Catalyst Game Labs Regroups, Releases Two Titles

Catalyst Game Labs, which releases RPGs for the Shadowrun and BattleTech properties, has posted a press release from Randall Bills announcing the discovery of financial irregularities within the company’s accounting:

[B]usiness funds had been co-mingled with the personal funds of one of the owners. We believe the missing funds were the result of bad habits that began alongside the creation of the company, which was initially a small hobby group. Upon further investigation, in which the owner has willingly participated, the owner in question now owes the company a significant balance and is working to help rectify the situation.

Bills goes on to note that Catalyst has restructured its accounting procedures and is investigating back payments that might be due to freelancers and others.

Despite this turmoil, Catalyst has shipped two card games to U.S. distributors in the past week, the revised High School Drama: Varsity Edition, which designer Boyan Radakovich self-published through Shifting Skies Games in 2006, and Merchants, an English language version of Pegasus’ Handelsfürsten from designer Reiner Knizia. These games have been updated on Gone Cardboard.

Fantasy Flight Prepares a Horde of Goblins

Fantasy Flight Games has announced the release of a new expansion for Richard Borg’s BattleLore in Q3 2010: Horrific Horde, which is subtitled “Goblin Army Pack.” ($40)

While this expansion will include 42 goblin figures, it contains only two new types of troops, with all of the previous troop types appearing in either the BattleLore base set or the Goblin Marauders expansion. Those new troops are Goblin Halberdiers, who fight well against cavalry, and Ogres. While some players will lament the minimal amount of novelty in the expansion, others will be pleased that they can now do battle with an entire goblin army instead of a mixed human/goblin army.

In addition to the figures, Horrific Horde includes five new scenarios, new unit summary cards, and 15 cards for the Call to Arms expansion so that players can build customized Goblin armies. Pics of the new figures are on the FFG website.

This game has been added to Gone Cardboard.

Valley Games Releases Habitat, Second Edition

Valley Games has started to ship the second edition of Elliot Hogg’s Habitat, which bears a far more inviting cover than that of the first edition. (2-6 players, ages 8+, 20-45 minutes, $20)

Habitat first appeared in a limited print run at Spiel 08 and has been largely unavailable since that time. For a game description, let’s turn to a game preview that I published on BGN in August 2008:

Your goal in the game is to create a diverse forest by collecting and feeding at least one type of animal in each of the eight ranks. Grizzly bears are rank 8, for example, while worms and insects are rank 1. Says Hogg, “Animals are arranged into food chains based on their rank and diet, and whether they swim, fly or live on land.”

Each turn you can play nice and draw cards hoping to get animals you need to complete chains and keep animals fed – or you can play aggressively and use large animals to pilfer resources and smaller animals from opponents. Drawing also brings opportunistic event cards like “Migration” that draws animals from others to your part of the forest. “Additionally,” says Hogg, “each turn you have a chance to save unfed animal populations from starvation by feeding them with lesser ranked cards, as well as the opportunity to redesign your food chains to be more resilient for the struggles of the next round.”

Head to the preview link above for more comments from Elliot Hogg about the design and development of this game. This game has been updated on Gone Cardboard.

Game Review: Swat!

By Greg J. Schloesser
March 20, 2010

Designer: Reiner Knizia
Publisher: FRED Distribution (aka Gryphon Games)

Players: 2-7
Ages: 7+
Playing Time: 30 minutes
Rules Language: English
Price: $15
Links:

Reiner Knizia appears to be the undisputed master of getting his games published and republished … again and again and again. Well over a dozen of his previously published games have been republished, often with new names, themes and artwork. While these cosmetic changes likely mean more dollars and Euros in the pockets of publishers and distributors – and Herr Knizia – they often cause confusion amongst the buying public. I can’t help but wonder how many unsuspecting folks have actually purchased a game, only to discover that they already own an earlier version that was published under a different name.

In spite of this potential confusion, it is good to see good games brought back to life. The latest of Reiner’s reincarnations is Swat! from Gryphon Games, which was previously released by Winning Moves as It’s Mine! I’ve enjoyed this family-friendly game for many years and am happy to see it once again available.

Read more...

