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a label that would allow me to publish my own games freely so that I could bring out Saiju to the world again, and the unpublished games that I had intended to approach nestorgames for publication.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. 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.