Sean Jacquemain of The Daily Worker Placement has covered a handful of his favorite prototypes from the Gathering, including a 7 Wonders: Duel expansion that "deals with ancient Gods and how you can win their favour", Bézier Games' Colony (which I previewed in March 2016), Pretzel Games' Junk Art (which will debut at Gen Con 2016 after a sneak peek at Origins), Adrenaline (a first-person shooter from Czech Games Edition that was included in my 2015 Gathering round-up, and Bruno Cathala's Yamataï.
This last game — Yamataï, which possibly isn't the final title — is tentatively a 2017 release from Days of Wonder, something Cathala relayed to me when I had the chance to play the prototype at Gen Con 2015. (Yes, Cathala and Days of Wonder both spend a lot of time honing and testing and retesting!) Here's a short description from Jacquemain:
Actions are determined by selecting tiles that come with a supply of boats and a special ability and they determine your turn order for the next round. The stronger the tile you select, the later you'll go in turn order. As you sail throughout the islands, you must decide between picking up resources or constructing buildings. Resources can help you in a number of different ways, but as you take them you free up space for other players to lay claim to the land.
You also have the ability to hire characters with unique powers associated with them. Some are only worth points, but others will give you an advantage during play.
This design already felt pretty polished at Gen Con 2015 — although the wheels did come off at one point as we couldn't seem to end the game — so I'm curious to see what's changed in the months since then.
• Designer Ignacy Trzewiczek of Portal Games has confirmed that a rethemed edition of Prêt-à-Porter is due out in 2017.
• Along the same lines, Thomas Ewert — co-designer of Container along with Franz-Benno Delonge — has posted an update on the status of the game: "The contract for Container has been expired for several years already, and all rights have reverted back to their respective designers/heirs. We are discussing the possibility of a reprint of the game with a new publisher and will keep you all informed if there is any news."
• On April 7, 2016, I mentioned a couple of items that Stronghold Games had teased when announcing its demo program: Kraftwagen: V6 Edition and The Fog of War. Now Stronghold has teased a few more items: an upgrade kit for the first edition of Stronghold by Ignacy Trzewiczek (him again!), as well as an Undead expansion for the second edition of Stronghold, which Portal Games and Stronghold jointly released at Spiel 2015 and in 2016. New editions for all!