Game Review: Stix & Stones

By W. Eric Martin
March 19, 2010

Designer: Steve Ryan
Publisher: Educational Insights

Players: 4+
Ages: 7+
Playing Time: 180 minutes
Rules Language: English
Price: $25
Links:

Version played: Comped review copy
Times played: Twice, once each with five and six players

Steve Ryan’s Stix & Stones from Educational Insights has all the hallmarks of a game designed for a mainstream audience as it’s a new take on a familiar game with a clever title that’s a well-known phrase. Here’s the pitch that retailers would give to potential buyers: ”Stix & Stones is like Pictionary, but instead of drawing you build images out of plastic sticks and stones that your teammates then try to identify.”

For the mainstream buyer, the phrase “like Pictionary but different” would get many of them to the cash register, but we serious gamers are made of sterner stuff. Sure, “like Pictionary but different” gives someone 75% of a good game – the game will promote creativity, be interactive and provide great moments – yet the final 25% of the game is the critical stuff. Does Stix & Stones have something like the arbitrary die roll in Pictionary that makes randomness as powerful as skill? Or does it fit the Cluzzle model of having cleverness in your artistry be of primary importance?

Before I answer those questions, check out these images from one of my games and take a guess as to what’s depicted:

Read more...

Kris Hall: Factory Manager Impressions

Friedemann Friese may have set the bar too high for himself when he added the “Power Grid” label to his Factory Manager game.  Power Grid was recently voted the best game of the past decade on a BGG poll, and many consider it one of the best economic strategy games there is.

Factory Manager is a more modest effort.  The game only lasts five turns, and the key mechanism is an auction for turn order, hardly a major innovation.

In FM, players vie for tiles over the course of the game’s five turns:

• Storage tiles boost a factory’s storage capacity. (A player’s income is based on either his storage or production capacity – whichever is lower.)
• Machinery tiles boost a player’s production, but increase his labor use and his energy use.
• Red robot tiles boost a player’s production without using any additional labor, but they increase energy use.
• Yellow robot tiles don’t effect production numbers, but they decrease labor usage while increasing energy costs.

Read more...

Premio Archimede Design Competition Opens

Studiogiochi, an Italian company that designs games and organizes game events, has announced the Premio Archimede 2010, a biennial game design competition that legendary designer Alex Randolph oversaw for the first seven outings. The competition is open to designers from around the world, either singly or in groups, with the stipulation that the designers are “non-professionals” – meaning their primary occupation can’t be the inventing of games and they must be relatively unknown on the international gaming scene.

The winners of the Premio Archimede receive support funds of €3,500 in the form of research trips, funds for publication, and so on. The jury will also award a few special trophies, such as the Carta Mundi Special Trophy for the best card game, with the prize being 1,000 copies of said card game produced for free by Carta Mundi.

The deadline for entry is July 30, 2010. Visit the Premio Archimede page on the studiogiochi website for a participation form, entry fee information, and other details.

Academy Games Partners with Mayfair Games

Academy Games, publisher of the Conflict of Heroes series, has entered into an agreement with Mayfair Games in which Mayfair will provide sales, marketing and fulfillment services for Academy. As Mayfair notes in its press release, “Consolidating these functions through Mayfair Games will allow Academy Games to focus on developing additional titles for the award-winning Conflict of Heroes game series and to publish other games in development.”

Such agreements have become more common in recent years, with German publisher eggertspiele signing a similar agreement with Amigo earlier in 2010 and French publisher/distributor Asmodee now serving as the logistics partner for GameWorks and Libellud, among other companies.

Guess the 2010 Spiel des Jahres on Spielbox

Each year Spielbox.de holds a “guess the winner” contest for the Spiel des Jahres, Germany’s Game of the Year award, and the 2010 contest opens on March 20 at 10:00 am (CET) sharp. Each contest participant can enter one guess for SDJ and one guess for the children’s game of the year; if your guess(es) are not on the list of nominees that the juries announce on May 31, 2010, you can revisit the site and enter a new guess.

The first person to submit the game name that subsequently wins each award will receive prizes from Spielbox. All other individuals who submitted the correct names will be entered into a random drawing, for prizes to be announced later. Complete details of the contest on Spielbox.de.

Board 2 Pieces March 18, 2010

Media Watch: Doggone Grief Board Game Helps All Ages

From the “Really? They have a game for that?” category comes this article that ran in the Akron, Ohio Suburbanite:

Whether you are a child, teen or adult, the loss of a special person hurts a great deal. The pain affects us physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, behaviorally and spiritually. Aultman Grief Services has created Doggone Grief – a board game to help people of all ages verbally communicate their mixture of grief emotions....

