At both ends of the alphabet and almost at both ends of the exhibit hall, I’m smooshing Bézier Games and Wise Wizard Games together in the same post anyway. Bézier had the kitchen-sink of mechanisms of The Game Makers on display. It is a huge game and was garnering a huge interest, not just because it allows players to literally “publish” in-game their favorite boardgames. Scream! is another take on Scram! but now with bluffing. Wise Wizard Games has more Star Realms – the very newest stuff is all digital (for now) but there’s also the kid’s (no reading required) version of Star Realms Academy and a core set and expansion for the rethemed Star Trek: Star Realms game. The core set is just a reskin, but the expansion has all new content including options to play multiplayer against a Borg player (or AI.) Other new stuff seems to focus on smaller is better. There’s a card drafting game containing a total of 9 cards, Elemystic. Finally Draconis 8 is a card/tile laying game where cards “fight” against cards on their four sides. Every card in Draconis 8 is different, and you will be able to scan them in and also have a digital version of them with whichto play.
Bézier Games
The Game Makers
Under a giant banner, Bézier Games was showing off their upcoming Kickstarter, The Game Makers.
It is a game about making games. The eye-catching part is that Bézier Games has managed to get permission to include a huge number (300+) of actual boardgames for players to create during the game. Once a game is produced, you can display its box in your own personal display case. It’s a mammoth game (expect a mammoth price, I suppose) and there’s a lot going on under the hood. Obviously, players are hoping to get all the resources together and produce some games, but it’s not just about money. Players can gain points for their display board of all their finished titles. There’s worker placement (cute little forklifts!) on a rondel, three sizes of dice for marketing (to increase endgame scoring), and piles and piles of resources. Resources and other do-dads can be used in multiple ways – improving your factory, your assembly line, your warehouse, your workers, etc…
One bit of bling that looms large is the central roundel for your forklift workers. It is meant to rotate and push the workers along to new sections. There’s a very fork-lift-wheel-esque knob on it that you can grab and pretend you’re driving it in your own factory.
Scream!
Somewhat of a sequel (homage?) to Scram!, Scream! has players playing with a set of cards face-down in front of them. The overarching goal is to have the lowest number of points on one’s cards by the end of the game.
Players start with 5 cards face down and one face up. Players are able to look at their facedown cards at the start but then must remember what they are. The gameplay is the familiar draw a card, then keep it or play it. Cards drawn from the deck can be played for their action, cards taken from the discard pile cannot be used for actions. The higher numbered cards have an associated action which may allow one to look at cards, discard cards, move other cards around, etc…
A key aspect of the game is bluffing. A player can get rid of several cards if they are the same value. This can be done with face-up cards but also with face-down cards. If the active player wants to discard face-down cards (by themselves or with some face-up ones) they do so, but can be challenged if another player doesn’t think the face-down cards actually match. If challenged, and they were bluffing, they take all cards back plus an extra one. The challenger then also gets to discard one of theirs. If the challenger is incorrect, the cards do match, and the challenger must take an extra face-down card. Adding to the bluffing mix, the power of the 7 card has players bluffing about the ability of one of their face-down cards!
The round ends when someone decides to Scream!, then all the other players get a final turn before scoring. Players score points for all the values on their cards, but if the player who Scream!ed has the lowest score, they score zero instead. (A 10 point penalty is applied if they are not the lowest.) Play three rounds and the player with the lowest overall score wins!
Wise Wizard Games
Elemystic
Elemystic is a very small-package 2 player card drafting game, which should be out very soon (if not out yet when you read this.) Starting with a 9-card deck of elements, each player is given one card, and then a third card is removed from the game (without looking.). The remaining six cards are then drafted between the two players. Thus, players begin the game with a hand of four cards, knowing where all the cards are except for the one in their opponent’s hand and the one out of the game.
Players alternate playing cards to create a stack of three, with the fourth card in their hand unused. Cards have abilities, as well as attack and defense values that accumulate when stacked. Note, because they’re stacked, the bottom ability value of a card only contributes if it is on the top card.
