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In today’s episode Bruce and Josh take a different format in which they combine the games they have been playing recently with some of the great kickstarters that are going on while wrapping up with some amazing board game business news! The combination format is because both Bruce and Josh work in higher education and this episode was recorded and published at the end of April which is a notoriously eventful season in education. That being said, both of the guys made it a priority to get you useful information so you can make informed decisions for your gaming group.
Specific Games Discussed are:
- Planet by Blue Orange
- Cryptid by Osprey Games
- Nusfjord by Mayfiar Games
Kickstarters Discussed:
- Anachrony: Fractures of Time Expansion and Infinity Box by Mindclash Games
- Terraforming Mars: Turmoil Expansion by Indie Games Studio: Stronghold Games
News Discussed
- Newest Version of Choose Your Own Adventure Game coming out “War With The Evil Power Master” by Z-Man Games
- “Hobby Game Sales total $1.5 Billion for 2018” – IcV2 ( https://icv2.com/articles/news/view/43024/hobby-game-sales-total-1-5-billion-2018)
- Kickstarter Games category surpasses $1 Billion Pledged ( https://www.kickstarter.com/blog/1-billion-and-counting-pledged-to-games)
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Transcription
00:00:08 - 00:05:01 Welcome to board game impact in today's episode Josh and I talk about gains you've been playing recently as well as talk through even more kick starters that are really exciting and then share some really phenomenal news for you about the board. Game industry that you're definitely not gonna wanna miss the end of the episode. Stay tuned. Welcome to board game. Impact, if this is your first time, visiting board game impact, I welcome you. So what we seek to do. Here is to combine our passion for board games with our we both work in education, and so we're bringing a research focus to the work that we do for your benefit, so a you can make informed decisions based on what we're playing what we're seeing for the benefit of your gaming group. My name is Bruce Brown and I'm joined with Josh Isringhausen and together, we are board game impact and so we got a little bit in store for you today. I'll be honest, it's going to be a little different Josh just talked about this a second ago. 'cause like I just mentioned, we both work in education in higher education, different universities. And when recording this right now it's the end of April, and guess what? There's a lot going on, on college campuses at the end of April, that being said, we're actually going to be splitting as of you. This is not your first time. Sometimes we do a full set. Kment on gains, we've been playing, and then another segment on Kickstarter or deep dive into a game. And we're actually going to be doing is combining those two things and some actually going to be talking about some kick stars that are going on that we haven't talked about, and Josh is going to be sharing about some games that he's been playing that being said, I am going to get kicked off with a non Kickstarter but it's a game I have played and I'm very excited for it to finally hit the market almost seven months after I, I played it and that is planet by blue orange games. So planet is a game. It's very different than other games in which think of a rubik's, cube holding in your hand. But instead of that it's like a ball and what you're doing is a magnetic ball and throughout the game, you're going to be picking up different tiles and adding them to this ball to literally make your planet, and then you're going to be scoring different animals that are gonna be splayed out in front of all the players for the different types of character. Six of the planet, they got in your hands. You got the whole world in your hand and yet couldn't help ago there. But with cool about it is, it'll say, like, oh, if you want to have the mere cat, you've gotta have the most grasslands that are not touching. Arctic count up the little triangles on your ball, and you're gonna get more and more and more of these little pieces as you go very quick game like less than a half hour. It's just a nice little puzzle. But I played this at BG con in the fall, and they had brought it over from Essen, which is a big gains fair, in Germany in Germany. It's coats called technically. It's called spiel and this game been waiting and waiting for it to come out in the US, and it finally has, and that is because of Earth Day, so earth days. April twenty second and so now you can go out to the stores and get this little ball of fun, Josh, I forget, were you there when we were playing this game. I. I got the day after y'all were playing that game. You heard you all talk about it a lot. And it was something that I had wanted, kind of pick up and try. But I think that was one of those games that just was never back on the shelf. After you all put it away. I did see on the floor of the convention hall quite a bit being played and it looks really cool just kind of walking by. It's definitely one of those eye catchers, if you're playing it in public or see people playing in public. It's one of those you can't really help, but like stare over people's shoulders in puzzle about what's going on, and what's happening because it definitely looks really interesting, really unique yet, you cannot miss it. Like seriously. It's you're holding a ball of planet in your hand, and you're actually constantly flipping over to see and think of where you could place things because you're not allowed to try and lineup pieces before you put them on. You have to search think which piece and I'm going to pick up. And so blue orange games typically make some lighter weight games often. It's kind of more of a family style line of games. Now, it says definitely fits into that. But you can play with your family. You can go simple for like kids. You can them down some of the rules, even though there isn't really many, many rules to begin with a one page sheet, that's on the backsides in different language, so it's very easy to approach. But the puzzle is challenging enough that it was a nice little exercise for all of us adults, too, and Josh's. Right. So how the conventions works, Ebeidi Khan and spring springs happening in may. 00:05:01 - 00:10:04 So there are a couple tickets available still do grab that because I will be there and we can play games. But how it works. You check out games like a library card and this was a brand new game. And so could only be checked out for a maximum of four hours. And I believe the had either two or three copies and it was never back in the library. I was never back in the library. And when it was centrally just got handed off to somebody else. So that's. Planet. Check that out. I haven't found exactly where you can get it. I can get it online, but it should be hitting most stores that