Kanare_Abstract

Kanare_Abstract is a Japan-based indie label dedicated to abstract strategy games, founded by me, Kanare Kato, in 2021.

In 2020, I published my debut work "Saiju" with nestorgames, but it went out of print within a few months because the social aftermath of COVID-19 forced the company to change its publishing format. So I decided to start a label that would allow me to publish my own games freely so that I could bring out Saiju to the world again, and the unpublished games that I had intended to approach nestorgames for publication. 

Initially, I manufactured and sold games on a semi-on-demand system, using microfiber cloth printing for the boards and self-manufacturing according to order quantities, and ran three lines of games: Original Games by Kanare Kato, Classic Games in the Public Domain, and "Generic Series" that included multiple game rules (For past publications, see here). Starting in 2024, Kanare Kato has re-launched with a new game format that features multiple game designers and a switch to factory line production.

Abstract strategy games are a difficult genre to get commercially published, except for a handful of blockbusters. Kanare_Abstract is using crowdfunding to raise funds while unifying the product format and producing multiple titles simultaneously to achieve small-copy production.