YouTube Plans Set!

by davidbock | News

We’ve been getting lots of emails and messaging from fans of our Instagram page as well as family and friends, wanting to know what our YouTube channel will be all about and when it will launch. February it seems was an insane deadline when I had no idea what I was doing or what I really wanted. And like the writer I am, many drafts later, I finally have a plan.

So here’s the official announcement.

Along with reviews – the focus of the Bock’s Games brand will be … drumroll … making! You heard that right. As an aspiring maker and maker-enthusiast I’ve fallen in love recently with some amazing channels out there and have decided to set my sights on bringing this same enjoyment to the board game community. So what does that all mean? What sort of “maker things” will the channel have?

YouTube Channel Overview!

• INSERT BUILDS! I’ll be designing and building custom inserts for my favorite board games. Likely, I will design these in sketch up and then put together a video crafting these inserts set to wonderful royalty-free music. My main source of inspiration in the look and feel would be Laura Kampf (and if you haven’t seen her stuff, go check it out). I’ll also be including how-to sections showing where I get my ideas and how I prototype them. I’ll be doing some extra special touches to these inserts as well to make them more than just a foam core shell. And at the beginning – the plans will be free on this website, though I’m sure that Patreon will get involved at some point.
• CUSTOM GAME PIECES! I’ll be designing and building custom game pieces for different games. Wood tokens. Dice trays. List goes on. I want these to be relatively easy for anyone to make or do on their own at home. My goal is not to offer these for sale, but to make it be something that an enthusiast with a little time and patience can make without breaking their budget.
• REVIEWS! Yep. I’ll still have these but they will be very short (less than 5 min when possible). These will be proper REVIEWS, not overviews. I won’t be going over the rules much because there are many excellent sites that offer this already. I want people to get a feel for the game and I’m not pulling punches. The first half of these videos will be me setting up the game, close ups of the parts, etc.
• COLLABORATIONS! I want to do these so bad and we already have one planned with A VINTAGE VANITY.
• AND MORE! Yes. More. I’ll be doing tips. Explaining game types. Showing where to get supplies. Possibly some painting tips as well. Everything I can offer to help gamers out and I’ll be taking your feedback on a regular basis.

When will this all start?

Well. See. I don’t know. I’m hoping within the next two weeks. My big goal right now is to have SOMETHING up on the site before GenCon. That’d be my big plan. It might not be super exciting, but it’ll be an excellent place holder for things to come! As of right now — Instagram reviews are on hold while I focus on getting this thing up and running and once it is, the reviews will start being on there with notes on Instagram to go watch them! I’ll be posting a TON from GenCon50, so stay tuned!

Thanks again for your support and if you have any ideas, don’t hesitate to message me or leave a comment below!

Our New Schedule!

by davidbock | News

David here. I thought it might be nice to add some consistency to the posts that we make throughout our platforms — specifically Instagram and YouTube.

For the time being I will be using the following schedule.

Sunday: YouTube Episode (Coming Soon)
Monday: Instagram Review
Tuesday: Game Night Bag
Wednesday: Instagram Review
Thursday: Unknown
Friday: Unknown
Saturday: Unknown

And now we need your help. We’d love some ideas for Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Perhaps we should do a top 4 games of a certain category? Maybe make a short video on gaming tips on Instagram. Perhaps these will be reserved for other videos within our upcoming youtube channel. We’d love your ideas. I recently made a post on Instagram about this so be sure to leave us a comment and let us know!

Giveaway + Youtube Update

by davidbock | News

We’re almost there. Only 14 followers as of this post to reaching 1000 on instagram. That completely blows my mind. When we hit that number, I’ll be setting up a giveaway for Gamelyn Games, TINY EPIC WESTERN (special thanks to them for providing the copy).

And of course, I felt the need to comment on my youtube channel which has been very slow going. While working on this board game review thing, I’ve also been writing a novel (specifically YA Fantasy). For more info on this you can check out www.davidbockwrites.com and follow me on twitter at davidbockwrites if you have any interest. That said, I am currently revising my book. and all the while I’ve been trying to decide what I wanted to do as far as style for this youtube series. And, I’ve finally made a decision. I want this channel to feel a bit Vlogbrothers / Tested / Shut Up Sit Down. My reviews are going to be short, less than 10 minutes and at least in the beginning, I’m not going to spend much time going over the rules as there are many excellent channels that do this. My goal is to create a short video that gives you a basic idea of gameplay and then my thoughts. I may also do videos on organizing games, making things for your games, small painting tips etc.

Timeline. Right. Well, I hope to have the youtube channel started by the end of June. That’s my current goal and hopefully, I can do better than that.

Thanks for the support!

Our guild is now live on BGG!

by davidbock | News

How cool is that? Please be sure to join us for news and discussions! We look forward to chatting with you! Join here!

Thanks for your interest!

by davidbock | News

Well hello there awesome person. My name is David and I’m the host of Bock’s Games (truthfully I’m not the host of anything because I don’t have any episodes up yet). My current hope is that I’ll have episodes live at the middle to end of February, if not sooner. That being said, here is the current to do list and focus.

• Instagram – I went live in the middle of January and in just two short weeks, I’ve been able to gather over 300 followers. Currently, my goal is 1000+ by the end of February. So what will I be using Instagram for? Well, my main purpose is to talk about what I am currently playing, whether at my local game night or with my wife, Cathy. I’ll post brief reviews, games to look out for, and recent purchases.
• Facebook – Currently I’m using this for communication with viewers as well as live feeds. If you’d like to see the occasional live feed be sure to like and follow. I may eventually move live feeds to YouTube.
• Twitter – I am using this the least at the moment. However, this will likely be my number one source for posting news. Regardless, the more followers I get, the more I’ll post on it!
• YouTube – And here’s the big one. I’m currently working on a couple of play lists. My first thing to post will be a collection of short videos that help new gamers and intermediate gamers learn terms and mechanisms in board games or at least get an understanding of what they are. These will then be linked to within my reviews and overviews of other games. I’m also working on a collection of longer videos in which I’ll focus on my thoughts on specific games. At some point I may offer tips on painting board game minis but we’ll see. I’m sure top 10 lists will make it in there at some point.
• Podcast – This is the big “WHAT IF”. Cathy and I are discussing the possibility of a podcast. We have a nice mic and we have lots of opinions. We love listening to podcasts and would love to contribute but it’s a matter of time and for us, we don’t do anything unless we can do it well. This will likely start as a monthly thing with topics focusing on stuff we’ve backed on kickstarter, games we’ve played at game night, board game news and upcoming episodes on youtube. I’m also hoping we might be able to get in a little Q&A section.

If you have a question for us, don’t hesitate to ask. We always do our best to respond to everyone. But be sure to put VIEWER QUESTION at the beginning of your subject line in your email to help me see them.

If you’re a board game company, we’d love to get review copies. Please contact me via the email at the bottom of this website and put BOARD GAME SUBMISSION in the subject line.

If you have an upcoming kickstarter, awesome! Congrats on going for it! If you’d like us to review your game, please let us know. Here’s how: Submit a short synopsis with “KICKSTARTER: Game Title” in the subject line. Be sure to also include a PDF of the rules for us to look over. We’ll look it over and let you know if it’s something we’d want to play and get back to you.

Thank you so much for your time. I look forward to hearing from you.
– David (and Cathy).