you can buy games in, in your local area because blue orange does typically produce a larger scale. Okay. Josh what do you have us? So unlike Bruce this weekend was actually a pretty game. Heavy weekend for me. I work for a Catholic university. So they were kind enough to give me a full five days off as weekend for me to gain to my heart's content. So the first game that I have with us with me to talk about today is actually a game that came onto my radar around the same time as planet did for you, Bruce and that is the game crypt. It by Osprey games so crypt. It came out roughly around the time late fall of twenty eighteen and I had heard about it. Just after BG con, I had heard some folks talking about their experience playing at the convention, and how much fun they had it sounded like a really interesting game. And so I went ahead and I bought it and it's actually sat on my shelf of shame, unopened and untouched since probably November until this weekend, it finally hit the table and hit the table hard. We went it went from having zero place to six plays this weekend alone. It is a lighter game. Pretty relatively quick between thirty minutes to forty five minutes for playthrough. The way it worked is you have six boards of hexagons and, or with each board has a bunch of different hexagons on it set up an all different configurations, and you have a card that tells you how to set up these six boards, and then some. Additional building. So there's triangle measles that are Representative of abandoned shacks, or a octagon, meet people. That's Representative a standing stone. The idea is each person is given a clue book and based off the way. The board is set up in the beginning of the game. Each person has a single clue out of their clue book that they look at that is all of the information you have to start the game. Combined all of the clues that have been given out point to a single location on the board and just one location meets all of those clues. And players take turn then in turn order asking one player, could your could the crypt it in this case, it's the game is cryptic. You are searching for. A lock Ness, monster or big big foot type of monster. You ask could the crypt? It'd be on this space and they must answer. Yes or no? And going around the board people will put out little disks or little cubes to signify. Yes. The monster could be here, or no, the monster could not be here, based off of that information. You're gathering you begin to get a picture about what people's clues might be. Then you can go in search. So once you think, you know where the cryptic could be you can go ahead and search in a specific location and goes around the board until somebody says, no if someone says, no, you're passes it goes to the next player and it continues on if everyone says, yes, decrypted could be their congratulations. You have won by finding the location on the board really light. It it sounds a little complicated. When you're setting it up and explaining it to people. But once you start playing it really it clicked with everybody we played with relatively quickly. Like I said played in thirty forty five minutes. I actually played them played it three times at dinner parties this weekend with people who don't normally game all that much. And they had a really good time with it. Pretty quick easy. Little pickup game. It creates a lot of really fun, conversation and dialogue. And it's a little bit of an interesting puzzle as you're kind of sorting out. 00:10:04 - 00:15:00 Okay. You said yes to this location, but not this location. So you've just completely thrown me off, what I thought. I knew really, really highly recommended. It's a fun lighter. Weight game to pick up. You can plays up to five players. I think it plays really, really well at that fortify flare range. I haven't played it with less people, so I'm not sure how would work scaling, I think, to might be a little bit more challenging, but definitely go and check this out if if you have some people who like to play. Away games with who may not always be down for something heavier, but it definitely has the puzzle aspect that I think scratches the gamer it while still being acceptable to people who may not be as big into board games. Okay. So I'm noticing a trend with us right off the bat. We had to puzzle things, but I have a couple of follow up questions for Josh. So I know in some games where there's like hidden information. There's sometimes a person who has to take on the role of like the arbiter like checking the someone have to take on that role with this game. No. There there it is written into the rules, essentially, you must be honest with all of your answers. So your hidden information is not something that you're trying to keep you wanna keep it secret. Right. If you are when you're asking questions, you may wanna throw off other people about what you may potentially have in your as your rule, so that they don't figure you out, but. There's really no need for an arbiter of the rules or anything like that. You, you just you have one clue and you follow that clue. And really, that's all that all that comes down to it sounds like it sounds like it would be better at those higher play counts because do you get more information as a player if you're playing into lower player player council like when he played it at four versus five? Did you personally have more information? No. So I that no matter where you play this. What your player count is or how many people you have? What the setup looks like you have one clue. Oh, well that's the only information that you really have. Okay. So it all just kind of depends on what that one clue is. And Josh United talked before according loss time that your game group tends to be a game group that likes to play the same things they've already learned, which is fine like let's just like burn through actually saw somebody celebrating on read it just a couple days ago that they are celebrating their six hundred game of battle start playing battle star galactica six hundred times, and that's like a two to three hour game. So but they love it, and they all know it in that game group and they'd just like burned through. But you've just got them to play a new game. And some curious what were some things that kind of help that happen. So I think a big thing, one of the one of the interesting things are nice things about my game group is if you get people one on one or, or three on one the way this happened is we had a couple over my fiance, and I had a couple over who are friends from that game group for dinner, and we were sitting around waiting for dinner to be ready. We've got thirty minutes before we have to eat. So here's a quick game. I can teach it and we can play it before dinner will be done. And so once I got a couple people to play it bringing out to the next game night, which was actually the next night. They were interested in playing again. And so