We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Paul Rudoi. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Paul below.

Alright, Paul thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

I’ve been a musician all my life, singing and composing and educating and conducting for over a decade at this point. But I’ve also tried to connect that creative work in non-musical areas, such as starting a few businesses over the past few years. The most recent, Yokay Games, is a big risk because others have much more experience starting a tabletop gaming company. But I felt called to try my hand at it because I believe in what Yokay Games stands for.

Yokay Games focuses on two things:
1. Taking childhood yard games and translating them into tabletop games.
2. Building games in ways that all ages, from 8 to 80, can grow with them, finding value and community through their mechanics.

Building a game is equally creative as something as abstract as music. Yes, there’s a physical product, and yes, there’re more concrete aspects of it such as playtesting, manufacturing, etc. But ultimately the game’s design and mechanics are built to illicit an emotional response, ideally one that supports the players’ want to have fun with each other. By building a game that’s both goofy and surprisingly strategic, like our flagship game, Duck Duck Mousse, players find what they want in the way they want it, and young players can learn different mechanics as they grow up.

I had a NEARLY successful Kickstarter earlier in 2023 to fund Duck Duck Mousse, reaching 96% of our goal. But because it’s all-or-nothing on Kickstarter, the project wasn’t funded. I’ll try again in 2024, this time with updated character art from the incredible Horrible Adorables team, and build a community in a different way. The hope is that this game really does see the light of day, and other games on the horizon for Yokay can become a reality too. A setback is only an opportunity for growth!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I lucked out right out of college and was accepted as a member of the full-time vocal ensemble Cantus in the Twin Cities of Minnesota. Through my first 8 years with Cantus, I expanded my work to encompass not just singing, but conducting, educating, and composing.

Once I left Cantus in 2016, I obtained a master’s in choral conducting, became a contract professional vocalist, took a variety of large-scale commissions as a composer, and worked as a masterclass clinician across the United States. I also co-founded my first business, Consortio, which aimed at providing new music experiences to any ensemble no matter their socio-economic situation.

After 7 years away, I’ve returned to Cantus in 2023 and continue to perform and tour with them while working on Yokay Games, my other business, and other ventures.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Per my previous answer, I founded Yokay Games with the idea of creating Duck Duck Mousse, our first tabletop card game. The Kickstarter to help fund Duck Duck Mousse was nearly successful, topping out at 96% of our goal, but we weren’t able to reach it in time and therefore weren’t funded.

Within days, it was clear to me that this was overall a good outcome. The game was fleshed out, but could be better with more cohesive character design, expansions that continue to make the rules more malleable, and other tweaks. So instead of deciding Duck Duck Mousse and Yokay Games was a failure, I’ve decided to try another Kickstarter in 2024 with a honed strategy.

In short, a failure is just an opportunity for growth. In this way, there’s no such thing as a failure, just an attempt in a long line of attempts!

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

This may be a bit heady and existential, but someone can always find connections between things and/or ideas, no matter what. How does this relate to “non-creatives”? It means there are no non-creatives, just people who haven’t yet used their imaginations to think outside the box!

Take my own shift into tabletop games. It seems random at first glance, but there are creative elements of game-making and distribution which tie well with my work as a creative musician.

If you’re an accountant or data analyst and you work with tables and formulas, don’t those elements of your work function in a beautiful way when used properly, flowing into and out of one another so that they data feels like an organism, a living, breathing thing? If you’re a graphic designer, aren’t some of the best designs ones that show a beautiful intertwining between shape, color, and texture?

If we break down what each of us does into its essential elements, what we get are concepts as abstract as music. In this way, no matter what you do or how you think, you can find connections between something seemingly creative and something not. It’s all in how we look at what we know, don’t know, and are willing to learn about!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.pauljohnrudoi.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pauljohnrudoi/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pauljohnrudoi/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/pauljohnrudoi