Author | Lightnews

XOtoXO Games @xotoxogames.bsky.social · 21d

Hi All, we are facing huge delivery delays across various cities in India as the courier network is choked with the Diwali rush. We hope it gets resolved quickly, but deliveries have taken on average 4-5 days longer than usual in the past two weeks.

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XOtoXO Games @xotoxogames.bsky.social · 25d

Went to a playtesting convention a couple of weeks ago, forgot to post about it, and managed to delete the photos as well 😑

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XOtoXO Games @xotoxogames.bsky.social · Sep 5

Bluesky has cut the audio out of the clip for some reason.

XOtoXO Games @xotoxogames.bsky.social · Sep 5

Today is Onam, a festival celebrated in the South Indian state of Kerala. As part of festivities, it is tradition to have a feast on a banana leaf. This is called a Sadya. One of the games in Masala Lab is called Sadya, inspired by this. Players collect food to serve on their leaves in the game.

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XOtoXO Games @xotoxogames.bsky.social · Aug 14

This is obviously a prototype, without any artwork on the board.

XOtoXO Games @xotoxogames.bsky.social · Aug 14

Playtesting our upcoming game Chettinad Duet, that will replace our first game, Athangudi. There will be two games that can be played out of the box. Both games are for 2 players. Pictured is a resource management game with 4 paths to win, where you play as merchants in a Chettinad village.

Boardgame with some counters, tiles and chess pieces placed on the board.

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XOtoXO Games @xotoxogames.bsky.social · Aug 6

Masala Lab and Athangudi are now available to purchase at The Dogears Bookstore in Margao, Goa. Visitors to Goa can drop by this cute little store and pick up a copy 😊

Photo of entrance to The Dogears Bookshop. Text reads "we are located at Rua Bernardo da Costa Road, Near Menezes Hospital, Margao - Goa"

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XOtoXO Games @xotoxogames.bsky.social · Jul 23

A group of Indian designers are running their first kickstarter with 3 PNP games. Do check it out. Just backed it! www.kickstarter.com/projects/sid...

Tadoba | Sinauli | Muziris | 3-in-1 PNP Games by IBGDC

India's stories, brought to you by Indian game designers, developers and artists

www.kickstarter.com

XOtoXO Games @xotoxogames.bsky.social · Jun 12

Congratulations!

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XOtoXO Games @xotoxogames.bsky.social · Jun 12

A couple of pictures from our pop up at Vinyl and Brew cafe in Chennai.

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XOtoXO Games @xotoxogames.bsky.social · Jun 9

Having a small pop up at a cafe - Vinyl and Brew, on TTK road, Chennai from Jun 10-12 (tomorrow onwards). We will be there from 1 PM. Drop by and say hi!

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XOtoXO Games @xotoxogames.bsky.social · Jun 1

Have we mentioned that we turned our rulebook into a comic for Masala Lab? It's illustrated, colourful and a bit cheeky sometimes 😉

A page from the rulebook of Masala Lab kept on top of the game box. The page is laid out and illustrated like a comic.

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XOtoXO Games @xotoxogames.bsky.social · May 27

Pretty chuffed with this review of Athangudi we got on Instagram

Review text: played Athangudi by xotoxogames. It is a clever, culturally rich tile drafting game. The 4x4 grid puzzle feels satisfying with strategic choices each round. Beautifully themed, quick to at. Scoring mid game and at the end keeps things exciting. A perfect blend of art, culture and smart gameplay.

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XOtoXO Games @xotoxogames.bsky.social · Apr 14

Our boardgame Masala Lab has this theme of serving food on a banana leaf as it's center piece. Thank you for coming to this TED Talk.

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XOtoXO Games @xotoxogames.bsky.social · Apr 14

Additional context: today is the solar new year across several parts of India. It is celebrated as Vishu in Kerala, Bihu in Assam, Baisakhi in Punjab, Poila Baisakh in Bengal, and Tamil new year as well. Vishu in Kerala is celebrated with a feast (Sadya) typically served on a banana leaf as shown

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XOtoXO Games @xotoxogames.bsky.social · Apr 14

Our social media posting sucks so much that we forgot today is a Sadya day and that we have a game about Sadya we can plug (didn't forget to eat Sadya though)

Board game Masala Lab with a banana leaf board, along with some cards with pictures of Indian food on them.

