Gone Cardboard News

News about upcoming board game releases within North America, from initial announcement to the day of delivery. To see the complete list of recently released and upcoming games, with links to the publisher's websites, visit BGN's Gone Cardboard.

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Headlines May 11, 2008 - Gone Cardboard News: A Game of Games – Coming in June May 9, 2008 - Gone Cardboard News: Time’s Up Times Two – Coming in June May 9, 2008 - Gone Cardboard News: Dirge: Carnage in Crimson – Coming Soon May 9, 2008 - Gone Cardboard News: Khet 3D: Tower of Kadesh – Shipping Soon May 9, 2008 - Gone Cardboard News: Monty Python Fluxx – Coming in Fall 2008 May 8, 2008 - Gone Cardboard News: Okko, Era of the Asagiri – Coming in June May 8, 2008 - Gone Cardboard News: Money, Gem Dealer – Coming in September; High Society in 2009 May 7, 2008 - Gone Cardboard News: Massive Z-Man Games Update May 6, 2008 - Gone Cardboard News: Asmodée Cancels Renaissance May 2, 2008 - Fantasy Flight Update: Tribune, MotoGrandPrix, Talisman, More… April 29, 2008 - Gone Cardboard News: A Touch of Evil – Coming from Flying Frog April 25, 2008 - Fantasy Flight to Release Age of Conan, Kingsburg, Constantinopolis, More

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Articles

Gone Cardboard News: A Game of Games – Coming in June

Ted Cheatham and Mike Petty released a small card game at the Gathering of Friends in April 2008 called A Game of Games. While the game is similar to Password – players give single word clues to get their teammate to guess game titles – A Game of Games includes additional scoring opportunities that depend on your knowledge of a game’s designer and year of release.

A Game of Games is available for preorder through Fair Play Games and will be released on June 1. This game has been added to Gone Cardboard.

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Gone Cardboard News: Time’s Up Times Two – Coming in June

R&R Games’ Time’s Up – Peter Sarrett’s take on the charades game Celebrities – has been a blast whenever I’ve played it, and soon there will be even more to love. Coming in June 2008 are two new (or partly new) Time’s Up titles:

• Time’s Up Deluxe, which combines 500 names from the base game and the two expansions with 500 new names. This set, which retails for $30, also includes an electronic timer, play rules for an odd number of players (so you don’t have to kick someone out to form teams of two), and advanced rules for a fourth round of play. What can you do once you’ve eliminated speech in round 3 and are left with nothing but pantomiming? Eliminate that, too! Yes, the fourth round is all about posing. Your teammate will keep her eyes closed until you’re ready to show off your still life version of Herbert Hoover or Georgia O’Keeffe. Take a cue from Madonna, and strike a pose…

• Time’s Up: Title Recall, which does away with the famous names and replaces them with 864 titles from books, movies, songs, and more. This standalone game will retail for $20.

These games have been added to Gone Cardboard.

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Gone Cardboard News: Dirge: Carnage in Crimson – Coming Soon

John Clowdus will start shipping the fourth title from Small Box Games, Dirge: Carnage in Crimson, the week of May 12, 2008, but there’s still time to preorder the game at a discounted rate. Dirge is a two-player miniatures combat game with a basic action point system; wreck the other player’s army, and you win. You can download the rules from the Dirge webpage on the Small Box Games website.

This game has been added to Gone Cardboard.

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Gone Cardboard News: Khet 3D: Tower of Kadesh – Shipping Soon

Luke Hooper at Innovention Toys says that the Tower of Kadesh expansion for Khet – which was first shown at NY Toy Fair back in February 2007 – has finally arrived at the company’s warehouse. He adds, “After our full inspection they will begin shipping next week!”

This game has been updated on Gone Cardboard.

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Gone Cardboard News: Monty Python Fluxx – Coming in Fall 2008

Looney Labs has announced that it will release a Monty Python-themed version of Fluxx before the end of 2008. According to designer Andy Looney, the card mix “focuses heavily on Holy Grail but pulls in as many other bits and references as I can squeeze in.” The previously announced Martian Fluxx has been moved to the second quarter of 2009 to make room for this title.

These games have been updated on Gone Cardboard.

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Gone Cardboard News: Okko, Era of the Asagiri – Coming in June

Asmodée Editions had initially given a Q3 2008 release date for Okko, Era of the Asagiri, but in a rare display of overachievement on the part of a game publisher, Okko is now due out in June 2008.

Okko, Era of the Asagiri is a two-player miniature-style game with modular game tiles, a ton of characters, and a heaping helping of dice. For more details, head to Asmodée’s Okko webpage or visit the official Okko website, which includes a PDF of the English rules.

