Candle Quest KS Funding Looks Unlikely, But You Should Still Back It

As of right now, a successful funding for our Kickstarter project Candle Quest is unlikely to happen. The momentum isn't there, despite good reviews from GeekDad and some promotions by a few other key bloggers.

However, you should STILL back the project right now, and at least before it's over. Why?

• A fresh boost in project backers could lead to a cascade of new backers. When you back a KS project, it moves up the ranking on the "Popular KS Projects" list. Projects higher on the list receive more attention from visitors to the site, and thus more views and more backing. It's a positive feedback loop.

• Backing the project costs you NOTHING if the project does not fund. This is entirely risk-free. If the project funds, you get what you wanted; if not, you're out nothing.

• The more backers we get for the project, the more we can evaluate what to do next. If we get many backers, even if we don't meet the funding goals, we can take that number to a traditional publisher and show them that there is a proven fan base for the game and they should publish it. Or we can get some other investor willing to help us self-publish.

• Backing the project makes me feel happy, and you want me to feel happy, don't you?

There you go. Don't stop spreading the word, especially to local religious organizations or game clubs. Promote the game on Facebook and Twitter, and post about it on your blog.

The artwork may make the game look like a children's game, but rest assured this is the same great game that is enjoyed by nearly every adult who has ever played it. Candle Quest is a great gateway game: simple to understand, simple choices on each turn, a balance of skill and luck, complex strategy options, lots of player interaction, an evolving story-arc, no player elimination, quick game-play, and appealing to all ages, genders, and religions.

Yehuda

Shabbat Gaming

Last shabbat after dinner I played Anagrams using Snatch-It tiles with Raanana's reigning Anagrams queen Shuli and her friend Janine, also no slouch. I used to think I was good at the game. This time I was surprised that I nearly held my own. I came in third, only a word or two down from Janine, who was a word or two down from Shuli.

After lunch I played Settlers of Catan with Anne, Sarah, and Noa. First play for Anne, astoundingly first or second play for Sarah (who has been playing games for some time now, and first time playing with the correct rules for Noa (who is a Dominion fan but doesn't know much else about gaming).

Experience and a little luck still holds some sway. I carefully promoted trading as a worthwhile endeavor, warned against trading with the leading player, especially when he or she is at 7 points or higher, and encouraged them to gang up on me.

Anne played aggressively, immediately going to block routes or steal board locations that other players needed. She claimed that she just played the best moves for herself and not deliberately to be aggressive. I've heard that before from a lioness ripping the meat out of a zebra. Sarah ended up boxed in with only two spots to which to expand, which can be difficult (though not impossible).

I had only three spots, but I only needed two. A series of 5s rolled early, each of which gave me 2 bricks and 2 wood, allowed me to plunk down an early 9-length Longest Road. I would not typically pick up Longest Road early in the game, but I felt that the large gap I had over the other players made it unlikely that I would get into a road building war with anyone else (and thus let a third player win, which is what usually happens to road builders).

This worked. I was able to keep my longest road to the end of the game and plunk down my fourth city for the win. The other players all had hidden victory point cards and 7, 8, or 9 points. I think they didn't realize that there were only 5 points (and Largest Army) to go around in the development card deck; they might have (should have) built a few more cities first before going for the cards.

This shabbat after dinner I played a few card games with Anne and a few kids at their house after dinner. I taught them how to play Oh Hell. We played to the end and I came in second. Then I taught them how to play Hearts. We played five rounds, no moons shot. We were all in our thirties or so when we had to quit.

Long Distance Antike with Chris and Jim

Last night I played Antike with two friends on a different continent. We didn't play an online board game; we played by video chat with four video cameras and three copies of the game, one at each location.

Chris lives in Oregon. Jim lives in Indiana. I live in Raanana, Israel. This was not our first long distance game. Four years ago, we arranged for Chris and Jim to set up a game at BGG.con so that I could play "at the con" when I wasn't able to make it. This year the internet reception at BGG.con was spotty, and scheduling was difficult, so we delayed the game a few weeks. On that occasion, we played Agricola.

Face to face is best, of course, since you get to see your friends, pass around a beer, and need control only a single board state. Online gaming generally has only text chat, which removes most of the social element from the game. Also, in online games, you are subject to the occasional implementation issue, such as an interface error. Playing by video chat neatly fits into the space between these two options. We could see the other person in a limited way when we looked at the screen, although we generally looked at our own board. We could talk in real time, and even wave at the other players' families in the background when they came in to gawk at us geeks. The copied board states ensured that no errors were made during play.

