We had a chance to briefly talk with Colby Dauch at Origins, the man behind Plaid Hat Games and the designer of one of my top games of 2009, Summoner Wars. Colby indicated that things had started out fairly slowly for their first Origins, but had picked up as more and more people stopped to take a look at their outstanding first offering (for those who don’t know Summoner Wars is a tactical combat game played on a square grid with a deck of cards representing the spells and units of a given faction – what makes the game unique is how well designed the abilities/powers are – you just don’t see game design this tight and interesting that often). As for what’s new:

  • Plaid Hat made the first two expansion factions available for sale at Origins. The Fallen Kingdom expansion is the new undead faction with abilities that manipulate the discard piles and allow for sacrificial magic ($10 US). The second expansion faction, the Vanguards, relies heavily on healing magic and abilities that play off of the presence of units on the battlefield ($10 US).
  • The mounted board was being demoed at the show, but was wasn’t available for sale, although it will go on sale next month and is currently available for pre-order for $15 US at the Plaid Hat website.