The Industry at Large

News about the board and card game industry and other gaming-related items of interest.

< Back to Game News
<< Back Home

---

Wei-Hwa Huang’s Overview of the 2010 Mensa Mind Games

The 2010 Mensa Mind Games took place in April and I posted a list of the five Mensa Select winners at that time, but for those who want a closer look at the games presented for this competition, I suggest turning to Wei-Hwa Huang’s 2010 Mensa write-up, which he posted on July 1.

For those who don’t know, Huang worked with Tom Lehmann to playtest and do graphic design for Race for the Galaxy and is a regular member of the U.S. team competing in the World Puzzle Championship. The games submitted to Mensa Mind Games range from the interesting to the incomprehensible, and Huang’s write-ups of their merits and demerits is always enjoyable.

---

Agricola: The Goodies Already Headed to a Second Printing

So I posted an announcement of Agricola: The Goodies a couple of days ago – an expansion that includes multiple small card decks and other extras that Agricola publisher Lookout Games has released since the game’s debut in 2007 – and Lookout’s Hanno Girke now reports that the 2,500 copy first printing of the English edition of Goodies sold out at the distributor level in a single day. In other words, retailers have already placed orders for the entire print run and no more would be available should a retailer want to reorder.

As a result, Lookout Games has just ordered a second printing of Agricola: The Goodies, which will arrive sometime after the first printing hits the market in August 2010. Says Girke, “So the box is not as limited anymore as we thought it would be, but to avoid price gouging, we hope that’s the smartest thing to do.”

---

The Adventures of Kramer and Kiesling in Tikal II

In February 2010, I posted an overview of the 2010 release schedule from Swiss publisher GameWorks, with details on Tikal II from Wolfgang Kramer and Michael Kiesling based on a playing of the prototype at Spiel 2009.

Tikal II is still on track for release at Spiel 2010, with artwork being one of the larger tasks that remain to be tackled, as evidenced by the oh-so-attractive mock box pictured above. In addition to cover art, GameWorks co-owner Sébastien Pauchon says that the rules will contain more than the usual amount of artwork, specifically a nine-page comic strip by Vincent Dutrait that features Professors Kramer and Kiesling at the start of their first expedition to Tikal. Says Pauchon, “Game introductions often sum to a couple of sentences to contextualize the players, so we decided to try something different: a real story depicting the beginning of the adventure, which will also serve as an introduction to some of the game principles.”

Here’s a draft of the first page of that rulebook/adventure story:

---

Germany’s 2010 Game of the Year Is…

Dixit! Jean-Louis Roubira’s first published game – initially released by French publisher Libellud, then distributed by Asmodee in Europe and North America – has previously been named the French and Spanish game of the year, in addition to picking up a nomination for Polish game of the year, and now it’s taken home the big prize: Germany’s Spiel des Jahres.

In Dixit, players take turns being the storyteller and creating a sentence that represents or is suggested by one of the six cards in her hand. Each other player then chooses a card from their own hands, and the cards are shuffled together, then revealed. Players simultaneously vote on which card they think is the storyteller’s. If at least one person guesses correctly, but not everyone, then the storyteller and guessers earn three points. Each player other than the storyteller to receive a vote earns one point per vote. If no one or everyone identifies the storyteller’s card, then she scores nothing and everyone else scores two points. Whoever has the most points when the deck runs out wins.

Much of the charm of Dixit comes from the suggestive and enchanting artwork by Marie Cardouat. A second set of cards, Dixit 2, was released in 2010, and it can be combined with the base game or played on its own if players provide scoring and vote tokens.

Roubira’s second game, Fabula, co-designed with Régis Bonnessée, will be released in September 2010, with Asmodee once again distributing this Libellud production. As with Dixit, Fabula focuses on storytelling, but even moreso. One player takes on the role of Wilhelm Grimm in the process of writing his new tale. The other players represent characters in the imagination of the writer, and they try to guide the story by using items available on the table. If the writer approves of a character’s direction, that player scores points and the other players must continue the story; if not, that item is out of play and the next player must lead the story in a new direction.

