Back in January, I wrote about 3D models for Warhammer 40K figures showing up on The Pirate Bay. This week, though, word comes to us from Wired magazine that models in the style of 40K were removed from Thingiverse after the online community for 3D printers received a DMCA notice from Games Workshop.

According to the article, Thomas Valenty’s models were for a mecha and a tank, and yes, only “Warhammer-style”.

• 1 Comment

Among the many many game projects currently seeking funding on Kickstarter, one that got my attention is Wrong Chemistry. Wrong Chemistry is a pattern-matching game, where the players manipulate hex tiles and black and white discs to match the chemical recipes for such elements as “manga-niece”, “kobold”, and “beerlilium”.

A team of scientists that don’t have a clue about chemistry, try to transmute a molecule and create new elements… and they get it all wrong.

Each turn, a player can make four energy manipulations to the element on the table: either taking a disc off the board, putting a disc on the board, moving a disc from one hex to another, moving an empty hex, or using “restartium” to start over. At any point during the player’s turn, if the element on the table matches an element on a card in his hand, the player can put the card down and claim its points for the end of the game.

I asked the project’s creator, Michael of Mage Company in Bulgaria, about the game’s origin.

The idea of the game was started by a card called Carbon. Which is an element. If we add an e at the end of this word, then we have car + bone. We play with words. So, we discovered that all the elements of the periodic table can accept this kind of modification, creating the funniest idea. The mechanic was already existed, we just combined both ideas and at the same time we wanted a game to be very easy and at the same time hard to master it. And here we are.. i think Tony (the designer) achieved it!!!

In terms of the project, Mage Company is seeking $8,500 for printing and distribution costs. In return for support, rewards include desktop wallpapers, sponsor credits in the rulebook, a Wrong Chemistry jigsaw puzzle, Mad Scientists promo cards (which allow special energy-free manipulations), a 10 card future expansion, and of-course, a copy of the game.

One small warning, though. At the $10 level, backers will get a copy of the expansion but not the actual game. Michael explained this unusual situation as due to the relative cost of printing 10 cards versus 54 plus other components. I get that. But still, what’s the point of an expansion without the game?

Anyway, that shouldn’t stop you from supporting this game, as long as you know what you’re getting. In fact, if you’d like to try it before putting up the money, Mage offers a free print-and-play version right there at the top of the project web site.

As of tonight, Wrong Chemistry is 69 percent of the way to its goal with 29 days to go. Michael is very hopeful for successfully funding the project but in any case has very positive things to say about his experience with Kickstarter:

With Kickstarter you expose yourself and the games to a large number of people and is the best way to check if your game will be fine in the market and if people will love it. Another thing is that we can have the absolute control on everything we want to do, and we know that if we fail or succeed, it will just us and none else.  Kickstarter is the means we look for. Is like we search for a sponsor, only here we can find thousands of tiny sponsors and together we can build something really great.

As a Bulgarian company, launching Wrong Chemistry on Kickstarter was not a straightforward arrangement for Mage Company.

Yes, it is hard really hard and i know a lot of people who want a piece from that pie. I was searching for help over a year now but i was working over 15 hours daily without any brakes and there was always something missing in my head. Finally i realized that i didn’t ask for help from people we already work together, from partners. So, just turned to my partners in US and the door opened at once and that’s great. My advice is that you must not quit at any case, don’t quit even if you see that you will fail. Ask for help from anyone you think that will help you, anyone, a friend, a company, anyone. It is not shame or something, to the contrary it shows that you really want it, you believe in your work.

• 0 Comments

Yes ladies and gentlemen you heard right. At the recent Board Game Expo 2012 in Birmingham, UK we were treated to a fantastic event. Among the highlights was a seminar of two industry giants proclaiming their Top 10 games that shaped their world. These two guys set up a small games company in 1975 called Games Workshop manufacturing traditional games like Backgammon and Go. As the tiny London office was only just big enough for the two of them, the first employee they hired had to organise the mail orders of original Dungeons & Dragons from the dustbin cupboard outside.

