The Last Day For Pixel Lincoln: Re-Election

 

Today wraps up our most recent Pixel Lincoln campaign. It's been a fun one, with lots and lots of unlockable cards. It ends in just 9 hours. I think it's safe to say Lincoln has secured his Re-Election.

Post by Pixel Lincoln.

Something From Nothing Episode 7

I had the opportunity to join up with the crew from Something From Nothing a few days ago and chat about game design struggles & feedback, having your own dedicated design space, and adding art to prototypes. You can also see my connection dip out for a good 50% of the time. 

This was a blast to do. Big thanks to Chevee Dodd, Jason Slingerland, T.C. Petty III and Rob Couch.

Play Pixel Lincoln at Jimcon This Weekend

Attn: Winnepeg friends! Our twitter pal @PoundSmiley is running Pixel Lincoln: The Deckbuilding Game at Jimcon in this weekend. Look for the stove pipe hat... or the guy playing Pixel Lincoln with this awesome custom card. 

Have fun! And thanks to David Miller for spreading the word!

Details here: http://jimcon.ca/2013/

Metatopia goodies from The Game Crafter!

My Metatopia 2013 panel Prototyping Using 'Print on Demand' Vendors is being sponsored by my good friends at The Game Crafter!

Just like last year, they have sent me a box of goodies that I will be showing, describing and giving away during the panel. Learn about the many possibilities of Print on Demand and get a chance to see some of the components up close before you order.

I went through the site and handpicked some of my favorite components to show off and to hopefully inspire some designers that haven't dipped into the Print On Demand scene as of yet. I'll have cards, tiles, boxes, boards, dice, tanks, meeples and more.

Stop by and get some goodies! 10AM Saturday, D037.

Win A Free Copy of Pixel Lincoln!

Our friends at Theology of Games are running an awesome contest where you can win a free copy of Pixel Lincoln: The Deckbuilding Game!

All you need to do is the following:

1) Subscribe to their YouTube Channel at http://www.YouTube.com/TheologyofGames

—AND---

2) Comment on their double take video review of Pixel Lincoln: The Deckbuilding Game, letting them know who you agree with, Jeremiah or Scott. 

Here's a quick word from Theology of Games: 
Maybe you agree with Jeremiah, but you want to be fun and creative and play the devils advocate and make an argument that agrees with Scott, that's cool too! Video responses are also highly encouraged! The contest ends Nov. 20. We will select a lucky commenter (who lives in the US) to receive a free copy of Pixel Lincoln!

Good luck everyone! Pixel Lincoln: The Deckbuilding Game retails for $45 and weighs about 400 lbs, so this is a pretty good deal.

Also, while you are checking out Theology of Games, you might want to listen to their most recent episode of their podcast, where I was the special guest. I spill the beans on lots of behind the scenes info like "Why does the Lincoln Meeple have an afro?" and "Why is the box so big?" and "What did I learn from the Kickstarter?". It was a fun one. 

Podcast Link: http://theologyofgames.com/2013/10/22/podcast-3-and-a-new-contest-were-giving-away-pixel-lincoln/#more-4036

Help Storyteller Cards Artist Campbell Whyte

My good friend and Storyteller Cards artist Campbell Whyte has been doing a bit of travel over the last few months with his family. They spent time in Italy, Mexico and the United States picking up and creating things the entire way. Until last week in San Francisco when somebody stole all of their luggage.

Here is the whole story in Campbell's words. An open letter "to the person who took our luggage".

