Sakana Stack comes from first-time publishers, Huff No More. The game was designed and illustrated by Mike and Joss Petchey, and funded through Kickstarter crowdfunding. It was then delivered to backers through Zatu Fulfilment. Mike and Joss kindly took the time to have a chat with us about game design, publishing, and delivering their first game.
Interview with Huff No More
Hey Mike and Joss! Thanks for taking the time out to chat about Sakana Stack. I’ve been loving this game since Mike kindly ran me through it at Mid Sussex Meeples. The game is such a lovely homage to Japanese card shedding games, replete with Joss’ wonderful artwork. Huge congrats on the success you’ve had with the game, and a big thanks from us all at Zatu for choosing us as your Fulfilment partner on the project.
Q: First up, how did the game come about?
Mike: I decided I wanted to design a card game inspired by a lot of the games I regularly play, combined with card games I played growing up. I play a lot card games from Japan and the unique styles of trick-taking and climbing/shedding mechanics really interest me. I’m still amazed by how many games are being released that have so many brilliant spins on the mechanic. After a few months, the core mechanics clicked together and Joss and I then discussed some theme ideas with a market setting.
Joss: I immediately thought about my visit to Japan in 2015 and specifically the Tsukiji Fish Market. With the game being inspired by Japanese card games, it felt like the perfect fit. I played around with some different art styles and used Japanese ink brushes to paint the different seafood. I also wanted to have a light colour palette to go with the fun and playful style of the game.
Q: I love that personal touch, and how the idea for the theme came out of a real life visit to Japan. When it came to getting the design together, what are some of the support networks that helped get a first-time project off the ground?
Mike: We’re so lucky to have built a brilliant network, starting with the Lewes Board Gamers who patiently playtested the early iterations of Sakana Stack. I then plucked up the courage to go to the South London Playtest Group where I got a lot of advice about the challenges of self-publishing. From there I got introduced to the Indie Publishers & Designers UK Discord group who have all been amazing. We had so many questions and it was lovely to have a group of experienced publishers who could answer those questions for us.
Joss: When we started up Huff No More we decided that Instagram would be the main social media channel, so when the #BoardGameProtoHype community was started we were one of the first joiners. The community quickly grew into a fantastic hub of indie designers and publishers at all stages of their design journeys. It was a place we could learn, but also share some of our experiences with other people at the start of their journey. We’ve had so much fun meeting people and testing each others ideas at a number of different cons.
Q: Now, from design to Kickstarter! Having been through the process, what would be your tips for running a successful Kickstarter campaign?
Mike: Going through the process of designing a game is such a rewarding experience, but the process of turning that creativity into a product to promote and build a business around is something totally different. We set regular milestones to achieve, really researched other successful campaigns and spoke to a lot of other publishers that have been there and done it. We were really focused with our target audience for online promotion and spent a lot of time at cons demoing Sakana Stack with the tabletop community. It is really important you are prepared to invest the time to make your campaign a success.
“Designing a game is one thing. Turning that creativity into a business is something totally different.” – Mike
Joss: I spent a lot of time researching different campaigns to look at the layout of their Kickstarter pages, the graphics used, information needed and checking out reviewers. I wanted to put my own style on the Kickstarter page, but there were key pieces of information that are essential to help potential backers get comfort in you being able to deliver their pledges. We also spent a lot of time reaching out to reviewers and were so lucky to have a great experience with those we selected, based on how much we liked their content. So I would say that thoroughly researching other campaigns and focusing on the right reviewers with the content you enjoy is another key part to running a successful campaign.
Q: And finally, from Kickstarter to delivery. What made you choose Zatu Fulfilment as your partner for delivering the game, and what was your experience?
Mike: We reached out to our network on fulfilment partners and Zatu Fulfilment came up really positively. We had also backed a crowdfunding campaign that used Zatu Fulfilment so we got to see firsthand the speed and quality of service as a backer. Having this experience ourselves was great as we got to see things from a backers perspective and it gave us the confidence that Zatu Fulfilment would be able to deliver a great service to our own backers.
“As complete newbies, we walked away with a better grasp of the process — and the confidence that Zatu’s support would be there when we needed it.” – Joss
Joss: We spoke to a number of fulfilment providers so we could ensure we tested who was out there. Zatu Fulfilment immediately made a great impression on us. From the outset we were impressed with how our Account Manager, Lilah, walked us through the process as complete newbies. As our first project and entering the unknown, we walked away with a better grasp of the process but also with the feeling that the support from Lilah would be there as and when we had a whole bunch of questions to ask.
Q: What were your biggest surprises and challenges around the fulfilment process, and how did Zatu manage to alleviate them?
Mike: The big one was the US tariffs which put us under a lot of stress and uncertainty. The timing of our games being delivered from China to the UK was exactly as the huge 145% tariffs were about to kick in! Lilah really supported us through all the uncertainty and kept us up to date as and when Zatu Fulfilment could give us more information. Our games arrived in the UK just a few days before tariffs were about to start, but from arriving at the Zatu Fulfilment the games were packaged and posted to the US in just a few hours which meant we were able to get to our US backers before the tariffs kicked in! The service was fantastic and we could breathe a big sigh of relief once the packages were safely in the US and with backers.
Joss: One of the other areas Zatu Fulfilment helped us out with was sourcing a freight company to handle shipping of our games from China to the UK. We had a quote from our manufacturer but wanted to shop around. We spoke to Lilah and she came back with a really good quote which we went ahead with. Having the shipping managed by a company that Zatu Fulfilment was close with meant the communication in getting the games shipped over, dealing with customs forms, etc was made so much easier and really helped to have all in one place.
Q: What prompted you to add a last-minute addition to the campaign in the form of the Flower Cards?
Joss: When I was researching Sakana Stack I spent some time looking into ‘Hanafuda’ cards, which are traditional Japanese playing cards. I loved the deck structure of 12 suits of different flowers, one matching each month of the year. So I thought it would be really nice to make a British-inspired version of ‘Hanafuda’, which translates to ‘Flower Cards’. I picked flowers that represent each month of the year, for example Snowdrops for January and Crocus for February. I then picked animals that I felt best represented each month and also British poets for the poetry cards.
Mike: It was so great seeing the designs come together and we decided that we would give our Sakana Stack backers the first opportunity to get a copy by having available in the pledge manager. It was an extra challenge for us as a first-time publisher to get an extra game made, but it worked out really well and the feedback has been great. Lilah was also really great in helping us add this into our work stack with Zatu Fulfilment and talk us through the add-on process from a fulfilment perspective.
Q: This has been great guys. One more question – what’s next for Huff No More?
Mike: Since Sakana Stack I have been working on a few new card game designs and the one we are going to release with Huff No More is called ‘Roller Disco’. It has some similar mechanics to Sakana Stack in that it is a climbing/shedding game, but it has you playing cards in sequences around a mirrorball which is very different.
Joss: I’ve started researching the artwork and graphic design now and it’s been really fun to look into the history of roller disco and look at the different styles and colours to work with. Already this has been a really enjoyable project and with the really positive feedback we’ve had from playtesters we can’t wait to publish ‘Roller Disco’ in 2026!
________
For more from Mike and Joss, check out Huff No More’s website where you can find their games, and give them a follow on Instagram.
