Recently, I posted a survey about what readers of King's GameNight like and don't like about the content I share. I'll give a brief overview of that feedback. I will also share information about a couple of games that have been submitted to King's GameNight for promotion and a current Kickstarter game that I'm excited about. In my last post, I asked readers to let me know what content is most and least liked on my gaming blog. The three most liked items were:
Occasional I have small businesses and individuals approach me with a game that they have designed. They typically are in need of additional promotion for their game and look to blogs, such as this, to help get the word out. There are a couple recent projects of this nature which I recently received. Though I have viewed the information about each of these projects, I haven't played nor do I have first-hand knowledge of them. I would like to pass along to the community so that you may check out the information for yourselves. Perhaps one or both games/projects might be of interest. Doublehead Kids (DOPPELKOPF) This game by Studio Trojan is a redevelopment of a classic German game. The designer along with his kids developed this card game version of the classic and have launched a Kickstarter to produce it. The casual card game seems to be geared towards families, and pits players against each other in card duels. I think the artwork is nicely done, matching the audience and genre of game. It appears that they have already surpassed the project goal and there is still time to get onboard. To link to the Kickstarter project, CLICK HERE. IGBO The developer of this game contacted me in advance of their anticipated Kickstarter launch, estimated for December 4th. This abstract game has been developed around an environmentally conscious theme. Using discs representing seeds and groves of trees, players score points based on groupings of their pieces. I have included a link to their website where you can also sign up to receive an email notification upon launch of their Kickstarter. To learn more about IGBO CLICK HERE. Please note: This post is in no way an endorsement for either of the games or associated organizations mentioned above. There is no affiliation with King's GameNight. The Great Wall I have been posting on Facebook about the newest game project from Awaken Realms for quite a while. I just can't help but to be excited about this one. I own one other game from this publisher, Lords of Hellas, which I supported as a Kickstarter project a couple of years ago. I received that game in two shipments, the first being of the core box and the second shipment with expansions and extras. Though both shipments were a few months behind schedule, Awaken Realms did a nice job with periodic updates. They were very transparent about the process and I never felt like I didn't know where things were in the process. Since then, the company has produced a few other highly successful games (Nemesis; Tainted Grail; The Edge: Dawnfall). Their team has grown and become much more educated about the production and shipping processes. This latest project expects to be complete and shipped in a single shipment by next October. That's pretty good when compared to typical Kickstarter production timelines. From what can be seen on the Kickstarter page and Facebook The Great Wall appears to be beautifully illustrated and includes either detailed miniatures or meeples. The production quality from this company has gained a reputation for being among the best in the industry. This game appears to combine a robust ancient Chinese theme with Euro-style worker placement mechanisms. This is the kind of new game design that really peaks my interest. Stretch goals include a Cooperative Mode and a Ghengis Khan expansion and a 5th Player expansion. You can also get an oversized neoprene game mat as an add-on. This game has a lot of intricacies and things going on. It appears that there is a lot of strategic decisions and deployability as well. The information and videos on the Kickstarter page provide a ton of information. Take some time to check out The Great Wall on for yourself by clicking on the following link HERE. Thanks to everyone for your continued support. Provide your feedback for this post in the comments and/or send me your messages using the contact page. Also follow the King's GameNight Facebook page using the following link.