Hi there, we’re not sure who you are, but we’re pretty sure you know us. You probably know us really well actually, as you recently stole all of our luggage while we were on holiday.
Every. Single. Thing.
Well, that’s not fair, you did leave us with one salt and pepper shaker that was a gift, my 5 year old sons sandals and a 2014 Italian priests calendar. Those priests were pretty good looking, we’re baffled that you would pass them up.
Anyway, we hope you’re well. Really, we do. We hope that our loss has provided you with your essentials for a while, food, shelter, warmth, security. Although I’ve never been in your position before, where I rely on stealing from others to make ends meet, I imagine it is not an easy life.
I imagine you probably live in fear a lot of the time, fear of the culture you find yourself in, fear of the government, police, other people stealing from you. You must also look out at tourists like us with a great degree of resentment. Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco is filled to the brim of snap happy, money dropping, grinning ear to ear vacationers. To you, we must appear as the 1%, rolling in wealth and decadence.
Although you might not believe it, this is really not the case with us. We are a small family from Australia. Myself, fiance, and our five year old son. For the past 6 years we have been saving money for our vacation.
Working full time, doing extra jobs on the weekend. Making money where we can from our arts 
practices. What you took from us that day, were pretty much all of our possessions.

Read the rest at: http://www.campbellwhyte.com/uncategorized/to-the-person-who-took-our-luggage/

I want to help Campbell out in any and every way possible, so the first thing I want to do is spread the word. I have no clue if their personal belongings can be found and returned, but I would like to hope so. If you have any way to share his story, or if you know of a great place to share it, please do. 

One of the things that I want to do to help Campbell is to auction off a piece of his original Storyteller Cards art. I'm also going to include a deck of Storyteller Cards and one of each of the 3 Storyteller Kits we offered during the Kickstarter Campaign. The proceeds will go 100% to him and his family. I will cover the shipping and all the other fees and nonsense, so that a penny isn't missed. 

The piece of art that I chose is very fitting, it's the Criminal card. It's a criminal escaping on a toy truck... probably Campbell's son's toy truck. :( 

Here is the original art:

Here is the final card:

 And here it is in a sweet frame:

It's a great card in the Storyteller Cards deck that leads to tons of stories, just like Campbell's. 

Here is a link to the auction. Please share! http://www.ebay.com/itm/171149440518?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

Metatopia 2013 Panel Schedule

Metatopia is a wonderful designer-driven gaming event in North Jersey (10/31-11/3 in Morristown, NJ) that's all about the panels and focused gaming sessions. Last year, I was fortunate to attend on behalf of The Game Crafter and participate in a few prototyping / self-publishing panels with Tim Rodriguez, Curt Covert and Geoff Bottone and this year I was asked to come back. Except the big difference this year is that I am all alone!

That's right, I will be talking your ear off all by myself for two one hour sessions.

The first is all about the POD:

D037: "Prototyping Using 'Print on Demand' Vendors" presented by Jason Tagmire. In this seminar, Jason Tagmire will speak of his experiences with The Game Crafter, Superior POD, Print and Play Productions, Rolco Games and others to fulfill various projects. Topics will include how to find and meet the minimum requirements for each, and how to select the right vendor for your project. Saturday, 10:00AM - 11:00AM; One Session; Serious, All Ages.

And the second is all about screwing things up:

D065: "Self-Publishing: Learn From My Mistakes!" presented by Jason Tagmire. Jason Tagmire has self-published board and card games in short run (<250), and medium run (1000-2500). He has experienced a variety of trauma from art delays to overfunding on Kickstarter and still not having enough money to fulfill the project. In this panel, he hopes to help you avoid his mistakes. Saturday, 10:00PM - 11:00PM; One Session; Serious, All Ages.

I'm looking forward to both of these and playing lots of games in the 11 hours in-between. Aside from the panels, last year was the semi-public birth of Maximum Throwdown. I chatted about it with Michael Keller first and then played a few rounds with Alex Strang and Kevin Kulp. We also had a killer session of Alex Strang's Movie Plotz. Hoping to repeat the fun this year.

For more details visit http://www.dexposure.com/m2013.html

Metatopia 2012 recap: http://buttonshy.blogspot.com/2012/11/metatopia-recap.html

Free iOS Maximum Throwdown Scorekeeper

If you are playing Maximum Throwdown this weekend (or any time that is) AND you have an iOS device (iPhone, iPad, iPod touch), make sure you download the free Maximum Throwdown Scorekeeper app! It's a quick and easy way to keep score and keep the table clear.

My phone has been my preferred method of keeping score since I made the original javascript scorekeeper a few months ago. That one is still available for those without an iOS device, but it's the old prototype characters, requires an internet connection, and is as wonky as it gets. 