we're able to once one person has that it's, it's really easy. I think to get other people back into it. It's just a matter of breaking it onto the table. It's kinda hard to do that. When you have these established game nights where there's a lot. Of people and a lot of choices and no one really wants to make the decision. So I think having it in a situation where. I really didn't give a whole outdoors. I was like, hey, let's just do this. And they could have said, no. But would seem a little rude. Maybe so they just bet in your house, and they really enjoyed it. So. Okay. Some hearing separate the herd. Yes. No. But that sounds great. And I just wanted to bring that up because I know you and I've talked about in Calcutta introduce new games because you and I tend to play a lot of newer games as well as older games, but we tend to play a lot of games. And so sometimes it can be hard to introduce some new. So that's why I was curious. So Josh, I'll be honest, this next one, I don't really have much to save for it except for the fact that you didn't really talk about it in the last episode. And I know this game means a lot to you. And this is for a Kickstarter that's out right now. 00:15:01 - 00:20:05 And it'll be available for when this goes live hearing this. When this goes live do check the on there for that. But Josh can you please tell the listeners about knacker knee? Fractures of time expansion and the Infinity box from mind clash games. Absolutely. So I have not really talked much about mind clash games on this podcast, which is really interesting because I would put them up there with stone Meyer games as my favorite publishers. I don't think mine clash game has mad made a bad game that I'm aware of. Well, they haven't there are three games, they've made an all three of them in my opinion have been home runs a knacker ni is my favorite of those three so there are other two games are cerebral, which recently came out at the end of twenty teen and Tra kerryon, which is low bit older of game came out. I believe in twenty fifteen if I'm remembering correctly. Anachronistically. I can't really go into the full depths and details here because that would be an hour long conversation. It is rules. Yep. It is a really, really deep. Challenging thinki- worker placement game. What is unique about an acronym? Is that is that it is a worker placement game which involves time? Travel, you live in a world where time travel is possible. A catastrophe is coming to the world that you're aware of, and you are trying to get. Through the manipulation of time. And sending resources back to yourself. And then making them available for yourself in the future. You are trying to prepare your civilization to leave the world before the catastrophe comes and hits. Really, really phenomenal game design. This is easily in my top three games of all time. I absolutely love this game. Surprisingly, yeah. Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead. I was gonna say, surprisingly like my wife has played this and she really enjoys it. But man, she was exhausted when she finished it is it is a crime. It is crunchy. It is really heavy. It makes you think a lot. It is a difficult game to comprehend all of the strategy. And I've played it several times. I don't know that I know a hall of the strategy really. What is interesting about this game? This game came with three different modules in the box, I've actually played with none of the modules. Though I've heard really things it's because it is so difficult to learn. And I have yet to play it repeatedly with people who have also played it several times. And so no one's felt comfortable enough bringing these out that being said, I did back this kick start the Kickstarter for the expansion because my goal will be to find a group of people to play this frequently more frequently with, because it is like I said, one of my favorite games hands down. So. The expansion that they are advertising here. The reason I didn't bring this up last episode when we talked about all of these great kick starters is because I knew it was coming. They had announced they were going to do in anachronistic expansion, sometime in mid twenty nineteen. They didn't really say win. So it had not been announced the date that it would be releasing during our last episode when we were recording our last episode. And so I'm glad you're bringing this up now and giving me a chance to rant and rave about how much I love this game. Bruce. Anarchy on my hands. Just wanted to knacker ni an acronym. All right. Bruce. So. The expansion. They're offering here at some interesting mechanics that I'm I'm kind of looking forward to so one adds a new. Path. So the different factions you can control in the game are called pads. So it's a new faction, which looks differently interesting. They are unity, so they're fighting more for to reunite people. 00:20:06 - 00:25:00 What looks interesting about this? Is that the, the new mechanic that they are relying on a new resource as well as a new worker type which allows you to what they're calling blink your worker placement? So after you placed your workers on the board if you utilize this new resource, then you can move that worker to another place. So essentially the workers taking to actions on one through the use of time manipulation. Looks like a really neat mechanic that I've not seen in a lot of worker placement games. So I'm interested to see kind of how this functions. And then again, also adding in a solo mode, right? Or retailing are improving their solo mode. They revised their solo mode. I've not played this mode of this game though. I've heard not great things about it. Which is why shied away, but they are redoing their criminal. There. Solo mode, which they call the krono bought. It, it looks much more interesting, I think than the, the initial solo mode did. So the storyline is a little bit more. Interesting to me. So in this solo mode looks like you are trying to not just get off of the planet, but also rebuild the planet after this catastrophe. So there's some more. Kind of long term consequences for the actions you take, which, I think, is, is kind of a neat way to go about doing that. Highly recommend people to look at this, I will say, if you don't already have the base game of an acronym. It is a bit of a price point to get up there. So the Kickstarter they're offering what they call the Infinity, box, which includes all of the expansions released up to date for an acronym. So that is the base game, the fractures of time expansion. They're doing right now. The modules so doomsday pioneers and guardians modules as well as these really nice looking miniatures that they released during their first Kickstarter as a as a add on. So that all comes for one hundred and fifty dollars. That is a pretty steep price point. But again. My opinion. This is one of my favorite games. Well worth it to me, if you already own an