The game took two and a half hours, including setting up the communications and the boards, resetting the communications to remove some static and mic problems, and a bathroom break. We used Google+ Hangout (although we toyed with using Skype). Chris used two cameras, one for himself and one for the main board.

Pics that Jim's and Chris's wives took are on my Facebook profile.

We played on the Middle Eastern map. I played Arabia (southeast), Jim played Persia (central north), and Chris played Greece (central west). Chris and I had similar strategies of early Know-Hows; Chris beat me to the first one and stayed about a turn and a half in front of me until near the end of the game. We each took one south side of the board. Jim played a heavy expansion strategy, quickly expanding to 15 and then 20 cities across the north, and then he armed himself and created a military front to protect his territories, which bulged in an arc across the entire north of the board and down into the center. However, having missed all of the early Know-How points, he lagged behind in points for most of the game.

I get the feeling that both of them are used to more conflict in the game. In our game, not a single city was conquered. In fact, the only fight that occurred was when I swapped some ships with Jim so that I could place a ship near his city, not to conquer it but to get the second "7 ships" award. Near the end, Chris expanded to get the last "5 city" award, which brought him to withing a point of victory, but I collected the "All eight Know-Hows" (worth a free point) and then got my 14th sea location on my next turn. The game ended 10 to 9 to 6 (or 7).

As usual, this was a great time spent with two amazing people whom I rarely see or interact with face to face. The conversation was game oriented mostly, but the game was really an excuse to get together. Hooray for games, and for video chat, and for good companions.

Support Candle Quest: The Hanukkah Board Game

Candle Quest, my well-designed Euro-style board game and therefore actually fun to play for both adults and children, is on Kickstarter now. It won't be produced unless it receives enough backing and support to reach its funding target in the next three weeks. So please back it now.

Here's a brief description of the game:

- Flip a candle card

- Buy, sell, or auction the candle card

- Collect 8 different colored candles to win

That's not too hard, right? Each step is described in detail in the rulebook, and you can be up and playing in less than five minutes.

However, for those of you who think this is just a kid's game (from the colorful pretty graphics), I've played the game upwards of a hundred times or so, and while it doesn't have the depth of Chess, it has a surprising amount of depth for a game with such simple rules.

In the first few games, you manage your money to acquire the candles you need. Then you begin to think how to prepare for the bad candles. Then how what you throw out or auction could help others (some people track the candles that other people collect). Then you start to track the cards that have been thrown out so as to know when you need to compete heavily for a card that is now in limited supply. You reassess the value of the dancing candles because of how they help you in the end game.

When you move to the advanced game, you try to balance the quick acquisition of candles vs the points on the candles. You consider the money and value how much you actually gain and lose each turn with your acquisition, while also considering the five point ending bonus.

The game is not just about the cards you draw; it is about the choices you make - flip or loot a card, buy, sell, or auction the card, and if you auction the card, for how much? But it has enough random elements to make it possible for younger players to complete against their elders.

See my analysis of the game for more.

Sound like a game that should exist? It can, but only with your help! If you've already backed the game, share the Kickstarter link with your local Jewish organization or synagogue or with others who you think might enjoy it. Do it soon, though, because the funding time period ends in three weeks!

HeroQuest: Crying Out for a Re-Release

The following is a guest post from a staff member of the New York Film Academy:

My passion for Eurogames came at a very young age. My father used to run a computer game import business which, when you're seven, is akin to having an astronaut as a dad.

As a result, gaming inevitably became a large part of my childhood but being responsible folk, my parents did limit the amount of time I spent playing video games. I quickly figured out that I could get my fix equally well by playing board games during my downtime without any objection from the powers that be. By demanding the same kind of dynamism from my board game experience as I expected from their video counterparts, it didn't take me long to progress from simplistic chance-based games to more rewarding games like Carcassonne, Caylus, and the deservedly acclaimed Puerto Rico.

But before all those was an indirect predecessor that really opened my mind to open-ended gaming. It's a game which ticked all the right boxes, accomplished everything it tried to be, and is sorely in need of a re-release.

Today we're looking at the Milton Bradley/Games Workshop classic, HeroQuest:

HeroQuest (Hero Quest is also acceptable if the lack of space troubles you) was an archetypal fantasy dungeon-crawler released around 1990 depending on which side of the pond you were on.  The game is party-based and ideally played with between three to five people, lasting around two hours unless the players are very unlucky.

It's one of the few Games Workshop titles to feature a board (and easy to digest rules, for that matter) but does also include superbly detailed miniatures for playing pieces, the quality of which you'd expect from GW.

