Dancing Queen royalty

Photo from Matagot

The Matagot international edition of Dancing Queen was released in June 2025. I signed the game with them mid 2023. At the time the rough plan was to release the game by end 2024. I received my designer's advance shortly after signing the game. That was nice. Not all publishers do that for their designers. I am lucky. 

I get half yearly royalty reports from Matagot, to let me know how many copies have been sold, and how much royalty they will pay me. From the release date in June till the end of September, 1700+ copies have been sold. That's certainly much much much better than what I can achieve by myself as a tiny indie publisher. They have sold more in 3 months than I have sold in 3 years. That's the difference between an established publisher and indie publisher. 

I have no idea why there is one copy sold before the release date. Might be some administrative correction. Or pre-order? 

Dancing Queen international edition officially released

21 Jun 2025 is a special day for me, because this is the official launch date of the international edition of Dancing Queen from Matagot. They signed the game about 2 years ago. However they have a huge list of publishing projects to work through, and it really does take about 2 years from signing a game to getting it officially released. Matagot picked up Dancing Queen because they were looking to release a series of pocket games - microgames which use only a small number of cards and can fit in your shirt pocket or jeans pocket. This is the style of games which ButtonShy publishes. 

The game includes two languages, English and French

This is the wallet after removing the paper band.

The back of the wallet. 

When you open the wallet, you see two transparent pockets where you can slot cards in. These two are the French and the English rulebooks. 

Reference cards (English)

The main game components are these nine cards. In this international edition the cards are not divided into boy and girl. They are divided into green and orange types. The card powers are represented by icons and not text. This is to keep the cards language neutral. Text descriptions can be found on the reference cards. The card names, i.e. song names, still remain. 

The seven trophies and the disco ball.

Rulebook

Seeing the Cili Padi Games logo printed next to that of Matagot is a touching moment for me. 

Comparison between the Malaysia first edition (2022) and the international edition (2025). 

The rulebook of the first edition looks very minimalistic in comparison. 

Matagot gave me a few free copies because I am the designer. I took the opportunity to buy a small quantity of stock. The Malaysian second edition of Dancing Queen is coming out soon. I am not sure whether this international edition will become available in Malaysia. If you are in Malaysia and you are interested to get this international edition, contact me privately. 

Dancing Queen international edition coming soon from Matagot

Super excited that the international edition of Dancing Queen from Matagot has been announced. It will be available in English and French, 21 June 2025.