Check out the Maximum Throwdown Scorekeeper at the iTunes app store, and if you're up for it give it a rating too! 

Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/maximum-throwdown-scorekeeper/id688750255?ls=1&mt=8

This weekend in Minneapolis, MN

My good friend and Storyteller Cards artist, Campbell Whyte, is making the long trek from Australia for an all-night comic jam workshop at Light Grey Art Labs. This is in connection with their Nights & Weekends exhibition of his 8-Bit Dreams series.

The 8-Bit Dreams series is the entire reason I wanted Campbell involved in Storyteller Cards. He's bringing hundreds of the little NES inspired illustrations and you can leave with one (but not Megaman 2, DuckTales, Blades of Steel, Dr. Mario, Arch Rivals, Adventure Island or Bionic Commando.. because I already own them!). You can also stay up all night and draw pictures with him. I'm both sad and jealous that I can't make it out to this event, but hopefully you can.

Full details here and below: http://lightgreyartlabshop.bigcartel.com/product/all-night-with-campbell-whyte-comic-jam-workshop

All-Night with Campbell Whyte : Comic Jam!
SATURDAY Sept 21 -to- SUNDAY Sept 22
9pm - 5am
at Light Grey Art Lab
$20

Join guest artist Campbell Whyte for an incredible ALL-NIGHT comic making session!
Campbell has flown all the way to Minneapolis from the great land of Australia to participate as our featured artist in the Nights & Weekends Exhibition!

Campbell is a prolific illustrator/ comic artist that has created amazing projects such as his 8-bit Dreams series, his Home Time comic and many more!
Check out his work here: http://www.campbellwhyte.com/projects/

Get ready to make comics, learn all about Campbell's projects and process and be inspired! Part workshop and part challenge, All-Night wth Campbell Whyte : Comic Jam will challenge participants to make a complete 8 page mini comic, discuss, and finally print copies of their very own stories! We'll be making a late-night run to xerox our work, have time to fold & format, and participants will walk away with a big assortment of mini comics made by everyone involved!

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS:

9 - 10pm Meet Campbell & his practice! Campbell will be showing his work, talking about his process and sharing stories with us about his 8-bit dreams series, Home Time (his comic) and his other endeavors.
10 - 11pm Participate in some technique demos, creative challenges and awesome conversation about comic-making as we head into the prompt for the night!
11pm - 3am Make work alongside Campbell, the Light Grey Team and all of your new art friends! We'll be drawing, story-telling and getting down to business.
3am Late-night photo-copying run!
3:30 - 5am - assembling, reading, sharing and talking comics!

There will be unlimited tea and coffee throughout the night and plenty of great conversation!
Hope you can join us!

We have limited spots available for participants so grab them while you can! The workshop is non-refundable, so please let us know if you have any questions before you purchase!

In the spirit of bonding and spending time with great people, we are offering a discount for people bringing a friend! Just choose the option below. Entry for one is $20, and Entry for two is $36 (Just $18 each)

**Please bring your black and white art-making supplies. Ink or black and white watercolors are suggested if you would like to participate in Campbell's demo. Feel free to bring any other supplies (No oils, spray-paint or materials that require a lot of ventilation) Drawing paper will be provided (Feel free to bring your own if you like to work on something special!) and copies of the comics are included in the ticket of the workshop!

To learn more about Campbell Whyte. take a peek at his website : http://www.campbellwhyte.com/

Looking Back At Where I Was 5 Years Ago...

Today I wanted to take a look back to 5 years ago and where I was with game design in late 2008. I'd like to say that things have changed quite a bit, but I'm not so sure. My goals and methods have definitely changed, but the quirkiness of my games has not drifted. Now I have the 16-bit President, and back then there was Business Casual Bear. I'd like to think they would probably cross paths at some point. In a meeting... or at the coffee machine, I'm sure.

One of the first games I ever even considered making was Magic Gone Mad… a quirky/silly trading card game that was based on a set of videos that me, my brother (George), and my brother-in-law (Marty) made. But before I talk about the card game, I need to set the tone with the videos.

