Due to how busy I’ve been this week, I’m not able to present my normal indepth (read: long) commentary about design. There are a few things that I wanted to mention:
- WizKids has scored the Halo license, and will be producing “Halo ActionClix.” No word what, if anything, it’s going to be compatible with. I think it would be a mistake to not make it compatible with one of their lines, either Halo vs. Aliens & Predators & Cthulhu, Halo vs. Mechs, or Halo vs. Superman.
- Next week, I’ll probably do a column of “classic games that I don’t like”, so if you have any games that you want me to trash, leave me a note in the comments.
- The big thing in my life this week, Robot Martini Inc. officially launched. For those who don’t know, this is the game company I’ve been working with for about two years now to get off the ground. We started working on a pretty major project, which we came to realize needed a lot more development work (and starting capital) to get going, so we changed our focus a bit. (More about RM after the jump)
For the past few months, I have been working with the owner of the company to figure out ideal means of production, and with game designers to work on games that fit within our ideal means of production. We developed the “48 card standard” which involved using only 48 cards (and maybe pencil and paper) single-sided and in black and white. With the constraints in place, the designers pulled it off with flying colors, and ideas for games keep coming in, so we’re going to be releasing new games every month.All this is to get people checking us out, make a name for ourselves, and see what games are popular. Then we’ll have our big official unveiling at Origins, including our first full color complete board game, and possible a color version of whatever our most popular B&W card game is.
So anyway, I encourage everyone who hasn’t already done so to check out Robot Martini. Our first five games are on sale, including one designed by me, Nerd Trivia, which should be especially popular with readers of this site. (I worked on all the games in some capacity, however.) This is a big deal for me in another way too: I’m officially in the Boardgamegeek database as a game designer.
Hurrah! A huge step for me!
Is it supposed to be just Robot Martin in the picture?
And congrats on the launch. 🙂
Please trash Monopoly. I know its been trashed many times before, but whenever I read another Monopoly trashing it just makes me feel so good – I just can’t get enough! You could also trash Risk, Trivial Pursuit, Candyland and Mouse Trap.
I second the Risk, Monopoly, Candyland, and Mouse Trap! Trivial Pursuit less so, trivia games are just plain fun for most everyone. Chess and Go are the very classic, as well as an analysis of Mankala would be enlightening. Kinds of Poker other then Hold ’em?
Oh! CLUE! Definitely trash Clue, it’s a prime example of theme being a big part of why a game is popular.