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It’s the end of lead figures in Guild Ball, a new Z-Man era for Love Letter and One Night Werewolf gets another re-imagining.
Love Letter Purchased by… Z-Man - Not Asmodee!
I’ve been doing this news column for several months now, and the phrase ‘X game has been bought by’ triggers the automatic typing of ‘Asmodee’. But! This week we have news that Love Letter has been bought by Z-Man, the people behind Pandemic, Terra Mystica and much more.
Seiji Kanai’s clever, small form card game started life as an invite to players wooing a princess and then spun off into a number of themed releases, and Z-Man have announced reprints of the current games. The use of the phrase “realise its full potential” must surely mean even more versions.
Acram Digital Thrown Off Steam for Cheating
If you were hoping to play the forthcoming digital version of Istanbul, there is a problem, and it’s developer Acram Digital being thrown off Steam for cheating their review system. They had their excellent ports of Steam: Rails to Riches and Eight Minute Empire on the store, but both were axed in a clear message from Steam that you cannot start posting fraudulent reviews and get away with it.
If you think that sounds a bit accusatory of us, the man behind Acram (Grzegorz Kubas), has admitted he used several accounts to post fake reviews and that:
“It was stupid action, not something planned. This is my individual, bad behavior, not the team, so I would like to blame me, not the devs. It's a lesson for the rest of my life and it will not happen again, ever.”
However, it remains to be seen if Istanbul, Eight Minute Empire and Steam: Rails to Riches will stay with Acram given this behaviour.
Shadow Tactics Crosses from the Screen to the Table
‘Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun – The Board Game’ is going to be a tabletop version of the PC and console game of the same name. They’re both all about stealth, with you having to sneak around to stop the plans of an enemy overlord, so for those of us of a certain age this sounds like the Tenchu: Stealth Assassins board game we always dreamed of.
There will be miniatures, there will be linked scenarios with progression, and inevitably there will be a Kickstarter in the autumn.
Guild Ball Drops the Lead
Steamforged has announced a phasing out of metal Guild Ball miniatures, with their replacement in plastic. The moulds need replacing and the company has gone with the different material, and while there is no gameplay difference to the plastic, collectors are going to need to organise. The phasing out will be over two years, and legacy Collections, with special figures in resin, will assist in the transition.
More Batman Details
A follow up to last week’s news of a game using the Batman: The Animated Series IP. Firstly, that game is going to be called Gotham Under Siege and tasks up to five heroes with fighting all the super villains on 3D buildings that are in the starting box.
However, this game only draws on the first season of the animated series, and more games are planned from this world of Batman. IDW Games have pointed to an August release.
One Week Ultimate Werewolf mixes Social Deduction with Castles
The designers of One Night Ultimate Werewolf, a social deduction legend, and The Castles of Mad King Ludwig, a tile placement fiend, have teamed together to combine them, and we are not making this up. Whereas One Night lasts 10 minutes or so, One Week Ultimate Werewolf lasts five times as long and has you exploring a castle, gaining extra powers, playing as secret servants and more general mashup craziness.
The Kickstarter for all of this starts May 14, and there will be exclusives.
Brook City lets you Commandeer Cars and Chase Criminals
Have you ever wanted to play a board game of Hot Fuzz? Sorry, we mean cop action movies like Bad Boys? If you said yes hop over to the Kickstarter of Brook City, in-which you’re the people in uniform and you have to race round a city, using your deck of cards to catch criminals.
You can commandeer cars, you can gather evidence, there’s bound to be some shooting. The designers are Adam and Bradey Sadler, who have worked on X-Wing, Descent and more. Take a look at our "New to Kickstarter" preview article for this game
Grackles: Birds and Telephone Wires
The inspirations for board games are diverse, and Grackles is all about birds sitting in groups on telephone wires (they were popular before mobiles). It’s basically an abstract game from Fireside, but can you place your tiles and your bird (token)s to become the biggest sitter? It’s out August 2018.
Short Stories about Board Games
It’s time to add something to our usual brew of Kickstarter and board games. S K Dinning is crowdfunding a collection of short stories all about gaming called ‘Tabletop Tales’, the first of several planned volumes which span the breadth of the hobby from zombies, past trains to Dungeons and Dragons.
Skull Tales brings Second Edition to Kickstarter
There is a feeling that Kickstarters can try all sorts of tricks to achieve a quick, PR friendly funding, but when a game brings a second edition to the table and still funds swiftly, that’s a good sign. Skull Tales is returning to Kickstarter, three years after the first release for ‘Full Sail’, a revamped version which promises over fifty plastic miniatures and all the pirate shenanigans you could dream of, including pirates, islands, parrots, ghosts and keeping a close eye on your dubious mates, aka semi co-op.
Many, many bonus points for them offering an upgrade pack if you have first edition already.
Kodama Kickstarts Two-Player Version
Kodama is the game of tree growing and super cute forest spirits, but now there’s both an expansion and a spin off in the same box. Kodama Duo: Kindred Spirits not only expands the base game to six players, with additional rules for card selection, it introduces a complete standalone two player variant that looks very good.
The Kickstarter is now funded and offers the chance to buy both original and duo versions.