acronym, the actual. Expansion itself is only forty five dollars a little bit more reasonable. I actually did the sixty dollar pledge which gets you not only the expansion but also a new box and a plastic tray to make everything from the base game. And the expansions and the miniatures off in one box. I'm a sucker for that type of stuff. I don't have a lot of shelf space. So anytime I can. Collapsed down into a single box is always gonna be preferable for me. I'll always throw a little bit more money to, to have that opportunity. Yeah. Sounds great. So, yeah, check it out. If you get a chance to check it out listener highly highly encouraged to do, so it is a longer more difficult to learn game. But I think incredibly rewarding, it sounds like you're really be rewarded though, because you're making like meaningful decisions. So I got another space one for us. And so we're going to be looking a little like so now we've taken off from the planet and Sanal. Let's go to Mars. We talked a little bit about this. I did not realize I don't think Josh realised either how much is going to be going on in this Kickstarter. So this is Tara forming Mars their first Kickstarter for terror forming Mars by made by stronghold games in indie game studio free Mars super-popular game. It's been around for several years. Now it was actually nominated and is a runner up for the Kenner spill, which is the German gamer game of the year awards. So what terrifying Mars is, it's an we'd consider like an engine building game of you're taking cards from your hand. You're picking one. You're passing them to the player next to you. 00:25:00 - 00:30:01 And then you're gonna symbol your hand by doing that again. And again, again through drafting, and then you're going to start making a engine in front of you either by playing events like crashing a asteroid into the planet, or sending some colonists different areas or my favorite card pets and having pets start being on the on the planet or building cities are making forests or putting down lakes because you're trying to get it to be hospitable and a place where people can live and so the game will end once you increase the oxygen increase the heat, and just really make much better planet, but they don't really care that you'd nuked part of it or things like that, not a problem. It's every it's been super-popular like extremely popular stronghold games is just. Doing a phenomenal job with this, and they keep turning out content. Now, the thing with the content they turning out. So they've got turmoil this turmoil. They've also got prelude got Helena Lizzy, umn, which is to new boards, that are older, Venus. Next brings in that and colonies so all these different expansions that they've had over time is kinda unique. And sometimes when people talk about expansions, it's like, oh, what expansion do you wanna play with for this time? Terrifying Mars everyone I know keeps all the expansions in the game while they play because it all makes the game that much better. So every single time people are enjoying the game more and more and more and should be no surprise that. There's over sixteen thousand backers for this kick shorter in the last week, which is just phenomenal. And congratulations stronghold games and all this excess with this. But what this is adding in is so at the start of the game you pick up a hand of cards like two or three cards, depending on what very near using and. Choose a starting corporation, which is essentially, what unique powers or what like very miniscule powers slightly symmetric. So what's starting money or like slightly specific power that you have to start the game, other people don't because it's corporations, of course, not governments going out there, and settling Mars. But so you get five new corporation cards. You get some reference cards, which are nice because sometimes the symbols on the game like you don't really look across, but this game ads this expansion adds in some new content. As new symbols, you get a terror former milestone tile, which is something that some people have been asking for sixteen new project cards the cards you pass around but the really cool thing about this. Is that it essentially ads in like a government to the whole process? So you're no longer independent, because sometimes Mars can feel like playing a solo. Game that I'm passing cards. And so that's the interaction and then competing for spaces on the board. But you really have your engineer focusing down in front of you on. But this adds in events like actual events. There's an event board a global event that are going to change things by events coming up and everybody having to interact at them as well as terra forming committee in the looks like a little Senate chamber, and you've actually got thirty five delegates seven in each of the color. So blue green red black and yellow and some neutral delegates as well. And you're going to be lobbying for different policies that can then get you more points or make things easier for you to do. And that is a really really cool thing. And then the other thing this is a special just for Kickstarter. This is just for Kickstarter, but they have been adding in promos everyday. They're adding on new promos for people to be able to see. And so just go on their check what they got. But the thing that. People are going to want this for is the dual layer player board because. Terrifying Mars is notorious. For having a underdeveloped player board. By today's standards now love the game. I've played a ton, but the player board as it exists is always needed to be dual layered and people go out and buy special broken token overlays or they buy different things from zen bins, or you name the company that are putting these out because here's the deal. How you track your engine and how it's performing critical to how your whole thing works. Is this board and you put a cube on six different spots that are essentially marking your engine, and how well doing and then you have other cubes that look exactly the same tracking how much is going on? And how much income, you have how many resources you've developed. And so the struggle, it has been that if someone just like. Hits the table. You have no idea where you left off, and you're kind of, in a bind and so having these dual air boards are awesome. 