Anomia Press

_Boston Friends,

Anomia Press will be hosting a game night this Thursday Eve, December 1st, as a part of the Roslindale Holiday Wander. Stop by Redd's in Rozzie and play some games with us from 6 to 830! We'll have a whole bunch of games on hand. Blink, Ruckus, Settlers of Catan, Set, Anomia and more! Drop by for 5 minutes and play a quick game of BLINK. Got 20 minutes? How about a round of ANOMIA? Beat me at a game of CHESS and I'll buy you a drink!

Redd's in Rozzie is a neighborhood restaurant and bar bringing locally sourced ingredients to you with a Southern American touch. From fresh produce to the best in Massachusetts breweries, "local" and "fresh" permeate all things at R 'n' R. http://www.reddsinrozzie.com/ - 4257 Washington Street, Roslindale, MA 02131

The Roslindale Holiday Wander makes a magical evening of your holiday shopping every Thursday in December. More than 25 independent shops, restaurants and salons will open their doors, welcoming customers with personal gift advising and special events.

Hope to see you on Thursday!

Andrew

Just a quick update to mention that it's a real honor for Anomia to be listed in TD Monthly's top ten along with some classic games like Set, Slamwich and Uno! http://bit.ly/qVaoYB

Well, we’re catching up after a busy summer and a busy start to fall.  Andrew and I are looking forward to blogging more regularly about Anomia Press, games, design, running a small family business with two young kids, and whatever else catches our fancy and seems remotely relevant to the subject at hand. 

Yesterday I finally managed to finish some much-needed updates to our website.  The most exciting (and arduous) part was updating our retailer list – the ever-growing list of places you can now pick up a brand-new copy of Anomia.  Believe it or not, there are now nearly 650 independent stores and small chains in the U.S., Canada and Australia that carry our little game.  Go into any of these stores and with any luck, you’ll see it sitting there on the shelf in its unassuming blue box, humming to itself, waiting for a home.  We visit our games regularly whenever we travel.  It’s fun watching our tiny little empire spread.

Putting together this list made me think about one of the pleasures of working in the toy industry (which, believe me, is not something I ever expected to be doing in this short life!)  It’s a multibillion dollar industry based, essentially, on having fun.  And you really see that at the mom-and-pop toy store level, more than anywhere else.  Just the names of the stores say so much about the level of silliness that must prevail when one is a purveyor of toys and games.  It must have been such a blast to come up with store names for some of these folks.  Sure, there are lots of Toy Chests and Geppetto’s Toy Boxes, and those have a sweetness of their own.  But some of the stores we work with have to get a special shout-out for having the most original, silly, head-scratching, and/or generally awesome names.  Here are my Top Ten, in no particular order:

At Once All Agog (Limerick, ME)
Snickelfritz Toys (Vernon Hills, IL)
Toys on Fire (Nepean, ON)
Snakes and Lattes (Toronto, ON)
Strange Adventures (Halifax, NS)
Brain-a-thon Emporium (E. Hartford, CT)
Bean Head Toys (Sandy Springs, GA)
The Doll Hospital (Berkley, MI)
Anglo Dutch Pools and Toys (Bethesda, MD)
(OK, I admit I included this one because…wha?? But they do offer an explanation on their website.)
Mumbles and Squeaks (Ellicott City, MD)

I gotta admit, these guys rival our other favorite list of  brilliant store names: hairdressers in rural Maine.  But that’s a topic for another post. 

Trust me, these aren't all.  See who else is a proud Anomia stockist, and look for the store nearest you.  And we'd love to know - what’s the best toy or gift store name you’ve ever come across?

Jody

On Thursday, July 14th we'll be hosting a game night as part of the Roslindale Summer Stroll.

The business owners in Roslindale Village invite you to explore Roslindale Village’s independent shops, salons and restaurants, as well as take advantage of the free Summer Concert Series in Adams Park Thursday nights in July. Participating businesses will stay open late on Thursdays during the Summer Stroll, hosting special events such as art openings, trunk shows, demonstrations, live music and refreshments.

Come on down to the Emerald Society at 10 Birch Street in Roslindale, MA from 6-8pm for a chance to play Anomia and a whole bunch of other games!

Here's a map: http://bit.ly/oeq3Fo
Hope to see you there!

Andrew

We're psyched to announce that Anomia has won the coveted National Parenting Center Award for Spring 2011. 

Here's what the NPC has to say about Anomia:

"Anomia is an absolute blast for families to break out on family game night. You will all be shouting and laughing throughout this high energy game that elicits demands from all to be played over and over. What makes the game a real standout is that the playing field is truly even, meaning that kids can beat parents as easily as the other way around. There is matching, racing, blurting and lots more but one thing testers did not find and that was excessive or complicated rules. They are easy and straightforward, something that everyone pointed out and gave high marks for."

NPC testing involves "a multi-step process conducted over an eight week period." The testing facility is staffed by volunteers who are parents, children and educators. Everyone has a chance to examine the games submitted and, of course, play with them as well.  All testers rate each products level of "desirability, sturdiness, interactive stimulation and other ingredients essential in the make-up of a quality product. Test results are based on both statistical averaging and comments received from the parent/testers."

We're excited that Anomia has joined the ranks with great NPC approved games like Blink, Cranium and Ruckus!

We're extremely excited to announce that Anomia has won the Major Fun Award!

For those of you who don't know ...

