Prosperitea is a new card game with a sustainable design promise

Prosperitea is a new card game with a sustainable design promise

Mentha Designs has relaunched Prosperitea on Kickstarter, which is a game of artisanal tea blending.

If a tea blending card game suitable for 3 to 6 players and done in under an hour didn’t already have your attention, then the sustainable design promise behind it might.

Geek Native was able to catch-up with Aven Gonzalez, the game designer and art director, Jose Pimienta, the illustrator and Jason Errato, the co-producer, for a chat about the game. It was that ethical and green angle that we explored the most. First, though, here’s the game;

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Do you just want some lovely tea? Well, if you’re in the US or Canada, you can order some through Kickstarter! How’s that for a novel twist?

The rest of us can focus on the game, and the Basic Blend, which serves up the retail edition, a letterpress “thank you” card and some tea samples, will set you back $29. Shipping is worked out after the campaign ends.

There are higher tiers, but these are restricted to the US and Canada as well and as you’d expect, this is due to various international shipping regulations. Sending food abroad is never easy.

What’s the pitch for Prosperitea?

Aven: You Own a Tea Shop. Like all cafe owners, you strive to be the most prestigious tea shop in town! Players take turns buying ingredients, filling orders, then selling them for Money or displaying them for Prestige. Whoever has the most Prestige when the game ends is the winner!

Players will soon discover that the tea business is a tight market. There are no secrets and there won’t be enough ingredients for everyone. Asking for favors from other shops will be critical to success, and Prestige will also be awarded to players who lend a helping hand. This core mechanic forces a “Competitive Co-Op” type of vibe. Seats 3-6 players with optional rules for 2.

Why now? The first quarter of 2021 in the year of vaccines and virtual conventions must surely be a challenging time for any Kickstarter?

Aven: To put it as briefly as I can: it is a large combination of factors, but the most pertinent one is timing from our last Kickstarter attempt. We tried to fund in October and while our backers were super enthusiastic about the project, there weren’t enough of them. We knew we wanted to relaunch because we spotted a number of trends in our audience that were very encouraging, but internet communities in general have a very short attention span. If we wait too long we would be starting from scratch again. Maintaining the original audience while working to build a new one is critical. Spring is also traditionally a good time to launch a new product because tax season is over for most folks and the first set of fun holidays like Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day, and Easter/Solstice are raising spirits.

As far as the bigger picture of “Why during a Pandemic?”: Board games in general have been doing quite well. With people stuck inside, our industry is seeing a continued interest so there isn’t a trending reason why NOT to make a go of it. As I’ve been told by many Kickstarter veterans: “You can ALWAYS relaunch as many times as you need to. There is no reason to wait it out.”

I have also been encouraged by many people to put our project out there because of the joy it brings to the space. With so many grimdark / hardcore games flooding Kickstarter, and so much negativity in the air, something like Prosperitea provides a bit of a warm hug that people really need right now.

As far as convention challenges go: That is a VERY real concern. Especially for an indie project like us. Conventions are a critical piece of audience building for aspiring designers without a massive following. And that idea has only been reinforced by what has been happening in the crowdfunding space over 2020. Big names and well known IPs are making six or seven figures consistently, but most small projects seem to fail or barely make their funding goal because they get lost in the ocean of huge fish. This has been an elephant in the room of Kickstarter for at least 5-6 years and it seems to have been exacerbated by the pandemic.

There are ways to fight that without the convention space using old fashioned networking and brute force ad buying tactics, but it requires a lot of time and/or money over the course of many months. We set aside money for this from my day job and freelance contracts. And Jason and I are fairly well known and respected in the indie communities as decent humans, so folks are generally willing to lend us their megaphone to help spread the word. And I also happen to be great on camera so I do not hesitate to make appearances for interviews.

Might we see Prosperitea at any virtual, or otherwise, conventions this year?”

Aven: If we are invited, I would look into it. I’m not really keyed into the virtual convention scene, but the few that I have tried to navigate as an attendee (SDCC, S&SU Con, GenCon, PAX) have all been very scattershot and difficult to navigate. The attempts have been valiant and PAX was probably the most organized one, but chatting on a Discord server with thousands of other random folks does not provide enough visibility for me as a designer to be worth the effort. It doesn’t provide the same opportunity to meet and greet with people as being in an artist alley or vendor booth.

My time is far better spent being active on Facebook on other people’s groups, projects, and pages. And occasionally getting on the odd twitch stream. That doesn’t put me in front of as many eyeballs, per say, but that allows me to capture more of each person’s attention and that is WAY more valuable than being a banner ad on a big site.

Can you tell us about your sustainable design promise?

Aven: Sure thing! This is actually the most EXCITING thing for me because it turned out to be far less difficult than industry veterans made it out to be.

Simply put we have a three pillar approach to sustainability that I hope will catch on if we do well:

ZERO PLASTIC: There will never be a plastic component in any of my games starting with Prosperitea. This is because there is no such thing as a sustainable plastic. Even bioplastics made from corn or PLA plastics that are marketed as compostable are very much NOT. No commercial compost facility in the US will take them because they destroy the quality of the soil. So it is best to just not use plastic. Boxes will be held together and protected with thin paper sleeves and if we do well enough, be packed in a typical retailer six pack to help hold them together during freight travel. This actually helped make manufacturing my game CHEAPER than it would have been if I used plastic.

RECYCLABLE COMPONENTS: We are committed to using recyclable components wherever we can. Thankfully for this game that is 100% as all of the components are just paper and ink. If people ever need to throw this away when it is old and tired, it can go into a curbside blue bin in most major metro areas without a second thought.