00:30:01 - 00:35:04 Thank you. Thank you. Thank you stronghold games for putting this in here because it's something the players have wanted and needed. They haven't been really making the base game. They've been making these expansions and so to have this for the first Kickstarter heck, yes, this is being good for gamers, good for the hobby and good for all the fans. Josh, what are your thoughts on this thing? Because there's a lot going on. Yes. So this was actually a Kickstarter. I was initially planning to sit out on. I. Love this game. We've burs. Have played this game at ton together. We played it a time separate. It's constantly hitting the table with every game group that I have really really fantastic game. I was going to sit out on it because it didn't look like they were going to be making a whole lot of extra content for the Kickstarter until they announced it. And when they announced it, and they said, we are going to release a new card every day that will only be available in the Kickstarter. They kind of won me over there. So they're the way they're promos were was rather than having, like most kick starters do a promo for Kickstarter exclusive for every dollar amount. They hit they decided to go with a different way of doing it, which was, we're just going to do one promo card per day that the Kickstarter runs kind of an interesting way of doing it and interesting way of going about it. It keeps people engaged in the in the Kickstarter throughout the entire time is running. I think it was probably smart on them to do that. Because had they set goals for funding. This is a game that said a two thousand or twenty thousand dollar pledge goal after twenty thousand dollars. It would be successfully funded the are at seven hundred and sixty. Eight thousand dollars with nine days left to go. They would've blown every conceivable all. Backer tear out of the water. They would not have been able to do promos, and kept up with the Dahl traditional dollar amount unlocks, new content system. So I think that was really good way smart way of them to kind of establish some expectations going into this and, you know, they got me to preorder which you know good on for doing it the dual player boards. Fantastic news for everybody out there, who has struggled with a table being bumped during their game move terrifying. Mars, I personally got a broken token insert paid sixty dollars at BG g con two three years ago for it to upgrade mine, and not have that issue, specifically occur. So. That is less of a of a pool for me. But I'm really happy for everybody else who who's had that issue because it definitely has been an issue for awhile. I think this is the most interesting looking. Expansion that they've done for this game each other expansion that they've come out with his kind of been a little. Yeah. This is kind of nice. It adds some flexibility some very ability in how you play the game in a little bit of changes in the dynamics of the way you set up the game or the way you interact with other players or things like that. But it's never really been. Earth shattering or really dramatically making a change to the game. I think this. This system of having the delegates and trying to form a coalition government and enact policies for the planet. Looks to be the most intricate the most interesting in, like the most fun expansion that they've come out with yet. So I'm really really excited about this one cannot wait for November. Let's hope I have no doubt. They'll be able to keep that. But let's hope that they keep that November time line. Maybe we'll be picking this up at at BG Khan, and giving it a playthrough there. Yeah. And so I do need to clarify something, Josh, and that is just to make listeners clerics. I've heard Stephen Boncore who is the president of stronghold games and essentially the rep four indie game studios for the whole shebang. 00:35:05 - 00:40:02 If you notice it does not say Kickstarter promo. So what they are doing. So he doesn't he doesn't believe in and rightful I kind of agree with them on this. They do not agree with Kickstarter promos because there's going to be a very like a distinct difference because you do a Kickstarter like once. Right. The thing is though, and this is like a special thing for backers. The thing is, though they want this content to not only be made for just now like they want other people to be able to play with this stuff. However, this is the only time we ever gonna get it all together. You're going to have to piecemeal all of it. And so they might give like one of those cards that's already been on locked away at a convention. You're not going to get all of them, or you're going to have to really try hard to find these player boards, things like that. But so they are not kick starter exclusive, but you're going to be getting all of them here, which is not gonna be your case for other times. And so you might be thinking, but Brucie said like everyone typically plays with all the expansions in it. You don't have to do that. Josh? Like Josh said it's it's a game where these expansions added nice flavor, but it's not necessarily required. I think some of the reason why keep playing with all the expansions is because it's actually really hard also separate out all the cards. Just to call that. And so you can back this just for this expansion and that'll run thirty four dollars. But there's a ton in it. You can also just get the base game if you don't have it as well as terrifying March turmoil this expansion, they'll run seventy nine if you have a copy of terrifying Mars, but having gotten any of those expansions, you can get all of the game all of the expansions for ninety four. And then if you don't have any of this stuff, and you're like ooh. This sounds like a really cool game interested in space. I like engine building, like car drafting, I like this kind of new mechanic of having these global trade's going on these global events, then you can go all in for all of the expansions, they'll send it all to your house estimated delivery in November one hundred thirty nine for all of it. That's actually a really good deal for all of that stuff. Plus all these expand these bonus content that's really cool. But again that. It is tear forming Mars turmoil. That is, it's really cool and congrats on hold for all the success on this. Okay. Josh? How about we got one more time for one more quick one. Absolutely. So this is one I've been wanting to bring up for a while, just haven't had a chance to because it seems like every time we record. I haven't played it in a week or so, and that's nuts fjord. This is by Mayfair games by another one of my really all time. Favorite game designers, Rosenberg. Way how a reproduces first name. Anyway, knows fjord is one of. Ways lighter fare games. If you compare it to some of his other other games that he's made. So for folks, who aren't aware of who Rosenberg is really, really, prolific designer makes a lot of really great euro games, does a lot of really good thing. Nice things with worker placement. So some of his really big hits have been games like a Griqua ca Verna a feast for Odin. More recently, he came out with Rykiel which was a another lighter. Fair game. He's made some other really great games as well. But most fjord came out, I believe in twenty. Sixteen if I'm remembering correctly, twenty seventeen sorry. Yep. And this is a game in which you are taking on the role of the managing a fishing village in Scandinavia. And so you each player has three little workers, that you are placing