"Major Fun is also known as the award-winning designer and educator, Bernie DeKoven. Bernie has been inventing new ways to play since the early 1970s when he developed a curriculum in social skill development through games for the School District of Philadelphia and helped the New Games Foundation develop its international training program in facilitating large scale community play events.

The MAJOR FUN AWARDS go to games and people that bring people fun, and to any organization managing to make the world more fun through its own personal contributions, and through the products it has managed to bring to the market."

Of Anomia, Bernie says:

"The game is very easy to learn, and after only a few minutes of play you’ll be completely, and intensely engaged. In a few minutes more, you’ll understand why you need to be even more focused on whose card has what symbol. And, in a few more minutes, you’ll probably have your first moment of anomia. ...Anomia is unexpectedly fun. It comes in a small, mild mannered box – exactly large enough to hold 200 cards and a rule sheet. There are no enticing graphics. No clever cartoons. Designed by Andrew Innes, it is the only game to be produced by Anomia Press. But the fun, my friends, the fun is Major!"

Some other great games that recently have been awarded the Major Fun seal are Zip-It (the newest title from the folks who brought you Bananagrams), Rat-a-Tat-Cat (Gamewright), and Rory's Story Cubes.

Thanks Bernie!

One year ago today I received my very first shipment of Anomia! It consisted of 2,500 games and weighed just over a ton.

I had worked long and hard on refining the game mechanics, writing, rewriting, and re-rewriting the rules, and working with designer, Joel Gendron, on the packaging. I was pretty excited when the real thing finally hit my doorstep. Actually, that might be an understatement.

I had lots of plans for how I was going to sell all of those games.  Some of those plans worked and some of them didn't, but suffice to say I wasn't really prepared for what the next 12 months would bring.

I managed to sell about 900 copies of Anomia by the end of 2009.  At the beginning of 2010 Anomia could be found in 3 stores in the Boston area.  As a new business, in a struggling economy, I was feeling pretty good about those numbers, though I knew I had a long way to go.

A lot has transpired since then. We had some major coverage in the Boston Globe Sunday Magazine. Anomia was one of the winners of the prestigious Mensa Select Award.  We attended the American Specialty Toy Retailers Association (ASTRA) conference in June and took on over 100 new accounts. Shortly after that we learned that Anomia had won ASTRA's Best Toy for Kids award for 2010. After the ASTRA show, and the Best Toy for Kids Award, things really started to snowball.

In a nutshell, things have been progressing at a great pace.  Almost too good at times. It's been hard to keep up! To give you a sense of where we are now.

• Over 15,000 copies of Anomia have been sold in the last 12 months!
• Anomia is now available in over 350 independently owned toy/game stores in the United States!
• We have distribution in Australia and Canada, and are working on more countries as we speak!
• We have sales reps from South Carolina all the way up to Maine. We hope to be expanding our list of states in the new year!
• Thankfully, I'm no longer shipping games out of my attic, but instead using a fulfillment center, which makes my life a lot easier!

As usual, I have to extend my thanks to all the people around the country, and the world, who have so readily embraced my oddly named game in the little blue box. Thanks, really.  It's very gratifying to see this game come to life, especially when you consider that I sat on the idea long enough to smother it forever.

So, what's next?  Well, we have a few new games in the works.  Some are of my own creation, others are from outside inventors. I'm hoping to start thoroughly play-testing these games in the new year so that I can potentially bring one or two of them to the next ASTRA show in June.

Anomia Press will also be expanding its ranks in the new year. My wife, Jody, will be taking on the role of COO in January. It's our hope that, with a little extra attention, we can continue to grow Anomia's distribution network both nationally and internationally, and spend a little less time working late into the night while we're at it.

All in all, it has been a tremendous year and an incredible adventure. Thanks again for all your support, and if you are so inclined, please keep spreading the word!

Cheers
Andrew

My friend Randy Kaplan just sent me a photo of a poster for a recent performance of his at Symphony Space in NYC..  If you are not familiar with his music, imagine a brilliant mix of Arlo Guthrie, Stephen Sondheim and Eminem. Randy makes music for kids AND adults as well.  If you don't know his work, you should.

In any case, the reason he sent me this image is that if you look closely you can see that he is playing Anomia!  How's that for product placement?  Thanks Randy!

See more about Randy here: http://www.randykaplan.com

Anomia Press is a proud sponsors of Awesome Office Party's game night at Microsoft NERD!

Be prepared for a fun night of board and card games, beer and pizza (with vegetarian and vegan options). We love the tech and start-up communities, but people who don't own computers or have "The Facebook" are welcome too! 

Thursday, October 14, 2010 from 6:30 PM - 9:30

Information here: http://bostontechgames1.eventbrite.com/

I got this feedback from an Anomia player named Bethany this weekend, via email:

"Last night while playing a 2 person game where a wild card matched both cards held by 1 player, someone gave an answer that worked for both. So we invented a new rule: if your answer works for both cards in play, you get both. Sometimes they just work together (comedian and tv host); sometimes it's sheer coincidence: farm animal + 3 letter word = cow."

Thanks Bethany, I  really like this spin on the two player game.  I'd add that if you win both cards, you should probably pick them up one at a time in case the first one you pick up spawns another face-off!

I'm really psyched that people are out there playing the two person version of Anomia!  For more information on alternate versions of Anomia, check out this page.

thanks!
Andrew