RECAP: October NJPA Board Game Meetup

Yesterday was the NJPABGA game day and release party for Famous Missions. It was one of the most interesting days yet.

Championland games
The game day doubled as a release party for Famous Missions. We debuted the game, sold a bunch of copies (thanks guys!) and had cupcakes and  goodie bags for everyone. The first 10 people received famous people heads-on-a-stick, and everyone received the XXXtra special promo card. A few games of Famous Missions were played, but I was 60 minutes deep into another game so I missed out.

We also tested Cafe Catastrophe and VolcaNOOOOOO! Cafe Catastrophe is nearly complete and the two times I played it went pretty well. It’s a fairly easy game to pick up, and everybody really liked it. But VolcaNOOOOOO! still needs some work. It was initially a tile based game and now it’s a board game. There are some weird bugs to work out. But even being super buggy, everyone stuck it out until the end and said they enjoyed it. Got some great ideas and getting ready for version 3.0.

Other games
I started out the day with a long game of Heroscape. Most of the time was setup, but we played with 5 or 6 players so it was long between turns. Alex developed an insane scenario (computer generated vikings that fight for God, but also the devil… trying to remove the other dudes and their dragon from the castle) and we jumped right in. I went on a semi-suicide mission and successfully slayed the dragon. My mission was accomplished, but I was killed before I had enough time to really celebrate. My team went down and the dudes kept their castle.

The dragon slayer:

After that I played a quick game of Zombies. We thought it would be quick but it went really long. The last few rounds were a little repetitive, but we battled until the end. I was (this) close to winning, but wound up killing myself. I take too many chances..

Next up was Cosmic Encounter.  I was really excited to try this out. It was Joe’s game so he kind of taught/referee’d. We needed it though, because none of us had ever played before. This game was really cool. I played really conservatively after the last few games. I also thought I was going to win this, especially after a few rounds of George and Alex messing up in my favor, but I thinned myself out enough to lose in the end. Nick won this one. I had a card in my hand that basically resets the game, but I didn’t want to be the one to go there after a game that lasted almost 2 hours. I already want to play again.

The last game I played was Scotland Yard. George has been talking about this since last month. Im Scotland Yard a team of players moves around the map trying to find an invisible opponent. George played the invisible guy, and Alex, Nick, Joe and I tried to catch him. I don’t know what happened but halfway into the game we lost Alex and Nick. Maybe it was because it was getting late, but both managed to use all of their movement cards and they were forced to stay immobile for the rest of the game. Neither were in a position of any help for our team. Joe and I came really close to getting George, but we couldn’t do it without another player. George slipped away and the game (and the night) was over.

There were a few games that I didn’t get to play. Alex tested Go Pound Sand and others played Wings of War and Save Doctor Lucky. A very light day for games, but somehow we played longer than ever. As always, looking forward to next month.

Waiting for Famous Missions…

It’s been quiet because I’ve been waiting for Famous Missions to arrive. Super excited for it and it should be here soon enough. Next Saturday, October 17th, we’re having a launch party for Famous Missions at The Loft in Audubon, NJ. There will be some real cool giveaways, etc.

Other than Famous Missions, I’ve been working on a whole bunch of other games. A few are almost complete.

Cafe Catastrophe – A tile-based game where you try to seat and feed your customers before they walk out, or the food goes bad. This one is almost complete. Needs final artwork and a few rules tests and we’re good to go.

Lines of Fire – A tile-based defend your castle / head to head battle game, with lots of room to build. This one is finished, just needs completed artwork. The name isn’t final.. yet.

Volcanooooo! – A board game where you risk everything by building houses next to a volcano. The bigger the risk, the more points you get. When the volcano erupts, the houses will fall. This is another name that may or may not stay. Waiting on parts to arrive to continue testing this one.

That’s just about it. Those are the big three. Have others waiting on art (if anyone is up for doing some art, help is always appreciated) and others just waiting on ideas.

RECAP: September NJPA Board Game Meetup

Yesterday was the September meetup of our game group (NJPA Board Game Alliance). It was the biggest crowd yet and loads of fun, as usual.

Championland games
The day started off with a test copy of Famous Missions. It was the basic deck with very little artwork and one or two cards that were switched out before production. Charles was a great judge, really getting the most out of the players. Alan, Steve and Molly fought to the end until Alan broke the 3 way tie with his good cop / bad cop duo of Oprah Winfrey and Ozzy Osbourne.

More Famous Missions games were played, but I was playing other games at the time. I did hear someone yell “I’m gonna vomit!” while they were playing. Good stuff.

George, Marty and I tried out the new unnamed battle game that I’ve been working on. It’s simple and pretty fun. George has about 100 expansions already planned out to add depth and strategy. I’m testing out a different format for this game. It’s going to be printed on custom sized business cards, 2″X2″ and 2″X8″. The tests went well.

