
The shrink-wrapped box turned out fantastic, and holding it in my hand was surreal.
I used GIMP and Inkscape on MacOS to design the top and bottom templates of the game box.
The cards are also very good for a prototype.
Swap Out
The dice were good, but the blue die was much darker than I had expected. I had wanted a lighter blue for the methane die, so I ordered 20 of them from Dice Game Depot to swap out.
Launch Tabletop couldn’t produce custom meeples at my small scale, so I had to order the orange and white cat meeples separately off Etsy. That drove up my landed cost, but for a prototype that was acceptable.
The colors of the meeples are an homage to my cats, brothers Denali (white) and Ginger (orange).
Rules
I used Canva to publish a playmat that I will laminate. It will help with initial plays, but after a few plays you don’t really need it. I plan to turn that into a “small quad-fold rectangle” game board that will fit perfectly into the existing box.
But I did not have my rules done, so I continue to work on them with the hope that I will print them at some point to fit in the box. I will have a digital copy available in time for Game Market West, but I will eventually send the final printed copy to those who bought the game.
So at Game Market West I will be selling the box with dice and cards inside and asking the customer to accept a laminated playmat, two cat meeples, a light blue die, and a QR code to the finished rules.
That’s certainly in line with being indie!
Playing Cards IO
As part of the production timeline, I also created a prototype at Playing Cards IO. I’ve using this primarily to test the rules; I’ve been testing the game mechanics since 2022. It also shows how would eventually make the dice accessible if you are color blind.
I was able to move that prototype over to their “Community Games” so it is now publicly available for anyone to blind playtest. Enjoy!
The digital prototype at Playing Cards IO, which simplifies the physical playmat by including a dice tray and automation.
Published September 8, 2026
