I’ve got some really, really big news. Channel A has a publisher! Specifically, Asmadi Games, which is probably best known for We Didn’t Playtest This At All, but has put out a number of other games, including 2010 Golden Geek Award winner Innovation. It’s difficult to find a publisher willing to take on a project in general, and there aren’t too many board game publishers that really know anime either, but Chris Cieslik (the main guy behind Asmadi) has been great to work with and gets what I’m trying to do with Channel A. (The publisher of Whack a Catgirl definitely knows more about anime than your average board game publisher.) He’s also highly dedicated, and you can expect to see him and his cohorts from Foam Brain Games offering Channel A at quite a few conventions.
Asmadi has just launched a Kickstarter to fund Channel A too! The base goal is $10,000 to cover an initial print run, but we’ve got a bunch of bonuses and stretch goals lined up. Also, if you’d like to try a demo before the Kickstarter ends, Chris & co. will be at TotalCon, Genericon, MomoCon, WPI Gaming Weekend, and PAX East running demos. If you’d just like a quick look at what the game is like, the Kickstarter video does an excellent job of showing a typical round of Channel A.
The new “TV Series Edition” of Channel A will feature new title cards and premise cards, a spiffy box that actually fits the cards properly, and a total of 300 cards (maybe more depending on stretch goals and such), all for a mere $25. Chris managed to innovate a new scoring system that doesn’t require voting cards (see the video for a demonstration), so this new version will feature additional premise cards and title cards. Clay Gardner is updating the look of the game too, so you can expect the kind of slick design work he’s provided for Minion Games products like The Manhattan Project and Tahiti (not to mention his excellent layout work for Golden Sky Stories). The Kickstarter features some other goodies, including buttons, custom chibi characters, and the chance to get a custom fake DVD case for your own made-up anime series, complete with a theme song!
This also means that I’ll be discontinuing the “OAV Edition” from The Game Crafter. It was always meant to be an interim thing until I did exactly what we’re doing now, though needless to say I’m grateful to the six people who bought it. The free Manga Edition will still be available, though it will continue to be a basic, no-frills version of the game.
Yaruki Zero Games 
Any plans to attend any of these conventions yourself?
I would love to, but as things stand I can’t afford the travel expenses right now. I’ll probably be showing Channel A off at some cons around my own stomping grounds (Northern California), but there isn’t much in the way of events going on before the end of the Kickstarter.
Congratulations! The packaging and cards look pretty nice; I hope the Kickstarter goes well.
Last weekend I played the semi-old Cheapass game “The Big Idea” for the first time. It’s somewhat similar to Channel A in that you’re stringing together words on cards to make the silliest possible phrase, but it also has a bit more crunch due to a system where you “invest” in other people’s crazy ideas hoping they’ll IPO and make money for all their investors. This made the game a lot more fun for me. It might be interesting to add something similar to Channel A — maybe it’d be like tracking the ratings of the series after they get produced.
I’ve played TBI a few times, and I’ve thought about adding rules like that to Channel A in an expansion, though that’d be a ways off. It would probably be pretty easy to take the free rules for The Big Idea and just play it using the Channel A title cards in place of the original word cards though.
OTOH after I’d started working on Channel A I discovered that a new version of The Big Idea had come from a French publisher called Funforge, and they’d basically stripped out the investment aspect entirely in favor of making it into more of a talky party game. It’s a different experience from the old version, but a lot of fun.
Will buying copies be opened up to people outside of the US?
I’ll have to ask Chris to try to make it a bit clearer on the KS page, but basically if you’re outside the US and want to back the Kickstarter, send an email to AsmadiGames@gmail.com and he’ll figure out the shipping and such for your pledge. Basically the issue is that international shipping prices jumped up like crazy recently, and it’s no longer practical to just say “Add $10 for international shipping” like Kickstarters used to.
e: Chris has now added new reward tiers for Canadian and worldwide customers with international shipping costs included! If you want to go for one of the higher (or lower) tiers you’ll still have to e-mail about shipping costs though.
Thanks for the reply, and you weren’t kidding about shipping prices jumping up high. Am now backing Channel A!
I sadly missed that kickstarter, (although I back a lot of projects). I wanted to know when the game would be released and where I could preorder it, or if the kickstarter was still running via Paypal (as it happens sometimes for those who were late after a project is funded.)
I wouldn’t want to miss my copy of the game, as it sounds almighty fun. Thanks in advance for your answers.
From what the publisher has said, they’re hoping to get it printed ASAP and so a launch at Anime Central or Anime Boston, followed by full retail release in early June. Although I designed the game (and will still be posting about it here), you should watch the Asmadi Games website (and the twitter and Facebook feeds) for specific info on Channel A publishing news.