These two figureheads wrote the original Fighting Fantasy roleplay gamebooks, and of course went on to produce the enormous Warhammer and Warhammer 40k worlds. Ian also went on to be a vital part of the progressive digital Games industry and was given an OBE by the queen in 2006.

So what defined and inspired these world changing people?

Smallworld, Ticket to Ride, Acquire, and Diplomacy amongst others. The top 10 list and explanations awaits you … Read the rest of this entry »

• 2 Comments

As an avid gamer, I’ve become jaded. I wouldn’t normally give a second thought to the classic games that I played as a child. I assume they’ll be boring or inane. When last year’s designer strategy games are old news, how can a 40-year-old title compete? Fortunately, though, Hasbro sent me a copy of Classic Battleship Movie Edition and its small model spaceships hooked me in to giving it a try.

As the name implies, Classic Battleship Movie Edition is pretty much the game you remember. It’s a guessing game, where the two players are trying to find each other’s ships on a hidden battle grid marked A through J and 1 to 10. (You knew that, right?) In this Movie Edition, one player is the navy with an aircraft carrier, battleship, Japanese destroyer, American destroyer, and RHIB (rigid-hulled inflatable boat). The other player gets five alien ships: a flagship, heavy ordnance craft, red storm stinger, blue shredder stinger, and small assault ship. (I am such a sucker for miniature space ships!)

The Movie Edition also gives each player a deck of 24 cards to play two variants of Battleship called Special Ops, basic and advanced. Rather than always calling out one shot per turn, players, depending on which card they play on a turn, may also call multiple shots, scan a row for the number of coordinates containing a ship, blitz a row or column to hit all coordinates in a line, force their opponents to reveal a hit, or automatically sink anything they hit. In the basic version, one card is flipped each turn, telling players what they can do that turn. In the advanced version, players can accumulate hands of cards, and then decide which they want to play.

Either way, I think the Special Ops cards are a fantastic addition to the game. Instead of a boring back-and-forth (miss, miss, miss, hit, miss…), the game becomes a lot more dynamic and, while adding a bit of randomness, the cards also add a bit of strategy. That is because in order to take full advantage of some of the cards, players must have certain ships still afloat. For example, if one’s battleship is sunk, then a row blitz card reverts to a single shot. This means that the choice of whether to finish off one ship from an opponent, or focus on locating the others, can be an important decision. If required to reveal a hit, it may even make sense for a player to scuttle a ship rather than reveal the location of one yet undiscovered.

Classic Battleship Movie Edition isn’t going to replace any deep strategy titles at adult game night, but it’s a great game for kids, I’ve been having a lot of fun playing it with my daughter, and I’ll be happy to play it again.

• 0 Comments

On Thursday, Wizards of the Coast launched a public playtest for a new edition of Dungeons & Dragons. Calling the new edition D&D Next, Wizards aims to recapture the market-leading position it long-held in roleplaying by returning the game to its roots. From my quick look at the material, I think you’ll find D&D Next more like AD&D than 4th Edition.

The playtest materials include instructions for players, guidelines for Dungeon Masters, a brief bestiary, five pregenerated characters, and a sample dungeon (the Caves of Chaos section from the old module B2 Keep on the Borderlands). I’m a bit disappointed that no character generation rules were provided, though I understand that the test is not yet at the phase where a focus on such details is appropriate.

To get access to the playtest materials, you’ll have to register on Wizard’s website and sign a Playtest Agreement. To actually play a game, each player will have to do the same.

• 0 Comments

In an interview with Gamerati, Ed Pugh of Reaper Miniatures discussed how hobby game product distribution has changed over time.

• 2 Comments

Last week, CNBC’s How I Made My Millions profiled the Nathanson family and the success of Bananagrams.

• 2 Comments

Users of the the digital game distribution service Steam rejoice! Ticket to Ride is now available in the Steam store for $9.99. Not only that, but for a limited time you’ll get the Europe expansion for free (normally $4.99!)

