Currently, Happy Raptor Games, LLC is a self-publishing project.
The primary creative engine has been designer Noah Grunzweig, who has a bunch of the signaled skillsets and life story narratives that you look for when considering “is this person legit.” But we don’t want to play the signaled skillset game, because that game favors those who are skilled at signaling, or being your default picture of “designer”, not those who have produced quality. Call it a calculated risk in our brand building, but we craft quality experiences, and people who recognize quality over signaling will see that in our works.
Primary Missions:
We want to create and collaborate on rewarding game experiences that are restorative in their competition, playful in their deceit, truly collaborative in their cooperation, and intentionally anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, anti-racist, and anti-caste in their structural & narrative design. This is not a promise of perfection. If you need us to be perfect, seek counseling, because you have an affliction, and there is help out there. This is a promise of being in process towards this goal, 1% at a time.
We want to produce games in a socially & environmentally responsible manner. We recognize that access to industry partners that have decent compensation as well as labor and environmental practices all along the sourcing, production, and shipping pipeline is not bountiful and often tied to larger scale production - which is inherently not eco-friendly. So, we will seek to use the best practices available to us at whatever production volume we have the support for.
Have fun with it. We love to have fun with this, which is one reason we went with creating a puppet cast for our first game release promo video. Sure it was excessive, and expensive, but it was hella fun, and totally worth it. And that is who we are.
“Quality come from the skills handed to us by our teachers, the foundations provided by ancestors, and the cultural support of our communities to not be bound by either.”
Origin Story
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You ever wake up from a dream in the dead of winter and think… OMG, I should totally make that dream happen. I should drop all of my creative work and start designing board games! Everyone has had that dream, right? Well, sometimes you should follow that urge.
Noah was avoiding some other creative projects at the time and thought, “making a board game would only take a few months, so might as well take a break for and exciting new project…” Six years later, and toooooons of testing, designing, redesigning, classes, testing, etc etc, we find ourselves launching a game and creative brand even more exciting than the original dream. Totally worth it!
Our Team
(faces to coming soon)
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Noah Grunzweig
Game Design, Art, & Graphic Design, Et. al.
I am a game designer, artist, mentor, martial artist, folk dance caller and organizer, aspiring writer, musician, puppeteer, maker of fun videos, music medleys, social justice advocate (I write officials and submit testimony, sign petitions, phone bank from time to time), & relationship culture tinkerer. Human life is steeped in systems, and that is all games are.
Guiding philosophies: Anyone can create a game system - good system designers are the ones who are more aware of the internal and external human systems that guide our experience. The rest is just tinkering with rules, props, and game mechanics that shape the experience, skills, and narratives you want your players to play/practice. And everything we do in play effects our cultural experience of life. Thus, a great designer is someone who is crafting not just the game, but the culture it cultivates, with awareness and intent.
Jaydra Perfetti
Event Planning, Social Media, Primary Emotional Support
Nathan & Lauren Colmer
Video Production, Film Consultants & Chosen Family
Rosalyn Plotkin (RIP)
Seed Investor & best Grandmother she could be.