New Game Round-up: Trapped in a Labyrinth, Riding into the Animated Past & Playing in the French Countryside

The Daedalus Sentence is a cooperative escape game that challenges players to use limited actions and effective communication in order to flee from their captors and beat the clock. Just be sure that in your race against the the timer that you don't accidentally doom a teammate.

The main feature of the game is its rotating board. The board has four rings, with players starting in the center ring and making their way to the outer ring, where they must find the final exit to make their escape. When players start the game, the entire board will be blank. As they move from the start location, they need to spend actions to flip over tiles in order to discover the layout of each ring. Their main objective is to find the gate to the next ring, but as they explore they will discover tiles both beneficial and perilous. The tiles may allow them to influence the movement of enemies or the maze itself, but they may also spawn additional enemies that will hunt for the players until subdued. If the players can make their way through all four rings, find the final exit, and escape together, they win!

Enemies will spawn throughout the course of the game, both as the result of exploring tiles and from drawn cards. Unlike many card-driven games however, the players have a glimpse into their future by way of the Theseus Device, which holds eight cards that determine how the rings and enemies will move in coming rounds. All eight cards start hidden, but through die rolls (and cards played from the hands of players in case of emergency), players see some of the cards to come. This allows for careful planning, as players try to anticipate how rings will line up in future rounds, as well as making sure they are not caught in the patrol of any passing enemies. When the game starts, only two cards will be activated per round, but as the players breach additional rings, the number of cards that will activate increases. When playing the recommended timed game, this leads to a frantic rush as players try to evade enemies and find the exit while planning ahead for the next activation sequence.

The Daedalus Sentence is designed to be played at a variety of difficulty levels, and players can mix-and-match optional rules to achieve the perfect intensity level for their group. In addition to a four player co-op game, The Daedalus Sentence can also be played one-versus-all, with a player taking the role of the labyrinth and its minions.

Not very long ago, in the top left-hand corner of Wales, there was a railway. It wasn't a very long railway or a very important railway, but it was called The Merioneth and Llantisilly Rail Traction Company Limited, and it was all there was. And in a shed, in a siding at the end of the railway, lives the Locomotive of the Merioneth and Llantisilly Rail Traction Company Limited, which was a long name for a little engine so his friends just called him Ivor...

In Ivor the Engine, you'll help Ivor to collect lost sheep and complete tasks for his friends. You'll get extra rewards for clearing sheep from each area and bonuses for events from the Ivor stories. The player with the most sheep at the end of the game wins.

On the first day, the most played games were clearly mine, and notably Formula E, of which I have received a few advance copies. I also had a brand new prototype, a light and nasty card game designed with Eric M. Lang, which was played so intensely that a publisher decided to take it.