New Game Round-up: Sell Games at Spiel in ESSEN, Sic Goblins Against Zombies & Take to the Air in Planes...Maybe

New Game Round-up: Sell Games at Spiel in ESSEN, Sic Goblins Against Zombies & Take to the Air in Planes...Maybe
Board Game: Planes
• With Trains already in its catalog, Alderac Entertainment Group plans to add David Short's Planes in Q4 2014. (No word yet on whether Automobiles is in the offing, but I'd wager money it will appear at some point.) Interestingly, you're not trying to fly planes or manage an airline, but just reach your darn gate on time. A summary of game play:

Quote:
Planes puts you in the role of a group attempting to push your way through a crowded airport to reach your plane before takeoff. Other players' families or groups, as well as neutral travelers, will cause all sorts of congestion in the terminal and may keep you from boarding. With cards that affect play and allow bonus scoring, in addition to variable airport maps, Planes is the next phase in global travel from AEG.
I'd like to replace my guess of Automobiles with DMV, the game with a near-infinite "playing" time. Only by outlasting everyone else around the table can you hope to take your driver's license test and win the right to bear a plastic card with an ugly picture of yourself on it. The game pauses for an hour at noon so that everyone can take a lunch break.

Board Game Publisher: LudiCreations
• The drive for buzz at the Spiel game convention in Essen, Germany seems to start earlier each year, and in 2014 LudiCreations is leaving nothing to chance, starting with a press release in late March but also embedding Essen into the game in question. Here's an overview of Harry-Pekka Kuusela's ESSEN, due for release — oh, do I even have to say it?

Quote:
In ESSEN, players are exhibitors who are trying to sell their games at a large board game fair in the obscure western German city of Essen. By placing their sellers, creating buzz, and managing their promotional efforts correctly, they can turn a profit and get board game geeks excited about their games. Each player board is themed as a certain type of game publisher (Eurogame, Ameritrash, war game, RPG) with the reverse side showing other possibilities (abstract, children's games, space 4X, LARPs).

ESSEN is a game for 1-4 players, and by combining two copies of the game up to eight players can compete at the same time.
In fact, I've been compiling the Spiel 2014 Preview list that will go live in mid-2014 for a few weeks, adding titles to the list as I run across them or add them to the BGG database. This year I'll stay on top of things for sure! (No, I won't.)

Board Game: Illusio
Board Game: The Big Idea
Board Game: Exodus: Proxima Centauri
• Despite all the attention being on Tokaido of late, French publisher Funforge has other titles in its catalog, too, and Passport Game Studios — which already distributes Funforge's Tokaido and Quantum — plans to make Philippe Nouhra's Illusio and James Ernest's The Big Idea available on the U.S. market in the near future.

• Passport Game Studios also has exclusive North American distribution rights for the revised edition of Exodus: Proxima Centauri from designers Agnieszka Kopera and Andrei Novac and NSKN Games, and that game was made available in the area in question on March 21, 2014.

• In your now-seemingly-regular dose of Munchkin news, Steve Jackson Games has announced that a number of out-of-print games and expansions — Munchkin Quest, Munchkin Fu, Munchkin Fu 2: Monky Business, Munchkin Impossible, and Munchkin Booty 2: Jump The Shark — will be available once again in Q3 2014.

Board Game: Zombies Keep Out
• I recently posted a teaser trailer for Privateer Press' Level 7 [Invasion], but I hadn't realized that the publisher also had a teaser for its April 2014 release Zombies Keep Out, a co-operative design by David Carl that merges Privateer's love of goblins with the ever-present zombies from ever-so-many other games.

As you might expect from the publisher of Infernal Contraption and Heap, in Zombies Keep Out players need to use bits of scrap machinery to create devices that will keep the zombies at bay.

Related

Stone Blade Entertainment Brings Heroes Together in Ascension: Realms Unraveled

Stone Blade Entertainment Brings Heroes Together in Ascension: Realms Unraveled

Mar 25, 2014

Justin Gary launched Gary Games in 2010 with Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer, which put a twist on the Dominion-inspired deck-building genre by confronting players with a constantly...

Cathala, Chevallier and Bombyx Prepare an Abyss for Your Entertainment

Cathala, Chevallier and Bombyx Prepare an Abyss for Your Entertainment

Mar 24, 2014

• Like that ugly mug staring at you? Credit goes to French publisher Bombyx and artist Xavier Collette, who have adopted a bold look for the cover of this August 2014 release from designers...

Manor of Ravens and the Manor-Born Lieutenant Skarn Join Descent Second Edition in Q3 2014

Manor of Ravens and the Manor-Born Lieutenant Skarn Join Descent Second Edition in Q3 2014

Mar 23, 2014

Fantasy Flight Games has announced a pair of new expansions for Descent: Journeys in the Dark (Second Edition), one being the new boxed set Manor of Ravens that brings six new quests, 16...

New Game Round-up: Laying New Tracks for Trains, Flicking Discs in the Wild West & Shopping for Dinner

New Game Round-up: Laying New Tracks for Trains, Flicking Discs in the Wild West & Shopping for Dinner

Mar 21, 2014

• Designer Karol Madaj has another title forthcoming from Instytut Pamięci Narodowej, one that was created, as is the case with all IPN games to date, as an educational tool to help people...

Crowdfunding Round-up: Exploring Catacombs, Playing with Time, Running the Field & Fighting Stalin

Crowdfunding Round-up: Exploring Catacombs, Playing with Time, Running the Field & Fighting Stalin

Mar 20, 2014

Sure, Matt Riddle just pounded out a c.f. round-up of his own, but he missed a few dozen projects along the way. It's almost like he's doing this in his spare time instead of being devoted enough...

ads