Starting a Community Game Group: Interview with Mark Stuart
Ever thought about starting up a board game group in your community, but just didn’t know where to start?
Mark Stuart runs a successful community tabletop group in Gainesville, FL. With the help of meetup.com, a social networking site that allows people of like interests to find one another, his group has grown to 220 “meetup members” (basically people who show interest) and a solid 12 regular members for game get together. The group has also used Facebook to grow its membership.
In this interview, Mark explains how he began his group, how it has grown over the past several years and gives some advice for others looking to start groups in their own communities. Continue reading →
Tabletop Day: Jax Style
Yesterday’s Tabletop Day was a big success here in Jacksonville, FL at Happy Viking Games, who were WONDERFUL hosts. There were two big rooms of tables and there were definitely times when it was hard to find a corner to start a new game, which is the best problem to have. There were literally bags of games everywhere. To top it all off, as promised, there was some delicious cake.
Board Game Design using Kickstarter: Interview with Tim Rodriguez
This Saturday is International Table Top Day!
In celebration, this is a packed week of posts!
Today, I am thrilled to bring you the brilliant mind of Tim Rodriguez, a Brooklyn based game designer.
I’ve been curious about how independent game designers use crowd funding to finance their games and Tim, who is currently using Kickstarter to fund his newest game “Hyperreality”, was kind enough to sit down and tell me about his experiences with the platform.
Take a listen to our conversation to hear about how Kickstarter helped him bring his first game “Ghost Pirates” to life; his inspiration behind “Hyperreality”; and his advice for other independent game makers out there.
Be sure to check out Hyperreality on Kickstarter and Tim’s Website, Brooklynindiegames.com and blog, dicefoodlodging.com
Also, here’s the link for the store front, Game Salute, that sells Ghost Pirates.
Giant Jenga
Jenga is a classic game of skill, determination and loud crashing noises.
When it gets super-sized, though, it gets even better. My obsession with “larger than life Jenga” began after viewing a recent episode of “The Big Bang Theory”. In the attached clip, the gang plays a game of Jenga made of 4×4 wooden boards.
Young Game Inventor’s Contest
While some kids win science fairs or history fairs, this year kids can win the
National Young Game Inventor’s Contest!
National Young Game Inventors contest
The event is sponsored by by University Games with sponsorships by Scholastic and the Prescott Hotel.
The stakes are pretty amazing: $10,000 savings bond, trip to San Francisco and the possibility for the game to actually be published.
The runner-up prizes are pretty great too: a game library from University Games.
Entries are due in October. No help from mom and dad. Who knows, maybe your kid is the next Milton Bradley. If not, maybe they’ll be excited about something new for a couple of weeks.
Check out this website for more info: http://www.universitygames.com/NYGIC/
Foto Friday: One to Boggle your mind
The cat really wanted to play, but her favorite words “dinner time” just aren’t there.
Happy Friday! How about a game of Boggle? As you can see, Breezy the cat really is a good sport and tried to play my choice of game this morning, but her lack of english skills and opposable thumbs makes her a lousy opponent. She really prefers games that dangle from a string.
So instead it’s Foto Friday!
2 minutes on the clock. How many 3+ letter words can you find?
I only found 15 this week.
Boggle challenge for March 15, 2013
5 board games that should be made into movies
This past year the game Battleship was the inspiration for a mega budget movie. Several other adaptations are in the works including Monopoly and Ouija. I’ve jumped on this bandwagon and picked five games I think will make excellent movies.
This was a lot of fun. Expect to see a sequel to this list in the future.
Settlers of Catan
(c) Catan GmbH
Settlers of Catan
I’ve been waiting for this adaptation for years. Villages trying to expand into each other’s territories, communities desperate for supplies begging friends and enemies alike for help, bartering, trading….add in a damsel in distress and this game is a bona fide block buster. Continue reading →
5 movies that should be made into board games
We’ve had a bizarrely cold week here in Florida. Of course, by “bizarrely cold” I mean around 65 degrees which I recognize to the rest of the world that is not cold at all. Never the less, I have spent the week catching up on movies.
It’s been almost 20 years since Jumanji entered theatres: the most obvious movie to board game translation, because, well, it was already about a fictional board game. But, in a world of product domination, what movies are just waiting for this special treatment?
Franchisers, take note—hopefully we’ll see some of these favorites on the shelves by next year’s Oscars.
All the photos in this post are property of IMDB. Click the pictures to go to each movie’s page.
Finding Nemo
(c) Disney Pixar
Finding Nemo:
The objective of this movie translates well as a board game: rescue baby Nemo by traveling across the ocean and overcoming great obstacles. Movie characters become game pieces representing players. Pick your favorite from Dory to Merlin to Crush the turtle.
Nertz: Learn how to play
Nertz is a fast paced card game.
You can buy a specialty deck on Amazon but really all you need are several visually different sets of standard playing cards.
Historical Sunday: 17th Century Card Game
Castillo de San Marcos is a Spanish fort in America’s oldest city: St. Augustine.
The inside of Castillo San de Marcos in St. Augustine, FL.
The fort has at one point or another belonging to the Spanish (several times), the British, the United States and the Confederacy.
Now, Castillo de San Marcos is part of the United States’ National Park Service. This weekend, as I wandered around the fort, I wondered what game the Spanish soldiers of the 17th century might have played behind the fort’s solid walls. Continue reading →
Ready, Set, Play 