Dude! Take Your Turn!
A Gaming Life
Queen Games Gets Mysterious
Since I’m a bit behind on this week’s BGG Top 100 post (tomorrow I promise! Hopefully), how about a quick one about some boardgame mystery.
Yesterday on Twitter, Queen Games posted the following:
One Designer – One Publisher – One Grand Project: The “Stefan Feld City Collection”… #StefanFeld #CityCollection #QueenGames #Spiel20 #FeldMeld pic.twitter.com/19cEc6yZDp
— QueenGames USA (@QueengamesUS) June 16, 2020
Everybody’s speculating on just what the hell this might be referring to.
It’s talking about noted game designer Stefan Feld, so it sounds like it might be really cool.
I love it when game companies get mysterious.
What could they be talking about?
Bruges? Strasbourg? Some other city that I can’t seem to find in his repertoire?
Let me know what you think.
Or, if you happen to know, how about letting me in on it?
I promise I won’t tell.
Cross my heart.
More New Characters for Talisman Digital!
It’s June and Nomad Games has released another trio of new characters for the digital version of Talisman.
Recently they released the Satyr, the Vampire, and the Pilgrim as characters you can play, all coming with their own little unique aspects that are pretty cool overall.
That being said, I have to wonder about the AI implementation of at least one of them.
How do these match up with the others?
The first trio of characters were good, so what about these?
Let’s take a look.
The Pilgrim is the most basic but yet he may be the most fun of the three.
The best thing about the Pilgrim is that you can avoid all of the “Miss your next turn” notices.
Terraforming Mars Big Box Kickstarter is Live!
After much hullabaloo, and a really nice chat with Stronghold Games President Stephen Buonocore, the Terraforming Mars Big Box Kickstarter is now live!
And wow, is there some cool-looking stuff in there.
First, I’m very glad to see that there is a pledge level that’s just for the tiles and a box to carry them in. So if you already like your game storage solution, just spend $79 and get the tiles and their box.
You’ll be carrying two boxes around when you bring the game to game day, but both may be the equivalent of dragging the Big Box around anyway!
App Review – Viticulture
Viticulture is a great game about running a vineyard. Please note: it’s running a vineyard, not necessarily making wine (though there is plenty of that too).
The game, designed by Morten Monrad Pedersen, Jamey Stegmaier, and Alan Stone with art by Jacqui Davis, David Montgomery, and Beth Sobel and published by Stonemaier Games, is a worker placement game with some interesting mechanics.
Even though it is a game I love, I haven’t actually played it since 2016, when I played it 5 times.
That’s just not cool.
Thankfully, Digidiced has my back, as they have now released the game in a cool new app version for iOS and Android (Steam to come later, apparently).
How does it look?
Let’s take a look.
Fireside Games Listens to Their Fans – Cancels Castle Panic Deluxe Edition Kickstarter
I love it when game publishers listen to their fans.
When I heard that Fireside Games was doing a Deluxe version of Castle Panic, with plastic miniatures, retooled artwork and cool wooden tokens to be placed in the bag to draw, I was kind of excited but unclear whether they were doing just the base game or what.
Yesterday, two days into the Kickstarter for the Deluxe Edition when the campaign started and it was confirmed that only the base game was being done (which I kind of figured considering they just announced 31 miniatures), Fireside announced that they were cancelling the Kickstarter campaign after hearing from numerous fans.
I added an edit to my original post about the Castle Panic Deluxe Edition Kickstarter that Fireside Games was doing, noting the cancellation, but I decided last night that I wanted to comment on it further.
In the campaign, Fireside mentioned that the reason they were doing just the base game is because the base game far outsells the expansion and they wanted to get people in on the ground floor.
However, many gamers (including me) who are fans of the franchise believe that the game truly comes into its own with the Wizard’s Tower expansion. Without it, the game is a nice family-friendly cooperative game but there really isn’t a lot to draw the “true” gamer to it.
With the Wizard’s Tower expansion, it becomes a “gamer’s” game and it’s a lot more interesting.
I’m glad that Fireside actually listened and decided to retool the whole campaign. I know a number of people, a number of owners of the regular game who would have jumped on this, decided not to because they’d just be getting the base game. And it is impossible to play the Deluxe version along with the basic expansions. You really need the whole thing.
So now Fireside is going back to the drawing board, probably going back to the plastic people and saying “we need all of this as well” and the new Kickstarter campaign (when it comes out) will be really expensive.
Hopefully they’ll have tiers where, if you just want the base game, you get the base game. If you want just the base game with Wizard’s Tower, you can get that. You can basically pick and choose your expansions and get the miniatures and other stuff for what you want.
It may be really expensive (if just the base game is $99 US, I can’t imagine how much multiple expansions will add to it), but that’s what the fans want.
Their base goal for this Kickstarter was $5000 and they easily surpassed that. The goal’s going to have to be higher considering the cost of everything else, but I think they could easily hit the high six-figures if not perhaps seven-figures with a campaign that can possibly include everything.
This is their first Kickstarter campaign, and this shows that they are willing to learn and retool. At least it wasn’t a disaster like some other first campaigns.
Hell, they could have had a campaign with a ton of really bad stereotypes and got run off of Kickstarter and Twitter.
At least they avoided that.
I’ll check out the tiers and the prices of the new campaign and see if I want to bite.
I know I wasn’t on this one, though.
