iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Haole Boy Games @haoleboygames.com · 17h

This was all an elaborate plan to hang out with cooler people than me, and I dare say it worked beyond my wildest dreams.

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Haole Boy Games @haoleboygames.com · 28/09/2026

This will be the front cover of the eight-page rule book that will fit perfectly in your box. In the meantime, that link to Canva will serve you well, but I welcome any feedback. Mahalo!

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Haole Boy Games @haoleboygames.com · 28/09/2026

Next up on my combustive solo adventure is to finish publishing the rules for all the wonderful people who purchased a copy of #PopokiGame 🐈 at @gamemarketwest. Mahalo!

This will be the front cover of the eight-page rule book that will fit perfectly in your box (orange cat meeple washing across recent lava flows).

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Haole Boy Games @haoleboygames.com · 28/09/2026

Both these statements can be true.

Jason teaching Under One Sky at the Guildhouse in San Jose CA.

Greg standing next to a picture of him in Hawaii from 1993 working as a wildland fire fighter for the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

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Haole Boy Games @haoleboygames.com · 27/09/2026

I got to research the color of the flame when methane gas ignites near lava flow. A: It’s why this D6 is blue. #Popoki 🐈

A blue D6 rolled to a four, representing methane gas in the game Pōpoki.

Methane gas burning from under a lava flow near the town of Pahoa on the Big Island of Hawaii in 2018.

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Haole Boy Games @haoleboygames.com · 26/09/2026

One more sleep before @gamemarketwest.bsky.social in San Jose CA at the Guildhouse from 10a - 3p. #Popoki 🐈

Black D6 with a 1 represented cooled, hardened basalt

Game board with dice an an akamai card of Mana (spiritual power) which allows you to not lose any whiskers this turn.

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Haole Boy Games @haoleboygames.com · 25/09/2026

Pōpoki, coming to @gamemarketwest.bsky.social this Sunday 9/27. More info: www.haoleboygames.com/popoki #boardgames

Promotional shot of cards, cat meeples, dice, and playmat in front of the game box.

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Haole Boy Games @haoleboygames.com · 24/09/2026

Etsy via Poland. Not a great choice for scale, but for 20 copies at an indie market it works.

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Haole Boy Games @haoleboygames.com · 24/09/2026

Working on some stills before shooting a playthrough video. #Popoki 🐈

Eight dice, a deck of cards, two cat meeples, and two markers

Orange cat with several all in a horizontal row

White cat helping to score a journey marked by dice

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Haole Boy Games @haoleboygames.com · 23/09/2026

My cats are starting to find their legs.

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Haole Boy Games @haoleboygames.com · 23/09/2026

How it started / How it’s going #CraftWednesday I’m putting the ✂️🎲 finishing touches on Pōpoki for @gamemarketwest.bsky.social this Sunday. I laminated the playmats and tested with some of the components. #Popoki 🐈 #boardgames

Playmats inside their plastic sleeves ready to be laminated.

Laminated playmat with components including a black d6 and an orange cat

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Haole Boy Games @haoleboygames.com · 23/09/2026

Share an image that tells people how many years you have been online.

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Haole Boy Games @haoleboygames.com · 22/09/2026

You never forget your first game, right? Do you remember yours?

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Haole Boy Games @haoleboygames.com · 22/09/2026

Last night at a playtest for @themisplay.com someone at the table asked about *my* upcoming game ✂️🎲 at @gamemarketwest.bsky.social. And they became the first “customer” outside my family to hold my first published game in their hands. 🫨 #Popoki 🐈

Me, holding the box:
Pōpoki (Hawaiian for cat)
A combustive solo adventure
Haole Boy Games

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Haole Boy Games @haoleboygames.com · 22/09/2026

Zooming in on the credits in that prototype’s rulebook, it seems I’m either a mentor or supporter. I’ll take the latter for sure!

