French publisher Robin Red Games, for example, is producing a nice version of Nick Hayes' Chunky Fighters, which first appeared in 2009 as a print-and-play design and which has grown to include eleven sets of four fighters. This new version will debut at the Festival International des Jeux in Cannes in late February 2015. Here's a description of the game:
In addition to the standard attack, players can choose to change weapons, perform first aid, disarm an opponent, or make called shots for increased damage. Be the last fighter standing to win the game!
• Andy Van Zandt develops game designs for Tasty Minstrel Games, but he's also a designer, and U.S. publisher Jolly Roger Games has placed a 2015 release date on his Zero Day. Here's an overview of the setting and gameplay:
Probability Grid intercept: 0.9%
We need to act now. You know the Grid has grown in power and reach. There's not a registered CPU remaining it doesn't access. Everything is known, everyone is known. If the Grid isn't burned, it will control everything and our humanity will be lost.
I've got the coordinates. It does have a physical mainframe we can strike, burn every program in it. We can show the world the danger complacency created, that we almost gave up our liberty for convenience.
I've got Drone2004 and E-Terrier ready, but we can't do this without you. We lose, and humanity's freedom is gone. Of course, we do this, we'll be heroes. I figure we've got zero chance anyways, so let's call this Zero Day.
In Zero Day, you are a hacker in a civilization built on technology. Your commensurately useful skill set will allow you to write code or reverse engineer it from ...other sources... and piece it together to find exploits that can be used against the oppressive Mainframe. The first player to inject enough exploits into the Mainframe to bring it under their own control wins — but be warned as the Mainframe will not sit idle when it detects intrusions!
Every round you get three hacker action markers that can be used for one of three things:
• Building up programs by "writing" them using appropriate sets of code cubes.
• Running your programs to acquire exploit discs.
• Reverse engineering other programs by swapping your resources for what's already there (which is also how you inject exploits into the Mainframe).
You may retain action markers from round to round, but they (as well as your unused code and other discs) count against your limited total resource capacity. As a result, you must manage your actions and available space, and balance it with the risk that comes with having programs available to others.
—Munchkin Gloom from Gloom designer Keith Baker for Q3 2015, with you trying to make a family of monsters miserable until you kill them off.
—Munchkin Apocalypse: Judge Dredd, a fifteen-card non-random booster pack expansion for Munchkin Apocalypse and other standalone Munchkin games that promises "a very Munchkin take on playing in Mega-City One", according to Munchkin brand manager Andrew Hackard.
—Munchkin Adventure Time 2: It's a Dungeon Crawl!, a small boxed expansion for Munchkin Adventure Time released in co-ordination with USAopoly.
—Munchkin Love Shark Baby, a fifteen-card non-random Valentine's Day-themed booster pack with artwork by Katie Cook due out January 2015.