out onto the board taking actions to. Remove forest tokens to gain would building buildings from the board. You are buying ships to bring in more fish year to year your. Recruiting elders to come to your village elders will give you unique special abilities. You're serving fish Jere elder, so in order to actually use your elders. There have to be fish available in the marketplace for them to eat. It's just a really kind of q. 00:40:03 - 00:45:02 It is thinki- there it is. Puzzling, it is. Euro vary. It is a euro game. It is a way Rosenberg. If, if, if nothing else designs euro games if, if you're looking for something that really tells the story, you're really has a lot of heavy fem- to it not gonna be your designer of choice. But for me it is exactly the type of game that I wanna play on a Friday afternoon or a Saturday afternoon. Doesn't take too long. This probably takes forty five to an hour. Forty five minutes to an hour. Relatively quick. I'm big big big fan of this game. So Bruce, have you ever had a chance to play no-shirt specifically or any way Rosenberg's other games Ness fjord? No, I have not. However, I have I own glass road, it's actually played that last August at fantasy flight games up in Minnesota. And then with some of the guys that work fancy flight that was crazy because it's kind of out of print right now. It's kind of in limbo phenomenal phenomenal little game. But I've also played fees for Odin and some others. One of my favorite things about who I games. I don't know if you knew this Josh wouldn't next time you open up the rule book, look around, because there's little pictures of way all through it little drawings, and like helpful tip for players and it's like most adorable little thing, but I haven't gotten a chance to play this one, but it actually seeing so you have these. Looks like these forests. Right. That go across these bigger pieces. So that's I think I think he got the inspiration from that from his earlier game, those glass road because in glass road, you're essentially trying to clear cut your forest and then you can build more things. So it just looks like he just kept building on some of those ideas that he had already been working with, and then I also notice on the board. It's got the minus one points for the empty spots, which is exactly how feast for Odin works, but fees road and takes that and takes it to, like, Infinity. And so, yes, I have not gotten to play this one, but I am very familiar with ways games. I've had a lot of fun with them. It's just usually socially with some of the bigger ones like wrote in Greco. There's just a lot to learn in. So it's nice to hear this one's a little lighter and a little bit more approachable. Yeah. I will say one of the interesting things about ways games and not all of them. Right. I think. You, Bruce, you may or may not. Did you ever get a chance to play one of his earlier gains with us bonanza? Oh, that's him. Yeah. Way, Rosenberg designed bonanza. I found failing that didn't recognize that. But yeah, bonanza. Absolutely. So that's a completely different game one hundred and a lot of what he's otherwise design. I came out as a party game. Yes. But a lot of his other games are I will say very much have a tendency to kind of build upon themselves. He really finds a mechanic, I think, and really hones in in develops that out a lot. So you'll see a lot of similarities between the games that he publishes the games he produces. So a few talk to a lot of people who have played a lot of his games, they'll say, and of Griqua fell out of favor because Verno basically just improved upon Griqua, or there will be. People who will say that now a fees for Odin has replaced Verna, because it kind of expounded upon an improved upon that mechanic a little bit as well. I personally think there's a spot for a lot of his most of his games at the table, and no sphere. Definitely follows that similar kind of pattern in terms of really honing in on certain concepts of worker placement the competition for. A limited number of action spaces, which creates tension between the players for who takes what action I. Actually, interestingly enough, a funny, kind of Cyprus this whenever we are most recently playing this each player count has its own unique set up and we were playing three player game and with about two turns left, we realized that we had actually been playing the entire game set up for two people. So we were actually missing a lot of the worker placement spaces. 00:45:02 - 00:50:06 We should have been able to utilize in that game made it re ranging. Oh my God. Really, really restrictive in terms of the actions you had on your turn. We're going third that round. Yeah. Made for some really difficult decisions. But it he he really his games. I think really shine win. You really have to completely change your whole plan because the one thing you thought you needed this round is gone. You can't take it. It's not an option for you anymore. And so now you have to kind of completely rework and rethink your whole strategy and I really, really love his games. Can't recommend them enough. Look at really any of them. But I think knows you're a great place to get started. If you are looking for maybe a lighter weight entry level type of euro game something similar to Covina or or feast for Odin without quite as much depth in detail to it. Okay. Yeah. And so just wanted to touch upon something you said there because some people might be like, what do you mean? It was like like hurt like hurting and restrictive. So something about some euro games. Is if you feel like you're press for choices, and that people are swooping in and taking the choices you want, and you have nothing and you feel like you are behind the you might be playing a euro game because it's about making the right decisions at the right time and effectively running your engine for some of these things. And so making sure that the game's gonna punish you for not doing that the right way for yourself. And it's really, really cool. Euro games you can really show your skill. So that's a really cool thing about your games. It's less on luck. And so if you're looking for somewhere that puzzle or things like that your games, great thing, check out, and the sounds from everything Josh's saying, there's a really cool and check out, so go get fishy and go. Go via fishermen in Scandinavia hazardous Josh yet belief, so. Yeah, right about there. Okay. And so that is what we've got for this kind of unique kick starters and four games playing lately. But like I said, it's kind of a crazy time for us. And so we've got two quick news articles for y'all and then we're going to kind of share some of the closing thoughts on things. And so the first one this first article comes from ICU to which is to dot com. And so that's a wonderful, wonderful. Geek website for news and articles you can become a premium member and get a lot more content, but they also