ShenbotMakesLabs

And My Tax (physical edition)

Anyone interested in picking this up? The fancier ones include a mini dice set. $15 with dice, $10 without. Shrug. I don’t know. Is that fair? /shrug

Store link: https://www.deluxeplayset.com/product/and-my-tax

(Behind the Scenes) Timelapse of Operation North Pole

(EARLY RELEASE) Operation North Pole

Hello!

I don't have a fun name for this type of game yet, so let's just enjoy it as is. For those who are unfamiliar (or familiar, even) with folding zines, this one uses a slightly different method. It uses one without cutting! You can find details here: https://3skulls.itch.io/pocketfold

You'll need 1d6 to play this.

Happy holidays!

(PREVIEW) planning the last game of the year

Haven’t figured out how to do this in a more streamlined way, but here we go! Planning out the last game for 2024. See you soon!

Quests Over Coffee & Friends

Maybe a cute comic strip or something I’m not sure

(EARLY RELEASE) Double-Six Solitaire

I really wanted to do something with dominoes, thus was born this game from my brain blob. Wide release next week! Mandatory marketing-esque blurb below:

Do you have a set of double-six dominoes on your house and are looking to try a new solo game experience? Try your hand on this twist on the classic dominoes game that transforms the table into a strategic battleground: Double-Six Solitaire!

You play seven tiles each turn, but here's the catch: only connecte...

Shenbot Makes Clipart

Link: https://shenbotmakes.blogspot.com

I'm taking a page out of the book of https://www.kenney.nl and https://www.irasutoya.com/ . I'm going to be drawing art assets that are free to use. Let's see if I can see my silly drawings take plastered in every co...

Quests Over Coffee - Final Expansion - ight imma head out

The last Quests Over Coffee expansion is here for you fine folks.

This 9-card expansion includes 3 Quests, 1 Environment, 2 Companions, and 3 Items. Some familiar faces here and probable fates.

Thank you for being here. I'm not quite sure what the final card count on Quests Over Coffee is now... but it surely is at least, like, 32.

(EARLY RELEASE) Skull and Cat Fonts

This has been on my list of things to make for a very long time.

Introducing two new fonts: Dumb Skul and Cat Face!

Free for personal use. Commercial licenses available! This is part of my plan to release assets for people to use (just like https://kenney.nl/ ).

The future of Quests Over Coffee

Oh, hello.

I wanted to share with you the future of what's happening with Quests Over Coffee moving on. The plan is to do one more release in December, probably larger than most previous releases, and then call it a day. It's been really fun supporting and adding content for the game over the last two years. There have been so many great opportunities to meet people, chat with them, and share my work. I'm super grateful!

What does this mean for Shenbot Makes and t...

(RELEASE) Quests Over Coffee Promos - Math

Just a small Quests Over Coffee promo release this month. Thanks for sticking around!

October 2024 Giveaway Results

Sorry for the delay! Winner please message me to claim your prize! Thank you all to those who participated!

(EARLY RELEASE) Star Dust

Happy Sunday! The early release for roll-and-write game Star Dust is now out. I've included both a score sheet for left-handed (me) and right-handed players. What does that even mean? You'll see when you print it out.

I've also released a video on TikTok on a playthrough: https://www.tiktok.com/@shenbotmakes/video/7437961433612029230

That's not all! I've also restocked the store ...

(PREVIEW) Star Dust

Gotta use those Tales Over Tea dice for more games.

Quests Over Coffee Rules v2.1.0

Added a new variant that allows for a more streamlined and consistent scoring mechanism. It's pretty straight forward and I'm surprised I didn't do it this way at first.

Quest Board Variant Setup

Oh, hello! Welcome to the Quests Over Coffee quest board! Here you will find new set up and scoring rules that should offer a more streamlined and consistent Quests Over Coffee Experience. 

When setting up your 10 Quest cards, choose: 3x 1-Star Quests, 4x 2-Sta...

(EARLY RELEASE) OOBAT (mobile friendly)

I've been playing NYT Games daily (except now - they're on strike), and decided it would be neat to make a mobile-ready game that is kind of thinky, kind of easy, and whatnot.

So here we go: OOBAT! It's effectively reverse Taboo. Instead of giving clues that aren't on a list of forbidden words, you are given clues and have to guess the word.

Spooky Halloween Games

Hello! For those looking for some spooky fun this season, check out the collection of spooky games from Shenbot Makes! There is a mix of digital and physical games.

Link: https://itch.io/c/4955264/spooky-halloween-games

(PREVIEW) Monsters Over Pancakes II (WIP name)

I'm pretty excited to share these images with you! They're a bit of an upgrade from my other games, but also maintain what you've come to love/hate.