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XOtoXO Games @xotoxogames.bsky.social · Apr 7

Nope

XOtoXO Games @xotoxogames.bsky.social · Apr 6

Little game of the month: Guess where? Can be arrived at with a little bit of sleuthing with Google even if you don't know the place.

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XOtoXO Games @xotoxogames.bsky.social · Mar 19

Reposting for those who may have missed it:

XOtoXO Games @xotoxogames.bsky.social · Mar 13

Turn your phone into a boardgame! A 2-player mini game of police chasing a robber across Bangalore, that plays in under 5 min. Just use this map of Bangalore on your phone as you play with friends and family. Download and send it to them, you can even play remotely. It's free!

An artist drawn map of the Indian city of Bangalore, featuring landmarks such as Vidhana soudha, Bangalore palace, Cubbon park, Chinnaswamy stadium, UB city, and Majestic bus stand. The image can be used to play a boardgame for 2 players called "Escape from Bangalore".

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XOtoXO Games @xotoxogames.bsky.social · Mar 15

Just made some weekend plans for you all ⬇️

XOtoXO Games @xotoxogames.bsky.social · Mar 13

Turn your phone into a boardgame! A 2-player mini game of police chasing a robber across Bangalore, that plays in under 5 min. Just use this map of Bangalore on your phone as you play with friends and family. Download and send it to them, you can even play remotely. It's free!

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XOtoXO Games @xotoxogames.bsky.social · Mar 13

Learn how to play here:

Escape from Bangalore
Time to play: 5 min or less.
No of Players: 2 (One is the Robber, the other is the Police)
Goal: The Robber should avoid getting caught by the Police for 5 turns.
What you need: Keep this map of Bangalore open on your phone.
How to Play: There are 9 sectors on the map. The Police has to identify the sector the Robber is currently in to catch them.
How the Robber plays: Robber plays first. The Robber can choose any 1 of the 9 sectors to start. The starting sector is not revealed. The Robber can move either 0, 1 or 2 sectors per turn.To count the number of sectors traveled in a turn, check the number of sector borders crossed. If a border is crossed, you have crossed 1 sector. But Robber can only travel via either Road or Metro. For eg: Robber can't move from Sector 4 to Sector 7 because there's no direct connection.
How the Police plays: Police plays after the Robber's turn and has to guess where the Robber is. The police can directly move to any sector without following roads or Metro (Because there are police stations in each sector). On the Police's turn, they have to mention a sector number they think the Robber is at.
Nabbing the Robber:
If the Sector mentioned by the Police is the same as the Robber's current sector after Robber's latest turn, the Robber is caught. If the sector is not the right one, the Robber has to either say: Yellow: If Robber is in any physically adjacent sector to the one mentioned by Police (touching the sector on any side. For eg: Sectors 4, 5 and 8 are adjacent to 7.) Red: If the Robber is any sector that is not touching the one mentioned by Police. If the Robber is not caught, the Robber can play again after the Police's turn.If the Robber evades capture for 5 turns, the Robber wins.
If the Police manages to capture the Robber within 5 turns, the Police win.
Switch roles after a game to try the other role.
Though the game is called Escape from Bangalore, you will notice you can't escape from Bangalore, du…

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XOtoXO Games @xotoxogames.bsky.social · Mar 13

Turn your phone into a boardgame! A 2-player mini game of police chasing a robber across Bangalore, that plays in under 5 min. Just use this map of Bangalore on your phone as you play with friends and family. Download and send it to them, you can even play remotely. It's free!

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XOtoXO Games @xotoxogames.bsky.social · Mar 7

When will bluesky introduce polls?

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XOtoXO Games @xotoxogames.bsky.social · Feb 12

Orders of Masala Lab (standard box) on our website are shipped with this fun tote bag. It's mainly to protect the box from damage during travel (instead of bubble wrap), but customers can later use it to do their shopping or whatever instead of just discarding plastic wrap.

White canvas tote bag with a caricature of an egret holding a die on it. Caption reads "play without regrets (egrets welcome)".

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XOtoXO Games @xotoxogames.bsky.social · Feb 5

Recently a customer told us how they (a group of friends) play Athangudi over the phone 🤯. All of them have a set and they call out actions. Sounds complicated but they seem to be having fun ☺️ hadn't even considered this to be a possibility.