have a lot of free content out there. And so you can click things for games comics show business, etc. I always cook games. Of course, you can even look at sales numbers. And so as a real quick, we're going to get into some sales numbers here in a second. But I wanted to let you know about a game that's previously been. Deep dive for the show and that was choose your own adventure series, which is put up by Zemun game. So it's really fun game. You can play solo plays a group, I played with my wife just passing cards, back and forth super cheap. It's twenty two bucks. A lot of story, and they just announced that they are going to be putting out their next version of this is classic Tuesday aren't adventure games from book games from the nineteen eighty s and nineteen seventies, this one's going to choose your own adventure war with the evil power master and semi coming out this summer. And so it's going to have three hundred and twenty five cards the game board die to tracking cubes some signal boosters I don't know what that's going to be about. And so this just looks kind of cool look Spacey slash also like vampire, and it looks like they're in the middle of the desert, according to the art folksy eighties are originally de style. Art almost so it's cool. If you wanna check. That out one of the other articles it's on here. Josh did not cue you up for this one but just not been up. So I think it's important to talk about it because we, we're about to talk about, and that is that hobby game sales, total one point five billion in twenty eight teen. Wow. Yeah. Where where was this from BRUCE'S ICU to I'm going to share it with you right now, listeners, you're hearing me do this live. Okay. Just put it in the Google Drive for you. So hobby game sales in the US and Canada have tallied, one point four nine five billion in two thousand eighteen here's the thing, though, that is down three percent from year ago this period. This decline was driven by fourteen percent decline in collectible games, which is the only down category of all five. 00:50:06 - 00:55:03 So I'm wondering what they are defining in terms of hobby board game. So and as Suming by collectible games, they're probably looking at collegial trading card and miniatures games. So definitely can understand. Those are both huge markets that I, I think may have seen some dip but. I mean, I know a lot of people who got into board gaming through things like magic the gathering or were hammer and so- vite myself. I actually sold a lot of my magic gains mar- magic cards when I got into board gaming. So I'm kind of interested as to how they define these different categories. Sure. I've got game. I've got all five categories for you. And I also started playing magic when I was real, little actually, when my family was in town, and I told you about playing Catan with them actually brought my magic cards from New York for some reason, she does this thing where she puts like all of the stuff she wants to bring down from New York in an extra suitcase because he was like cheaper than shipping. I don't know if it works like that, when it's a whole giant box of magic cards. But sure love you, mom. Yeah. So they've got the categories collectible games, and that was at six hundred twenty five million non collectible miniatures games brought in two hundred eight. Eighty five million hobby board games were three hundred and seventy million hobby card games and dice games at one hundred fifty million and then role playing games at sixty five million. And I'm seeing here. The interesting thing to me is that that role playing games actually saw a pretty substantial eighteen percent jump. Yup. From twenty seventeen to twenty eighteen that's. I did not anticipate seeing that all. I think that may have something to do with the deity online content that they'd be out. Yeah. But that's really, really interesting. I had not read realized this Bruce, did not expect the dog about this today. A literally just open the other one and surprise. Yes, a hobby boardgames grew seven percent, non collectible miniatures grew up. From seven seven percent as well. And then hobby card and dice games were flat at one hundred and fifty million. But then, like you said, roleplaying games went really high. And so if you wanna wanna know what they mean by hobby game just to clarify. There's a games produced for a gamer market in quotes games, although not always sold primarily in the hobby channel of a game and card specialty store hobby games market as the market for those games regardless of whether the sold in hobby game channel or or other channels. And those estimates include sales from the US and Canada says just in the US and Canada North America. But I think this is super fascinating. Yeah, this is really interesting. And I'm seeing here that they're they have an option for in-depth but it looks like you need to have an account, which, unfortunately, don't, but I will maybe look into that because I'd be interested to see as well here if, if there, including let me see actually may say here, we also reviewed data released via public trade, ANC, Kickstarter data. So that was my question was did this count kick starter money as well? Because Bruce and I think that's a perfect tie-in or the news that I shared with you earlier this week listeners, he coming, this one has been, I think a longtime in the making Kickstarter announced earlier this week that there has been over a billion dollars pledge to gain. Projects on Kickstarter. So the way Kickstarter works for, for folks who aren't really aware is they, they have different categories that you can list your products under. So. In two thousand nine Kickstarter created a games category to allow publishers of indie games to kick start their products. And this included any type of game video game board game role playing game miniatures game gaming hardware mobile games. 00:55:03 - 01:00:06 I have the list right here playing cards puzzles live games, tabletop games and video games. And so from two thousand and nine until. April sixteenth twenty nineteen. They have raised over a billion dollars for those games on Kickstarter. So, yes, that is including a variety of other things like puzzles, and video games. But that is a pretty good chunk of change. That is coming from. Crowdfunding for four games. A lot of those games are board games. They say here that they have given they have had three point two million games backers. And have funded seventeen thousand projects Homa. Gosh. So I am. So I'm actually on the Kickstarter main page, Josh. I found a funny little button on the bottom stats. And it pulls up the data on how much Kickstarter has actually like generated over time. So we just talked that games made up just just hit a billion essentially ten years, which incredible success, great job for those of Hugh don't know there's a guy named Luke crane, who is overseas the games area of Kickstarter, Luke