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This is just a brief update on things going on with me and with King's GameNight. Recent games played, animation conference, gaming friend news, and a survey on what kind of content you like the best? Mechs vs Minions – Victory Eludes Us Nikki, Jeff, Chris and I played Mission #10 in Mechs vs Minions again this week. This mission-based game has been a fun one for the four aforementioned to breakout and play when we can. We can't seem to figure out the best way to tackle the current mission. We have progressed through many missions with a few defeats and replays here and there. This mission, however, is defining a new meaning of difficult. We are unwilling to play in "easy mode" with a lower hit-point value of the boss or we would have already won. This is the final official mission of the game, though there is one more secret packet to open after we complete it. I think we've played this mission about five times now with no success. We are dying to get this one completed. Our next play, we are planning to put extra attention toward using weapons to shoot the crystal shards as early as possible. Movement will also be critical to get into position. Hoping that our next attempt at Mission #10 ends in a sweet victory. If you have any advice, please note it in the comments. After defeating the initial missions, there is an online guide to create your own scenarios and missions adding future replay-ability. Though we love playing Mechs vs Minions, our group may pick another mission-based game to play once we get through the final mission. CTN Animation eXpo Though its not really tabletop gaming related... I'm heading to an animation conference in Los Angeles this week. My son is a recent college graduate in animation and has found it quite difficult to break into the industry. He and I are planning to attend to learn more about the animation industry, meet the creative and talented attendees and visit with some of the top animation studios in the nation/world. I come from a graphic design and art background and am looking forward to getting something out of this conference as well as accompanying Luke as he peddles his portfolio, networks, and attends workshops etc... As a result, I may not be posting again on the blog until next week. CTN is an acronym for Creative Talent Network and this animation expo is highly regarded as one of the best in the world for gathering top animation experts, students and everyone in-between. I'll be taking some photos at the conference, attending screenings of current and upcoming animated TV and feature films and who knows what else. If this is something that your interested in, I've attached a link to the expo HERE. Also a link to an informative video about CTN eXpo HERE. A Gaming Friend Gets Great Opportunity Recently, a gaming friend of mine and of King's GameNight, was offered an opportunity to work for The Dice Tower. Mike Dilisio has been very active in the Indianapolis gaming community for quite a while. I met him a few years ago. He produces content for his own Youtube channel called SoloMode Games and has teamed up with Dan Hughes to produce a gaming podcast called Sporadically Board. I want to wish him the greatest of success as he starts this latest chapter with The Dice Tower and its network of awesome tabletop gaming content. If your interested in checking out some of his recent work, I have provided a link to the Mike's contributor page on The Dice Tower website - HERE. Content Survey I'd like to run a quick survey to see which content people enjoy the most on the King's GameNight gaming blog. Please take a few seconds to let me know what are the things you like the most and want to see more of and what you don't really care about or like as much. I got a chance to play Firefly Adventures recently while at my friend Troy's game night. Based on the short-lived TV series, this game attempts to capture the spirit and sci-fi/western theme of the Firefly TV show, characters and their adventures. Firefly the Show The TV series Firefly aired in 2002 - 2003. It ran for a single season, leaving its devoted fans screaming and crying for more. Though the series didn't return to TV, in 2005 the movie Serenity was released giving fans some semblance of closure. Since then, the series and movie have continued to maintain a cult-like following and relevance in pop-culture through DVDs, streaming services, games and the like. Here we are in 2019 and I'm posting about playing a game based on this intellectual property. Before I go any further, I want to provide full disclosure and state that I saw the movie Serenity, watching it in the theater when it was released. However, I haven't seen the TV series. After playing this game and writing this post, I have tasked myself with watching the TV series. I believe it's available via Amazon Prime Video. I'm looking forward to seeing how this show has held up some 16+ years later. Firefly Adventures the Game I'm not going to give a full rundown or review of this game. Instead. I'm going to give you some of the game basics and my overall impressions of playing it this one time. Firefly Adventures: Brigands and Browncoats is the full title of this game released by Gale Force Nine in 2018. This mission-based, tactical skirmish game is infused with theme. The single-biggest mechanic that differentiates this game from other similar ones is the use of a "Casual" and a "Heroic" mode for each character. The player mats are two-sided. One side shows stats and abilities for the character while in "Casual" mode and the other side indicates the "Heroic" information for the same character. In addition to the mats, there are two miniatures for each character. One mini (grey) is in a "Casual" pose while the other (green) sports a more "Heroic" pose. The bad guys in this game are collectively called Goons. The purple figures are Thugs while the brown ones are Cowboys. These enemies may have different roles to play in the many varied missions. Another thing to note about the game is that it is mission based. Missions can either be played as "one-offs" or strung together to form more of a campaign. We played two back to back missions, maintaining our items between games in sort-of a mini-campaign. The game utilizes time as a mechanic/resource. Each action requires a number of seconds or moments which advances your player's marker on the time track. Players typically receive two actions, then move their marker along the time track. Whoever is currently last along the time track will be the next player, including the Goons who may be chasing/attacking your team. Both of the missions we played had time stipulations for successfully completing them. I imagine that most other missions would be similar. The use of time was well implemented and straightforward adding to the difficulty and tension of each mission/scenario. Thoughts and Impressions In one night of playing two missions of Firefly Adventures, I can say I definitely got the "vibe" of the show. Even though I hadn't seen the TV series... through the player mats and figures and the aid of my teammates who had seen the show, I felt like I truly gained a sense of what Firefly episodes might be like. There is a little bit of "role-playing" that goes into these adventure-style games and this one is no different. I found myself trying to make decisions based on how my character might approach the situation as did the other players. My lack of knowledge of the TV show made little difference in my enjoyment of playing. If you are drawn to this type of action-adventure game and particularly if you loved the TV show Firefly, then you would probably enjoy this game. Those not interested in this genre of game or show would probably want to steer clear. If you are curious about the TV show and want to read more, I've provided a link to the IMDB page - Click Here. Likewise, if you'd like to get more information about Firefly Adventures the game, Click Here for a link to Board Game Geek. I appreciate your continued support of the King's GameNight gaming blog and the associated Facebook page. Please continue to watch for new posts and periodic updates in both locations. Provide any feedback about the post in the comments section or send me a direct message using the contact page.
