Meet The Crew
Lead Developer and Owner: Matt Hanna
It has been a very long road to get here with more than a few bumps along the way. However, we are finally here and ready to show off the fruits of our labors. I have spent all I can getting here; I hope you the customer will see and enjoy all that hard work.
What was the first board game you played: Life or monopoly (Thanks sis!)
Favorite Board Game: Hero Quest
Favorite pen and paper: Fantasy Flight Star Wars
Favorite Indie Board Game: Burning Suns or Windward... extremely hard choice.
How did you join Maniple Games: Boss man
How many houses have you played in Tux Rebellion? 7
Contributions to The Tu’x Rebellion: The lion’s share of everything it is my fantasy creation
after all
Favorite House: 7th Corps!
Favorite Ability: I have a favorite for every house
7th Corps, Lilian's Grace
House Kel, its Fireshot because it deletes enemy units
House Shobal, Kinetic Mortar because the inventors are a deceptively powerful unit.
House Lotan, Formation Citadel because it invokes such an awesome scene in my head and its very powerful.
Head of Human Resources: Loki Hanna
The humans have spent many hours in the basement under my strict supervision. The game they have come up with is impressive though I did have the guide them on more than one occasion.
What was the first board game you played: Dice Soccer
Favorite Board Game: Mousetrap
Favorite pen and paper: Fantasy Flight Star Wars - so many dice to play with!
Favorite Indie Board Game: The Isle of Cats
How did you join Maniple Games: Matt made the wise decision to place me in HR
How many houses have you played in Tux Rebellion? All of them
Contributions to The Tu’x Rebellion: Made sure the human stayed on task and feed.
Favorite House: House Kel
Favorite Ability: Kel Hot Shot, I do enjoy seeing the opponents hopes and dreams come to a crashing end when I turn off all those fancy abilities.
Developer: Brian Davis
It has been fun over the long years to see the changes in the industry of board games. What sort of games Mr. Davis and I have been looking for in the early years and what has come along since then. I think we can both say things have gotten a lot better and a lot more interesting. He has contributed quite a lot of certain houses and to outside the norm ideas which helped shape the game going forward.
What was the first board game you played: Candy Land
Favorite Board Game: Cosmic Encounter by Mayfair Games
Favorite pen and paper: Mage the Ascension 1E by White Wolf games. (I am also fond of Changeling) I love the open-ended magic system based on crafting a detailed worldview. My favorite spheres are Matter, Entropy, and Mind.
Favorite Indie Board Game: Cosmic Encounter by Mayfair Games
How did you join Maniple Games: Matt is a former student I met in 2003. I have been rooting for this game and company to get going for about 15 years. This year I became free to formally join the company.
How many houses have you played in Tux Rebellion? I have played House Kel and House Shobal for the base game. Of the expansion houses, I have played House Seir, House Tyrell, House Rivera, and House Alvan
Contributions to The Tu’x Rebellion: I have inspired several quotes in the game. I contributed lots of time as a sounding board and game tester. I contributed ideas for House Shobal and House Tyrell
Favorite House: House Shobal is my favorite because it fits my philosophy of combat, “If I can kill you from over here, why wouldn’t I?”
Favorite Ability: My favorite ability is the energy pistol for the Shobal Inventors. This is a defensive repeating pistol that damages an attacker every time the inventors get attacked.
Developer: Lawton Trendel
Lawton has been Player and GM of more than a few games ranging all over the genres and settings. It is always enjoyable to see him handle things as they spin into and out of control during the sessions. Lawton has been a big help getting things to where they are now. Certain features and flavors of the houses have been improved greatly because of his insights and idea’s
What was the first board game you played: I have vivid memories of Chutes and Ladders and Candyland with my Sisters as a very young child.
Favorite Board Game: I don't play "traditional" board games very often anymore. If card games count, I would say Fluxx, but as a Kid I always liked Pictionary.
Favorite pen and paper: I play a lot of Dungeons & Dragons, mostly as a DM. While I mostly play 5th Edition these days, 3.5e is by far my favorite version.
Favorite Indie Board Game: Probably either Burning Suns by SunTzuGames or The Firefly Board Game by Gale Force Nine.
How did you join Maniple Games: I met the owner (Matt Hanna) at a surprise party he helped set up for a mutual friend of ours about 6 or 7 years ago. At the party I was introduced to a number of awesome games such as Hero Quest and Cosmic Encounters. Eventually Matt told me about his game The Tu'x Rebellion and I immediately wanted to play, and with that I slowly and insidiously began to insert myself into the project through a series of calculated moves and countermoves.
How many houses have you played in Tux Rebellion: I have played as 4 different Houses so far, House Seir, House Kel, House Rivera, and House Xavier aka The Royal House
Contributions to The Tu’x Rebellion: A lot of my time involved in the game has been in playtesting and offering ideas and critiques to gameplay. I have also assisted in minor and major redesigns to a couple of the Houses, and played a Large part in the creation and design of The Royal House and Policy system.
Favorite House: A really hard decision, but I'd have to say it's a tie between House Seir (I absolutely Love Cavalry), and The Royal House.