crane, if, if you've ever been in dabbling in role playing games, you may have heard that name because he came up with the burning wheel system for roleplaying games. And then he is also the creator of the mouse guard roleplaying game, which is mouse guards, a phenomenal role not role playing but a phenomenal graphic novel. I've read all of it. It's wonderful, essentially, you are mice, and you have swords and, bows, and arrows, and your mice scale. It's awesome. But he made it into a role playing game and it's fan. Fantastic. But Kickstarter overall has brought in four point two billion dollars. Since since it became thing. And so we you just said Josh that Kickstarter has now brought in a billion from games alone. And so that's a quarter of its total net generation. Overall? There's been forty four thousand five hundred forty five launched projects and. This is just insane. The currently live right now. Josh twelve point five twelve point four five million dollars pledged to games. And games are making up thirty eight point five seven percent of the entire population of Kickstarter. Now, this is success rate. I'm sorry. This success rate is thirty eight point five seven. So one in three games just over almost one in three games. Is are being successful on this. That's just incredible. Yeah, I they they've done a really great job. I would love to see I know that this point is probably impossible for Kickstarter to run the statistics. But I would be really interested to see them breakout tabletop versus virtual. But I think that I mean to give kind of some context here for what I'm seeing on this article. This is from Kickstarter the company is publishing this information. And then at the end of their article, they say here a few live kit campaigns running right now and of the five campaigns they mention three of them are one is a. VR game. One of them is a. Computer, Sam and the other three are board games. One of which we've talked about in the past, which is Rome, and then the other two being oceans and blood on the clock tower, which I know less about. But. I mean, they're even highlighting some of their. Current running as being board games, or table, top games and several of the ones that they site in the article for the success. Our board game Seve got exploding kittens when you can buy everywhere now, but those twenty dollar game they made over eight million from that one project alone, then kingdom death monster which I think the average pledge was over seven hundred dollars for that game because it's incredible quality for the miniatures you do have to assemble them all, but people love that game. 01:00:06 - 01:05:07 And so I think it's just really cool that essentially Kickstarter has been this. Oh my gosh. I needed to stop everything. I'm saying, so I clicked on another link. They had in that article, Josh and it says how twenty eighteen world wrecking record record breaking game year. Four games on Kickstarter my policies. And the first thing they have up there is the truck door six. Zest banner. So if those who ever know, like a home star runner that old like TV and TV show, but it was on computers, you'd log on and watch strong. Bad read emails. They came out with a board game earlier this year that even wormwood level components, which is just nuts for trog door the burden Nater, and so they actually reference the first thing you see about the success of games is truck door and this board game that came out for everybody, that's just incredible. I think just speaks to everything we're talking about. Absolutely. I. I'm really really, really happy. I think that the takeaway from all of these articles that we're talking about and the success of this industry and kick starters in general. I think it a it's a great time to be a gamer. There's never been a better time in history to, to start planning board games. And there's just so much content out there. It's impossible for us to keep up with everything that's happening in all the games that are going on. You know my board game shelf continues to overflow with games that I want to play more of an and just don't have the time for. Yeah. I think I'm interested to see what history is going to say about this period. Like I feel like it's going to have a name, like a golden age or something like that, like, it's going to have a term. But, like Joe Joshua said there are so many things coming out. That's why do critical for content and for you to be consuming content and us being able to put out content so that we can make informed decisions because there's just so much to stay in tune with right now. But Josh is absolutely right. This is a wonderful time. So we're just so thankful that we get to do this. I think Josh, there's going to be the perfect place to bring this to a close sadly listeners, but we look forward to talking more real real soon. So Josh I'm going to kick us off. All right. All right. So, again, my name is Bruce Brown and you can find me on board game geek, as Bruce Brown. Thank you so much for listening to board game impact, I hope that learning about what experiences are going on for us makes a positive impact on your gaming group does help you learn information that will really benefit you and your game group. You can learn more about us by visiting the website and board game impact dot com. If you liked to have a topic discussed, please Email us at board game impacted gmaiLcom follow us on Instagram or Facebook, which are board game impact, and so I have a quick note right here, if you want to know any more about the games you have discussed on the website, you can click on a part of it says games in gear in which we list, all the games that we've talked about in the episodes as well as if you're a podcast or just always curious about what we have all of that is also on there. 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So that way, we can increase other people getting to see this content. Listen to this content and just make that impact, please do rate the show in the podcast. So if you're not able to make a financial contribution that's completely. Okay. But if you would just take that moment to share or to rate it in the IT in store, or in Spotify, or wherever you're listening to this, that we're just greatly mean, a lot to us that way. More people can get this content. That's what we're here to do. Just get good content out to people Josh do you have any closing words for all listeners, once again, listeners, thank you so much? For tuning in listening to us talk. 01:05:07 - 01:05:35 I giving us this opportunity to share our thoughts with you. I really do hope that you take something away from this, or at least don't mind listening to us. Talk about things that we really do love in time to time. Thank you, once again and listeners, we hope that you have an amazing rest of your day to day. But until next time play some games and go have a positive impact on the world. Thanks.