This game has been updated on Gone Cardboard.

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Gone Cardboard News: Money, Gem Dealer – Coming in September; High Society in 2009

FRED Distribution has passed on images for the first titles in its Gryphon Games line: Money and Gem Dealer, both due out in September 2008, and High Society, which is now scheduled for early 2009. Gryphon games will be 6"x8" with a bookshelf look and perhaps 8-10 titles in the series once it’s complete. “They’re not all going to be card games,” says FRED’s Keith Blume. “But they will be family-friendly games that you can get into in five minutes and play in 20-40 minutes. That’s the ballpark we’re shooting for.”

Money, as you might expect, is all about the bills. Blume says that the money cards will be Lost Cities-sized to give you more grip on the geld.

Read more...

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Gone Cardboard News: Massive Z-Man Games Update

Zev Shlasinger has an incredible number of plates in the air right now, and while he’d love to take a rest, most of them will be spinning against his will until June or July. (Hmm, that analogy doesn’t really work, does it?) Here’s an update on many titles forthcoming from Z-Man Games:

• Neuland is arriving at the Z-Man warehouse on May 8th, so expect to see it in stores soon.

• The second edition of Ideology will probably be out sometime in June rather than the previously announced date of April.

• Wasabi! is coming from the same printer as Ideology and also expected in June.

• Chinatown should appear in June as announced. Filosofia has already released the new version of the game in French, and the English one is almost ready.

• Traders of Carthage, from Susumu Kawasaki is expected in June as well.

• Agricola has been delayed until late June or early July as Lookout Games, the original publisher, is coordinating a simultaneous printing in eight different languages and waiting for final approval from everyone involved before going to press. Due to preorders and orders from distributors, Zev says that this print run is already sold out, which means that he won’t have copies available at Origins (assuming the game would be released by then). He has already ordered a reprint, but of course the initial run needs to be printed first!

Read more...

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Gone Cardboard News: Asmodée Cancels Renaissance

Almost a year after it first announced the project, Asmodée Editions has decided not to release Renaissance – a sequel to designer Pascal Bernard’s Joan of Arc – in English after all.  Eric Franklin’s English translation of the rules is available for download from the BoardGameGeek Renaissance page for those who want to pick up the game in French.

This game has been removed from Gone Cardboard.

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Fantasy Flight Update: Tribune, MotoGrandPrix, Talisman, More…

Last week, I ran a news item covering upcoming releases from Fantasy Flight Games. Jeremy Stomberg at FFG has added a bit more information about games coming from Minnesota via numerous other countries:

• Due to the printing time needed in Germany, Karl-Heinz Schmiel’s Tribune is now expected to be released in June 2008.

• FFG will distribute (but not publish its own version) of two upcoming titles from Italian publisher Nexus Editrice: MotoGrandPrix and Battles of Napoleon: The Eagle and the Lion. Stomberg credits Nexus CEO Roberto Di Meglio with a description of MotoGrandPrix as a speedy version of Formula Dé, one in which you can complete four or five laps in an hour instead of just one. As in that classic race game, you can push your vehicle to the limit of its capability and risk damaging it and you.

  As for Battles of Napoleon: The Eagle and the Lion, the box will actually be larger than FFG’s “epic” box used for games like StarCraft and Tide of Iron as it contains four giant double-sided map boards in addition to numerous, highly-detailed figures. I saw models of the miniatures at Spiel ‘07, and the level of detail was amazing. The Eagle and the Lion is the first in a series of three games, and you can read details about the game and series from Nexus PR rep Andrea Fanhoni on BGG.

• The Fantasy Flight edition of Kingsburg will be the same as the one that ElfinWerks released in English earlier in 2008 and Italian publisher Stratelibri released at Spiel ‘07. This game will not contain the expansion that the designers have been working on, and it’s not known when or if the expansion will be released.

  

• FFG picked up a number of titles from Games Workshop recently, including Talisman, the 4th edition of which was released in Fall 2007 by GW subsidiary Black Industries. “I was surprised after the 3rd edition that they went back to cardboard,” says Stomberg. Hundreds of other Talisman fans were equally surprised, and not in a good way.

  Designer and developer John Goodenough is now working on a revised 4th edition of Talisman that will include improved cards and point counters along with miniature playing figures. This revised edition is expected to be released in October 2008, and a upgrade pack of the new bits will be sold separately for those who have already purchased the 4th edition.

  What’s more, Goodenough is simultaneously working on the first expansion for the new edition of Talisman. Death and Glory is expected to be released by Christmas 2008.

These games have been added to Gone Cardboard.