Once the stacks of three cards are completed, they activate. The higher initiative card stack gets to activate its ability and then apply its attack, defended by the opponent. Then, the opponent’s stack activates, attacks, and is defended. Going first can be quite important, the fire power can negate an opponent’s number so it isn’t all that useful if it goes second. When played over several rounds, the previous skirmish will determine who gets to go first in the next.
Draconis 8
Is a card/tile laying game where players put out cards in a communal grid. Sides of cards have numbers which are evaluated against adjacent cards when played. Of course, every card has its own funky game-rule-breaking ability to create chaos/tactical opportunities during play. Things like “Stomp” which allows a player to play on top of an opponent’s tile location and move the previous card orthogonally. Each player also has one Dragon card (that’s the “Draconis”, in the name) that is exceptionally powerful and will have abilities tied into that particular color of dragon.
A game pack will come with 8 cards and one terrain. The terrain is used as the central starting point and then players will simultaneously play and then, based on initiative, play them to the grid. The card winning a particular battle (the larger number) is marked with a bead, as later cards played may mess with things and switch who is winning at a given location. After 7 cards are played (1 is discarded) the round ends.
The cards players use are almost all unique. Every card has the same back, but the abilities, numbers on the edges, etc… can change from pack to pack. However, all the numbers are adjusted to try to keep every card in balance with every other one.
The game has a digital aspect, connecting to the videogame site/store STEAM in the next month or so. The idea is that a player can build up a virtual set of their exact Draconis 9 cards by scanning a digital code from any physical pack they purchase.
Star Realms – what’s next?
I don’t have photos of it, but Star Realms just came off of a big kickstarter campaign for tons of new content. However, it is all digital content. The plan is to release all the new content onto the digital Star Realms app, let people use it, and then take advantage of all the data collected to make double-sure all the cards are correctly balanced. Changes can be made before cards are sent to the printer. This worked well in the past for Hero Realms – a much more difficult game to balance because of all the special abilities of the various Hero Realms class abilities. Of course, staying completely digital for now is a great way to kick the whole tariff situation down the road… Backers to the recent crowdfunding may be able to get into the beta of the new cards in just a few weeks, with wider release in the coming months. Depending on how any balancing changes are required the hope is to run another crowdfunding campaign, maybe early next year, with a quick turnaround for the physical product.
Star Realms Academy
It’s been out for awhile, but if you missed it, the “beginner” version of the Star Realms deckbuilder is a nice introduction to the genre even for a pre-literate gamer. It will be very familiar to any Star Realms player. Play ships and bases to buy cards to add to your deck to play later to buy more ships and bases. In the meantime, try to do damage to your opponent to knock them down to zero life. To make things a bit easier to play, some of the more complex ship abilities are removed in order to avoid too much math and avoid any reading.. One large difference from the original game, players do not add up their coins and spend them each round, they simply get physical coins for each card that provides them. They do not need to be spent every turn. This changes up strategy a bit as now a player can delay improving their deck in order to save up for a single, bigger card. Once this version is learned, the transition from this Star Realms-lite to the regular game should be fairly seamless.
Star Trek: Star Realms
It came as a complete surprise to me, but you can now play Star Realms using the theme of Star Trek ships. UVS Games has partnered with Wise Wizard to make a core game that is an exact duplicate of the original Star Realms title. All the mechanics are the same. The Klingons are in the role of the machine faction while Romulans are the Blob, etc… However, there is also an expansion: Star Trek: Star Realms – Borg: Invasion Expansion. This is a completely new set of cards, not reskins of previously released Star Realms cards. The expansion also includes options to play several players cooperatively against a Borg player or cooperatively against an “AI” version of the Borg.
I would be remiss if I didn’t name-drop our fearless leader’s name when talking about the Bézier Games booth. I had asked if there was anything I should take a photo of, he mentioned the Maglev Maps expansion (volume 1.) As dutifully “requested”, here are the photos:
Of course, one cannot help but notice Dale Yu’s name prominently on the cover. Clearly he would not debase himself far enough to promote his own expansion? In the hopes of currying future favor I will say the expansions look kinda cool. But don’t take my word for it, take Tom Vasel’s: As it says on the back of the expansion box, “A train game that is… worth your time.” Such high praise! That’s a $100 sticker there so hopefully it is worth $100 of somebody’s time! Perhaps it is you!