We made a series of 3 videos, each of which were less than 30 seconds each. I owned a decent video camera (Sony DCR-VX2100 represent!) and we had nothing better to do, so we sat down with no script and started recording.

After a few months we had three videos that we thought were hilarious. In fact, we still do. I have no clue if anyone else will find them entertaining at all. It really didn't matter because we had a blast making them. But at the time, I was both naive enough to think that everyone else would find it as funny as we did, and crazy enough to think that making a Collectible Card Game based off of a micro-series of YouTube videos was a good idea. We had dozens of views! If each person who watched the video bought a pack of cards we would be… 

…broke. 

But still, that naivety led to creativity, which is never a bad thing. Together, the three of us came up with a (semi)-functioning card game based off of this weirdo universe that we created. 

We focused more on collectibility than the actual gameplay, but it paved the way for a few things for me. 

1) It gave me my first experience with short run printing.  

We ordered 10 promo sets of 9 cards from Guild of Blades, who I think was one of the first Print-On-Demand card printers. You could order a minimum of 10 sets, and you could also offer it for sale on their website. This game didn't end up for sale there, but the very first edition of Pixel Lincoln did. Messing around with Magic Gone Mad led my curiosity right into the trials and errors of the original Pixel Lincoln, which led to everything I'm doing today.

2) It knocked out the thought of CCG's very early on.  

We were looking at printing this in a VERY short run (100 boosters), just for local conventions. But as everyone knows, that isn't how a CCG works. There are better formats for release, and without a lot of money to risk, a huge following, and a TV show companion, the CCG model isn't practical. 

We didn't know any better at the time, but even with our CCG naiveté it was going to be a huge undertaking, and eventually fell flat.

3) It helped me get into card layout.

I love good card layout, and I still stand by this as "wow, not that bad". Things are clean and clear and I think that is most important. Placement is second most and a little odd, but it still worked. It worked better than the game did! 

But it really pushed me to assume the role of graphic designer, whether it's at prototype level (Maximum Throwdown and many others) or release level (Pixel Lincoln). It's a skill that's very necessary as a game designer and I'm glad I jumped right into it. Note: You don't have to be a great graphic designer as a designer, but it's very important to be comfortable enough to make prototypes on your own. Even the ugly ones count.

It's funny that this experience helped with publishing and graphic design, but nothing with actual game design. I will make sure to dig into the old notes one of these days and see how weird/bad it really was. But it is interesting that everything was geared toward publishing or self-publishing back then. I have yet to fully shake that mindset, no matter how insane it may be. 

So, looking back, I was crazy back then (short run CCG!) and I still have a little of the crazy in me (still pushing the publisher side!). The big difference now is that I know I'm crazy.

Congress of Gamers & Breaking My Own Rule

Around this time last year, I took ZombieZone down to the Congress of Gamers in Rockville, MD. It was a collection/gathering of people playing games in a huge senior center about 3 hours from my house. There was some organized play, but I went for the Unpub Protozone. Basically, it's a room for designers to test out their projects with other designers and gamers. Definitely worth a 3 hour drive.

Now I went on a Sunday, which is against all of my convention rules. And although I wouldn't really call it a convention (as there was 1-2 vendors and it was generally a really quiet setting), the rule still applies.

My Cardinal Convention Rule: Avoid Sundays at all costs. Why? Basically, the spark is gone. By Sunday everyone is heading out, packing up, tired, broke, and done with it all. I even booked a 6AM Sunday flight out of Gen Con this year just to leave on the wave of Saturday night (which ended beautifully with a huge 20 person dinner at Buca Di Beppo. Sunday wasn't going to beat that). So yes, Sunday is a big no-no for me. 

I went to Congress of Gamers on a Sunday last year because my Saturday was booked solid, and it looks like it's going to be the same for me this year. Sunday wasn't bad though. Although it was quiet in there, it was a focused group of designers (as well as gamers) and I made a lot of progress with my intentions for ZombieZone, broke some of my blind testing fears and made a few new friends. Someone who played even went home and bought a copy that night, so I can't be too down about it. 