The Spiel des Jahres jury announced five nominees for the award on May 31, 2010, as covered in this news item on Boardgame News. A separate list of ten recommended games was also made public at that time, as was a special prize – Spiel des Jahres plus – for Die Tore der Welt (World Without End), from Michael Rieneck and Stefan Stadler (Kosmos). Rieneck, Stadler and Doris Glasz from Kosmos were presented with their award prior to the announcement of this year’s Spiel des Jahres.

Congrats to Jean-Louis Roubira, Marie Cardouat, Libellud and Asmodee!

---

Steam Expansion on Display at Origins

If you’re a fan of Martin Wallace’s Steam and plan to attend the Origins Game Fair in Columbus, Ohio on Friday (today!) or Saturday, then you can swing by the Mayfair Games booth for a peek at Mayfair’s first expansion for Steam.

According to Mayfair’s Alex Yeager, as posted on BoardGameGeek, “it includes a 2-3 player map, and a map (a southern addition to the NE US map) that plays up to 7 players.”

No word on a release date for this expansion.

---

Cloudberry Games Starts to Sprout

In March 2009, I published a column highlighting two companies that were formed to help game designers bring their creations to a larger audience, whether for exposure or for the larger goal of publication.

One of those companies, Cloudberry Games, which was founded in 2008, has now emerged from its incubation and beta-test period to start inviting game development projects on a wider basis. Here’s a summary of how Cloudberry Games works from that previous column:

Cloudberry Games has developed a system that will help designers publicize and develop their games while simultaneously finding an audience. Says [co-founder Rustan] HÃ¥kansson, “An author creates a developer account on the webpage, which costs €10 per year, and starts a new project. He or she enters all the information there is about the game, including the rules. We check that it is at least a reasonable start of a game, and accept it as a project. With this, Cloudberry Games licenses the game from the author.” The game can be a new design or a previously published game that has since gone out of print.

The Cloudberry staff, gamers, publishers, artists and other designers can access this project – reading the rules, downloading files to print and play, making suggestions, tagging it – and the original designer can then make changes or improvements as desired based on the feedback he’s received. Artists can also participate in game projects, either voluntarily with the hope of future royalties or on a commission basis by Cloudberry.

Once the designer feels the game is finished and Cloudberry Games decides that interest in the game might merit a printing, the company will take quotes from printers, establish a quantity and price, then open an order window for thirty days. “We will either print the game or take it back and await further improvement or more interest later,” says HÃ¥kansson.

In fact, the developer membership is only €5 annually, something intended (I believe) to keep out the tire-kickers while still being accessible to a wide audience. Twenty games in various stages of completion are currently listed in the Cloudberry Games database, and developers can peruse them, download rules, offer suggestions, and so on. It will be interesting to see what rains down upon gamers from the clouds…

(Disclosure: I’m working with Rustan HÃ¥kansson on a new version of Boardgame News.)

---

Details on DungeonQuest from Fantasy Flight

U.S. publisher Fantasy Flight Games has published an overview of its new version of DungeonQuest. In addition to covering the basics of character movement and exploration of the game board, FFG points out a bonus related to its decision to move the game to its Terrinoth setting:

[W]e’re thrilled to announce an exciting bonus for those who pick up a copy of DungeonQuest. All of the six new DungeonQuest Heroes also come with Hero cards for Runebound, Descent: Journeys in the Dark, and Runewars!

That’s right: All copies of DungeonQuest will contain six never-before-seen figures (of the same plastic and scale as our other titles in Terrinoth), plus the necessary cards to expand your experience in three other games! Challara, the example Hero described above, can adventure across the realm in Runebound, battle fearsome foes in Descent: Journeys in the Dark, or infiltrate enemy territory in Runewars.

Now that’s some fancy cross-marketing!

