• Designer Tony Boydell passes on word that his Snowdonia – due out Spiel 2012 from Surprised Stare Games Ltd and available for test plays at UK Games Expo in May – will now be published in partnership with Lookout Games in English and German.
• In the second half of 2012, Ravensburger will release SingStar: Das Brettspiel, an adaptation of the SingStar video game series in which players sing existing songs and are scored based on how well they do. Andrea Meyer is credited with the design, which should come as no surprise given her track record with Freeze, Hossa! and multiple Hossa! expansions. She lives to perform!
• Wydawnictwo Portal has posted the cover image of Ignacy Trzewiczek's The Convoy, which "will be published in PL, ENG, DE and FR editions", according to the publisher.
• On Opinionated Gamers, Dale Yu has posted a looong description of Friedemann Friese's Fremde Federn, the next title in Friese's "Friday" project that is currently scheduled for release at Spiel 2012 from his 2F-Spiele.
• Richard Launius' Defenders of the Realm: Battlefields hit Kickstarter the other day and is already more than halfway to the post. Here's a description of the game based on an overview I received at BGG.CON in 2011:
Fourteen battlefield cards are included in the game, and three are laid out at random over which the sides will compete. Players take turns playing cards onto one of the battlefields in play in order to build up enough strength to claim that battlefield card. (Players hold seven cards with two players, five cards with four, and eight vs. four/four with three.)
Each battlefield card bears a special power that the winner of that card receives as a reward, such as "Remove all cards from one battlefield", "Choose the next battlefield to activate", and "Force the loser to give up one won battle".
The first team to claim any five battlefields or three battlefields of the same color wins.