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Gone Cardboard News: A Touch of Evil – Coming from Flying Frog

Flying Frog Productions released Last Night on Earth in late 2007, and the game sold out quickly, prompting an expansion – Growing Hunger – that has also been well-received. But Flying Frog will be putting away the zombies in future months for the release of A Touch of Evil. Here’s a description from the publisher:

A Touch of Evil: The Supernatural Game is a fast-paced game of fiendish creatures, dashing Heroes, and high-adventure. Each player takes on the role of a unique monster-hunting Hero, racing against time to stop the forces of darkness from claiming another foothold in the world of man.  Only by investigating the town and building your Hero’s strength can you hope to hunt down the Supernatural Villain to his Lair and defeat him in an epic Showdown. Players can race competitively to be the first to defeat the Villain and save the town, or they can work together cooperatively to defeat a much stronger Villain. The game features a gameboard map of Shadowbrook and its surrounding countryside, eight Heroes to choose from, and four different Supernatural Villains to hunt; each with its own host of unique Minions and powers to drastically change the game. A Touch of Evil is designed to create an adventurous cinematic feel as the story and game unfolds.

And the next task? Fighting excessive capitalization, which is weakening our minds and preparing us for future zombie attacks. A Touch of Evil, which plays with 2-8 players, ages 12 and up in 60-120 minutes, will retail for $50. The expected release date is Fall 2008. This game has been added to Gone Cardboard.

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Fantasy Flight to Release Age of Conan, Kingsburg, Constantinopolis, More

Fantasy Flight Games has announced a number of titles at the 2008 GAMA Trade Show that are either new or new to them. Gears of War was covered in an earlier news item, but the list of forthcoming titles also includes:

• Age of Conan: The Board Game – ICv2 ran a news item with this claim in February 2008, but FFG refused to corroborate the release at the time. Now it’s official, and Conan is due from FFG in late 2008.

• Aye, Dark Overlord! and Si, Godfather – A role-playing style party game (and sequel) from Italian publisher and distributor Stratelibri in which one player is the Overlord and the other players create stories about why they failed to carry out a certain mission. Stratelibri had previously released an English edition, but now FFG will release both the base game and the 2006 sequel, which was previously unavailable in English. Both games are due in Fall 2008.

• Constantinopolis – Liga posted a preview of this game from Giancarlo Fioretti back in June 2007, and new publisher Homo Ludens has yet to release the finished product. FFG will now be doing an English version of this trading and transport game set in the 14th century, although no release date was included in the press release.

• Kingsburg – Wait, but wha? Yes, this game already has an English-language publisher (ElfinWerks) attached to it, but Fantasy Flight is apparently taking the game under its own wing, with a release date of Fall 2008. I’ll find out more details about the switchover next week.

These games have been added to Gone Cardboard.

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Gone Cardboard News: duck! duck! GO! - Coming from APE Games

If you had asked me this morning what game I least expected to announce today, I possibly would have said, “An abstract racing game that uses plastic duckies for playing tokens.” Boy, would I have been surprised!

Coming in August 2008 from APE Games is duck! duck! GO!, another in a long line of games that I’ll refer to obliquely as often as possible in order to avoid writing out the title. Designed by Kevin G. Nunn, this game is for 2-6 players ages 8 and up. Each player has a plastic ducky – the box includes six different figures chosen from a set of one hundred – and your goal is to make your ducky touch the three buoys on the gameboard, then race to the drain before anyone else.

The gameboard is assembled from up to sixteen double-sided hexboards to match a difficulty level of your choice. To move your duck, choose one of three movement cards in your hand, then reveal it at the same time as other players. The low number moves first, following the path as far as possible; hit the edge of the board or another duck, and you stop moving and spin around to face away from the barrier. If you land on a buoy, you move again immediately.

The advanced game adds a bird dog figure that chases after the ducks. Whoever is in last in the buoy count gets to move the bird dog, sending anyone it hits back to a starting ring, similar to rematerializing at a flag in Robo Rally. When you reach a buoy, you also receive a secret action token – play an additional card, rotate for free, act like a bird dog for one round, etc. – for use later in the game.

The retail price for duck! duck! GO! is $39.95, and you can download the rules in English and German from the APE Games website. This game has been added to Gone Cardboard.

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Gone Cardboard News: Order of the Stick Expansion - Removed

The Linear Guild, an expansion for the Order of the Stick Adventure Game, has been removed from Gone Cardboard as Kevin Brusky at APE Games says that the release date is still unknown at this time.

