Blog Archives
Monday Brews: 8-18-14
It exists! And it’s awesome!
Gen Con 2014 is over and it was awesome! Why? Because I got to hang out with great friends of mine and because I got to hold, unwrap, punch, and play a production copy of Scoville! Special thanks are due to Jeremy, Adam, Ben, Mark and Mike for making Gen Con 2014 a memorable one.
If you are new to this blog, Scoville is my first published game design. It is published by Tasty Minstrel Games and should be available later this year, so put it on your Christmas lists! You can go pre-order it from your favorite local game store or the online game outlets.
So with Gen Con in the books, and with recently quitting on Brooklyn Bridge I feel refreshed and ready to move on to some exciting new designs. I have one that I’m keeping a secret, one that will occasionally mention, and The Grand Illusion, which I am openly designing and blogging about on this site.
But enough about that. Let’s check out the Boards & Barley that I’ve enjoyed over the past two weeks.
The Barley:
An excellent complement to Optimator!
BARLEY SPOTLIGHT: Spaten Optimator
Why such a standard brew for the spotlight? Because it was enjoyed at the Rathskellar in Indianapolis with my friends. This has become a tradition for us. On Friday night we went to the Rathskellar and enjoyed beer, cigars, and a fantastic live band. Plus, attending the Rathskellar is a great way to escape the geek world of Gen Con for a few hours. We had a great time and I enjoyed a delicious 32 ounce Optimator! The picture on the right shows the appetizers we ordered (Sausage platter, Brat balls, Jalapeno poppers, and Chicken Cordon Bleu rolls).
- Leinenkugel’s Summer Shandy
- Atwater Decadent Dark Chocolate Ale
- Capital Dark Voyage Black IPA
- Next Door Luminous IPA
- O’so English Mild
- Rock Bottom Honey Ale
- Flat 12 Hinchtown Hammerdown Golden Ale
- Sam Adams Boston Lager
- Thr3e Wisemen Rocky Ripple Pale Ale
The Boards:
BOARDS SPOTLIGHT: Scoville
How could it not be Scoville? I love the game even after over 100 plays. I love how a 2p play at Gen Con provided a situation that really tested me. The decisions are so interesting. The play changes from game to game with different players. As the fields grow from round to round there are more and more choices, so the game naturally ramps up. I love this game so much and I was so excited to crack open a new copy and get it to the table. Here are a few pictures to show how it looks. If you like how the peppers look, click on the picture and thumb it up on BoardGameGeek.com.
6 Player Scoville ready to go!
The amazing peppers! (Click to go to BGG and thumb the pic!)
6 Player game in progress.
Here are the games I played prior to Gen Con:
- The Little Prince
- Morels
- 20th Century
- Splendor
- Unpublished Prototype (It was really intriguing – Currently being evaluated by Moon Yeti Games)
Our Samurai Spirits were crushed in defeat!
And here are the games I played at or after Gen Con:
- Legends of the American Frontier (Set up and played one round)
- Island Fortress
- Scoville x2
- Camel Up
- Penny Press
- Mutiny
- Love Letter
- Fast Track
- Weykick
- Word on the Street
- Neighborhoods (Prototype by Ben Rosset and Matthew O’Malley)
- Istanbul
- Amerigo
- Blueprints
- Samurai Spirit x2
- Lost Legacy (Starship and Flying Garden)
- Pengoloo
There was nothing on the Gen Con Preview that I felt was a “must-buy” this year but there were a few that I was interested in. The one I was most interested in was Instabul, which I bought.Here is a picture of the modular board:
5 Player game in progress.
In Istanbul each player also has a small player board of their own. The goal in the game is collect rubies. To do so you will need to manage your resources and money as well as utilize your location placement of your merchant and their assistants. It was an excellent game and well worthy of the Kennerspiel des Jahres award.
Surprise Hit #1: Camel Up
Camel Up was awesome. We played with 7 players at the Z-Man booth and we loved it. It won the Spiel des Jahres and when you play it you can understand why. I picked up a copy because it was fun, interactive, and plays up to 8 players!
Surprise Hit #2: Samurai Spirit
I am not normally a fan of cooperative games but this one had so much awesomeness that I can’t wait to play it again. It was a struggle. We lost badly. In fact, the first time we attempted the game we died after the first (of 3) rounds. There are some very interesting choices and some really cool combinations that can be done in the game. It was a lot of fun.
And here is a picture of my Gen Con 2014 haul. Several of these games came from the math trade, some were freebies. Missing from the picture are the King of Tokyo promo cards and the Tokaido promo cards and Eriku character promo.
I’m looking forward to playing all these!