Players progress through a series of 'levels' as directed by the game master – who gets to have fun trying to screw over the players at every opportunity – and fight an atypical assortment of orcs, skeletal warriors, zombies and things of that ilk. Cheesy fun, but also brutally unforgiving and very immersive once the board has been fully populated with the furniture that comes with the game.

It's apparently set in the Warhammer universe, but given HeroQuest's self-contained nature and seemingly independent story-line  knowledge of other GW titles or their backstory is completely unnecessary. In fact, one of the major appeals of HeroQuest is that no prior experience with RPGs is needed; if you don't have the money or energy to invest in tabletop miniature gaming, you'll love HeroQuest. If you like fantasy but are turned off by the hardcore nature of paper-based RPGs like D&D et al, HeroQuest is a terrific board-based solution.

Covering the finer aspect of the game-play mechanics is outside the scope of this post, but here's a great video overview which does it justice.

Instead, what I'd like to do is look at it through the lens of Yehuda's 10 Most Important Aspects of a Game, which should really be industry standard when it comes to reviewing anything:

A Non-Offensive Theme: No concerns on this aspect. Given that it involves combat the suggestion of violence is inherent, but nothing that would raise eyebrows. 9/10

Limited Decisions on Each Turn: The game is remarkably delimited, and even encourages players to explore the board and approach situations from different angles. In terms of the number of actions a player can choose to carry out during his or her turn, this aspect deserves no less than: 10/10

Heaviness: There are a fourteen different 'quests' in the vanilla version of the game, which can take anywhere from ten to twenty minutes each to complete. However, this massively depends on the number of players as well as the disposition of the group. So in theory the game can go on for about five hours since the quests lead on from each other, but in reality I've never seen anyone make it through the whole thing in one sitting – if the dungeon hasn't managed to kill off all the players by the two hour mark, sadly, boredom seems to set it. In that respect the game does have a lot of drag, but at the same time it doesn't feel like a premature end if you decide to stop after quest number X and pick it up at a later date.  7/10

Multiple Strategic Goals: This is an area in which HeroQuest excels. Not only can players differ as to how best to achieve a shared objective – which leads to hilarious scenarios – but the game also offers at least one side-quest per level. These side-quests, if undertaken, can yield items which are hugely helpful later in the game but also finely balanced in the danger/reward ratio. And given that the game master has conflicting goals and is constantly throwing in the proverbial spanner, the game truly is a strategic head-scratcher and a superb exercise in balanced game design. 9/10

Randomness Without Luck: HeroQuest's combat system is dice based and ergo dependent on some gambling. However, given that the system is nicely weighted to give realistic probabilities of your wounded dwarf managing to kill a towering gargoyle, everything has a veneer of fairness to it. And anyway, you generally have the option of applying tactics and avoiding the fight if you don't fancy your odds. 8/10

Interaction: It's certainly a fun social experience and coordination between players is needed, but I wouldn't go as far to say that outcomes are hinged upon negotiation and trading. It's just not that kind of game. 5/10

Depth: HeroQuest has an abundance of depth thanks to its dynamic gameplay mechanics and number of options open to the player at any given time. The only place it lacks depth is in the story department; evil wizards, dwarves, treasure chests… yadda yadda yadda. These clichés were even old hat when HeroQuest was brought out - thankfully the loose storyline can be entirely ignored without ruining the game experience, but they still missed a trick in trying to dumb it down what is essentially a very nuanced game for a younger age demographic. 7/10

Extensibility: This aspect is a bit tricky to judge. The game was limited in a sense to what hardware you had, but it was no less extensible than Magic in that they released droves of add-on packs back in the day. Of course, that's no help to you twenty years after the fact. 7/10 

The Game Experience: Anyone who played this as a kid will attest to the swelling nostalgia it brings to them as an adult. That alone is the hallmark of a superb game. 9/10

Replayability: A slight let down here by HeroQuest's very nature; once you know the details of a quest, that knowledge mars the surprises of the game.  Again though, Milton Bradley/Games Workshop did keep a steady stream of add-on packs going to counter this, and I guess if I'm still playing it two decades later the issue is moot. 8/10

In Conclusion

HeroQuest went on to win the hearts of many, as well as an Origins Award for its incredible game art. Games Workshop also put out a similar game albeit with a sci-fi setting at around the same time, but whereas Space Hulk was deemed fit for a re-release in 2009, HeroQuest remains sadly dead despite its international success.  This is baffling given that Space Hulk was flawed with silly game-play mechanics like time limits on moves and a rushed-feeling playing time.

