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One game, titled Factory Fever, is pitched as a thematic sequel to van Moorsel's Factory Fun and the cleaned-up description is as follows: Factory Fever has similarities to Factory Funas it's a deep puzzle game with simultaneous play, individual player boards, tile placement, connection lines (via conveyor belts this time), different colors of items that must be handled separately, and an annoying pillar in the center of the work floor that makes it difficult to do what you want – but now you're managing the storage department in the company and "it's a totally different game! The core [mechanisms] I must hold secret here now."
The second game, KL-886, is a team-based deduction game for 5-8 players who make up an airplane crew that's run into trouble as their pilots have just died (in midair?). They suspect that someone (or multiple someones) have infiltrated the flight crew. Says van Moorsel, everyone knows a bit about a few other crew members and they learn more during the game. They want to talk amongst themselves about what they know as by combining information they can possibly learn who the infiltrators are; these people will lie about themselves, of course, so that they won't be caught, but others know true information about them and can catch the lies – except that they could be lying about what they know, and so on. In his summary: "Suspicion, [persuasion], communication, but deep logical thinking, too. Exciting! In contrast to, for example, Werewolf your deduction logic is based on real information (though lies screw that, which makes the logic deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep)."
Van Moorsel, who is currently running a crowdfunding campaign for Leelawadee, mentions that both of these titled will be crowdfunded as well. Such is the trend in today's market...
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The Agora was the central place for trading, bargaining, and gatherings in a city (that called a polis) in ancient Greece. Moreover, it was the place where the court was held.
In Agora the players occupy themselves in this busy place by taking actions, trying to get resources to build monuments, and improving their rhetorical skills to gain the upper hand on opponents and receive court verdicts in their favor. The player with the highest total value of these achievements wins.
The other title is Kohle & Kolonie from designer Thomas Spitzer with Lieske once again providing artwork. A summary of the setting and gameplay:In Agora the players occupy themselves in this busy place by taking actions, trying to get resources to build monuments, and improving their rhetorical skills to gain the upper hand on opponents and receive court verdicts in their favor. The player with the highest total value of these achievements wins.
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In Kohle & Kolonie, which is set in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the players run small coal mines in the German Ruhr area (Essen, Hattingen, Bochum, Witten) during the age of industrialization. They need to modernize these mines so that they can be prepared to merge these mines into larger mines. Additionally, players have to ensure the availability of workers for their mines, while also constructing and caring for a railway system that comprises infrastructure in the mines. Whoever best manages these tasks wins.
Agora, due out August/September 2013, took first place in the 2008 Hippodice game design competition, while Kohle & Kolonie, due out October 2013, won the special award for the best full-length game in the 2012 Hippodice competition. (Spitzer's previous design, Ruhrschifffahrt 1769-1890, won this same award from Hippodice in 2011.)/pic1024941.jpg)
Update, May 5, 2013: I had overlooked this note previously, but German publisher/distributor Heidelberger Spieleverlag states that the change from FFG to Battlefront doesn't affect its release of Dust items in Germany. What's more, Heidelberger states that after the license transfer "the release of long-planned products for Dust Tactics and Dust Warfare will finally happen. These had been put on hold due to the ongoing negotiations, but they are already quite far advanced editorially."
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Guys, here is the very simple story. Terra Mystica oversold by approximately 100% of our print run. By the time the pre-orders were received from our distributors, the games were already printed and on our way to us so there was no way for us to adjust with a higher quantity. Another print run has been ordered and is scheduled to arrive at the end of the summer.
Some folks, as in this thread, are baffled as to why Z-Man was producing games prior to preorders, why Z-Man was promoting the game constantly if it didn't have enough copies coming in, and why Z-Man is all-around terrible. In general, yes, publishers take preorders to judge how many copies of something they might be able to sell, but preorders are not the only factor that go into deciding how many copies of something to produce. Publishers also have to account for cash flow issues (e.g., how much money do we tie up in each title), production issues (e.g., how much production time is available at the manufacturer), component issues (e.g., how many bits can be created in time, something that matters a lot for games with wooden or plastic bits), and so on.In this case, the preorders turned out to be way more than what Z-Man anticipated, which is why a second printing run has already been ordered. Z-Man Games has been through similar situations in the past, such as in 2008 when the second printing of Pandemic sold out before the game had even left the manufacturing plant, prompting an immediate third printing. Mage Knight, Eclipse – these games and others have gone through shortages in their early print runs because (1) publishers aren't willing or able to tie up umpteen thousand dollars on a "surefire best-seller-to-be" that can die on the market as quickly as any other game can and (2) shortages make more financial sense than overages. Yes, you can lose sales by not having the games on hand to sell to potential customers, but in most cases those sales are only temporarily lost, with customers often being willing to pick up the games later when they're available once again. Better to guess low and have eager buyers in the future than guess high and have money sitting in the warehouse that you'd prefer to use for other things.
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