Greg J. Schloesser: Hooray for Mattel!

A few years ago, my Westbank Gamers group had the pleasure of play-testing several games that were under development by Mattel, the American toy and game giant.  The designer of these games was my friend and Mattel employee Brian Yu.  Brian has several game designs to his credit, all of them being games aimed at the mass market.  Most of these were movie or television show tie-ins, including Batman, Sponge Bob Square Pants, and Lemony Snicket. 

The interesting part of this story is that the games we play-tested were decidedly “Europeanâ€? in nature.  It seems Brian had been urging Mattel to produce games that offered a bit more in terms of choices, decisions and strategies.  He helped expose other Mattel designers to European-style games, and their collective efforts seem to have finally born fruit.  After several years of development, Mattel has finally released two of Brian’s designs:  Voltage and Desert Bazaar.

Voltage is a two-player game akin to Balloon Cupand Heave Ho.  Players play cards in an attempt to win four sets.  Cards may be played either on your side of the power grid, or on your opponent’s.  The polarity of the grid may change, so the winner of a set will either have the highest value or the lowest value, depending upon the current status when the fifth card is played.  There’s more, but that is the gist of the game.

Desert Bazaar involves collecting resources and constructing tents across the desert.  As in Attika, neighboring tents can help in the construction costs, and proper placement is critical to success.  Desert Bazaar is a multi-player game, accommodating up to five players.

Both games would fall squarely into the “introductoryâ€? category.  Don’t expect Puerto Rico or Torres.  Rather, expect games in terms of complexity on par with Lost Cities or perhaps Carcassonne.  Still, that is a HUGE step forward for a mainstream American game company.  Mattel is to be congratulated, and supported in their efforts.  If these games are successful, there will likely be more such games coming soon.

My big question is how will Mattel promote these games?  Will they be strictly aimed at the hobby market, or will they make their way into mainstream stores such as Toys R Us, Wal-Mart or Target?  I sincerely hope they will pursue the latter course, which will be a good thing for the hobby. 

*****

On another note, I will be moving my column to an “at-largeâ€? status.  That means I likely won’t be writing a new installment each week.  Why?  Well, it is not that I don’t enjoy writing – I do.  However, there are two main factors affecting my decision:

1) Hurricane Katrina.  Most of you know that in my full-time occupation is insurance agent.  I own a small insurance agency based in the New Orleans area.  Prior to Katrina, my business was such that I would have a bit of time each day to write some articles, reviews and commentary, or browse the various internet gaming forums.  Such was the joy of being self-employed! 

Sadly, that modicum of free time evaporated in the wake of Katrina.  We have been insanely busy at work, so much so that I no longer have any free time during the day.  This means that I must now do all of my reviews, writings and browsing at night and on weekends.  However, I spend most of that time with my family and friends.  As a result, I don’t have anywhere near the amount of time to write and browse as I previously had.  Hopefully, that will change in the near future, but for now I must make some sacrifices.

2) Nothing to say.  Frankly, I don’t always have something worthwhile to say.  I really don’t want my column to become a “What I’ve been Playingâ€? recap.  When I write, I want to say something of importance and relevance.  Some weeks, I honestly don’t feel I have anything worthwhile to say. 

These two factors made me realize that I would best serve the Boardgame News readers if I switched to an “at-largeâ€? status, contributing articles and thoughts whenever I felt I had something of interest to say.  That may be weeks in a row, while sometimes it may be two weeks or more before I publish a column.  Hopefully, however, it will be more rather than less.

In any case, I urge everyone to keep reading Boardgame News, and support it with a subscription.  And keep looking for my columns.  You just might have to be a bit more patient!

© 2006 Greg Schloesser

---

Comments:

You must register with BGN in order to comment. Registration is free!

I’ve had the pleasure of playing both of Brian’s games.  Voltage is a nice snappy little filler.  Desert Bazaar is meatier, a middleweight with something of the feel of Settlers.  Both are well worth playing.  Brian’s turned out to be a talented game designer and I hope that these first two releases are just the beginning of a steady stream of euro-like titles from Mattel.  Congratulations, Brian! Posted by Larry Levy on Jul 14, 2006 at 08:43 AM | #

You’re welcome Larry. Glad you liked the games. Posted by Dale Yu on Jul 14, 2006 at 10:42 AM | #

Great to see these games hit the market.  I will definitely be looking into them.  Congrats on getting them out there, I hope they will be a grand success. Posted by Ogdred Weary on Jul 14, 2006 at 11:30 AM | #

Great news about these Mattel games.  I’ll definitely keep a look out. Posted by Brent Mair on Jul 14, 2006 at 12:01 PM | #

But I want to know what you’ve been playing. Really. Posted by Brian Waters on Jul 17, 2006 at 04:11 AM | #

< Back Home