“Most kids’ first loss is their pet, so it seemed natural to develop a dog-themed game to assist in the communication process,” said [director Brenda Brown], “and dogs show emotion really well too.” ...

Matt Gagnon, the counselor at Oakwood Middle School in Plain Local Schools, said, ”Doggone Grief is a great concept because there are not many fun activities relating to grief on the market.”

For more details on the game, head to the Doggone Grief page on the Aultman Grief Services website.

Shannon Appelcline: However Improbable, Part One: A Look at Classic Deduction Games

Next week, Days of Wonder is releasing their newest deduction game, Mystery Express. Not only did I enjoy it enough to give it a glowing review, but it also got me thinking on the whole theme of deduction games. Thus, I’ve decided to write about the genre a bit, starting in this week’s article with a look at the three games which founded the genre, and which continue to define it, 50+ years later.

Read more...

Second Printing of American Rails Coming

Designer Tim Harrison is prepping a second printing of his American Rails, with only sixty copies of the game being available. (3-5 players, ages 14+, 90 minutes, $32 after a 20% preorder discount) Here’s a game description from the designer:

In American Rails, each player assumes the role of a wealthy capitalist managing a portfolio of stocks and bonds in six fictional railroad companies. Through ruthless negotiation and rigorous planning, players struggle to increase the value of their holdings and reap the profits. The player with the most money at the end of the game will become the nation’s first railroad baron and win the game.

English rules are available through Harrison’s website, which also features a preorder page for the game, which should be available before the end of April 2010.

Green Ronin to Release New Book – Family Games: The 100 Best

In 2008 Green Ronin Publishing released Hobby Games: The 100 Best, a 400-page book of gamers and designers each writing about one game they feel is among the best published in the past fifty years. By the end of March 2010, Green Ronin will release a companion volume, Family Games: The 100 Best. ($25) This book follows the model of the earlier release – with one hundred short essays, almost all of them by a different writer – but this time the games can be up to 100 years old. Perhaps it’s tougher to find worthwhile family games…

The list of titles included in Family Games: The 100 Best, along with the gamer or designer writing about them, is posted on the book’s webpage. Some of the interesting combinations include:

• James Ernest on Candy Land
• Corey Konieczka on For Sale
• Matt Leacock on Go Away Monster!
• Jason Matthews on Gulo Gulo
• Alan R. Moon on Hoity Toity
• Peter Olotka on Risk
• Richard Breese on Rummikub
• Andrea Angiolino on Survive!
• Steve Jackson on The Great Dalmuti

Amun-Re Leaving SpielByWeb

On March 17, 2010, SpielByWeb’s Mikael Sheikh announced that the online gaming site’s license to Reiner Knizia’s Amun-Re would not be renewed. As a result, after March 22, no new games of Amun-Re can be started, although all games that have begun by that time can be played to completion.

Knizia designs have been disappearing from a number of online gaming sites of late, with Ra being removed from BrettSpielWelt and Samurai from MabiWeb. At the same time, many Knizia designs have been released as iPhone apps over the past six months, so don’t be surprised if Amun-Re and company show up there, too.

Lookout Games Wants Your Ideas for Le Havre

In July 2009 Grzegorz Kobiela posted a request on BoardGameGeek from Le Havre designer Uwe Rosenberg that asked people to submit ideas for new special buildings to be published in a tiny stand-alone expansion. The result of that effort – a 30-card set called Le Grand Hameau – was released in Europe in February 2010 and should arrive in North American stores before the end of March.

Now Hanno Girke of Lookout Games, the publisher of Le Havre, is turning to the game’s fans once again, this time requesting ideas for 30 new standard buildings, which will most likely represent some other French port city. In a follow-up post on BGG, Girke suggested the following: “[F]ind a theme, a strategy, and the buildings that might help this strategy. After the first brainstorm, someone will suddenly see the light and come up with a set that consists of different ideas discussed here.” Whether you have ideas for one card or thirty, you can post them in the BGG thread linked to above.

Three New Claustrophobia Scenarios Online

The standalone Claustrophobia website – which features a number of articles from designer Croc in addition to video demonstrations and other material – has posted three new scenarios for the game, one by Croc and the other two each by a different designer. These scenarios join three others posted in the scenarios section of the website.