Until HeroQuest gets the re-release it so rightfully deserves, there's always eBay. It was so successful on release that enough were published for there to be a good number of surviving copies, but high demand brings with it a price tag of around $100…

… And that's for a copy which doesn't look like it's been used to house hamsters.

Shabbat Game: Alien Frontiers

I introduced five other people to Alien Frontiers on shabbat; two of the other "players" were actually teams. I had brought the game because I knew there would be a newbie, an up-until-now non-gamer who was nevertheless interested in trying out some games and who is particularly intelligent. I thought AF would be a good choice. It's actually a little dry as far as gateway games go; Settlers would have been better (as always).

AF is not a terribly long game, in theory, but my players tend to take a little longer than average. In this game, that little longer was a lot longer. Each turn took five minutes or more. Wow. I also made a few mistakes in the game explanation, having only played the game three times previously. These were corrected as the game went on with the occasional referral to the rulebook. The most egregious oversight was that players only receive 6 bases at the start; I had simply handed out all nine bases (we used the Kickstarter-supplied bonus rocket ships on the scoring track). After one player already had 4 bases settled we discovered the oversight and the end game was suddenly approaching a lot sooner.

Two of the players started the game with the force field card. That left the other two players, including me, the subject of all attacks for the first half of the game. Which left me, the only experienced player, the subject of all attacks for the first half of the game. By coincidence, the two of us without the force field cards started with the +1 VP cards, which are useless at the start of the game.

After the great oversight discovery, I sacrificed two of my cards to move bases around on the planet. This left all of the players within one point of each other, but could not prevent the newbie from winning the game on her next move, which I kind of expected from the beginning.

My BGG secret santa sent me two games: Castles of Burgundy and High Society, the first of which Nadine was able to bring back from the US for me (the other is still at her parents). (P.S. High Society is only $10.75 right now on Amazon.)

I also bought Thunderstone, which a local Raanana gamer has brought back for me from Toronto. I'm looking forward to playing it without the running score totals displayed as public knowledge, as they are while playing online at Yucata. Which are the best expansions?

Yehuda

Pre-order my Hanukkah board game on Kickstarter now!

Preorder My New Hanukkah Game Now!

My (old) new game Candle Quest is up on Kickstarter. You can go there right now to pre-order the world's first and only decent game with a Hanukkah theme ... heck, with any Jewish theme. Go there. Right Now. I'll wait.

You should know, however:

• This game is a new version of The Menorah Game, of which my previous published game It's Alive! was a re-theme. This new edition returns the game to its original theme, but with all new graphics and professional publication (the original game never went beyond prototype stage).
• The game includes new simplified rules for younger players.
• The game will not actually be available for a few months. You won't be getting it this Hanukkah. Kickstarter is being used to contribute to make publishing the game possible and as a PRE-order. We need the money NOW to print and ship the game. Your backing gets you all kinds of goodies, and for just $25 you also get the game itself, shipped free in the continental US.
• This game will be printed in a limited run, so backing the project on Kickstarter is your best chance of securing a copy of the game.
• As of right now we are seeing a large expense in getting individual games shipped internationally, and that includes Israel. Hopefully we'll have a solution for that sometime soon.

Everything you need to know about the game, the project, the rewards for backing, etc, is on the Kickstarter page. A brief summary:

Candle Quest is a lightly-themed set collection and resource management game that features an assortment of dancing, waving and sad candle characters. It is a fast-moving family board game for 2 to 5 players ages 5 and up and takes 30-45 minutes to play.

In Candle Quest, you and your fellow players each need to find 8 different colored candles to light your Menorah. Some candles you can buy. For others, you can’t afford to pay full price; you may have to sell or bargain for them. Be on the lookout for the highly-valued magical dancing candles, but watch out in case one of your candles burns out! Will you be the first to collect your candles and light your Menorah?

Backers of the Kickstarter campaign who pledge at least $25 will receive a copy of the game when it is printed. All backers will receive additional benefits such as signed games or artwork, or digital downloads. Like most small publishing efforts, this game will be produced in a limited release, so it if you want a copy, grab it now.

The game will appeal to experienced gamers looking for a quick strategy game as well as parents and teachers interested in an original game that relates to the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah.  There is a complete lack of original entertaining games with Jewish themes beyond a few simple roll-and-move or trivia games for children. Candle Quest breaks new ground as the first and only designer game for Hanukkah intended to be entertaining for adults but playable by all members of the family.

Some gamers liked the horror theme of It's Alive! However, there were many others who liked the game but wanted a more family-friendly alternative. We hope that this new theme will serve the purpose. While it's about candles for your Menorah, there is no actual Jewish content in the game, so it should be enjoyable for anyone.