Lords of Xidit features simultaneous programming and an elimination-based scoring system that leaves no room for complacency! In more detail, at the end of the game players compare their influence in one category and the player with the least influence is eliminated and his pieces removed from the board; players then compare influence in another category, with a player again being removed. The order of elimination is randomly determined at the start of play, forcing you to thinking in different ways each game.
In Loony Quest, players study challenging level cards, then try to replicate the outline to meet targets and avoid obstacles on their tracing sheets. Once finished, players place their sheets on top of the level card to see whether the drawings line up with the targets they meant to hit — or avoid. Largely inspired by video games, Loony Quest players discover various worlds, play with 3D and 2D levels, run into loony monsters — Loonies — and big bosses, trigger special stages, collect bonuses, use penalties on opponents, and gather as many Xperience points as possible to win.
• Strangely, U.S. publisher Blue Orange Games is also publishing a simultaneous drawing game from Escoffier and Franck in 2014, with this game titled Doodle Quest and currently due out in May. From talking with BOG's Brandan Parsons at NY Toy Fair, I know that this (roughly) parallel development and release was not an accident or something unknown by the publishers in question; rather each company aims its products for different markets — mainstream for BOG, hobby/fantasy for Libellud — so they both signed a license for the game, then developed the design with their market in mind.
One result of the simultaneous licenses, however, is that Libellud's Loony Quest won't be distributed in the U.S. because Doodle Quest has the rights for that market.
• Designer David Sirlin notes that a beta version of his Codex: Card-Time Strategy — a customizable, non-collectable card game set in the Fantasy Strike universe — will be at the 2nd Annual Fantasy Strike Expo in San Francisco, California, which takes place June 6-8, 2014. Sirlin will also hold tournaments for Pandánte at the Expo, with that game due to reach Kickstarter backers in May 2014 and be available for sale soon afterward.
• In a note about its participation in International TableTop Day, Finnish publisher Lautapelit.fi says that if you make the trip to Helsinki, you'll have the chance to "familiarize yourself with the 2014 novelty Nations Dice Game". Oh, so?
• StuntKite Publishing has picked up Jeffrey D. Allers's Citrus, first released by dlp games at Spiel 2013, for sale in the U.S.
• As is its practice, Spanish publisher nestorgames has produced another nice-looking abstract strategy game, with the game this time being Dieter Stein's Minoa, which one BGG user describes as "the hexagonal lovechild of Twixt and Dots-N-Boxes". Here's a short description of the game, which the image below greatly clarifies:
On a turn, a player either places a neutral black stick in the inner region of the board or places a stick of his own color on the outer border. Sticks are placed on the lines of the board and hereby delimit regions. Black sticks must be placed so that if a completely delimited region results, this region includes at least one colored line on the border of the board. By doing this, at the end of the game each region can be assigned to a player, and whoever has the largest (combined) territory wins.