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Haole Boy Games @haoleboygames.com · 15/09/2026

Why read the book when you can watch the movie! #Popoki 🐈

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Haole Boy Games @haoleboygames.com · 15/09/2026

Here’s the live, unedited footage of Jason & Mark dealing with their podcast’s mainframe computer:

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Haole Boy Games @haoleboygames.com · 14/09/2026

This handy pronunciation guide will be our little secret 🤙🏼 until I see you at @gamemarketwest.bsky.social. Try look: haole: HOW-lee pōpoki: po-PO-kee pāhoehoe: pah-HOY-hoy Pāhoa: pah-HO-ah akamai: AH-ka-my #Popoki 🐈

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Haole Boy Games @haoleboygames.com · 13/09/2026

Two more Sundays and I’ll be stacking these beauties in the shape of a Hawaiian shield volcano 🌋 at @gamemarketwest.bsky.social in San Jose CA. #Popoki 🐈

20 boxes of Pōpoki, a combative solo adventure

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Haole Boy Games @haoleboygames.com · 13/09/2026

The first thing on my kanban board is a card to make a kanban board.

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Haole Boy Games @haoleboygames.com · 10/09/2026

Try look! Not only am I putting together all the components to sell #Popoki 🐈 at @gamemarketwest.bsky.social on 9/27 but I also have up a digital version at @playingcatchup.bsky.social under their Community Games for anyone to play. #boardgames

haoleboygames.com

A Published Pōpoki — Haole Boy Games

I’m selling a published copy of Pōpoki at Game Market West.

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Haole Boy Games @haoleboygames.com · 09/09/2026

None of this is geologically correct. 🤣

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Haole Boy Games @haoleboygames.com · 05/09/2026

I've designed a solo combustive adventure involving a cat, an abandoned subdivision, and lava. And the meeples are based on my real cats.

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Haole Boy Games @haoleboygames.com · 04/09/2026

Listening to this knowing you playtested a game at a 2022 @protospielo.bsky.social that I’m selling in three weeks at @gamemarketwest.bsky.social. And it will be my first. #Popoki 🐈

Page 8 of the rule book where I credit David: “First playtested at Protospiel Online in April 2022. Thanks to Jeff Grisenthwaite, Jay Little, Emily Fagerstrom, Tony Camilleri, Andy Juell, Heather Newton, and David Masnato.”

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Haole Boy Games @haoleboygames.com · 03/09/2026

A clowder of cats has arrived! I chose the colors based on my cats, Denali and Ginger. But in #Popoki 🐈 these cats are feral and living in an abandoned subdivision. Therefore, this would be a destruction of cats. Available at @gamemarketwest.bsky.social on Su 9/27: www.haoleboygames.com/popoki

A bag of white cat meeples, and a bag of orange cat meeples.

Brothers Denali (turkish angora) and Ginger (tabby). Ginger passed away in March at the age of 17.

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Haole Boy Games @haoleboygames.com · 31/08/2026

I’m still working on the rules ahead of @gamemarketwest.bsky.social on 9/27, and the cat meeples came from another source, but Launch Tabletop really came through with the box, dice, cards, and cubes. Holding it in my hand is surreal! #Popoki 🐈

Twenty copies of Pōpoki in a cardboard box.

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Haole Boy Games @haoleboygames.com · 29/08/2026

Page 1 of the rule book I’m designing for #Popoki 🐈 that I’ll sell at @gamemarketwest.bsky.social on Su 9/27. If you want to help proof the rules for grammar and clarity, DM and I’ll add you to the credits. Mahalo! 🤙🏼

Cover Art and graphic design for a rule book:

POPOKI
A combustive solo adventure
Designed by GREG POOL
Published exclusively for Game Market West by
HAOLE BOY GAMES
Copyright 2022. All rights reserved.

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Haole Boy Games @haoleboygames.com · 25/08/2026

You have made my day. On so many levels. Thank you!

