I was able to hit up Mindware titles twice on my Gen Con visit. Once at a small multi-publisher press event and then again at a booth visit. Games I saw include Trail to the Temple which has players exploring a temple using LiDAR (how cool is that?) by collecting tiles that are worth more if fewer tiles of that type are collected. Plunger Pop is a goofy slapjack-like game where players use tiny toilet plungers. Down the Water Spout is a dice rolling cooperative kids game just on the border (you decide) of an activity. In Seeker of Spells, players collect spellbooks to make the best stacks.

Trail to the Temple (by Reiner Knizia)

Trail to the Temple has 1-4 players exploring a jungle while mapping it out with their LiDAR scanning drones by managing the movement of three (shared) explorers along a track made of individual tiles. In the middle of the play field is an extended map consisting of levels to explore with a set of colored drones. As drones are moved up the map board, that color becomes more valuable for points at the end of the game.

The active player chooses one of the cards in their hand to move an explorer. The explorer then moves that number of spaces along the path, skipping any other players, and then picking up the tile on which they land. The tiles come in four types.

Artifact tiles will show anywhere from 1 to 3 colored artifacts, these are worth points at the end of the game, but the points scored will depend on where that colored drone lands at the end of the game. Explorer tiles are worth points if that colored explorer ends the game in first or second place. Drone tiles will allow a player to move a drone of their choice one or two spaces up the map. Finally, some tiles contain crates, these are straight-up points at the end of the game.

After moving, if there are any tiles on the path that are behind all the explorers, the tiles are removed from the game. If the removed tiles show artifact symbols, they will cause the corresponding color drone upward on the map board, one space per artifact on the card. Any other type of tiles are removed from the play area without causing an effect.

There are five special locations that are placed throughout the path, underneath one of the tiles. These give an immediate effect that affects all players. This could have players discarding cards and replenishing their hands, placing some of the removed tiles back onto the path, moving a drone for free, or even stealing a tile off of the path.

Once one explorer or drone arrives at the end of their path, the game ends. Scoring is pretty quick. Add up your crates, score points for each artifact you’ve collected based on the placement of the matching color drone: two points per artifact symbol for the first and second placed drones, one point for 3rd and 4th. 5th and 6th get nothing.. Score points for your explorer tiles if that explorer ended in first (more points) or second (fewer points.) Tiles matching the last explorer score nothing.

Plunger Pop

Plunger pop, targeted at younger kids, is a slapjack type race to find matching cards. The key here is that players are required to use a small plunger to grab the cards – thus the name. These are small enough for little hands so are about the size of an adult’s hand.

The one addition to standard matching is the robot battery pack card which has special bonus scoring.

Down the Water Spout (by Peggy Brown)

Down the Water Spout is a 2-5 player cooperative kid’s “game” of rolling dice. Get those bugs down the water spout before the sun rises. It’s almost an activity as you roll the dice and fill up cards with the symbols of what you roll. You do get to use a cool dice tower, though.

Chuck the five dice down the tower. If any of the faces match the picture on one of the cards, place the die there. You can reroll the dice up to two times (ie. you can roll 3 times) taking them on and off of tiles if you wish. If you don’t complete a tile (they have 4 symbols) by the end of your turn, the sun starts to rise (rises?) and it’s considered a miss.

Miss five times before you fill up enough cards and you lose the game. Fill enough cards, and you win! In truth, there’s a bit of a game here. You have to decide what to keep and what to reroll, reminiscent of a kid’s version of Yahtzee or something.

Seeker of Spells (by Ellie Dix)

This 2-4 player game has the players as mushroom wizards moving around a board to collect spellbooks. These are collected in one big stack. The color of the book collected can also trigger other special actions.

During the game, players move one of their two wizard tokens around a 4×4 grid of cards, trying to land on a space with a spellbook in order to collect that book.

In practice, all players pick a direction card and then, in turn order, reveal it and move both of their wizards in that direction until they hit a non-empty location. Once a direction has been used, it is set aside and it can’t be used again. Once a player is down to a single card, they may pick up the other three to reset their options again.

The sides of the board wrap around, and there are walls that stop and walls that bounce. Some squares have portals, which warp wizards to the matching color portal and movement continues (unless there’s a book on that end of the portal.) Bumping into another wizard lets a player steal the top spellbook from the other player. As consolation, the player losing a book gains a spell card.

There are several colors of book, each with a scoring opportunity and special power. Blue is worth a lot of points but also gives the “losing” player of the moment an extra spell card (a nice catch-up mechanic.) Picking up a purple book nets that player a spell card. Green gives 3 points. Red is actually -1 point, and one or two gold books are actually negative but the gold books become positive as players collect 3 or more.

Spell cards are special cards that can be used to change up the game, either for personal gain or to mess with another player. These can mess with the board, mess with another player’s movement, or improve your personal movement around the board.

The red books track the game’s end. When there is only 1 red spellbook left on the board, the game ends. The game can also end if a player gets the maximum spellbook stack size (15 to 20 depending on player count.) Players score points are given for collected books as well as points for some unused spell cards (0,1, or 2 points).