---

Teuber on the Catan Card Game, Part 6

Designer Klaus Teuber has posted installment six of his increasingly lengthy history of how the Catan card game has been transformed into Die Fürsten von Catan. In this article, Teuber details “The Era of Gold,” one of three theme decks that can be combined with the introductory game, via storytelling. An excerpt:

It was a sticky hot summer evening. My wife and I sat relaxed on our patio and played The Princes of Catan card game. Each of us had already assembled a sizable principality with our cards. We were, so to speak, the Prince and the Princess of our respective empires.

On my last turn, I had played the Pirate Ship and thus sent my wife’s trade fleet to the bottom of the sea. As a result, the Trade Advantage and the associated victory point were mine…

The phone rang. My wife quickly placed the Gold Cache adjacent to one of her regions and went to the living room. “Could you please bring a beer for the Prince when you come back?” I shouted after her.

Will Teuber continue to plunder his wife’s holdings? Will she bring him the beer he requested? Read on and find out!

---

Abstract Bling in China

In a June 2010 news item on its website, French publisher Gigamic mentioned that its games are distributed in forty countries worldwide, and it included a short video highlighting new stores in Shanghai shopping malls. Curiously, two games on display in the video are super-glammed versions of Quarto and Pylos, both looking more appropriate for decorating a disco than a game room.

---

Need a Gamey Table?

Have four square feet of space that you don’t know what to do with? Looking for something to keep that lamp elevated off the floor so that you no longer have to hold it while you read? Burdened with 345 extra dollars that you were going to throw out because your wallet is just too fat?

If so, my friends, then maybe Pete’s Box from Prevideo Productions is the solution to your woes. (Or maybe it will cause a whole new set of unexpected woes – I can’t say for sure.) As described on the manufacturer’s website, “Pete’s Box is something you have never seen before: a six-sided game table. It’s so simple you’ll wonder why no one ever did it before.” Why did no one ever think of publishing a “real estate trading” game complete with Go, Free Parking, Chance and Community Chest spaces as part of an expensive boxy table that would be unwieldy to play upon? I’m sure there’s a reason of some sort…

---

Dominic Crapuchettes on the History – and Future – of North Star Games

Game designer Dominic Crapuchettes has posted a long history on his own North Star Games on BoardGameGeek, detailing his start as a game designer, how he transitioned to designing party games, setbacks from industry partners, and (most relevant for this site) two future releases from North Star. The details:

We will release two games at Toy Fair [in 2011]: Crappy Birthday and the family edition of Say Anything. Crappy Birthday is a party game where you try and give the crappiest gift to people. It will retail for $14.99.

An iPhone version of Wits & Wagers Family will get released in October and an iPhone version of Wits & Wagers will get released in November. I’m under a Non-Disclosure Agreement, so I cannot say too much, but if everything goes as planned, something pretty cool could be happening at one of the upcoming electronic shows (sorry for being obscure).

For those interested in publishing games, Crapuchettes has included sales volume totals for the North Star titles as well as the company’s revenue history, rising from $400 in 2003 to $1.57 million in 2009. While that last number looks grand, Crapuchettes points out that the figure is revenue, not profit, saying, “You have to remember that we barely made a profit last year even at $1.5 million in revenue.”

---

Z-Man Celebrates a Decade at Gen Con 2010

U.S. publisher Z-Man Games is turning ten years old in 2010, and to celebrate Zev Shlasinger has announced that at the Gen Con game convention in Indianapolis, IN in August 2010 the company will give away T-shirts with every purchase. What’s more, each person who buys something will be entered into a raffle with the winner receiving one copy of every Z-Man title in stock. (Limit one entry per person.)

Finally, game designer Tom Wham will be at the Z-Man Games booth to demo Kings & Things, which Z-Man will release in a new edition later in 2010. (This edition won’t be on sale at Gen Con.)

Shlasinger also mentioned a “live Pandemic event,” which could make the evening news telecasts depending on how many people fall ill at the con.

---

Steve Jackson on the Creation of Zombie Dice

Designer Steve Jackson has posted designer notes for the recently released dice game Zombie Dice. An excerpt:

As usual, the first question I asked myself was, “What story am I telling?” There are at least three ways to tell the zombie story. You can be the Bad-Ass Zombie Hunters. You can be the Survivors of the Zombie Apocalypse. Or you can be the Brain-Eating Zombies. I decided that I wanted the players to be zombies.

