Welcome to the Squirrel Market

In one week on June 1st, our second game, SHINIES, will be released. SHINIES is a trick-taking card game aimed at kids ages 8 and up. It features fun illustrations and straightforward rules for a fast-paced game with a ‘classic card game’ feel the whole family can enjoy. But SHINIES is also part of a larger mythos, tied into another game we’re working on for the future. The game itself is straightforward, but it still has a bit of lore to go with it. To that end, we present this short introduction to the world of SHINIES with The Squirrel Market. Enjoy! 🙂
~~~~~~

Deep in the forest, the Squirrel Market lies,
Hustling and bustling with free enterprise;
All who reside there, and all who arrive,
Barter their Shinies in order to thrive.

Some squirrels are makers, often uptight,
Reluctant to let treasures out of their sight

Some squirrels are traders; they’re clever and sly,
Buying and selling is how they get by.

Some squirrels are finders, it’s fortune they seek;
‘In and out fast’ is their favorite technique.

Rats are the salesmen, all chock-full of spunk,
But beware–their ‘great deals’ are mostly just junk.

The weasels are con-artists, masters of theft;
They’ll steal with the right hand, and sell with the left.

The Squirrel Market can be a most hectic place,
Where everything moves at a chaotic pace;
So come try your luck and join in on the fun!
Who knows? When it’s over, perhaps you’ll have won!

~~~~~~~~~~~

All content is the property of Roan Arts LLC. Copying or reproduction for profit or without attribution without permission is not permitted. The authors are Lia Wolff and James Weimer. The artist is Caytlin Vilbrandt.

The Team

We never really did a proper introduction of the whole Roan Arts team, so since we’ve already done Caytlin, we thought we’d introduce the rest of us too! Hereafter, this post will be appended to the About page.

Roan Arts LLC currently consists of six core Team Members (Team Roan Arts!). Many of us are long-time friends, with a few new friends added to the mix.

James Weimer President & CEO
James, known as Jamie to his friends, is the creator of Roan Arts. A lover of the creative arts since childhood, he has dabbled in acting, writing, comics, graphic design, costuming & fashion, music composition, and even tried to film a movie once; but his true passion lies in game design and interactive media. Jamie’s motivation and conviction keeps us moving forward, seeking out new avenues of innovation to explore and keep us growing and experimenting.

Samuel Hanson Creative Director
Samuel (Sam) is one of the creative forces of Roan Arts. The initial ideas for all our games come out of his or Jamie’s heads. Sam particularly enjoys the world-building and game mechanic aspects of game-creation. He has been gaming since age 3, starting on the classic Atari system . Sam and Ryan are child-hood friends with a history of gaming together.

Brad Ward Operations Manager
Brad is a lifelong gamer, both console and tabletop. He enjoys being part of the creative process and facilitating the production of exciting new additions to the gaming world. His business-sense helps keep us on the right track for success. Brad and his wife Kestrel game together, and look forward to introducing their toddler son to the wonderful world of games as he grows.

Ryan Mitchell Design Director
Ryan is also a life-long gamer whose experience with different types of games helps him ensure Roan Arts games get all the rough edges properly knocked off. A competitive Pokemon: Gameboy and Magic: The Gathering player, he has won several tournaments in the past. He began his table-top gaming career with Sam, playing DragonStrike with their friends. Ryan currently resides in Washington State with his girlfriend.

Kestrel Ward Director of Public Relations
Kestrel is a social-media junky. Knowing the attitude of most of the other team-members toward things like Twitter and Facebook, she volunteered to create the company’s community. She enjoys talking and interacting with our small but growing community of fans. Kestrel is also a writer, mother, and wife.

Caytlin Vilbrandt Artistic Director
Caytlin is a professional artist from the Pacific Northwest. She is also a fan of My Little Pony (pretty much a perquisite for Roan Arts Team Members!) and an avid gamer. If you’d like to check out her portfolio, it is at www.cvilbrandt.com. She also has a DeviantArt and a Tumblr page, all great places to find more of her delightful talent

Contest Update

Updated with the Winner!

That’s it folks! Our Hunters Release Day Giveaway is officially closed now! The winner is Nicole Jekich! We’re delighted to be sending you your own free copy of Hunters: Battle of Arkady! We also wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone who participated, and especially to thank everyone who bought a copy of the game already. Truly, we’ve been blown away by the positive response we’ve received, and it’s given us more confidence as we move forward into releasing more games. Our goal is to make fun games for people to play, so it’s always wonderful when people get excited about our work.

BIG HUGS AND THANK YOU FROM TEAM ROAN ARTS!!

We will absolutely be doing more give-aways in the future, so keep an eye out on our social media and news spaces for those announcements.

Finally, don’t forget our second game SHINIES, with more art by the talented Caytlin, will be available for sale on June 1st!

‘Hunters’ Release and Giveaway!

This is it! We’re here! Today is May 1st, the official release day for Hunters: Battle of Arkady, Roan Arts’ first board-game! Play alongside your friends, standing together to battle the forces of darkness and save the world!

To purchase your own copy, follow this link to buy directly from our store on The Game Crafter (that link will be permanently posted on our homepage, Roan-Arts.com as well). Each copy of the game is $34.99 + shipping. The box includes over a hundred cards, including Monsters, Powers, Locations, Characters and more, with many tokens, game pieces, dice, and complete instructions.

Hunters: Battle of Arkady

The game itself is the brain-child of James Weimer, fearless leader and CEO, with design assistance from Samuel Hanson, our Creative Director. Development was overseen by Brad Ward, Ryan Mitchell and Kestrel Ward with assistance from Brian Fox, Kery de Griffin, Hunter Henry, Kevin Horan, Daniel Simpson and Michael Simpson. The art displayed inside and outside the box was created by Caytlin Vilbrandt, our amazing and talented Artistic Director, with help from Stephanie Cox and Michael Simpson.

We are actually SO excited to be releasing our first game, that we’re running a giveaway for it! We’ll be giving away one free copy of Hunters: Battle of Arkady to a lucky winner! All you have to do is enter through this direct link, the handy Rafflecopter Widget on our Facebook page or the link on our Website. Everyone gets a free entry just for signing up, but there’s ways to get more entries, mainly by sharing this post on social media and the like. We’ll keep the contest open for two weeks, then announce the official winner on May 15th!

Of course, if you can’t wait that long to get your hands on a copy of the game, but still want to be part of the contest, go ahead and enter! If you win, you can always find a friend to gift your prize to! After all, board games make great gifts and Hunters: Battle of Arkady might be the perfect present for the horror-game fan in your life! ^_^

Hunters: Battle of Arkady
Box Contents