Game on! Aside from having game preferences for specific genres and types of games such as role-playing, Euro-games, card games, war games, etc... I believe each of us has a gamer personality that they tend to gravitate toward while playing a game. Thinking about gamer types as personas is an interesting topic. In this post, I list a my thoughts about possible gamer types and come up with some names for each. See if you agree with these personas and if you relate particularly to one or two of them. Gamer Personas I'm sure others have contemplated the different types of gamer personalities. There's even gamer slang to describe some related gamer behaviors such as "alpha player" or "metagaming". In witnessing myself and others I've played games with, I've come up with several personas to help describe common gaming personalities. Salesman - The salesman is the player who likes to bargain with other players. He/she is constantly trying to form an alliance or make a trade. Sometimes the Salesman enjoys the art of the deal more than the actual game at hand. Those who display this persona can be a lot of fun to play with, as they tend to keep things up-beat and are excited when they get a deal done. Salesmen enjoy games which include money, trading, bargaining, persuasion, alliances, and open discussion. Instigator - The obvious traits of an instigator are that they seem to get joy in stirring things up. Instigators point out when another player does something that could be taken as a mean move. An instigator might say aloud what others would keep to themselves, such as mentioning who has the most points or controls a particular location or resource. Always attempting to direct others actions away from themselves. The instigator thrives on games which are competitive. Cooperative games don't offer enough opportunity to cause players to turn on each other. Games with resources, territory control, and obvious victory points/conditions give this player the tools needed to instigate, antagonize and cause delightful little squabbles between players. Teammate - A teammate loves cooperative games. It pains them to play intentionally against others. They prefer playing with the group. Teammates also realize the pitfalls of quarterbacking, preferring to get input from the team, sometimes choosing the group's collective suggestion over their own personal inclinations. In addition to co-op games, a teammate persona may also like games without a lot of player interaction, thus allowing a winner to be determined based on the merit of their play. Where there is interaction in a competitive game, it can feel confrontational which may not sit well with this gamer type. This persona will generally steer clear of battle games and games with obvious, direct conflict between players. Professor - This persona tends to be interested in the intricacies of a game. They scrutinize each decision and will many times be thinking several steps ahead. A Professor doesn't like to rush decisions and is therefore prone to "analysis paralysis". Playing a game for them is like solving a puzzle. It is a challenge that typically requires winning or finishing with a lot of points to feel satisfied. Games in a Professor's wheelhouse would typically be Euro-games and competitive games with lower levels or player interaction and randomness, "thinky" or "meaty" games. Squirrel - A squirrel persona tends to easily get distracted and create distractions. This is typically not intentional, as this kind of player may have a low attention span. A squirrel may drift off when rules are being explained, because rules can get boring and lose their attention. They are ready to play the game ... "let's get on with the fun!" This persona might require rules to be re-explained during gameplay. When rounds/turns progress slowly or the game feels like its running long they resort to grabbing snacks, checking his/her phone or striking up side conversations. A fun player to be around, the squirrel persona is fast-paced, makes quick decisions and enjoys the company of others. Games that would typically suit squirrels are ones with social/party interaction, battle, action and player interaction. Shadow - Although the name sounds a bit negative, a shadow persona stays out of the spotlight. Shadows like to let others take the lead and attention. They are subtle in their gameplay and many times try to go unnoticed. They enjoy others taking the brunt of player attacks and interaction so they can go about their business without being disturbed. A shadow waits until the right moment and then may surprise everyone by laying down their cards or other game elements and announcing that they've just won the game. This persona likes many types of games but would most likely avoid social/party games or two-player war-games where its harder to remain in the shadows. Overview of Gamer Personas These are the six game personas that came to my mind. I'm sure there are most likely many more gamer personalities we could define. I would enjoy hearing about other gamer personas that you have encountered. I wonder if someone has written a college thesis or a psychology paper on the subject. Its certainly fun to put a name to the different gamer types. What one or two personas do you connect with the most? Which persona do you find the most fun to play against/with? Fill out my fun survey below about this subject. Please post your thoughts and comments in the comments section of this post. Keep visiting King's GameNight Facebook page and ...
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