Does Cola Wars match your taste? :https://crdbrd.app/hub/game/682109fe-a66d-402c-a141-f4f9cf13c2d6
Matthew Meeple took his first game to Gen Con, put six people on it at once, and found out mid-demo that it literally could not be won. He raised $476,000 on it anyway. He's the founder of One More Turn Games — publisher of ⚔️ ASCENDANCY and the upcoming 🥤 COLA WARS — and he quit his job to do all of it.
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🎙️ IN THIS EPISODE:
🎲 A working cardboard vending machine that rolls your dice — no batteries, just a wooden dowel
📦 The box fight: hundreds of backers arguing over a retro 1985 box nobody can fit in a Kallax
😰 The delay email he was "terrified" to send — and why the replies changed how he runs campaigns
🕹️ "We actually can't win the game" — the Gen Con demo that sent ASCENDANCY back to the drawing board
🥤 How he saw an 80s nostalgia game in Cameron Fleming's prototype from the title alone
🧠 Two battlefields — "mind share" in the consumer's head, "shelf share" in the aisles of Thirst City
💼 Hire executives, fire them for the salary savings, and send interns to file TPS reports
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🔗 LINKS
🥤 Cola Wars on Gamefound
▶ https://gamefound.com/en/projects/onemoreturngames/cola-wars
🎮 One More Turn Games
▶ https://onemoreturngames.com/pages/cola-wars
📺 One More Turn Games on YouTube
▶ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMpadGN6IfX_gt5WhTFdytg
❤️ Support My Work — Join Cardboard
▶ https://crdbrd.app/
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🎧 TOO LONG TO WATCH? THIS IS NOW A PODCAST!
🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-board-game-secret-show/id6785378165
🟢 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033GRnTDINaxqcoJksaCl4
🔵 Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/01414914-23bd-4f4c-a29f-50daa231f364
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⏱️ CHAPTERS
00:00 - Cold open
00:40 - Who is Matthew Meeple?
01:59 - He quit his job to go all-in on One More Turn Games
03:41 - ASCENDANCY funded fast - would he do it again?
07:15 - Why his FIRST game was a huge asymmetric 4X
08:33 - What the first campaign actually taught him
12:00 - Never missing an update - ethics or compulsion?
13:48 - The box fight: retro and unstorable, or shelf-friendly?
18:33 - Will COLA WARS go retail?
20:35 - The update he was terrified to send
22:51 - Is crowdfunding oversaturated?
31:35 - The crazy vending machine dice tower
34:23 - Publisher trust, and the CMON problem
39:15 - Why he switched from Kickstarter to Gamefound
41:09 - The Gen Con demo where nobody could win the game
50:42 - Cutting the scope to actually ship
1:00:23 - ASCENDANCY is going digital
1:01:33 - The crafting game he still wants to make
1:03:45 - Finding Cameron Fleming at Gen Con
1:07:33 - What 20 years in advertising brought to the mechanics
1:09:53 - Shelf space: fast food to fine dining
1:12:48 - How a cardboard vending machine rolls dice
1:14:30 - Market research: buying your way out of bad luck
1:20:59 - Why your mind share halves every year
1:23:20 - Vice presidents, and the Ari Gold problem
1:25:31 - Hiring executives - and interns who ruin everything
1:32:11 - What is in store for the campaign
#cardboard #bgss #colawars