Favorite Ability: I suppose I will just try to pick one for each of my favorite Houses. For Seir I can't get enough of Momentum, which allows the unit to move around pretty freely and gain a boost to damage by doing so. For the Royal House, Legion Etiquette is just too fun as it lets you block or remove negative events that happen to other players.
Developer: Cole Thompkins
I have played quite a few different games with Cole over the years. I have always appreciated his creative process in dealing with the myriad of challenges that crop up from those games. Particularly in the P&P games with some of his wacky but effective characters he comes up with. Even though he joined in later in the process he has helped a lot with the testing and refining of the game, I have talked to him repeatedly about the artwork as it is completed for his input.
First Board game: Probably Clue
Favorite pen & paper: 5e D&D
Favorite indie board game: Windward by El Dorado Games
How did I join Maniple Games: I was friends with a mutual friend of Matt, and was invited to come over and play some board games. Matt had an interesting game he was working on that he wanted us to play, and the rest is history.
How many houses have you played: 3
Contributions: Joined toward the end of the development phase, and was involved in the art refinement process.
Favorite house: Shobal
Favorite ability: Precision fire
Artist: Jules Migliavacca
Working on the game with Jules has been a wonderful experience. I have lucked out and have gotten some of the best artists to work with. She has come up with some awesome ideas for both characters and crests as we both worked on them together. She has even added to the world’s lore with her art, not just in the obvious crests themselves, but with reasons why they are designed like that. I am excited to continue to work with her on this project and see a world I have imagined for years come to life.
Country: Brazil
How long you have been creating art: about nineteen years
Favorite personal piece over that time: my view of the song "Waters of March" painting I did for a local art exhibition
Favorite commissioned piece over that time: The Royal House Xavier crest
Where did you learn or train art: I did some oil painting class, drawing lessons, and I have a Graphic Design bachelor - along with a lot of self-taught lessons
Biggest influences: Mucha, Van Gogh, Hiroyuki Izutsu, Sara Kipin, Sachin Teng, Cassandra Jean
What do you use or do to help inspire your work: video games and movies are my biggest inspirations!
What have you enjoyed so far or are most looking forward to with the “Tu’x Rebellion” Project: What I loved the most was working with the house crests. I also enjoyed doing the soldiers designs. I can't wait to see the expansion of the visuals and characters of this world.
Anything else you would like to share with the community: It was a great pleasure working with Matt and the team. Everyone is so kind, responsible and very talented. I can't wait to see how this project is going to grow! If you want to to check more of my art, you can visit julesmig.com
Artist: Sho Xiang
Working with Sho Xiang has been great, she is extremely talented and creative. Each contract has been completed so smoothly and well above my expectations. She stuns myself and the team with each character and creature she makes. I know from talking with her and seeing her work she cares deeply about the project and wants it to succeed as much as I do. I respect and trust her artistic expertise and have more than once changed my mind on a character with her advice.
Country: Vietnam
How long you have been creating art: I've been working as a freelance artist since 2018 as I remember.
Biggest influences: I can say it is from games, I love playing games, so I love creating art that is related to games.
What do you use or do to help inspire your work: I view a lot of artwork of other artists, and learn from them. My favorite site is Artstation, there are a lot of things that can boost your mind.
What have you enjoyed so far or are most looking forward to with the “Tu’x Rebellion” Project: It's my favorite theme, fantasy, and magic. When I received the brief document from Matt, I found that the story is very interesting, it's like a short novel to me, I like it. My favorite characters are the dark magicians named Tu'x, I am really satisfied with this piece, the process of creating them went so well, I enjoyed it a lot. There are 2 monsters as well, it's a challenge for me because I do not draw monsters so much, but thanks to Matt, he described them in every detail and encouraged me, so the monsters can be done smoothly.
Anything else you would like to share with the community: Every house in this project has a nice background story. The world story is well built, strongly connected from house to house. Matt is writing the whole story with all his heart. I can see it every time I received the text brief from him. Best wishes to him and the project. Thanks for reading and have a nice day.
Artist: Jonathan Abbiss or Paper Griffin.
Working on the building art with Jonathan has been a great experience. It is a collaborative effort for us, and I believe the end result has been, and is going to be, some awesome fantasy/historical building designs. His insights and opinions have resulted in some great illustrations as we work through the design documents. I look forward to working with him on the rest of the core and special buildings that the game has left to be done.
Country: United Kingdom.
How long you have been creating art: For more decades than I care to remember, although I've been an illustrator in one guise or another for about 15 years.
Favorite personal piece over that time: That's a tough question to answer, but at the moment probably my isometric piece 'Tomb of the Sleeping King'.
Favorite commissioned piece over that time: That's an even tougher question to answer! I would have to say any piece that lets me bring someone else's ideas to life.
Where did you learn or train art: I originally studied design which taught me good technical skills, but for actual art and illustration I'm mostly self-taught.
Biggest influences: I'm a huge fan of Alphonse Mucha's work.
What do you use or do to help inspire your work: Inspiration can come from many different places, but I find listening to music helps me to focus on a particular mood while actively working on a piece.
What have you enjoyed so far or are most looking forward to with the “Tu’x Rebellion” Project: I've really enjoyed showing how the buildings evolve over different stages and I'm excited to see how that plays out in the game itself.