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Gone Cardboard News: Fantasy Flight to Make Gears of War Board Game

Fantasy Flight Games will release a board game based on the Gears of War video game series for the Xbox. The setting for the video game is an alien planet, and players are soldiers who must repel attacks from the Locust Horde. With Gears of War 2 scheduled for November 2008, Fantasy Flight will release its Gears of War: The Board Game this fall to take advantage of the publicity.

This game has been added to Gone Cardboard.

Source: ICv2

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Mattel Releases New/Old Apples to Apples & Blink

In August 2007, Mattel bought the rights to Apples to Apples and Blink from Out of the Box, and those games have now started to ship under the Mattel label, along with the A2A Expansion Pack and A2A Junior. While with Out of the Box, Apples to Apples racked up more than three million copies sold; how long will it take before Mattel surpasses that total?

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Gone Cardboard News: Space Junk – Coming from Alcatraz Games

Alcatraz Games is a new publisher with no info on its website other than a brief mention that it will release Gilad Yarnitzky’s Space Junk – currently available as a print-and-play called Space Junkyard on BoardGameGeek – in August 2008. In Space Junk, two to four players are zipping around in their spaceships, cultivating junk floating around Earth in order to soup up their vehicles. Whoever ends up with the most improved spaceship wins the game.

This game has been added to Gone Cardboard.

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Gone Cardboard News: Chinatown - Coming from Z-Man Games

The new edition of Chinatown that’s being released by Filosofia in French in April 2008 will be released in English by Z-Man Games, most likely in June.

This game has been added to Gone Cardboard.

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Gone Cardboard News: Fruit Fair – Now Due in May 2008

Kris Gould’s Fruit Fair from Wattsalpoag Games is headed to the printers and is now a probable May 2008 release. The rules for Fruit Fair are a paragon of cleanliness and utility thanks to the aid provided by one handsome editor; as for the game play, well, I hope to give it a go soon and let you know…

This game has been updated on Gone Cardboard.

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Gone Cardboard News: Khet: Tower of Kadesh - On Its Way

Luke Hooper at Innovention has said that the new expansion for the abtract laser game Khet, a second story add-on called Tower of Kadesh that was due out March 20, is “still at sea” right now. Assuming no catastrophes occur, it should be released in the near future.

This game has been updated on Gone Cardboard.

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Gone Cardboard News: Batavia - Coming from Rio Grande Games

Batavia, the revised edition of Moderne Zeiten from designers Dan Glimme and Grzegorz Rejchtman and Queen Games, will have an international edition distributed by Rio Grande Games. Batavia was shown at the Nuremberg toy fair, but the release date of both the German edition and the international one is a mystery at this point.

This game has been added to Gone Cardboard.

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Gone Cardboard News: Bacchus’ Banquet - Designer Diary

Fréderic Moyersoen, designer of the forthcoming Bacchus’ Banquet from Mayfair Games, has been blogging about the game for the past week, with lots of images and descriptions. This game sounds like it’ll be great fun, especially at late night game sessions. After all, how many other games include a belt to monitor your food intake? Don’t slip past that final hole!

Moyersoen says that the updates will continue until April 10, the game’s expected release date.

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Gone Cardboard News: Witch’s Brew - Coming from Rio Grande

Andreas Pelikan’s Wie verhext!, the latest alea game, has been released in German, but English speakers will have to wait a couple of months for a version with card text that they can read. Witch’s Brew, as the game will be named, will be released by Rio Grande Games in May or June 2008.

Canadian publisher Filosofia Games will release a French version of the game around April or May, according to the Pelikan.

This game has been added to Gone Cardboard.

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Gone Cardboard News: Kaleidos - A New Edition

Cocktailgames and Ystari Games are working together to bring out a new edition of Kaleidos from designer Spartaco Albertarelli.

Kaleidos, which was on the Spiel des Jahres-recommended list for 1995, plays somewhat like Scattergories with pictures. The game includes twelve illustrations – with artwork in the new edition by Marianna Fulvi and Elena Prette – and each round a random letter is chosen. Players race to write down as many objects in the illustration that start with that letter as possible within the time limit. If someone lists an item not on anyone else’s list, he scores five points for that item; otherwise, he scores one point. The player with the high score after twelve rounds wins.

The Cocktail/Ystari version will naturally be in French, while Z-Man Games and original publisher Editrice Giochi will release Kaleidos in English and Italian, respectively. Kaleidos will be released near the end of 2008. This game has been added to Gone Cardboard.

Source: TricTrac.net

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Brass, Money!, High Society, Attack! Deluxe - Coming from FRED Distribution

FRED Distribution has passed on information about games both previously released and upcoming. Here are the details:

• Both Through the Ages and Rails of Europe are sold out, and new printings are scheduled for both games. The next printing of Through the Ages will have a number of small fixes and heavier card stock. New printings will ideally be available in summer or fall 2008.