Overall it was a great Gen Con. I’ll be writing another post this week about one specific experience from the convention. It was great to meet so many awesome people, especially those I follow on Twitter that I had never met in real life. I’m already looking ahead to Gen Con 2015 (partially because it is unlikely I’ll attend GrandCon, BGG.con or Origins before then).
Monday Brews 7-21-14
Welcome back to Boards & Barley. I’m so glad you’re here. Today we’ve got a standard Monday Brews article but I’ve got some good stuff in the pipe for this week. I’ll have an article about game design regarding when/how to chip away at your game. I’ll also have a Grand Illusion article. And I’m hoping to have one other article for you all on Friday. Not sure of the content yet, but I have a few ideas. It’s about time that I started making this blog rock again, don’t you think??
As a reminder, I want to point you to my article about the new board game publishing company that several friends and I are starting: “It’s Time for a Mutiny!” The company is called Moon Yeti and we are going to be giving away about 100 copies of a sweet microgame called Mutiny at Gen Con. Will you be there?
Now, let’s get on to the Boards & Barley!
The Barley:
You and me goin’ fishin’ in the dark!
BARLEY SPOTLIGHT: Capital Brewery, Fishin’ in the Dark Imperial Schwarzbier
This was a quite enjoyable beer from Capital Brewery. They are located in Middleton, WI and have branched out a bunch since the previous brewmaster left to start Wisconsin Brewing. Capital are brewing some really cool beers. This one seems a fine addition to their lineup.
- New Glarus Spotted Cow
- Boddington’s (I know it’s “brand” beer but at least it is enjoyable!)
- Southern Tier Live Pale Ale
- Shock Top Honeycrisp Apple Wheat (never again!)
The Boards:
Lovely artwork, enjoyable game.
BOARDS SPOTLIGHT: Steam Park
This game is pretty legit. The theme is cool and unique. The gameplay is tight. And in the end you find yourself with your own little theme park. That’s pretty sweet.
The game lasts 6 rounds. Each round players roll 6 dice (over and over again) until they get the results they want. Then in turn order (based on who stopped rolling first, second, third, etc.) players will resolve their dice. The dice allow for building rides or stations, finding visitors, cleaning your park, or fulfilling bonus cards.
There is a good amount of forethought necessary when trying to optimize your dice. And there is also a bunch of different ways you could try to win. Players win by having the most money. If your park is too dirty at the end, you will lose money.
Overall I felt the game was a lot of fun. It’s a game I definitely want to play at least one more time.
- For Sale
- Tikal
- Ticket to Ride (with Dice)
There you go. I made no game design progress last week, which was extremely disappointing as I am really hoping to get Brooklyn Bridge to a better state prior to Gen Con. It will be a big focus for me this week and I try to hone the design and infuse more fun, more interesting decisions, and more long-game strategy.
What Boards & Barley have you been enjoying?
Monday Brews – 7-14-14
First things first: Today is July 14th… Gen Con starts August 14th. That means we are 1 month away from Gen Con! Woo Hoo!
Now let’s get to the bi-weekly Boards & Barley that I have enjoyed. As usual we’ll start with the Barley.
The Barley:
Clean and friendly with some delicious beer!
BARLEY SPOTLIGHT:
Next Door Hammerhead IPA
As one of my goals for the year I am “adventuring” out of my beer comfort zones and into more varieties of beer. IPAs are one of those varieties that I previously would never have chosen. But I am now embracing them.
In the past I have typically stayed away from hoppy beers. But this beer was actually very drinkable and enjoyable. The hop level wasn’t too strong and it seemed to provide just the right about of character. If you are ever in the Madison area I recommend stopping by Next Door Brewing!
- Oskar Blues Old Chub Nitro Scotch Ale
- New Belgium Fat Tire
- Summit Summer Ale
- Young’s Double Chocolate Stout
- Potosi Cave Ale
- Next Door Egon’s Revenge (Gose)
- Next Door Rockets Red Ale
- Oskar Blues Dale’s Pale Ale
- Leinenkugel’s Red
- Leinenkugel’s Original
The Boards:
Simple and elegant artwork and gameplay!
BOARDS SPOTLIGHT: Sushi Go
I played this at Next Door Brewing and I really enjoyed it. It is quick, has beautiful and simple artwork, and the gameplay is elegant.
Sushi Go has a card drafting mechanic similar to the game 7 Wonders. Ultimately, Sushi Go is like 7 Wonders Lite. Take a card, pass the rest, then play the card. The cards present different scoring opportunities. Some have you build a set to score. Some score straight away. Some score at the end of the game. The design is so smooth and simple that it is easy to see why people enjoy this game.