This year, following tradition I'll be going on Sunday again (September 29th). Saturday is jam-packed here and won't work out. I would almost skip the event altogether (See the above rule), but Darrell Louder called me out on the most recent State of Games podcast saying something like "I'm sure Tagmire will be at Congress of Gamers". I took this as a challenge. Not just to be there like Darrell said, but instead to be there with a brand new game to test out. 

I have a few things in the works that need serious nurturing and locking myself in to the event is a sure way to force myself to press forward. I will also be locking myself in a room to finish these games... 

And it's not like I've been doing nothing either. I've been knee-deep in Storyteller Cards as they just hit production, neck-deep in Pixel Lincoln as I'm finalizing the next expansions, and underwater with Pigpen pre-production prep with Island Officials. It's time to take a breather and work on my favorite part... designing games!

So here is what to possibly expect at Congress of Gamers from me:

-A game about getting a judge sick to win a court case.

-A dexterity based space battle micro game.

-A huge inverted dungeon crawler.

-A 60 second game of frantic survival.

One of these will make it there no matter how ugly it may be. I'll probably have some new Pixel Lincoln stuff on hand as well.

Hope to see you there! Don't have too much fun on Saturday without me, and try to save some of that Saturday buzz for when I get there bright and early Sunday morning. Yikes. 

Pixel Lincoln at the 2013 Philly Geek Awards

It's been a few weeks and the Philadelphia Geek Awards came and went, but I never got to talk about it. I was away at Gen Con and didn't get to attend the event, and I heard I really missed out. While Gen Con was the best (and craziest) 4 days in gaming. This was a full-on, black tie, red carpet event at one of my favorite Philadelphia museums, the Academy of Natural Sciences.

Not only was it a really cool event in my home city (I'm right across the bridge in the South Jersey Philly suburbs), Pixel Lincoln: The Deckbuilding Game was nominated as Indie Game of the Year.

The choice of being there to support the convention release of my game at Gen Con vs. being there to support my game at the Philly Geek Awards was a tough one. Luckily, I was able to get the best of both worlds by heading to Gen Con and having George Tagmire (my brother / Pixel Lincoln video game designer), and Ryan Harbinson (Island Officials co-owner) attend on behalf of the game. They got all fancied up and hung out with dinosaur bones and local geeks.

So, Pixel Lincoln didn't win the award, but I can't express how much of an honor it was to even be involved with such an event. And the same honor being alongside of the insanely successful Velociraptor Cannibalism by my friends at Board Raptor Games and Greg Lobanov's (now) award-winning digital puzzle game Perfection. Perfection makes my brain burn in the same way that Super Hexagon makes my eyes bleed. It's very creative and deserves every bit of its praise.



Congrats to the winner Greg Lobanov and nominee Board Raptor Games, and big thanks to Geekadelphia for everything they do. I'm not sure if I can out-geek Pixel Lincoln, but I'll keep pushing forward!

Introducing Pigpen by Kevin Kulp

The following was written by Kevin Kulp, a friend and local designer that I've had the pleasure of working together with on his game Pigpen. My role was on the development side with Island Officials and I'll post my thoughts on that process as we go... but for now, here's an introduction by Kevin!

What happens when you put a bunch of hungry pigs in the middle of a bunch of farmers?

INTRODUCING PIGPEN!

Pigpen is a card game of frantic, family fun.  Players take on the role of a farmer trying to pen some pigs.  But farmers don't have it easy, they first have to build pens.  You can choose the wood fencing or the more sturdy brick walls to form the pen that will contain the pigs.  They also need some enticement such as feed or a farmer can go for broke and build a pen for two with the slop tray.  Once a farmer has a pen with some feed together, a pig will walk right into the nice cozy home.  

Sounds easy, doesn't it?  You would think that...

Facing you down on the other side of the table, are your rival farmers who want pigs for themselves.  They will saw your wooden fences, dynamite your brick wall and stop at nothing to make sure you are out of the pig market.

If you can make it to the end with cute pigs in complete pens, they get judged against the table of rival farmers to see who was the best farmer for that game!

