The pursuit of community betterment is a full-time job and more for Mark MacKinnon, be it in his role as a city councillor or as head of a publishing company responsible for creating a variety of tabletop games.
“Although this is obviously a job, of sorts, and it is a piece of work, at the same time it’s also art,” he said of bringing games to life. “It makes me feel like I’m contributing. One of the reasons I wanted to be a city councillor was to make the community better, well this is a way I can make it better in a different way.
“There are so many people who derive great enjoyment and establish community connections from gaming, and that’s one of the reasons why I’m so interested in it.”
MacKinnon is the owner and president of Dyskami Publishing which has been producing games since 2013. He’s also the primary designer for its various titles
“When you’re a small company, titles mean very little,” he said. “I work with some really great people, whether it’s on writing or artwork or whatnot.”
The company’s latest creation is Anime 5E, a role-playing game in the vein of Dungeons and Dragons (D&D), with a mix of Japanese anime. Taking advantage of the D&D open gaming licence, it uses that game’s system of rules and allows people to play using their favourite anime or manga characters.
“It’s a standalone, parallel game (to D&D),” MacKinnon explained. “You don’t need to own Dungeons and Dragons or know anything about Dungeons and Dragons to play.
“That said, most people who would be interested in Anime 5E want it because it uses the Dungeons and Dragons system … and they want to add anime to their D&D-style campaigns.”
With the game book nearly complete, Dykskami launched a Kickstarter campaign on Tuesday aimed at giving Anime 5E a financial boost and getting the game into the hands of wanting players.
Within 40 minutes, it surpassed the stated goal of raising $12,589. Two days later, about 1,600 people pledged a collective $150,000; the campaign is set to run for a total of three weeks.
Pledges can be made in various pre-set amounts, with people rewarded with the game in a variety of formats and editions, along with additional rewards, depending on their level of pledge.
“It’s been astoundingly successful,” MacKinnon said, adding the goal was set at the amount needed to cover the cost of printing game books. “Our company has run several Kickstarters in the past for different board games, role-playing games … nothing has come close to this particular game.”
Knowing the number of pledges helps determine the quantity of copies to be printed, MacKinnon added, noting distribution of physical copies will likely happen in the fall but PDF versions will be sent out next month so people can start playing.
“We’ll print extras for game stores and comic stores around the world that will want to carry this as well,” he said.
“It’s very clear, given the success of this Kickstarter, that there’s a lot of Dungeons and Dragons fans who are also anime fans and are looking to bring a slightly different perspective to the traditional Tolkien-esque, high fantasy-type games that Dungeons and Dragons is known for.”
With pledged funds above and beyond the set goal, it allows for larger print runs, upgraded quality of the printed book as well as graphics, increased content and more, MacKinnon added.
“It’s very common with Kickstarter … to reward the people who are backing you by giving some of those funds back in stretch goal rewards.”
MacKinnon wrote the game book during the past year, while the pandemic afforded him time, based on a game he previously created called Big Eyes, Small Mouth.
“I love designing games, role-playing games in particular,” he said. “Role playing is a great activity that you can do with your friends, digitally as well as face-to-face once things get better. There’s a lot of us gamer geeks out there.”
The success of Anime 5E allows Dyskami to expand its range of products, said MacKinnon.
“I only have a limited capacity with my time, but what this allows me to do is hire more external freelance support, whether that’s writers, artists, editors, designers and whatnot,” he said.
“This has allowed 1,600 people in the gaming community to fund the growth of the company.”
With the “core set of rules” and a “foundational piece” now in place with Anime 5E, and given its success even at this early stage, MacKinnon said people should expect more to come.
“It would make sense that we’re going to proceed forward in the future with expansion products,” he said, noting those expansions could involve characters, settings or more rules. “You want to make sure that you’re producing things that will keep your fan base interested.”
For more information about Anime 5E, visit http://Anime5E.com.