SUSTAINABLE SHIPPING: As of today, all of my games will be 100% sustainable shipping! I will be purchasing shipping supplies exclusively from EcoEnclose, a specialty vendor that focuses on recyclable packaging. This type of packaging is heavier and more expensive than typical bubble mailers, but I won’t be forcing the extra cost to the consumers. On the Cantankerous Cats website I have started providing the option for people to tip between 3-10% to help cover the cost if they want to pitch in, but folks shouldn’t feel obligated to do so. I will be setting up the same sort of tipping system for this project.

My hope for all of this is to show other designers that it is pretty straightforward to make a great, marketable product that doesn’t hurt the planet. And maybe, someday, this can turn into a movement to clean up the board game space one project at a time.

What about getting the game to backers? Is there anything you can do to help the environment in that phase, and might it risk Prosperitea being damaged en route?

Aven: See “Sustainable Shipping” for the basics. But to elaborate beyond the basics:

Box Size: Make the Game box as small as it can be. Smaller box means more games per square foot, which means less storage and shipping costs. Which means less fuel being burned on your project.

Both of my games fit into the same, tiny, 5″ x 4″ box. And Jason’s project (Thug Life) fits into a smaller footprint than most projects of similar scope. This goes against a lot of advice given by old school retailers and board game industry types, but our fans really appreciate the reduced size because my games can fit in a coat pocket and Jason’s game actually fits on most bookshelves. So don’t buy into the big box hype. Most people don’t want that. They want games that can fit into their studio or one bedroom apartments.

Freight Shipping: The solution we are using has been around since the late 1800s: Paper wrapping. If you have seen fancy bars of soap with a paper band around it, you’ve seen what we are doing.
After individual wrapping, they will be packed into a retailer six pack to further keep them together during shipping. This also has the added bonus of making them convenient for wholesale. Then they get boxed up in your typical case of 30ish games and loaded onto the boat. There isn’t any risk of damage here beyond what is normal for shrink wrapped games. (If anything our games will be better protected because of the six pack boxes.)

The biggest risk is water damage in transit, but it is SUPER common for shrink wrap to have invisible holes, so the water damage risk is still there. And honestly, if your project gets splashed with water in a shipping crate the boat probably sank. Which is…a much BIGGER problem that can’t be mitigated with packaging.

For Fulfillment: Shipping with sustainable packaging can be tricky. It ultimately depends on the size of your game, what size packaging you need, and how you need to seal it. I found EcoEnclose through fellow artist Heather Gross (of Oxenfree / Night School Studios fame) and they have a wide variety of curbside recyclable packaging and tapes. They also make custom boxes (which is the route we are going so we can be efficient with storage and postage)!

If you don’t have the extra funds to take the hit on recyclable packaging, you can fall back on ordering brown cardboard boxes from a place like Uline.

For sealing packages, you can use paper tape instead of plastic packing tape. It’s a bit more clunky than plastic tape, but that is actually the most common tape you see in freight, so it’s plenty strong enough for small packages.

Do you think the boom in board games, in general, has come at an environmental cost?

Aven: The short answer is yes and it definitely stems from the trend to overproduce games with as many plastic minis and set pieces as possible.

Granted, our industry is still small so it isn’t as big of a cost as, say, the petrochemical fuel or coal industries. However, I don’t see it as an excuse to sit back and do nothing.

It’s perfectly viable to make games that are fun, beautiful, and top shelf without contributing to the planet’s decline. There are some incredibly well built games with papercraft components that present well. (Celestia, Potion Explosion, Everdell, Camel Up, and a game about making theater that I can’t recall the name of. GORGEOUS 3D stage built from paper) And I say this as someone that REALLY loves the artistry of great sculpting work.

But now there is a tendency to just create minis for everything to increase the perceived production value of a game. And that trend not only helps destroy the planet, but drives the cost of games up because making that concept art, sculpting those models, printing the masters and striking the molds all add up VERY quickly. And that’s how you wind up seeing a $30 price tag on something like Unmatched or $100 for Zombiecide.

What green tips, tricks and considerations would you pass on to other game designers and Kickstarter projects if you had the chance?

Aven: The big, huge takeaway for me is “Keep it simple.”

Say no to bloat. Say no to unnecessary stretch goals, say no to exclusives. Strip everything away except for the things you really NEED to make your game. This reduces bloat, which reduces your costs, which helps the planet. And it creates less of a headache for you, the indie publisher.

“Get creative with paper.” would be thing number two.

Paper and ink can do a lot of work, and oftentimes better than minis because the art will be far more vibrant than even the most detailed miniature. And it will always be in color! If you have minis, most of the time they will stay grey, drab, and boring because most people do not know how to paint. With paper everything is in color out of the box, which is more enjoyable and accessible for more people.

One of the things people LOVE about Thug Life is the standees we used after ditching miniatures. It drastically reduced the cost and complexity of production and all of the beautiful illustration work was front and center. No fuss, no ugly paint jobs. No boring grey blobs of plastic. And no confusion in a heated game. Everything reads and silhouettes well from any reasonable distance at the table.

With Cantankerous Cats, people fawned over all of the detailed watercolor art. And the paper tokens we used for the score trackers were vibrant and much easier to read than 3D printed cats.

Last thing is “Just ask.”

When I started down this sustainable design path, I got a lot of “that can’t be done. That isn’t how we do things now.” So I stopped listening to other designers and retailers and started asking my manufacturing contacts what was possible. The printing industry is a couple of hundred years old. There is a lot of knowledge to pull from and a lot of practices that were common in the 1900s can still be done today with even more efficiency, so don’t be afraid to ask.

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