So roll up your sleeves, get your hands dirty and get ready to jump into the quick and crazy world of Pigpen!

DESIGNER VIEW

Pigpen was born while walking around the fair city of Philadelphia, waiting for an IGDA meeting to start, one Saturday afternoon.  As a game design student who had come to the conclusion he wanted to enter the world of board games, I knew I wanted to design a family card game.  But for some reason that type of game had alluded me for a long time.  Walking around the city thinking about the idea of a quick family card game, I thought back to a game I had just played at the time called There's a Moose in My House.  I knew I wanted that kind of silliness and that simple of a goal, putting Moose in other players house, for my game.Thinking back to my childhood, growing up around working and non-working farms, the idea of doing something with farm animals came to mind.  It was there that the idea of penning pigs came to be.  With that simple goal in mind, I headed to my local CVS, picked up some note cards and by the end of the next day I had a working game together that I played with my own children.

BONUS TRIVIA

The original name of Pigpen was Pen the Pigs.

Thanks Kevin! Looking forward to helping launch Pigpen and seeing more of these updates.

Origins Video Interview with Theology of Games

I was interviewed by Theology of Games at Origins for their new TOG Visual series, and we started off by talking about Storyteller Cards, went into Maximum Throwdown and then a little Pixel Lincoln 2. It was awesome meeting up with Jeremiah and the guys, and I had fun chatting for a few minutes.

We also played a round of Lines of Fire, a game that I self-published through Kickstarter YEARS ago. It was a very short run, but I've been tinkering with it a little lately to see if it could resurface. Josh Sepos, guest blogger at Theology of Games really enjoyed it, and named it one of his two Origins Stand-Outs (next to Guildhall! What? Crazy!). You'll see a little bit more about Lines of Fire soon enough here. The confidence boost has a wonderful effect of boosting it up on my priority list.

Okay…maybe the best for last. I LOVED LINE OF FIRE! Jason Tagmire should receive high praise for this game; it was amazing. The game is a strategy card game, with some hand-management elements. (LINK: http://theologyofgames.com/2013/06/18/origins-stand-outs-from-guest-blogger-josh-sepos/)

Onto the video interview!


Special thanks to Jeremiah Isley for the interview and ongoing support!

Origins 2013 Convention Recap

Originally posted at Fruitless Pursuits.

This past weekend was Origins 2013, the medium sized festival of tabletop games in Columbus, Ohio. At around 10,000 guests over 4 days (mostly repeats, I would assume), it's definitely larger than your standard local gaming convention, and at the same time it's no Gen Con. But Origins holds a special place in my heart as a game designer and gamer, and I believe that feeling is shared across the board. Being mid-sized, it's the convention that everyone will travel to, but not so insane that you can't actually spend time with those people. It's more of a "play" convention for me than a "work" convention.

This year I attended for 2 full days and played a handful of games, observed a bunch of others, saw some nice prototypes, and met some old and new friends.

Chris Zinsli (Cardboard Edison) & Patrick Nickell (Crash Games) play the Shakespearean microgame, Council of Verona.

Council of Verona

If there was a game that dominated my Origins experience it would be the microgame Council of Verona by Crash Games and designed by Michael Eskue. How could 13 cards have such an impact? It's hard to say, but it's easy to see that the game is very well-crafted and packs a lot of punch in it's tiny footprint. 

Council of Verona is a micro bluffing game set in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet universe, where players are secretly trying to influence and meet various conditions. The big condition is whether Romeo and Juliet end up together (together meaning they are in the same row of cards at the end of the game - either the Council row or the Exile row), with additional conditions being whether the Montagues or Capulets hold the majority within a specific row.

With so many options allowing the player to manipulate the two rows, as well as secret bluffing tokens allowing players to gain points (tokens are played face down hiding either 5, 3, or 0 points), the game is very repayable. I played it at least a dozen times over the weekend, much more than any other game at the show.