So the next question was: “If I’m a zombie, what happens when I go after the living?” Zombie movies agree: there are three options. The living can flee from me in terror, or they can hit me with something gruesome enough to kill the undead, or I can eat their yummy brains. That’s pretty much it.

---

Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries Returning to Print

Days of Wonder has announced on its blog that Alan R. Moon’s Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries (2-3 players, 8+, 30-60 minutes, $50) will be reprinted in English and available in September 2010. Here’s an explanation of the game’s history from the publisher:

Originally designed only for the Scandinavian market at the request of local distribution partners, smuggled copies of Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries found such a following among Ticket to Ride enthusiasts worldwide that in the fall of 2008 we relented to public demand and released what we’d thought would be a one-time printing of English, French and German copies of the game.

Unfortunately within a matter of weeks it became painfully obvious that we’d severely underestimated the appeal of the game among English players worldwide, especially those of Nordic ancestry. As a result, the first English edition sold out almost immediately, leaving throngs of frustrated fans wanting for the game or faced with absurd prices again!

Moon explained the origins of Nordic Countries in a July 2008 post on Boardgame News: “ I was enjoying the Switzerland map so much that I wanted to make another game for just 2-3 players. Plus, the sales of Ticket to Ride in Scandinavia have been very strong, so there had been some talk about doing a Scandinavia map. Those two things, along with the geographical configuration of the countries and the location of the major cities, combined to make a 2-3 player game seem like an obvious choice.”

This game has been added (once again) to Gone Cardboard.

---

Serve Overseas in the U.S. Military? Funagain Games Wants You

U.S. online retailer Funagain Games offers three monthly $100 grants: one for schools and libraries, another for community organizations and game groups, and a third for U.S. military personnel who are currently deployed outside their country. Problem is, says Funagain operations manager Nick Medinger, “It’s pretty hard to give away games when nobody even asks. Sometimes we don’t have a military grant because we get no applications.”

Free games going unclaimed? Absurd. If you know someone who qualifies for this grant program, send the link to that individual and give him or her a chance to have something to play during the downtime overseas.

---

Watch the Ticket to Ride World Championship Live

In September 2009, I posted details of Days of Wonder’s Ticket to Ride World Championship, an event that would span continents, bedazzle winners with gold-, silver- and bronze-plated TtR trains, and net each national champion a ticket to Paris for the final event.

Days of Wonder has now announced that the final matches will take place live at the Musée de la Carte à Jouer in Issy-les-Moulineaux, France on June 19, 2010. The matches will be broadcast live on TricTrac.tv and the Days of Wonder website. Follow the link for a list of game times and the editions of the game to be used.

---

Spend a Week with Derk Solko in Europe

If your idea of a fun vacation is to spend eight days in Europe listening to BoardGameGeek co-founder and co-owner Derk Solko be surly and grouse about everything under the sun, then you should check out the “Uber-Geeking out at the Essen Spiel in Germany” Tour from Geek Nation Tours.

This twelve-day trip sets off from Toronto (or the city of your choice); really gets started in Frankfurt; takes a cruise down the Rhine River; hits Cologne; sets down in Essen for five days to soak in the enormous Spiel game convention; and closes with a three day trip to Amsterdam before you fly home to recover and wonder what the final bill will cost you. The tour itself costs $2,500/$3,500 (Canadian) depending on whether you fly from Toronto or arrange your own air travel. Only 49 seats available on the tour. Derk can handle only so many groupies at a time…

---

Spielmaterial Design Contest Moves Forward

German game component retailer Spielmaterial.de has announced the results of the second round of tests in its latest game design competition.