This reminds me of when Stronghold Games pulled Aftershock after that hullabaloo.
I love it when companies listen and are willing to change.
What other examples of this type of thing can you think of? Are you happy about this? Are you maybe interested in a full deluxe version of everything Castle Panic?
Let me know in the comments.
Boardgame Geek Top 100 – Played or Play? 60-51
With this post we’re half-way through the BGG Top 100 and I have to say that this has been a fun project for me. I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have.
One thing going through this list does for me is show me just how few games I’ve actually played compared to a lot of people out there.
According to my BG Stats app (a must-have for anybody who actually tracks their plays), I’ve played a total of 383 games and that’s mostly true (I think there are a few games that I played before I started recording). When I think about most of the boardgame content creators out there and how many they’ve played, I kind of feel like a blogging pretender in a way.
That’s why I make my Top 10 “games I played that year” rather than “best games of the year”. I don’t have any way of knowing how the ones I’ve played compared to all of the other ones.
So it’s nice to just take a look at a bunch of games that may not get covered on this blog much.
Considering the response to this series, I’m having an understandable reaction.
Hell, I even got into a nice discussion with a brilliant game designer!
Anyway, this week is a good one with lots of stuff that I’ve actually played.
And I can’t wait!
Oh yeah, it’s right here below. I guess no waiting involved.
Let’s get started!
Viticulture Digital – Out Now!
Quick post today because I have to spend time doing tomorrow’s “BGG Top 100 post”.
Yesterday, to the surprise of many (except for maybe those who paid attention to Digidiced‘s press releases), Viticulture appeared on the iOS App Store and the Android store as well.
Yes, that’s right. Jamey Stegmaier’s classic wine-making game (though it’s more about running a vineyard than actually making wine since you can win without making much) has now reached the digital realm, courtesy of Digidiced.
It was announced back in August but I hadn’t heard much about it recently other than it was in beta and that it looked good.
I really love Digidiced’s apps, mainly because they do a great job with asynchronous multiplayer (though there can be some hiccups) and the apps usually come out very polished.
Castle Panic Deluxe Coming to Kickstarter Tomorrow!
(Edit: This campaign has been cancelled. Hopefully they’ll come up with something cool, though!
Due to feedback from dedicated fans, we have decided to cancel the current Kickstarter campaign and work on a new campaign with deluxe versions of the expansions included. We’ll provide information via the Updates section of the campaign and through our newsletter. Stay tuned! pic.twitter.com/CScpjpY5kZ
— Fireside Games (@firesidegames) June 10, 2020
(Edit: I goofed slightly in how to play the game. The monsters move after each player goes, not after all players go. I edited below. Also, the Kickstarter is now live!
And it looks like it is just the base game. Wonder if they will eventually Kickstart deluxe expansions?)
Kind of lost in the shuffle of all that Kickstarter news about some game where you’re doing something with Mars (I’m not sure exactly what), Fireside Games has something also coming to Kickstarter on June 9.
Castle Panic (designed by and with art by Justin de Witt) is one of the favourite games for me and my wife to play. It’s a cooperative game where hordes of monsters are descending on your castle and you’re trying to weather the storm and keep at least one part of your castle standing.
There have been three expansions released for it (The Wizard’s Tower, The Dark Titan, and Engines of War), along with a Big Box last year that would hold all three expansions.
Now Fireside Games is going to that one better with a Deluxe Edition.
Two big ticket items hitting Kickstarter on the same day?
Let the battle begin!
App Review – Football Highlights 2052
(Edit: Peter has graciously corrected a couple of things. Rather than mention them here, I’ll note the edit in each spot. I apologize for the errors. Thanks, Peter!)
Mike Fitzgerald knows card games.
My first exposure to his work was the brilliant trick-taking game Diamonds, but lately he’s been in a sports frame of mind.
Baseball Highlights 2045 was a fun little game playing a futuristic version of baseball, but only really the “highlights” of the game (hence the name).
Last year, though, Football Highlights 2052 was Kickstarted and I finally received my copy of it in December, first getting it played in February.
Then COVID-19 hit and the game’s still at work waiting for me to return to the office and my normal 2-player game opponent.
So when I heard that Peter Kossits, the developer of the excellent Baseball Highlights 2045 app, was doing the app for Football Highlights 2052, I began panting as I enjoy this game a lot more.
The app is now out on iOS and Android devices. So how is it?
Let’s take a look.
Q&A – Stephen Buonocore (President of Stronghold Games)
(Edit: And it’s live! Let me know what you think now that it’s up and running in the comments. I also did a post about it.)
(Edit: Apparently this has now been pushed back to June 16)
You may have heard something last week, though most likely it slipped under your radar.
I know it did mine.
Did you know that there is a Terraforming Mars Big Box coming to Kickstarter on June 9?
That’s, like, next week!
I know! I was shocked too. And seemingly many of you were too judging by all the visitors I had for the first few days afterward.
I reached out to Stronghold Games President Stephen Buonocore to see if he’d be willing to answer some questions about the upcoming Kickstarter campaign, and he graciously agreed.
Because that’s just the kind of guy he is.
In the Q&A, you’ll get some juicy tidbits about the Big Box as well as some caginess about the future (which is totally understandable).
Check them out below, and thanks to Stephen for being such a great sport and giving such comprehensive answers.
Here’s the pre-launch page.
Speaking of juicy, check this one out.
Dude! Take Your Turn! 