Wait, a mold? Doesn't Zendo use the familiar pyramid pieces that you can now find in abundance in Pyramid Arcade and other Looney releases? Yes and no — the pyramids are one of three shapes of pieces to be included in Zendo, with the other two being a rectangular prism and a triangular prism.
What is Zendo anyway? A tool for teaching the scientific method, according to designer Nick Bentley, in addition to being a game in its own right. One player, the Master, creates a rule, then presents all of the Students with one arrangement of pieces that follows this rule and another arrangement that doesn't. The Students must create arrangements of their own, which the Master then labels as following the rule or not. If a Student attempts to guess the rule, the Master can build a counterexample that demonstrates why that guessed rule is not correct or congratulate the Student on winning.
I believe that Looney Labs will be demoing this new version of Zendo at Gen Con 50 in late August 2017. The publisher is also asking interested parties to complete a survey about this new version of Zendo should you care to share your opinion.
• Donald X. Vaccarino and Rio Grande Games have sprung another addition to the Dominion empire on gamers: Dominion: Nocturne, which RGG expects to release in October 2017. As usual, Donald X. kills it on the exposition:
Dominion: Nocturne, the 11th expansion to Dominion, has 500 cards, with 33 new Kingdom cards. There are Night cards, which are played after the Buy phase; Heirlooms that replace starting Coppers; Fate and Doom cards that give out Boons and Hexes; and a variety of extra cards that other cards can provide.
• Other pictures of forthcoming releases include these shots of Pioneers, an Emanuele Ornella title coming from Queen Games at SPIEL '17 about which I also know nothing:
Exklusiv der 1. Blick auf das Cover der Familienspiel-Herbstneuheit von @real_QueenGames: Pioneers v. E. Ornella @EssenSPIEL @BoardgameNews pic.twitter.com/kIy7MzBOEc
— Ulrich @ Queen Games (@UFonrobert) August 2, 2017
Letzte Kontrollen: Die Herbstneuheit 2017 von E. Ornella von @real_QueenGames: Pioneers m. orig. Holzteilen @BoardgameNews @EssenSPIEL Top!! pic.twitter.com/OoMK3uMFQN
— Ulrich @ Queen Games (@UFonrobert) July 15, 2017
• And there's this beauty shot of another Queen Games title for SPIEL '17: Merlin, designed by Stefan Feld and Michael Rieneck:
Als Zugabe noch ein schnelles Bild des MERLIN-Spielplans. Grandiose Arbeit von Dennis Lohausen. @real_QueenGames @EssenSPIEL @BoardgameNews pic.twitter.com/wHhDS9afIL
— Ulrich @ Queen Games (@UFonrobert) August 2, 2017