• More Rails of... titles are in the queue, with Rails of the UK being one such expansion. FRED plans to release one Rails of... expansion before the end of 2008, and Martin Wallace is now at work on an expansion for 2009.

• Brass, co-published with Warfrog, has also sold out (at least in North America), and FRED will be reprinting this game as well. Designer Martin Wallace is editing the rules for clarity, and the new printing will include player mats and a quick start reference sheet.

• Two Reiner Knizia games, Money! and High Society will be the first two titles of a new imprint for FRED called Gryphon Games. Family-friendly titles will bear the Gryphon tag, while more strategy intense games will have the Eagle Games logo. Money! should be out in the summer, with High Society – with new turn-of-the-20th century artwork by Paul Niemeyer – is expected in the fall. Attacke, another Knizia title, will probably appear in 2009.

• Attack! Deluxe, combining the original base game with the expansion – along with new cards, new naval dice, and more than a thousand bits – is undergoing final playtesting now and is expected out in the summer of 2008. The revised game will retail for $50. For details on changes, check out this BoardGameGeek thread by Sean Brown, FRED employee and overseer of the new edition.

These games have been updated on Gone Cardboard.

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Gone Cardboard News: Nefertiti - Coming from Rio Grande, Matagot

Nefertiti is a new game from designers Jacques Bariot, Thomas Cauet and Guillaume Montiage that will be published in French by Editions du Matagot in Spring 2008 (most likely in May) and in English by Rio Grande Games sometime after that. A German language edition will also be available.

In Nefertiti, the king Akhenaton has organized a grand celebration for his wedding anniversary, so naturally you must curry favor with him and the missus by offering great gifts, ideally ones that others won’t be offering as well. (What, another toaster?) Players send their servants out to market, offering bids for wares; each market has different closing conditions that will have servants jockeying for the front of the line, and you can also make deals at market that will put more money in your pocket for later.

BGN will run a full preview of the game closer to its release date. Nefertiti is for 3-4 players with a playing time of 45-60 minutes. This game has been added to Gone Cardboard.

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Gone Cardboard News: Battle for Olympus – New Game from a New Company

Smartass Games is a new publisher preparing to release its first game, Battle for Olympus, sometime in 2008. Battle for Olympus is a card game for two players, although the game’s designer, Peter Grant, said that it’s now being tested with three and four players as well. “The game was designed to be relatively simple to pick up and play for beginners,” he says, “but to also have some strategic elements to keep more advanced gamers intrigued.”

Players are competing to claim land trophy cards as the player who claims the most wins the game. As you might guess from the game title, battles will determine who takes home a trophy and who gets rooked. The combat mechanism is reminiscent of Iliad. “Battle cards have symbols at the top that are used to determine which card ‘beats’ which other card,” says Grant. Claim three land trophies of the same color, and you receive an additional battle card, the Mercenary, to boost your odds during battle.

Eight types of battle action cards modify combat; Scouts, for example, can force an opponent to reveal his hand of cards or retrieve a previously played action. Your hand size is limited to four cards with any extras that you would draw being placed in a reserve pile to be claimed after battle. Six Ares cards in the deck serve as a timing mechanism and additional spur to combat. Whenever Ares shows up, players must battle, whether or not they’re prepared; after the final Ares card arrives, the game ends, and players tally their trophies.

Battle for Olympus will include rules in French and English and retail for approximately $25. This game has been added to Gone Cardboard.

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Gone Cardboard News: Senji – Description in English

Okay, this might be overkill on Senji news for now, but Asmodée has posted info about the game in English on its website, with more descriptions to come in the weeks ahead. You can also check out Bruno Faidutti’s description of the game, which includes details of the twisted diplomacy that you can practice while playing. Senji is due out in English in June 2008.

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Gone Cardboard News: Galactic Emperor - Pre-Orders Now Open

Adam West at CrossCut Games is now accepting pre-orders for Galactic Emperor, which is due out in June 2008, at 10% off the list price and flat-rate shipping anywhere in the world. The offer is for a “limited time only,” which I’ve come to learn from experience means “until I remember to take down the offer.”

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Gone Cardboard News: Supernova Pics from Mike Doyle

Maybe we hsould just adopt the following as a rule of thumb: For info on Valley Games’ titles, keep an eye on Mike Doyle’s Art Play. In his latest post, Doyle provides lots of artwork samples from Supernova, designed by Oliver Harrison and Mike Roy. Très chic…

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