What do you do when presented an opportunity to create new rules for a game? Are you the type of person to follow the written rules religiously, or do you come up with your own variations for your favorite game?
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This week’s podcast, we talk to Brian and Jill Bollinger from Wild East Games. We have mentioned their games Pie Rats of the Carob Bean Farm and Pitman in previous episodes. They have a new expansion for Pie Rats, out on Kickstarter now.
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Did you know that ghosts can scare each other? Neither did I until I played BOO, a compact game for two players from Perplext. Did this ghostly game grip us, or were we perplexed by this petite phantasmal puzzler?
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“There’s a war out there, old friend. A world war. And it’s not about who’s got the most bullets. It’s about who controls the information. What we see and hear, how we work, what we think… it’s all about the information!” – Sneakers, 1992 For some of us, it’s quotes like these that are about as close to hacking as
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Aditya Batura is co-founder and CEO of Codomo Inc., a technology education group based in Singapore. They teach children about programming at an age-appropriate level, and wanted to bring that to a larger community. Enter Potato Pirates, the game that “teaches 10 hours of programming in 30 minutes”.
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Sometimes you just need to buy a game in person, whether it’s because you don’t want to buy online or because you need to pick up a last-minute present. We share with you our top games that we found at our local Target store.
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Nothing says family fun like marshmallows on a campfire. Can you toast your marshmallows to a beautiful golden brown, or will your opponents cause you to roast them, leaving you with nothing but a blackened crisp?
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As we mentioned last week, we’ve been camping! We talk about several camping-themed games from Education Outdoors.
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A s’more traditionally consists of two graham crackers, one marshmallow, and one piece of chocolate. S’mores: The Card Game tries to re-create the fun of assembling a s’more in a card game. Can you craft a s’more from your cards before the deck runs out?
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A baobab tree has a thick trunk and flat, spreading branches. Why? Because the players have to build it that way! Can you build a spectacular canopy, or will your tree tumble?
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It’s an odd-numbered show, so that means we have a guest! This week, it is Chris Nichols, inventor of The Card Caddy. The Card Caddy was born of necessity; when Chris’s son was younger, he wanted to play Uno everywhere. The cards were always getting mangled by rubber bands, or slipping out of the crummy paperboard box to scatter everywhere.
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As we mentioned on our interview with Chris Nichols, we are giving away a Card Caddy (single decker) to six lucky winners! Enter using the Rafflecopter widget below. What game would you keep in a Card Caddy? a Rafflecopter giveaway
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Scuttle! by Jellybean Games is a card game full of pirate adventure, attacks, conquest, and fun, for 1-5 players. Manage the shifting seas of cards like an old salt, be the first to collect enough treasure, and you’ll win the title of master pirate captain. Arrrrre you ready to find out what makes Scuttle! so interesting and different every time
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Oh no! All the animals have escaped the barn and are hiding out. Can you fill your pen with the most valuable animals and avoid the sneaky crows? Barnyard Roundup is a simple bluffing game for 2-6 players designed by James Hudson and published by Druid City Games.
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One of my recently adopted criteria for a good family game is total length – from setup, through play time, to teardown. In this, Clear for Takeoff excels. Designed by Hagen Temeryazev, an airline pilot, illustrated by Etienne Hebinger, and published by Blue Orange Games, Clear for Takeoff is a card game that has you racing to get all three of
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Unbelievable tales of legend filled with debauchery, treachery, and heroism make the stories of the Greek gods fascinating to anyone who enjoys a good adventure. From the snakes of Medusa to the rippling muscles of Hercules, to the near invincibility of Achilles, every hero and villain captures our imagination with their epic tales of adventure, victory, and heartbreak. With virtually
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Hoyle, the familiar name in playing cards, is introducing its own line of original card games for kids, under the brand name Hoyle Play. Their motto is “fun with room for a lesson”. The Family Gamers were given three of these games to try. All three reinforce early math skills, but are they fun enough to keep playing?
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This month we’re going to look at a fun family game that is beautiful and scales well to children of different ages. At The Family Gamers, we think silliness is a great way to relate to your children, and with the game BattleGoats from CardLords, there is ample opportunity for less-than-serious play.
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Even monsters need to get to work! But do the Monsters in the Elevator ascend to the top floor of educational gameplay: both educational and fun?
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Dragonwood is a dice and card based game designed by Darren Kisgen and published by GameWright Games. A “game of dice and daring” with a medieval fantasy theme, it is designed for two to four players age 8+, but any child who can read can play. With some minor rule shifting, Dragonwood was playable by our four-year-old.
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