The game essentially will have you choose a Player Card, which dictates which MOP2 dice you put in your Dice Bag. Then you will play Spell cards from your hand as you try to defeat the Boss within 5 turns.

When you play a Spell card, you draw the number of dice shown in the top left to roll. With appropriate matches, you can choose wh...

NYT Games players?

Anyone play NYT Games? Would love to play with y’all!

https://www.nytimes.com/puzzles/leaderboards/invite/ed21be27-af98-49ee-8b43-914dadf8f037

Join The Mini leaderboard created by shenbot to keep track of each other's solve times. Game on!

(EARLY RELEASE) Monster Party

Busy weekend! I imagine I'll be a bit out of pocket toward the end of October, so I wanted to make sure that the spooky game go to y'all as soon as possible.

Monster Party is a 2-player (gasp) bidding game where you are trying to recruit the most powerful monsters into your party... or maybe you're trying to invite the strongest ones to your Monster Party (Mash)?

The print-and-play is 27 cards total and no other components needed.

Have a spooky good time!

(RELEASE) Tiny Maze Things

Tiny Maze Things is now released to everyone! Demo with 10 mazes available to download for free. You can get the full set of 200 mazes if you're a Digital subscriber or you can purchase it on itch.io.

Link: https://alexandershen.itch.io/tiny-maze-things

(Design Diary) Monsters Over Pancakes v2

Oh, hello.

I'm working on a new design for Monsters Over Pancakes. It will use the same dice sets, but the game will be different. I also plan to Kickstart this one as it's going to be a bit more involved with tokens and whatnot. I've been getting quotes on dice as I think having some professionally made dice would be pretty cool. A first for me!

My promise to you Patreon members: Digital tier and above will get access to the print-and-play for free. Anyone w...

October 2024 Giveaway - Pim Pam

Hello! This month's giveaway is a copy of my game Pim Pam! It had a pretty good run on Kickstarter and you can play the digital demo here: https://alexandershen.itch.io/pim-pam-demo

Just like and comment on this post to enter! A like and comment are each their own entries.

Free members get 1 entry, Digital members get 3 entries, and Digital+ members get 5 entries. Giveaway ends on 1...

(RELEASE) Quests Over Coffee October Promos

UPDATE 10/16: Someone asked for a card back with bleed. I redid the files so that's now included.

Hello! I realized that some of y'all did not get a chance to back the Gamefound BestWith1 version of the game, thus did not get a chance to try out the Adventure Mode, which featured a battle with a special "Boss" quest card.

I decided to create a few for y'all so you can try it too!

I don't have the rights or permissions to distribute the BestW...

(Update) Itch.io Top 25 Print-and-Play Games

I updated the calculation for game ranking on my site. What happens now is I assign points to the top 25 games from each day. Then I sum up all the points for the titles based on their ranking. This then determines the actual ranking I upload to the site.

I think this is a better representation because prior to this I was simply uploading the Top 25 games on Sundays.

You can find it free and updated weekly below!

Link: 2024-10-14 00:35:45 +0000 UTC View Post

Playing Tiny Maze Things

Trying to be hip and cool with TikTok.

(Early Release) Tiny Maze Things

Felt compelled to get a game of sorts out to you as soon as possible as I feel like it's been a quiet month so far. That's unfair!

This is a silly maze game. I think I've run the course with maze games for now.

200 mazes!

(Design Diary) I lost my notebook.

In a series of unfortunate events, I have lost my notebook. The 400 page design notebook I carry around with me 90% of the time was misplaced. Somewhere. Possibly at the Red Cross donation center. Possibly at a cafe. I don't know.

I was at the last 10 pages or so of it as well!

I'm bummed because I had a tile laying game design in there and I had done all of the final artwork for, but I never officially wrote down the rules in a document. And knowing me, multiple ideas at once, I ...

September 2024 Newsletter

And we are now in the bonus round!

Looks like in September I crossed the 24 games/expansions goal! How very exciting to be on this side of things. I was wondering if I was going to be able to do it. There were definitely times where I was unsure, but I'm glad that I persisted. And honestly, I know for a fact that I wouldn't have been able to if it weren't for everyone here reading, commenting, liking, and sharing my games. You're probably tired of me telling it, but t...

(Design Diary) Monster Party and Treasure Hunter Remastered

Hello! I’m currently on vacation with the family and when it’s night time, quiet, and the kids are asleep, I can draw. Also having my phone used as a sound machine for them sort of forces me to not be on it (ha ha).

I’ve had the opportunity to do the new artwork for Treasure Hunter Remastered. I also designed a new 2-player bidding game appropriately called Monster Party for October.

Thanks for joining me today!