After about 10 hours of gaming and lots of pizza, we ended with a sleepy-eyed / brain-fried six player game of Starts With / Ends With. 3 of the players didn’t score a single point. We all struggled with a word starting with “I” and ending in “C”, and Joe won with a 16 letter word that I can’t remember.

Other games
I played Livingstone, Dominion, and Carcassonne (with Princess & Dragon / Inns & Cathedrals). I watched a Munchkin, Scotland Yard and a few games of Hit the Beach (renamed later as “Pound Sand”). I sent Carolyn to buy Wings of War, and saw a little bit of gameplay. And I watched George and Alex spend an hour trying to figure out how to play Utopia only to pack it up and move on.

I also watched Alex demo an updated version of his awesome game Turbo Crash, and George ironed out the kinks (and was destroyed by Alex) on his game Illuminarium.

So the next game day is Saturday, October 17th at The Loft in Audubon, NJ. I want to do something cool with Famous Missions, since I’ll have the full real game in hand by then. If we can get some solid artwork and a name for the battle game, I could have that ready too.

Championland @ The NJPA Boardgame Alliance today

Today, June 27, 2009, I will be hosting a Maze Game session at the NJPA Boardgame Alliance @ The Loft in Audubon, NJ. I am also bringing Pixel Lincoln (since I finally own a copy) and a severely unfinished version of Famous Missions. )note: I’m kind of getting hooked on that name. Also note: I have a hard time changing things that have been set for a little while, so that may end up being the final name. I do have a few others still in mind though..)

More info about todays event:

NJPA BGA’s next big event is Saturday June 27th at the Loft at the Auction House in Audubon, New Jersey. Join this group, check our postings and get on board for a new wave of gaming fun! We’ll have many featured game events plus many open ‘pick-up games’ to try. 
NEXT SCHEDULE SO FAR:
Featured Games (subject to change! please contact us to suggest games you like or wish to run!)
2PM Mag Blast
3PM Amoeba
4PM Super Giant Monster Showdown
6PM Maze Game
7PM Conspiracy
8PM Uzu
9PM Illuminati

ONGOING throughout DAY
Cathedral (tournament)
Pokemon Whatever
Battle Masters Campaign

NJPABGA – http://www.cybergecko.com/njpabga/njpabga.htm
The Loft (at The Auction House_ – http://www.theloftnj.com

Working on new games.

I’m currently working on like 10 games in my head, on my laptop and on paper. What’s weird is that I always feel like I default to creating one player games. Maybe that’s from playing video games? Who knows. Speaking of video games, we have a small team of game designers working on a Pixel Lincoln video game. This should be awesome. 

Back to the games I’m working on. Here are some keywords for the current games I’m working on.

Moustaches
Gangs
Castles
Deserts
Paris Hilton
Germany
Dress-Up
Blocks
Lions

I hope to finish a prototype of at least one of these games over the weekend. And definitely have one available for the NJ/PA Board Game Alliance meeting in June. It’s Saturday 6/27 at The Loft. Currently, I’m schduled to demo Maze Game, and may playtest another game if ready. 

And finally, I’m going to have a handful of copies of Pixel Lincoln on hand very soon. The first batch has been sold out for a few months now (you can still buy from Guild of Blades), but I ordered more for the upcoming Wizard World Philly. The video game team has a booth, so we’ll have some Pixel Lincoln info as well as the card game available.

Game Orders Updated and New Stuff

Any day now I should have the first copies of Maze Game, Starts With/Ends With and Pixel Lincoln. They were scheduled for production last weekend and to ship early this week. I can’t wait. I’m super excited but also super nervous. I’ve ordered individual cards and small sets before, but these are the first full games. I hope everything went well with the designs. Anyway, they’ll be here in a few days and I’ll be sending out all of the pre-orders.

While waiting, I’ve been refreshing myself on a few of the game ideas that I’ve been working on. The most work has been on a castle / army battling game. Basically the game is 2 castle cards, separated by a specific amount of land cards. Each player will control a castle and an army (which will build in time). So you start with your army at your castle and head down the path to your opponents castle, battling along the way. Last castle standing wins.

That’s the simple version, but the game has a lot still to be developed.

I will post a few images as we continue.

The Game Creation Project begins.

The Game Creation Project is something I’ve been thinking about for a while now. I found a company that prints professional quality playing cards at a pretty affordable price. I decided to make up a couple of games and get them printed. Then I started putting out ideas and instantly came up with like 10 games. Creating the games felt awesome.

Afterwards, I came up with the idea of a project where I’m constantly making new games and sharing them as they develop. Making any kind of game I can think of, using playing cards as a base. Posting my ideas as they come to me, and sharing artwork as it’s created. Over time I would develop the good games and forget the crap ones.

This is going to be fun, right?