A BuzzleBox Review
This week we’ve had a great BuzzleBox review from Jenny at The Brick Castle. In the review, which is littered with pictures, Jenny says, “The Buzzlebox is gorgeous. It felt like a treat opening it, and then I saw what was inside. This is almost entirely plastic free, and the only plastic included is reusable…There are so many games and puzzles included that everything is “ooh, what’s this?” There are even stickers inside the box itself – clues for one of the puzzles. There is a game on a beer mat and a large envelope containing 3 games for dice, cards and dominoes.”
Later she says, “Don’t Count Your Chickens is a gorgeous little game with illustrated cardboard tokens and wooden counters, and a resealable plastic bag to keep all of the counters safe. The aim of the game it to build the most impressive flock of domestic fowl… There is also a full sized game, and this is even more special. You can feel the weight in this box and it is crammed. Also original, new and only available from The Dark Imp – Gnome Grown… The wooden playing pieces are just gorgeous. As well as counters there are a bazillion little wooden ladybirds and a couple of Imps.”
There’s still time to get your BuzzleBox before Christmas. Order now.
The Brick Castle previously reviewed my book, The Board Game Family: Reclaim your children from the screen. Read the review here.
Christmas Crackers
Game design time has mainly been spent creating games for Christmas crackers… for 2020. We take pride in the quality of our products at The Dark Imp, so the planning and production process starts a whole year before the product will be launched. I can’t give too much away, but you’ll be playing with these crackers all afternoon on Christmas day. No plastic rings and golf tees here!
Throw Down Your Coats and Strawberry Politics
Throw Down Your Coats, which will be the main game in BuzzleBox 3, has been playtested by the London Playtest UK group again this week. The latest revisions are working well and the game is now exactly as I want it. Movement of your Lord around the board is enabled (and limited) by the number of followers your Lord has. The Lord will not sully his feet on the muddy ground, so relies on peasant followers to lay down their coats for him. As each Lord’s following grows, it is easy for players to get blocked by others. But Lords can also travel on the backs of rivals’ followers, so an attempt to block may backfire. To score points players need to make sure they are building houses and monuments in the same tiles as other players, but without letting their opponents score too highly. There’s a lot of push and pull in this game of planned movement and resource management.
I’ve also been working on a game with fellow designer, Bez Shahriari. Bez shared her Eight Games for eight occasions in July. The idea came from a speed concepting game jam she organised in October. In the game, which is in an early first draft, players attempt to influence consecutive rounds of voting to elect their own strawberry candidate. Players don’t know which strawberries their opponents are trying to elect. The topology of the voting map needs changing and the rounds need shortening, but the voting structure is solid. I’m excited to see where this will go.
