Friday report 

The convention is now in full swing, and I must say that it does feel slightly less crowded than normal. It is unclear how much of this may be related to covid and how much might be related to the fact this is somewhat earlier in the calendar, and we have avoided the school holidays.

I started off the morning with a nice demo at Queen games. I got to see the new additions to the city game lineup, and I’m looking forward to a chance to play Marrakesh.

Powerline is another interesting title, from Dirk Henn. 

Challengers continues to be wildly popular. Due to a combination of popularity and some shipping issues, the game is completely sold out in German already.

The shipping booth continues to grow in size and popularity. This year, they are located in the Galeria, which is better able to handle the line for the place, also giving them more space to store the boxes and to give easier access to the trucks to come get the boxes.

The other innovation this year is that they have boxes here for purchase. This is a huge boon as in the past I have spent plenty of time trying to source a suitable box to send stuff home in… And had to figure out how to get it from home to Germany in my bags

The shipping is certainly more expensive than going to the post office, but for the convenience, it feels fair.

Then I was thrilled to be invited to the Ravensburger lunch event. Here they presented the new games for the year with a chance to play them.

They also have some news about games to come. Such as Lorcana, a new Disney card game. This is the first collectible trading game for either company. The cards will have reimagined Disney characters, here you bring them to life as Glimmers.

You have a team of characters, go out on quests and gather lore. This is meant for both gamers and collectors

The game should be complex enough to attract serious gamers. But the game will be attractive to collectors as there will be plenty of original Disney content. The cards we saw include Mickey, Stitch, Cruella da vil, Robin hood, etc

There will be six inks (sound like suits) in the game, and unfortunately they didn’t give us more news than that.

So yeah, I know the game isn’t a brownie. But I got to eat one today. I also had the chance to hang out with some old famous friends.

Also while I’m not a Disney pin collector, I have a new one to add to my Disney pin sash

I have been improving with my German skills since the pandemic, but man, with the masks, it’s hard to understand between the muffling of the sound as well as the inability to read the lips of the speaker.

Next year there will be a new party game from Kasper Lapp called That’s not a Hat, a game about regifting presents off to other people. Kinda like a white elephant trade with some memory involved

Ravensburger also spoke on their new partnership with Gamefound. The new Castles of Burgundy was the first success of the partnership, and they are looking to find their next great Family game with this partnership.

There will be an online competition to find this next game. All you need is the idea, Gamefound will help them come up with the campaign and all the rest of the groundwork. They plan to have three finalists and the game which is backed the most will be published internationally by Ravensburger

Until your next appointment,

The gaming doctor