About Us
One man with a mug, an idea, and an awesome support team.
Hey there! Glad to see you here. As you may or may not know, ‘we’ here at Coffeemill is currently only ‘me’ here, with a little help here and there from my lovely partner. So who am I?
My name is Tyler Mangrich, a student of Iowa State University living in Ames, Iowa. I have a big passion for coffee and board games (could you tell?), and I’d like to show people like me who may not have a huge budget that quality games can be created with enough time, effort, and a bit of love.
Family is everything.
Without the help of my family and friends, I wouldn’t have had the courage to keep doing what I love, and I’m thankful every day for each and every person that has helped push me, given me feedback, or simply told me I was doing a good job.
I have one supporter in particular whom I’d like to thank, and that is my cat, Ragnar (and no, we did not name him), who’s always there to give me cuddles and wake me up at 5:00 in the morning. He even helps give feedback on different game ideas!
How I work:
Some of you may be wondering how I get any work done as a full time college student, and the answer is, well, I have no idea! Whenever I have free time off from work or school, you can probably find me tucked away at home or at the local coffee shop working away on Trader’s Journey, Coffeemill Games, or any other little side projects I get distracted with. In fact, at any given point in the day, there’s probably at least 30 different ideas swirling around in my ADHD brain at a time, something I’ve learned to use to my advantage (at least creatively).
I do all of my work on a single laptop, my phone, and a few different notebooks, which includes everything from designing graphics for games, exporting files to manufacturers, and keeping track of data and notes. Oh—and you can’t forget the coffee!
(couldn’t help but sneak another kitty picture in)
And if you haven’t read the introduction from the homepage, here it is again below:
The Start of Something New
Hey everyone! My name is Tyler Mangrich, lead (and sole) designer and creator of Coffeemill Games, an up-and-coming studio that loves drinking good coffee and playing fun games—often at the same time. As a full-time college student on a budget, whenever I’m not in class, you can probably find me designing some sort of game, reading, writing, or playing the newest ‘Legend of Zelda’ game.
I’m always working on something, whether it be one-off ideas, or fully fledged games like ‘Trader’s Journey,’ and right now, my number one focus is getting Trader’s Journey onto Kickstarter and into people’s hands! I want to show people that anyone with a good idea and a passion for gaming can get a real, physical game out to market, and inspire more people like me to get some fresh games out!
And although I have big aspirations for our games, I am still quite new to everything involving the tabletop game industry, including manufacturing, self-publishing, and everything in-between, so feel free to message me with any pointers on the best sites / companies to use, what (and what not) to do, or anything else!