Fan-Made Gameboards for Summoner Wars

Colby Dauch’s Summoner Wars from Plaid Hat Games has received much praise in the gamer community, with the majority of complaints being directed at the paper gameboard that’s reminiscent of a pre-GPS fold-up paper map designed to fit in a car’s glove compartment – assuming that you can fold the thing up after use, of course.

A number of fans have created their own version of the gameboard, such as this number on display at the 2009 BGG.con. While that design was carved from foam, a member of my game group, Joey Miseirvitch, has gone in another direction, thanks to the equipment at the printing company where he works. Here’s his remake of the gameboard:

This gameboard is a slightly plasticized canvas-type of material, allowing it to be folded or scrunched, then laid out flat once again. You can iron the material with a cool iron if you want to remove all the creases. [Edit, March 18, 2010: At Dauch’s request, Miseirvitch has asked me to pull his contact information as he will no longer sell copies of this gameboard.]

Media Watch: Tim Holland, Backgammon Master, Dies at 79

From the March 16, 2010 New York Times:

Tim Holland, who was widely considered the world’s greatest backgammon player during that ancient board game’s modern heyday, in the 1960s and ‘70s, died on March 10 at his home in West Palm Beach, Fla. He was 79…

Mr. Holland won the World Backgammon Association championship in 1967, 1968 and 1971. (No championship tournaments were held in 1969 or 1970.) Besides retaining the title, he pocketed more than $30,000 in prize money for each of those championships. By the early 1970s he was averaging $60,000 a year in tournament money, and that did not include significant earnings from bets he had placed on himself or his percentage from the winnings of the highest bidders at tournaments where the best players were “auctioned off.”

Rules Online for Asteroyds from Ystari

French publisher Ystari Games has posted the rules for Asteroyds from designers Guillaume Blossier and Frédéric Henry in English, French and German on the Asteroyds page of the Ystari website. For those who want to cut to the chase, here’s a short description from a Jan. 2010 news item on BGN:

Asteroyds is set in the Lost Swarm, an erratic asteroid field that possesses no minerals, no riches – only the possibility of providing the most dangerous race course in the universe.

In the primary game, players must launch their spaceships from a platform and travel through four gates in order to win. Each round starts by rolling three dice – red, white and blue – then players secretly decide the actions they’ll take: moving forward, left or right; reversing direction; or activating a shield. Players have a limited amount of time to choose their actions, with the number of seconds determined by how difficult the players want to make the game. Once time runs out, players first move the red, white and blue objects on the gameboard in the directions indicated on the dice, then move their ships in player order. Hit an asteroid or other object with your ship, and you’ll take damage; take too much damage, and you’ll become one with the asteroid field (as a corpse). Whichever player hits four gates first wins.

Ystari’s Cyril Demaegd notes, “We’ll add a form to the page when the game is ready in April. This form will be an opportunity for players to propose new scenarios, which will be published on the website. The best ideas will be rewarded with games and goodies.” I call dibs on the moon rock!

Update on Ogre, 6th Edition from Steve Jackson Games

In January 2010, Steve Jackson Games posted a mock cover image from Ogre, 6th Edition. On March 16, in SJG’s Daily Illuminator post, Phil Chapman revealed a prototype vehicle from the new edition of this 30+-year-old combat game, noting that the vehicle was composed of thin laser-cut wood.

Chapman didn’t include a release date for the new edition as it’s still in the works, but he did say this: “It’ll be bigger – both in scale and weight – and more impressive than any previous edition. This will be a celebration of the 30th anniversary of the game’s first release, so we were not content just incorporating the maps, units, and rules from GEV,” GEV being a companion game to Ogre. The Munchkin figures being attacked by the tank? They’re just masochists.

This game has been added to Gone Cardboard.

Marcus King on Why Game Store Owners Seem Like Greedy Doofuses

For his first column on ICv2.com, game store owner Marcus King talked about how he defines success in the game industry. His second column explains how relationships have changed between publishers, distributors, retailers and customers over the past two decades. An excerpt describing the current situation:

Retailers are usually “outgunned” in the information on any given product – by the consumer! The consumer who likes Magic: The Gathering will read and learn about his one passion. while the retailer has maybe 2,500 products to keep track of, and over 200 new release titles every month to consider…

This has changed the relationships of all parties involved.  Where the retail store owner used to be revered as a guy with the coolest possible job, they are now often looked at and viewed – by consumers – as some poor doofus who is hopelessly misinformed on all things gaming, and who is akin to a money-grubbing greedy guy who charges “full retail price,” when only dummies pay full retail.