Designer’s Corner:
With Gen Con one month away it’s really crunch time in terms of the designs I want to show. Brooklyn Bridge is really at the forefront and will be where I place the most effort over the next few weeks. It’s at the point where some of the cards need some tweaking, but ultimately it just needs to be played more.
I would also like to see if I can prototype The Grand Illusion and get in some preliminary playtests, even if it means the first time it gets played is at Gen Con.
Monday Brews – 6-30-14
Another week gone by. And another summer weekend in the rear view mirror. And another tornado warning where I live. What a summer this shall be!
It’s Monday, so let’s take a look at the Boards & Barley that I enjoyed this past week.
The Barley:
BARLEY SPOTLIGHT: Lake Louie Mosquito Beach
This is a beautifully tasteful beer and perfect for warm summer evening enjoyment. Lake Louie, a local brewer, makes some excellent brews. This particular beer, a “California Common,” is Lake Louie’s first lager beer. It weighs in at 5.8% abv and possesses 30 IBUs. And it is really tasty!
- Leinenkugel’s Summer Shandy
- Leinenkugel’s Honey Weiss
- Smith & Forge Hard Cider
What brews have you been enjoying?
The Boards:
BOARDS SPOTLIGHT: Brooklyn Bridge
I made a change to the brickyards based on a suggestion for a local world-class game developer and it took the game from “This is a game” to “This is special!”
It worked really well, increased player interaction dramatically, added a slightly more cut-throat nature, and most importantly made it more fun and enjoyable. I can’t wait to get it to the table again and keep working on it!
The only other game I played last week was Mutiny, which I should be able to write about in the near future. I’ll keep you posted on that.
What board games have you been enjoying?
Monday Brews – 6-23-14
I’m Back! My paternity leave is over, my baby is a month old, and I am ready to jump back into game designing, blogging, and brewing.
As usual since today is Monday I recap the Boards & Barley I’ve enjoyed. But it has been a long time since I posted so I have an extensive list today. We’d better get started… (So many beers means I won’t be linking them all. If one sounds interesting, just do a search for it.)
The Barley:
Oh Baby!
I can’t pick a Barley Spotlight beer since there were so many good ones. Here’s what I’ve enjoyed over the past few weeks:
- Bell’s Oberon
- La Trappe Quadrupel
- Anchor Old Foghorn Barleywine
- Leinenkugel’s Lemon Berry Shandy
- Capital Amber
- Grand Teton Sweet Grass American Pale Ale
- Vintage Sasparilla Killa
- Capital Supper Club
- Delirium Tremens Tripel
- Konig Pilsner
- Solemn Oath Snaggletooth Bandana American IPA
- Leinenkugel’s Honey Weiss
- Tyranena Down & Dirty Chocolate Oatmeal Stout
- Capital Lake House
- 4 Brothers Prodigal Son
- Labatt Blue
- Southern Tier Creme Brulee
- Breckenridge Nitro Vanilla Porter
- Kostriker Schwarzbier
Wow… what a list. Probably could have done without the Labatt Blue, but otherwise it’s been an enjoyable few weeks on the Barley front!
The Boards:
No Boards Spotlight here either. We’ll be back on track next week with the spotlight items.
- Qwirkle
- VivaJava Dice x3
- Le Havre: The Inland Port
- Nauticus
- Feudality
- King of Tokyo
- Mutiny
That’s not as many games as I thought. Maybe I forgot some. I guess I was pretty busy painting the baby’s room, hanging curtains, putting mulch around our house, playing with the two older kids, watching the World Cup (Pretty good timing for my paternity leave!), and sleeping. But it’s good to be back!
Designer’s Corner:
It’s time to make a strong push to get Brooklyn Bridge ready to demo for people at GenCon. I’ve got just under two months to refine the game to a point where it is fully enjoyable without any gaping holes. There’s aren’t really any gaping holes right now. It’s just not fully enjoyable. But I have a few tweaks that I want to test this week that my Level 1 friends have said sound like good changes.
Also, I have a new game design idea that I really like. The theme is totally fun and interesting to me. I’ll give you more information on Thursday when I plan to share the concept with the world. The cool thing is that I will be doing all the design publicly on this blog. Each Thursday for the next few weeks I’ll be posting design articles about the game and I’ll be wanting your feedback for it. We can all design it together in a sort of crowd-sourced design thingy. That should be pretty awesome.
So progress is being made on Brooklyn Bridge. I’m going to tweak a few things with Quantum Orcas and make it more flavorful, which hopefully will increase replayability. And it should be a fun 7 weeks leading up to Gen Con! Will I see you there???
Boards and Barley 