Help Us Legitimize Vandalay Games

What exactly is Vandalay Games, and why do we deserve your money?

Vandalay Games is a group of friends that started off fooling around making games to pass the time in college. Games that costed the pennies we had available.  Index cards, coins, pencils, and anything that could be bought at the school store became great warriors, alien invaders, secret agents, and the occasional giant squid.

As our knowledge and experience grew, so did our ambitions. We transitioned from DIY games to writing role playing games and planning out full production runs of board games. We made cardboard mockups of our games, and playtested them within our circles, working out kinks and trying to innovate on our existing frameworks and ideas. 

We've done a lot of work, but we've really reached the limit of what we can do. We can make as many games and test them with cardboard and dollar store army men, but we cant sell them like that.  We can live with placeholder graphics cobbled together from clipart, stock images, amateur sketches, and stick figures, but we can't send that to a publisher. We can print out a character sheet or two, or a six page rules booklet, but we can't do a full production run of rulebooks in our bedrooms. 

Thats where you generous people of the internet come in. 

What we CAN do. 

We can pitch, refine, write, and develop games on a regular basis, with a unified style, and with clear instructions.

We can do the basic graphic design for our games, such as organizing them into appropriate documents, and making an appealing and simple layout.

We can playtest with limited focus groups, mainly consisting of friends, family, and people who are interested in our games.  

We can market through word of mouth and sell locally through ourselves and digitally through a host.


Anything other than that and we can't do it, or we can't do it well enough for it to be viable.

What we need vs what we want.
There is a fine line between the bare minimum that we need and what we really want in order to succeed.

What we need:
-Game pieces (boards, figures, cards, booklets)
-Publishing ability
-Art

What we want:
-Autonomy
-In house artists
- Our own ISBNs
-Focus Group Playtests
-The ability to "Network" amongst our business peers(Conventions and Expos)

How will this money be used?
The money that you provide here, a whopping 500$, will be used to get a first run printing done of our TTRPG, the Chocolatey Standardized Gaming System, or CSGS for short, as well as basic design to be done on our game Dragonrider. Anything after that will be used to further our other games along in development, and increase our creative ability.

What we have to offer:
CSGS, a core set of RPG rules that allow for flexible play and a large amount of customization.

Dragonrider, a battle board game about fighting while mounted on winged beasts of fury.

Frankenbuilder, a tongue in cheek party game about graverobbing and going against God's will.

Spiked Punch, a card game about being the most worshipped cult around.

What are those Wishlist things for?
The 3d printer will allow us to model and create customized game pieces, such as player figures, scenery, flair, and other objects. 

Commissioned art will give our game a professional and "proper" look, as well as provide for better asthetics overall.

ISBNs will allow us to put the book up for sale on international book marketplaces and possibly even open distribution avenues such as bookstores, game stores, and hobby shops.

Going to Conventions and Expos relevant to our business will not only allow us to spread word and demonstrate our games, but allow us to meet people who may be able to help us become what we want to be. 

When do we need these funds?
To be completely honest, right now. We have been living off of our saved incomes and meager wages for a while, but its either eat and live or create and starve. 

Who are you really?

Justin is our Founder,  Lead Designer, Playtesting Organizer, and Marketing Manager. He essentially does a bit of everything, and all the writing. 
Josh is  our other GameDesigner, and integral to our creative processes.

Still not convinced?
Contact us:
over Skype at Vandalay Games
on Facebook at Vandalay Games 
on Twitter at @VandalayGames 

or email us at [email redacted]


A Final Note:
Every single penny that we manage to raise not only helps us out financially, it gives us a morale boost. The idea of generosity, of the help we may recieve from random people on the internet keeps us moving forward, inching toward our goals slowly but surely. These wishlist items are happy dreams, hopes that we may be able to one day register ourselves as a company and do this full time.


We thank everyone who reads this far into the page for the time you have spent, and for anything you can provide us with.