Dale Yu: Lots of reprints / Update on teaching the kids Dominion

Busy week at home this week – well, mostly it is distraction due to March Madness.  Good thing my column isn’t on Thursdays, or this wouldn’t be written at all!  Anyways, before I get back to my basketball preparations – I’d like to talk a bit about the rash of reprints / new editions that have come out in the past few months (or soon to come out)!  I’m quite excited at these new versions of older games.  Some of the games are “classics” that are getting a new print run to hopefully extend the life of the game, while other reprints are giving some lesser known gems a chance to shine in the mainstream.

Classics

En Garde – the classic fencing card game by Dr. Knizia has been re-done by Gryphon Games.  The first release of this game was in 1993, and it was getting hard to find on the secondary market.  The new release has beautiful art, and two nice pewter fencing figures to boot.  This is a great little card game with three different versions of play to keep everyone interested.

Code 777 – this classic deduction game by Robert Abbott and Alex Randolph took on almost a “grail” status due to its relative unavailability.  A few years ago, I saw a copy of this game in shrink go for $125.  The quality of the production remains to be seen as Stronghold is a new company, but with Kevin Nesbitt as part of the leadership group, I’m fairly certain that the quality will be high.

Read more...

Four New & Newish Titles Coming from Minion Games

In 2009, U.S. publisher Minion Games released three titles in print and play versions – Those Pesky Humans! (reviewed on BGN), Legitimacy, and Sturgeon. Minion’s James Mathe now says that print versions of these games, which had always been planned, are underway and should be available by July 2010. At the same time, Minion will release a new card game called Nile. Here are summaries of those four games:

• Legitimacy, by Chuck Whelon – The king is dead, and you and your fellow players all want to claim what you think is your rightful place on the throne. Play it straight or trick the other crown claimants to fight for power. (2-6 players, 30 minutes)

• Those Pesky Humans!, by James Mathe and Clay Gardner – In general, players are monsters who want to keep humans from invading their dungeon and making off with their gems. In addition to a solitaire game, TPH can be played with one player taking on the role of the humans and pitting him against one or more monsters (i.e., the other players). (1-4 players, ages 13+, 60-90 minutes)

• Sturgeon, by Russ Brown – In this card game players want to stock their portion of the lake with fish, then play larger fish to “eat” those fish, eventually working their way up to catching sturgeon, as the first player to capture two sturgeon wins. Special action cards let you dip into an opponent’s area, set up barriers to protect your stock, and more. (2-5 players, ages 10+)

• Nile, by Daniel Callister and James Mathe – A card game set in Eygpt in which players draft cards representing resources, then try to profit from floods. (2-5 players, ages 8+, 30 minutes)

Study: Social Gamers Will Pimp Themselves for Virtual Money

In early March 2010, I posted a video of Carnegie Mellon University professor Jesse Schell in which he talked about unexpected gaming successes – Club Penguin, Farmville, Wii Fit – and how he expects gaming to become even more integrated into everyday life in the future. Part of his prediction involves players watching ads or otherwise letting companies market to them in exchange for points, credits or some other type of gamerly interaction. With that in mind, here’s part of a press release on just that subject:

While most game developers struggle to monetize even three percent of their users through direct payments for virtual currency, new numbers released today by Offerpal Media at the Game Developers Conference show that alternative payment methods enable developers to monetize significantly larger portions of their user base. Derived from a study conducted by comScore, a leader in measuring the digital world, as well as from Offerpal’s own network-wide monetization performance, the numbers verify that social gamers are enthusiastic about alternative, or indirect, payment methods as a way to earn virtual currency for free rather than having to pay for it directly.

According to the comScore study, 53.3% of the total respondents reported that they would be “very likely” to complete a marketing action such as filling out a survey, watching a video, shopping at online retailers or signing up for a subscription in order to get points for the games they play on leading social networks. By comparison, only 22.8% of the respondents reported that they would be willing and are able to buy the points using cash payment methods such as credit cards, PayPal, bank transfers or mobile billing.