Al Caynes is attempting to teach us some Mexican Wrestling moves and I am all in.
Tell us who you are and what you have designed?
I Am Al Caynes, I own Senyac Games, a small design and future publishing company here in Melbourne, Australia. I completed my first successful Kickstarter earlier this year for El Luchador Fantastico grande, a 2-4 player dice and card brawler based loosely on Mexican wrestling. I currently have several titles that are being looked at by publishers from Australia and the USA.
I did see that Kickstarter and had no idea it was from Australia!
What is it that makes you want to design games?
I love to see people having fun with things I create. Maybe in the future I can become a publisher and help others do the same, but for now I just love seeing people enjoy what I create. I also love to support equality and that seeps over to my designs where I try and represent as many sexes and races as I can muster in a theme. I also love to go with themes that you don’t normally see, such as El Luchador Fantastico Grande that is based as a Mexican Luchador game. That’s fairly unique and adds to a hilarious theme full of colour.
Great themes and commitments. I also try to incorporate equality into everything I create.
What are the games that inspire you most?
It depends on how you look at it. I grew up with a massive amount of 80’s boardgames like Car Wars, Space Hulk and Hero Quest but also with games like Magic : The Gathering, D&D, the TMNT Roleplaying Game and Warhammer 40k. I’m inspired by too many games to really mention, you know? At the moment I’m loving anything and everything Scott Almes (such as Tiny Epic Galaxies) and things like Pandemic: Legacy.
Sounds like you and I grew up in the same era roughly.
What makes Australian games different from others?
At the moment, Australian games are young and a lot of designers, myself included, tend to make smaller games that are mostly based on cards or dice or even both. I think this will evolve over time as Australia gets better known for our designers and we will start to branch out to medium/heavy games. I know some designers working on heavier games at the moment, but for now we are trying to make games as fun and cheap as possible. Our unfortunate dollar issue mixed with the expense of making a game here is really pushing us towards lighter games.
We basically have to print in China to really make anything we do worth the money.
Where can we get your games from?
You can buy copies from 93 Made games at http://www.93madegames.com.au/store/p11/El_Luchador_Fantastico_Grande.html for $30 AUD for everything you need to play!
Are you working on anything at the moment?
At the moment I’m working with my friend, Matt Champlin on a wrestling based deck builder with a spin on how you aquire cards, a dice rolling bidding game, an engine building micro game, a drafting and racing game and a number of other games as well.
Very cool.
Anything else you would like to mention?
Keep your eye on Australian designs, Good Games and Rule & Make being publishers is going to really help out on getting our games published and its an exciting time for Australian game design!
Sounds like another neat little card game that I may have to pick up for the store!
That is it! For the moment I have reached the end of my list. If anyone hops on and fills out the form before the end of November I will certainly add more, and if time is willing, I will do one that covers me. Until next time – keep rolling!