Council of Verona is currently on Kickstarter and well worth the $12 entry fee.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/crashgames/council-of-verona-you-influence-the-world-of-romeo

NanoBot Battle Arena

VivaJava designer TC Petty suggested that I should check out NanoBot Battle Arena, an abstract game displayed with tiles, but normally played with miniatures. I was intrigued and quickly jumped into a 10 minute session. The demo uses tiles, which feels right for this game, but the full version uses lots of solid color miniatures, bringing in a whole new audience that wouldn't even turn their head for an abstract game. I'm torn on which I would prefer for this game, as I love the simplicity and portability of the tiles. But at the same time, the miniatures look pretty amazing. If there was ever a miniatures game that I would jump into, it's this one, simply because of the gameplay. We're not rolling dice to battle, pulling out rulers to move, and the miniatures don't even need to be painted. This is right up my alley.

The gameplay is simple. Choose a character type. On your turn you will place a miniature / tile and play a card. Cards provide abilities such as grow (add more minis/tiles) blink (move minis/tiles) etc. Each card also has a level of 1,2, and 3, showing how many times you can do the ability, or how many players it effects. Perhaps my favorite part of the game is that these card types each have a color, and that color is associated with a NanoBot type. So I would choose the yellow one for the amazing blink ability. The replayability value for me jumps up as I could try out a different character type each time for a slightly different approach / experience.

I played a full 7 player game with the designer, Benjamin in the Geek Chic room, and it was a lot of fun. With 7 players and 6 turns to wait through you do lose a lot of control while the other players romp on you, but I know there is a new card type that will balance that out. I also expect that with 7 players and generally only play games that large with 3-4. Turns are very quick though so waiting through a full round isn't more than a few short moments.

NanoBot Battle Arena is currently on Kickstarter and it's so hard to resist going in for the $130 plunge. 

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/derpygames/nanobot-battle-arena-a-strategy-miniatures-game

Stones of Fate

This was the last game I played at Origins. It was late Saturday night and I had a real early flight home, but it seemed very interesting. I saw the cards online and remembered a few things about them. 1) they had REALLY nice tarot style art. Almost too nice. And 2) the icons on the edges of the cards were unique. Not exactly in design, but in the placement. And it turns out that the placement of those icons is the key to the game.

In the game, you will line the cards up in a grid and place your stones in the spaced between the cards. When you flip a card it activates the scoring, and players score based of the placement of the icons on the card and the placement of their stones surrounding that card. Some cards give points for the player with the majority in one or more areas, but some refuse points based on other areas. It's very strategic in deciding where to place and when to flip. Definitely a good light to medium weight game and good for a lighter game group or family gaming (which is totally my style). It's on the abstract side, but the art is very high quality. It definitely stands out. 

You can find Stones of Fate on Kickstarter now. With just a few days left, Cosmic Wombat Games can use your help to push them up to and over the edge.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cosmicwombatgames/stones-of-fate

And the rest!

I played a few other games (King of Tokyo - I tried my hardest to win that darn Penguin but lost by one point with 10 dice that weren't on my side. Eric Leath's Gyre - a twisty asymmetrical connect four-ish gear game that I won once and now need to master. And a few of my own - Maximum Throwdown, Pixel Lincoln and Lines of Fire all of which received very positive feedback), ate some great food (Dirty Franks are some of the best hot dogs I've ever eaten and Jeni's is by far the best ice cream I've eaten) and I met a lot of great friends, some for the first time.

Overall Origins 2013 was a great time. While I didn't come home with a picture of myself and Felicia Day (and a massive stain on my shirt) like last year, I had a blast and came home with a whole bunch of MegaMan TCG decks that cost me about $14. Win/win?

My mostly free / cheap Origins haul.

Pixel Lincoln is finally heading to Kickstarter backers. 

Mega-sized Star Trek Attack Wing by Wizkids.

Hercules!

The Great Heartland Hauling Co designer Jason Kotarski plays some serious Pirates.

Pixel Lincoln in the Board Room.

Giant Foam Dice. So cool.

Michael Coe of Gamelyn Games gives away his giant Meeples.

Maximum Throwdown!

Maximum Throwdown on a Geek Chic table!

Jeni's Ice Cream at the airport. Wish these were everywhere.