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Haole Boy Games @haoleboygames.com · 25/08/2026

Not Soccer 54; that will be a free PnP. But yes, I’m designing a “better” version with custom cards and more tactics called Foosbal 74, and that I could pitch.

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Haole Boy Games @haoleboygames.com · 25/08/2026

Thank you, Nick! Yes, I intended it to be played in the pub at halftime of the match you’re watching on the telly. It even led to me playtesting it in a pub!

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Haole Boy Games @haoleboygames.com · 25/08/2026

Having said that, I love the power of the Ace. As a game this would be really interesting to play. But imbalance is the nature of futbol/soccer. Discovering and exposing the imbalance is the game. Goal is more like a game played where each side gets the same 11 robots. 🤖

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Haole Boy Games @haoleboygames.com · 25/08/2026

I’m reading this in the context of how I designed #Soccer54 ⚽️, as well as how I’ve been trying to design Foosball 74. Goal (1990) is less like soccer; you don’t both have the same players available. You certainly can’t save your best for last. And you have to deal with what you see in the moment.

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Haole Boy Games @haoleboygames.com · 25/08/2026

I think you actually looked at it a year ago, in its infancy, and you provided me a testimonial. Thanks again!

haoleboygames.itch.io

Soccer 54 by haoleboygames

Playing soccer with playing cards!

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Haole Boy Games @haoleboygames.com · 25/08/2026

Having tried to design a soccer game with playing cards, the feedback I’ve received is nobody wants to publish a “sportsball” game. 🤷‍♂️ But designers will tell me it’s often the first thing they try before designing something else.

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Haole Boy Games @haoleboygames.com · 17/08/2026

It’s been four years, but I finally got back to Limekiln State Park in Big Sur, California, to compare my 🎲✂️prototype with reality. The park has been closed for 3y due to slides on Highway One. Background: www.haoleboygames.com/blog/the-bat... #BatsofLimekiln 🦇

Holding up a prototype card with “creek, log, boulder, and moth” next to Limekiln Creek enter it enters the Pacific Ocean.

Holding up a prototype card with “moth, creek, and bridge” on a bridge across Limekiln Creek.

Building a short portion of the creek using four prototype cards on a bridge above Limekiln Creek.

The view west above Limekiln State Park out across the Pacific Ocean.

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Haole Boy Games @haoleboygames.com · 09/08/2026

“This Gift” is particularly uplifting if you interpret it from a creator’s point of view, especially if you have any imposter syndrome to expunge from your soul, where you should be keeping songs as currency instead.

songs were their souls' currency, inspired by a Moya Cannon poem called “Carrying The Songs.”

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Haole Boy Games @haoleboygames.com · 09/08/2026

I’m off the grid this week and camping in Big Sur where I will busk the 🤬 out this song at a campfire, in honor of Glen.

open.spotify.com

This Gift

Glen Hansard · Rhythm And Repose (Deluxe Edition) · Song · 2012

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Haole Boy Games @haoleboygames.com · 07/08/2026

Crafting so my clowder of cats can walk across an active lava flow field at an indie market in September. 🎲✂️

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Haole Boy Games @haoleboygames.com · 06/08/2026

Thank you for the ❤️, Jeff! What a full-circle moment, by the way. You playtested this game back in April 2022 at @protospielo.bsky.social. Mahalo nui loa!

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Haole Boy Games @haoleboygames.com · 06/08/2026

I designed this game in 2022 and tested it online, but this will be my first attempt to create a physical game that someone might purchase. Scary and exciting all at once. Like walking across an active lava flow field! 3/3

haoleboygames.com

Game Market West — Haole Boy Games

A feral cat comes to an indie tabletop game marketplace.

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Haole Boy Games @haoleboygames.com · 06/08/2026

I have cats arriving later this month, and I’m putting the finishing touches on the top and bottom of the box. It will eventually hold cats, cards, and dice. 2/3

Email showing the expected date of August 27 when 40 wooden cats will arrive from Poland via Etsy.

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