Tag Archives: Kickstarter

Review of Blend Off!

Posted on March 13, 2017 by

Blend Off! is a real time game in which all players are frantically rolling dice to collect fruit, blending smoothies, and filling orders to earn gold stars. Makes total sense, right? To best understand the theme and mechanisms of the game, it’s important to know the backstory. Here it is as told in the rules…

Blend it Like Becca — a small-town smoothie shop sensation! It’s been a slow night. Becca the shop owner, Kevin the runner boy, and the Master Mixers – including you! – have started closing up shop. One minute before close, the door swings open. Outside, you see parked school buses and a line of people all the way to the street corner! The high school girls’ volleyball tournament has just gotten out, and everyone is craving a smoothie for the ride home. Becca cuts a deal: whoever blends the most smoothies tonight gets free smoothies for a month! The Blend Off has begun, and only one can win. There’s just one problem: Kevin. Skittish at best on normal days, he flies into a frenzy, grabbing fruit for you from the fridge at random. Take the fruit Kevin brings, complete the orders Becca calls back, and blend your way to victory!

In the game, players represent the Master Mixers who are competing to blend the most smoothies. Each Master Mixer rolls a Fruit Die representing Kevin\ and the random fruits he retrieves from the refrigerator. The deck of Blender Cards represents Becca who is continuously calling out smoothie orders to be filled. Unlike many games, there are no individual turns. Players are all playing and taking actions simultaneously until the game ends (when Becca is out of orders). The player that earned the most gold stars from blending smoothies is the winner. Continue reading →

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Review of Codinca

Posted on February 22, 2017 by

Rival treasure hunters (i.e., players) have discovered the Temple of Codinca while exploring the Yucatan rain forests. To open the Temple and find the great treasures contained within, players must use various mechanisms to manipulate a grid of sixteen carved Symbol Tiles to match specific Key Patterns. The first player to match their own Symbol Tiles to their four Key Patterns will unlock the secrets of Codinca.

Codinca is an abstract strategy game that combines skill and chance. Players take turns using various actions (e.g., flipping, swapping, and shifting) to manipulate a common grid of tiles to create patterns that match their individual Key Cards. The game is meant to be fast-paced and tactical.

Codinca was first available as a pre-production release at the Essen Game Fair (Spiel) in 2012. Only 150 copies were available and it sold out. A Kickstarter campaign was launched in September 2013 to fund a full production release, but it failed to reach the necessary goal. The game largely disappeared until it re-debuted at the 2016 UK Game Expo in new pocket edition. According to the announcement from the publisher, “the mechanics have been streamlined, the tiles made substantially chunkier, the rules include six languages (English, French, German, Dutch, Spanish & Polish), and it all comes in a very pretty pocket sized magnetic closing box.” This review is for the new 2016 release of Codinca. Continue reading →

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Review of Herbaceous

Posted on February 8, 2017 by

Herbaceous is self-described as “a flavorful card game” in which players can “relax while enjoying this elegant game of picking and potting herbs.” The objective is to score the most points by potting the best collection of herbs. To do this, players take turns drawing and planting herbs into the Community Garden and their individual Private Gardens, and later picking those herbs to pot into various containers. Every player has an identical set of Container Cards, but each type of container has different requirements for what it can hold. Points are scored at the end of the game based on the number of Herb Cards potted in each container.

Herbaceous is the fifth game successfully crowdfunded by Eduardo Baraf and Pencil First Games using Kickstarter. The campaign ended on September 23, 2016 and was supported by 2,208 backers. The game shipped to backers in January 2017. Continue reading →

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Unauthorized (Kickstarter Preview by Chris Wray)

Posted on February 4, 2017 by

Designers: Patrick & Katherine Lysaght Publisher: Chara Games Players: 6 – 12 Ages: 12 and Up Time: 30 Minutes Times Played: 5 (with Prototype Provided by Chara Games) Unauthorized, a social deduction game by Chara Games, will be released on … Continue reading →

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Santorini (Game Review by Chris Wray)

Posted on January 13, 2017 by

Designer: Gordon Hamilton Publisher: Roxley Game Laboratory Players: 2 – 4 Ages: 8 and Up Time: 20 Minutes Times Played: 8 (with 2, 3, 4 Players) Santorini is an abstract strategy game first created by Gordon Hamilton in the mid-1980s. … Continue reading →

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Escape Room In A Box: The Werewolf Experiment (SPOILER FREE)

Posted on April 12, 2016 by

How to play Escape Room In A Box: The Werewolf Experiment is quite easy; just open the box, read the rules, choose a leader, start a countdown timer, solve the puzzles, open the locks and then win (hopefully). It’s that easy! In all seriousness, setting up the game and learning how to play is very quick and easy since there are only six rules along with a few “Tips for Success.”

Actually playing the game is not quite as easy, but it’s a whole lot of fun! Once the “Rule” panel is removed, the game has started and the clock is ticking… Continue reading →

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