All you need to do is head over to the Ticket to Ride Steam page.

Right now it’s for Windows only. Switzerland and 1910 expansions are also available for $3.99 and $1.99 respectively.

• 1 Comment

I like racing games; perhaps you do too. I like Nitro Dice and you might also. But not, I think, as a racing game. Nitro Dice has the trappings of a game about street racing, with its artwork of hot-rod cars, scantily clad women, and cool-looking men. Nitro Dice also, as its name suggests, includes brightly-colored dice. But I found the game to be not as much a racing or dice game as a card hand-management game.

Nitro Dice includes a deck of 96 cards, each with a picture of a street section—straights and curves, some with hazards. At the beginning of the game, each player gets a vehicle condition card with spaces marked one through nine, a hand of nine street section cards, and one of the ten-sided dice to represent the player’s car. A race track is then laid out on the table using 10 or more of the cards. The game proceeds in phases.

In the first phase, starting with the player furthest forward on the track, each player sets his car’s speed by changing the number face-up on the die. The speed selected can only be adjusted so much each round and may not exceed the recorded number on the player’s vehicle condition card.

In the second phase, in speed order, the players move their dice-cars forward along the track a number of spaces equal to their speed. Braking, handling, and various maneuvers, though, require a player to discard cards. If a player is unable to discard the required cards, his car is damaged. After moving, a player may replace one section of track (that is, one card) with another section of track (another card) from his hand. The type of card (straight, left turn, right turn) must be the same in the replacement card, but it can have different hazards. In this way, players can move hazards out of their own way or put them in front of other cars.

In the third phase, all players draw new cards, with the number of new cards depending on the player’s position and limited by the current condition of the player’s vehicle.

So while the objective of the game, like a race, is to be the first across the finish-line (or more precisely, the furthest across the line in the turn during which at least one player crosses it), getting there isn’t simply about moving the fastest. To stay ahead of other racers, players must balance speed with keeping their cars in good condition. The faster a player moves, the faster he’ll use up the cards in his hand, and the more likely his car will take damage. And because car damage limits the number of cards that a player can hold, it again limits the maneuvers that a player can safely execute and impacts the player’s ability to adjust track hazards.

Notwithstanding the overall the positive experience I’ve had with Nitro Dice, I should mention one problem that I do have with the game, and that is the use of cards to make up the playing surface. There are other games that do the same thing and given their part in the play of Nitro Dice, I don’t see a way around it. However, using cards as the board can be difficult, particularly if you’re playing on a smooth surface or in a breezy area, where cards could slide around or blow away.

Nitro Dice, then, isn’t what I expected when I got the box and read the name of the game. As a card game, though, it’s fun, and the racing theme is a nice addition.

A complimentary copy of Nitro Dice was provided to me by Minion Games for review.

You too can get one now from the company, as they’ve offered to send a copy free to one of our readers. All you have to do for a chance to win is leave a comment below by Thursday, May 31 at noon ET. After that, I’ll pick randomly from among the entries. For an additional entry, however, make your comment a little more interesting and tell us about your first car or a particularly memorable one.

The giveaway is now closed. The winner will be announced shortly.

• 17 Comments

Marvel Super Hero Squad is a new trading card game from Upper Deck. Don’t confuse it, like I did, with the company’s Marvel Ultimate Battles TCG or  Avengers Assemble trading cards or Marvel Beginnings cards or Thor Movie cards or Avengers Kree-Skrull War cards, or the Marvel Super Hero Squad Go Fish Card Game or the Marvel Super Hero Squad Rummy Game or the Marvel Super Hero Squad Crazy Eights Card Game.

The Marvel Super Hero Squad TCG features 300 different cards and each set comes with loot cards and reward codes for the Super Hero Squad online game. There are single-player intro packs for Spider Man, Iron Man, Wolverine, and Hulk. And there’s a two-player intro pack for Avengers vs. X-Men battles. Booster packs include 10 cards in a typical common/uncommon/rare/super-rare arrangement.

• 0 Comments