As described on Boardgame News in September 2009, competition participants needed to design a game that merged bits from two different games. Seventy-five people submitted designs, and Spielmaterial.de has now narrowed the field to 32 games that will be playtested over the next two months with an announcement of the best games due by the end of August 2010. Winners will be offered a cash prize and a publication contract, as was the case with Schwarzes Gold, which reused components from Kosmos’ Giganten and appeared in print in late 2009.

---

Torben Sherwood on the Trials and Tribulations of Publishing

Valley Games’ Torben Sherwood has written a two-part abbreviated history of the Canadian publisher on LivingDice.com. An excerpt:

There are so many things that can go wrong that are out of your control, things like shipping, or moisture in the games, or damaged components and boxes, or wrong components. The list goes on – don’t get me started on things like customs and “random inspections” that happened every time we brought something into the USA for the first two years....

The next question I know that you are going to ask is “Why don’t you quit then?” and my response would be “I might, but I think I just need to figure out a different way.” Then I would tell that person that the business reminds me a little of golf. You can play that game your whole life and it frustrates you all the time: there are always shots that go wrong, your scores are never consistent, you are constantly dealing with weather issues and your equipment lets you down all the time. But then you have a good game, you hit the ball well, you putt great, the sun was shining, you and your friends had some laughs and a drink afterwards – that was a good day, I can’t wait to go again because it has to be like that again.

---

2009 Meeples Choice Award Results

The Spielfrieks user group finished its voting for the 2009 Meeples Choice Awards today and the following three terrific games finished on top:

Small World
Hansa Teutonica
Endeavor

Congratulations to designers Phillippe Keyaerts, Andreas Steding, Carl de Visser, and Jarratt Gray, as well as to publishers Days of Wonder, Argentum Verlag, and Z-Man.

The results of the voting are given below.  The votes in the final round are listed first, with the number of votes received during the nominations stage given after that in parentheses.

1. SMALL WORLD – 38 (34)
2. HANSA TEUTONICA – 36 (38)
3. ENDEAVOR – 33 (44)
4. Dungeon Lords – 30 (35)
5. Roll Through the Ages – 27 (39)
6. Steam – 26 (33)
7. Automobile – 23 (30)
8. Homesteaders – 19 (23)
8. Tobago – 19 (36)
10. FITS – 18 (33)
11. Macao – 17 (29)
12. Vasco da Gama – 14 (18)
13. Tales of the Arabian Nights – 11 (20)
14. Shipyard – 9 (16)
15. Campaign Manager 2008 – 8 (13)
15. Finca – 8 (16)
15. Peloponnes – 8 (21)
18. Imperial 2030 – 7 (13)
18. Power Struggle – 7 (11)
18. Rise of Empires – 7 (11)
21. Ad Astra – 4 (11)
22. Power Grid:  Factory Manager – 3 (13)
22. Ra:  The Dice Game – 3 (11)
24. World Without End – 2 (13)
25. Alea Iacta Est – 1 (11)
25. At the Gates of Loyang – 1 (13)
25. Carson City – 1 (12)

---

MeepleTown – Hints at Richard Launius’ Next Offerings

MeepleTown.com is a new gaming blog edited by Christian Wilson that launched with coverage of the May 2010 Atlanta Game Fest, and while I don’t normally post items about new blogs, Wilson’s day three coverage includes the following teaser about new designs from Richard Launius:

I also had the opportunity to playtest two unpublished prototypes created by Richard Launius, designer of Arkham Horror. I won’t go into too many details, but one was a thrilling cooperative sci-fi themed survival game, while the other was a frantic dungeon escape where players tried to one-up each other without getting the entire group killed. Richard loves giving players unique, well-defined characters and tons of dice to roll, and these prototypes were no exception. Both were a lot of fun (though the co-op game was decidedly more polished), and I hope to see them in a game store soon.

---

Days of Wonder iPad Giveaway; Small World iPad Update

As of the writing of this news item, U.S. publisher Days of Wonder has hosted 19,875,663 online games on its website, the vast majority of them being Alan R. Moon’s Ticket to Ride in one version or another. With the twenty millionth game due to start before too long, Days of Wonder has announced a giveaway in which the winner of that game will receive a free Apple iPad (16 GB), along with the iPad version of Philippe Keyaerts’ Small World. Each other player in that game will receive an 8GB Apple iPod Touch as a consolation prize.

