Players send their researchers to hot spots around the globe to gather the perfect bean. This may bring them into contact with other players who are also on the hunt, creating a crucial choice: Go it alone and continue to research, or join forces with that opponent, hoping to combine beans from both player's bags and share the score with a superblend. Going it alone with research can often prove useful as players spend time in the lab developing abilities that grant them an advantage. However, in ''VivaJava'' the bold taste of victory will go only to those players who are able to balance solitary research with cooperation amongst their fellow gamers.
The rich depth of varying strategies and social play will satisfy most players' thirst for unique gameplay, but ''VivaJava'' has even more brewing. This flexible game can accommodate up to 8 players, and through smooth simultaneous actions, play is quick and constant with little downtime.
• Designer Bernd Eisenstein has created a BGG page for his Spiel 2011 release from his own Irongames: Pergamemnon. Here's a brief description from Eisenstein:
Pergamemnon is a deck-building game of direct conflict, with clashes between the most powerful nations of antiquity – thus including plenty of interaction!
• In a blog post on BGG, designer Tony Boydell lays out plans for a second edition of his Paperclip Railways, first released at 2011 UK Games Expo, with revised graphics, a better box, and a small rules tweak. Surprised Stare Games plans to have 200 copies of the Full Express edition available at Spiel 2011, along with upgrade decks for those who purchased the earlier version of the game.
• Matt Worden, designer of the 2010 GAMES Magazine Game of the Year Jump Gate, has a new title due out August 2011 called Dicey Curves, with the game being a die-driven racing game in which players need to create dice combos in order to keep their car moving. Worden expects to release Dicey Curves in mid-August 2011, wit hthe game being available in demo form at Gen Con 2011.
• High Noon Saloon is a game from Cliff Bohm, Geoff Bottone and SlugFest Games in which players battle it out in a saloon to be the last one standing. The game will be demoed at Gen Con 2011 in August in its final version.