x
search
menu

Blue Orange Games in 2018, Take Two, with Knizia in the Blue Lagoon, Cathala in the Age of Giants, and Much More

Blue Orange Games in 2018, Take Two, with Knizia in the Blue Lagoon, Cathala in the Age of Giants, and Much More
Board Game: Kang
In early January, I covered the titles that Blue Orange Games plans to release on the U.S. market in 2018, but BOG has a European branch as well, and Blue Orange EU doesn't release the same games as their North American counterparts, and when they do, they might release them on a different schedule. I don't know why they function this way beyond handwaving a pretend explanation of "market conditions", but I do have an outline of when BOG EU plans to release which games, so let's just consider that for now.

In Q1 2018, BOG EU plans to release Pool Party, Dr. Beaker, Mr. Wolf, Who Did It? (in packaging that's 100% less brown) and Claude Leroy's Kang, the only game not previously covered in this space (although Dr. Beaker was first seen in Jan. 2017). Here's a short overview of Kang: "As a sport, these kangaroos like to rocket in the air, change sides, and impersonate trampolines or punching balls. Be the best coach for your team and make them score for victory! This is a kangaroo game that's not for roo-kies!" Sounds like this could be a themed version of Leroy's Gyges, but we might not know for sure until we see the game in Nürnberg, Germany at the Spielwarenmesse trade fair.

From gallery of Photodump
Bruno Cathala's Kingdomino: Age of Giants, first discussed in Dec. 2017 and due out in Q2 2018, expands both Kingdomino and Queendomino, allowing for games with up to five players in either case.

Also due out in Q2 2018 is Princess Legend, a Kuraki Mura deduction game that was first released as Tofu Kingdom in Taiwan — and that's the name of the forthcoming release from Blue Orange Games in North America as well, so while BOG EU is keeping the "prince hunting for a princess" storyline, the people no longer have heads of tofu. Pity.

Peggy Brown's Happy Bunny, a cooperative game for kids as young as three, and Thierry Denoual's solitaire logic puzzle Mindo, which will come dressed in a variety of images — dogs, cats, unicorns, and robots — are also due out in Q2 2018.

Board Game: The Crusoe Crew
The final Q2 2018 release from BOG EU is Baïam, the description of which requires a small backstory. French publisher Makaka Editions releases "choose your own adventure"-style graphic novels that also serve as games because you can win or lose at them, and you can score points while you read/play by doing certain things within the story. Their tagline is "Comics in which you're the hero" because (as I understand it) the stories are all told from the first person to represent you, the reader, choosing which way to go within a story.

Blue Orange (EU) distributed two of those books — Captive and Knights, even releasing them in English at SPIEL '16 in addition to French — and now Blue Orange (EU) and Makaka Editions are partnering on Baïam, a cooperative comic game by Shuky for up to four players with each player having their own book, embodying one character with special powers, and progressing along with the other players on islands full of adventures and brain twisters.

I've had a lot of fun trying to finish Knights with my son, but we've died four times so far and have yet to finish. Baïam sounds like an intriguing experience, a quasi-escape room perhaps as we'll experience our own things while reading through the books, while still trying to work together. Can't wait to try this!

In Q3 2018, Blue Orange (EU) plans to release Roberto Fraga's Brain Connect, Grégory Oliver's Clouds, Jeff Lai's Maki Stack, and Cubeez from Treo Game Designers, all of which were covered in my earlier BOG write-up. Two other titles due out this quarter are Rolling Bandits by Trevor Benjamin and Brett J. Gilbert ("Roll your dice, get on the train, and plunder as much as you can!") and Eye'n'Speed by Berton, Kopec, Robson, and Wolff, this being a European edition of Eye 'N Seek, a Where's Waldo-ish spot-the-item game that BOG released in North America in 2017.

As if all that weren't enough, Q4 2018 will see the release of five more titles from Blue Orange (EU), two of which are aimed at slightly older audiences from many of the other titles listed in this post. Scarabya from frequent design partners Bruno Cathala and Ludovic Maublanc has you heading up an archaeological team to set up an expedition, establish camps, delineate areas of excavation, and collect more gold beetles than anyone else.


Board Game: Rolling Bandits
From gallery of Photodump
Board Game: Flooping


With its 30- to 45-minute playing time, Reiner Knizia's Blue Lagoon is the longest game of this batch, the now annual "game for the family" that BOG started in 2015 with New York 1901. Here's the short description we have for now:

Quote:
Even today, the colonization of the Pacific Islands by the Polynesians remains a great mystery — and yet it is aboard their hand-crafted boats that the Polynesians colonized the greater part of the islands over several thousand kilometers.

In Blue Lagoon, each player manages a group of settlers that spread out on the islands of this new archipelago to discover its wealth and build villages. Smart placements and anticipation are needed to win.
Other titles due out in Q4 2014 from Blue Orange (EU) are Flooping by Nathalie and Rémi Saunier ("Show off your aviator skills by making the aerobatics required with your BuzzPlane!"), O Mon Chateau (which is possibly not the final title) by Corentin Lebrat and Ludovic Maublanc ("Whoever knows how to best exploit the resources of the region will draw the most beautiful castle in the kingdom!"), and a new edition of Seiji Kanai's Brave Rats that features a new size of cards and one extra card for each clan.

Phew! You think that's enough? Is it possible for a company to release more than twenty new games in a year and see those titles survive on the market for more than a few months? When will we reach the time of peak board game releases?!


Board Game: Blue Lagoon

Related

Kolossal Games Aims to Cast a Huge Shadow on the Industry in 2018 and Beyond

Kolossal Games Aims to Cast a Huge Shadow on the Industry in 2018 and Beyond

Jan 15, 2018

One game I left out of yesterday's crowdfunding round-up was Hervé Lemaître's Western Legends from Kolossal Games, and that's because I wanted to cover what's coming from Kolossal in one go...
Interview with Brian Mayer, designer of Freedom: The Underground Railroad

Interview with Brian Mayer, designer of Freedom: The Underground Railroad

Jan 15, 2018

Notes: Brian Mayer is the designer of Freedom: The Underground Railroad and co-author of Libraries Got Game: Aligned Learning through Modern Board Games. This interview was conducted by Patrick...
Crowdfunding Round-up: Operation Countdown for Candy, Capers, Red Death, and a Quintet of Legacies

Crowdfunding Round-up: Operation Countdown for Candy, Capers, Red Death, and a Quintet of Legacies

Jan 14, 2018

• In mid-December 2017, I wrote about Adam Wyse's Masque of the Red Death, a design from IDW Games in which 4-7 players attempt to avoid the Red Death from Edgar Allen Poe's story of the same...
Changing Players: Mayfair Uses Alliance, Compass Hires Blennemann, and Game Salute Splits

Changing Players: Mayfair Uses Alliance, Compass Hires Blennemann, and Game Salute Splits

Jan 13, 2018

My inbox is a deep well, one that I drain at the end of each year in preparation for fresh waters to come. Along the way, I've uncovered more mergers, purchases, distribution deals, and other...
The Trucker's Guide to the Galaxy: A Retrospective

The Trucker's Guide to the Galaxy: A Retrospective

Jan 12, 2018

I didn't know what I was doing. Oh, I thought I knew. I thought I was translating a rulebook for my friend Vláďa, but actually I was working on a game that would be Czech Games Edition's...
ads