What is MIND MGMT ?

If you ask Jay Cormier of Off the Page Games , he’d tell you MIND MGMT: The Psychic Espionage “Game” is the first board game offering from his Vancouver-based one-person publishing company. Next, he’d say that he’d be remiss not to mention that it’s also the name of one of his favourite comic book series of all time – and the inspiration for the game.

The brainchild of American writer/cartoonist Matt Kindt, MIND MGMT (pronounced Mind Management) tells the story of Meru, a true crime writer who discovers the existence of a top secret psychic espionage agency while investigating a case of mass amnesia aboard a commercial airliner. Pulled into a world of psychic super spies and immortal assassins, Meru bears witness to the invisible war behind the scenes of world-altering events and discovers she may still yet have a part to play. First Published by Dark Horse Comics in 2012, the series ran for 36 issues and enjoyed a loyal fan following.

Cut to the summer of 2015, Indianapolis, Indiana. While exhibiting at GenCon (The ComicCon of the board gaming world), Kindt is introduced to game designers Jay Cormier and Sen-Foong Lim, both comic book fans, and the three of them end up playing board games throughout the night. Kindt’s newly discovered love of the hobby prompted him to ask no one in particular: wouldn’t it be cool if someone would make MIND MGMT into a board game? “Our ears perked up, and we asked if we could make MIND MGMT into a game,” Cormier recalls. “Matt was into it, so we got to work.”

Shall we play a game?

As a one-versus-many, hidden movement game, MIND MGMT: The Psychic Espionage “Game” has one player acting as the recruiter for the top secret MIND MGMT organization, tracking their actions and location on a dry erase board concealed behind a screen. The other players team up as the Rogue Agents, former employees of the sinister agency, working together through investigation and movement on the game’s board to thwart MIND MGMT’s plans. The Rogue Agents must figure out where the recruiter is before the recruiter can fulfill their tasks and win the game.

Sounds difficult? There is hope.

The game introduces the SHIFT System, an inventive mechanism meant to provide the losing team with an advantage the next time they play by opening a secret box filled with a singular game-changing element. With each SHIFT System box opened, the game changes, expand, and increases in replayability”¦ a real benefit in the hobby.

From Pitching to Kickstarter… pt. 1

After pitching the game idea around, the group eventually signed with a publisher, only to have that company go out of business half a year later. Rather than start from scratch and begin a new round of pitching, Cormier decided (with a healthy dose of encouragement from Kindt) to go all in and formed his own board game publishing company. Off The Page Games was born.

MIND MGMT: The Psychic Espionage “Game” was not just based on the comic book MIND MGMT , but was a product of the collaboration between the game designers and original creator, Kindt. As Cormier was a fan of both games and comics, a company that made games based on creator-owned comic properties was the perfect mission statement. He’d get to work with creators he admired, do what he loves, and bring unique creations to a whole new audience. Even though MIND MGMT: The Psychic Espionage “Game” drew from the rich source material of the comics and included new art by Kindt himself, Cormier resisted leaning into the fact that the game was based on a comic at all.

“In my marketing materials for MIND MGMT: The Psychic Espionage “Game” , I was careful not to blast out “based on the New York Times Bestselling Comic” …even though it was. It doesn’t even say it on the box! I find when I see a poster for a game that says “based on the comic” and I’ve never heard of that comic, I keep on walking, thinking that game must not be for me. We knew the MIND MGMT fans would come, the Matt Kindt fans would come, and our fans would come, so we focused everything on the gameplay, again and again, the gameplay”¦ and it worked.”

The project generated a good amount of buzz from both the comic and board gaming social media channels before its debut on Kickstarter in March of 2020, but with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic midway through the campaign, results fell short of expectations, Cormier generated just under $200,000 CAD to make MIND MGMT: The Psychic Espionage “Game” a reality. A win, but you can tell it is not the success Cormier was hoping for on his first outing as a publisher.

And you’d think the story ends there, wouldn’t you?

A second shot at a first success

Cut again to London, England, February 2022, as an Englishman sits in his living room with a colander on his head, “pretending” to control someone’s mind. The man is social media influencer Quentin Smith, and he is reviewing MIND MGMT: The Psychic Espionage “Game” for Shut Up & Sit Down , his website and YouTube channel”¦ and not only do they like the game, but they give it the channel’s highest seal of approval and dub the game a “masterpiece.” The internet is filled with all sorts of people sitting in their living rooms reviewing things, but Quentin Smith’s 340,000 subscribers tend to vocalize with their wallets, making the games they review – even those reviewed poorly – best sellers. So for Cormier and co. to receive such high praise? Pure gold.

Within hours of the review video’s release, the buzz for the essentially sold-out MIND MGMT: The Psychic Espionage “Game” was sky high. The last remaining copies were immediately snatched from the Off The Page website, even as the game was on Board Game Geek’s (the hobby’s de facto news site) Hotness List, and there was no way to take advantage of the new buzz”¦ or was there? He called up those that needed calling and asked: “Can we do this?” They all agreed. Everything lined up. With that, the second Kickstarter was born.

Cormier listed a 10-day Kickstarter, a campaign period so truncated that even Kickstarter’s own algorithms recommended against it. It included a series of small secret mission packs, some upgrade options, and, most crucially, second printing of the highly sought-after Deluxe version of the game, for all those who missed the chance the first time around. To call the response receptive would be an understatement. Within hours, the campaign had eclipsed the initial 30-day run. Five days later, the campaign had generated over half a million CAD, and by the time the campaign concluded, it had generated over $790,000 in only 10 days.

Cormier could not believe it. For a small one-person publishing company hoping for a modest second printing of their first game, the windfall was invaluable. Cormier increased his initial order for the second printing by threefold, knowing that a significant number had already been pre-sold to backers, and with ever-increasing exposure from the Shut Up & Sit Down review (currently at 163,000 views at the time of this writing), new reviews popping up weekly, word will only spread further. MIND MGMT: The Psychic Espionage “Game” is finally the success Cormier and Kindt always knew it could be”¦ and for Cormier, that is a dream come true.

With no time to stop and celebrate his achievement, Cormier advises me, that he needs to get back to playtesting the next offering from Off The Page Games,, a game based on the horror comic series Harrow Country, created by Cullen Bunn and Tyler Crook, and published by Dark Horse Comics. But he doesn’t say it like it’s something he HAS to do, but something he GETS to do. He knows how lucky he is and it shows.

“People think because the game is big that we’re a big company”¦ but it’s just me, doing what I love. All I ever wanted to do was follow my dreams. The best life ever would be to have designing and publishing games be my full-time job, and I’m on my way.”.

If you’d like to learn more about MIND MGMT: The Psychic Espionage “Game” , you can visit the Off The Page Games website – and you can also get in on the late-pledge pre-order of the deluxe version of the game via BackerKit .