The press release from Days of Wonder includes this cryptic comment from CEO Eric Hautemont: “With the critical success of our most recent release – Small World for iPad – and the launch this past week-end on the anniversary of D-Day, of the first beta test versions of Memoir ‘44 Online, we are committed to making 2010 a year to remember: For the first time in the 150 years or so of board gaming industry, the dice are beginning to roll very differently.”

Speaking of the Small World iPad app, the game listing on iTunes was edited on June 1, 2010 to note that version 1.0 of the game, featuring solo play against an AI, will be released sometime in June 2010. When that happens, the price will increase from $5 to $7; anyone who has purchased the $5 version will be able to upgrade to the new version for free.

---

2009 Meeples Choice Award Nominated Games

Here are the 27 games that got the most votes from the members of the Spielfrieks user group in the first round of the 2009 Meeples Choice Award voting. (Because of ties, we selected more than the usual 25 nominees.) If you want to help us choose three of these games as the award winners this year, head over to Spielfrieks and check out the two polls of nominated games.

Ad Astra
Alea Iacta Est
At the Gates of Loyang
Automobile
Campaign Manager 2008
Carson City
Dungeon Lords
Endeavor
Finca
FITS
Hansa Teutonica
Homesteaders
Imperial 2030
Macao
Peloponnes
Power Grid:  Factory Manager
Power Struggle
Ra: The Dice Game
Rise of Empires
Roll Through the Ages
Shipyard
Small World
Steam
Tales of the Arabian Nights
Tobago
Vasco da Gama
World Without End

By the way, the three games that just missed getting nominated were Last Train to Wensleydale, Thunderstone, and Ubongo 3D. 

---

Award Winners at the 2010 UK Games Expo

The 2010 UK Games Expo took place June 4-6, and as with the previous three times this event has been held, the organizers of the convention recognized a few standout games presented at the show. The award winners for 2010 are:

• Best New Board Game – Workshop of the World, by the Ragnar Brothers
• Best General / Family Game – Forbidden Island, by Matt Leacock
• Best Card Game – The World Cup Card Game 2010, by Shaun Derrick
• Best Abstract Game – Mijnlieff, by Andy Hopwood

That last game – the first edition of which sold out at the show – is a new one for me, but I found more info about the title on the Hopwood Games website: ”Mijnlieff is all about controlling your opponents turns, making sure that you get the most lines of three. The game fits into a very handy sized bag and has been described as ‘what noughts and crosses should be.’”

Designer Martin Wallace also took home a special award “for services to Games Industry and support of Expo.”

Congrats to all the winners!

---

WizKids Teaming with Star Trek for New Games

WizKids, now owned by the National Entertainment Collectibles Association Inc. (NECA), has announced a new line of Star Trek-themed games. Here’s the press release from WizKids:

WizKids/NECA and CBS Consumer Products today announced that they have entered into an agreement wherein WizKids/NECA will create HeroClix branded miniature games to be sold both physically and digitally, set in the Star Trek universe, including all of the Star Trek television shows and Star Trek feature films.

”Star Trek changed the way people think about the future,” said WizKids/NECA President Lax Chandra. “We are thrilled at the opportunity to marry our innovative game design and exceptional miniatures with the incredibly rich Star Trek franchise. We believe HeroClix and the Star Trek Universe are ideally suited for cooperative gaming and table top miniature simulation and will speak to gamers in a new and compelling way.”

The first WizKids/NECA Star Trek game will release around Christmas, 2010 with additional expansions to follow.

Star Trek changed the way people think about the future, so we must relive the past again and again, never forgetting the glorious adventures of Captain Rug, Baldy, Pointy Ears, Mushface, Pale Robot Guy, Scot Stereotype Lad, Cannon Fodder, and all the rest of the crew. Tired, yet obligatory “KHAAANNNN!” shout out to the fans!

---