ISSUE 468 -AUGUST 2014 ISSN 0257-361X Volume 37 THE GAMES JOURNAL www.gamesjournal.at INTERNATIONAL EDITION: IN THIS ISSUE WE PRESENT 54 GAMES OUR REPORT u PLAY Modena 2014 THE EVENT FOR GAMES IN ITALY PLAY Modena A walk-through by Dagmar de Cassan, with pictures from Christoph Proksch Once again we wanted to cross the border into spring and sunshine in Modena and this time both were provided - it was warmer and some things had changed again; the play session Friday Night was gone, so we enjoyed a nice dinner and went to PLAY Confine Nord is a role playing game with bright and early on Saturday morning. a topic of an isolated Arctic island; after The model builders were not present again, so both halls were reserved for games and playing, as in 2013, as usual booths lined the walls and in the middle you found huge Angelo Porazzi play areas reserved for a variety of purposes, playing board games, role playing games, Games testing prototypes, tournament, and so on. This is the label for Angelo Porazzi’s own games, this year he showed Assist Albe Pavo Porcellini Cosplay a joint expansion for a chemical desaster environment and 2013 on show as a prototype, produced in inmates change and the island turnes into 2014: Carnival Zombie by Matteo Santos a prison camp; with a prototype for a card and Jocularis, for 1-6 players, ages 13+, was game. shown as a prototype; a cooperative game M400 features a topic of historic conquest in the era of ca. 1400 A.D., with all options both Assist and Porcellini Area Autoproduzione on the topic of Carnival in Venice, but with zombies. Four days are divided into day and Area Autoproduzione, initiated and from conquest and trade to battles, travel, night, if you did not escape Venice on the enthusiastically promoted at countless bluff and secret alliances. fourth day, you lose; this is a game without events by Angelo Porazzi, offers the chance Dario Dordoni showed Pizza, Spaghetti e and points gained by chance, but partly to designers and self-publishers to present Mandolino, despite the culinary title this is driven by stress points. Co-production with prototypes or already produced games to a game of power and revenge, but also on Raven Distribution. an interested public. Botta da Orchi - A race along a track, you bash other Orcs and use cards for events, Alex Games weapons, etc. Once again Alessandro Dolcetta showed his range of games, and once again Sócc‘Mel was at the center of the presentation, with a topic of catastrophes in all circumstances. love, between four families. Scendincampo by Mirko Biaswion, Manuel Simonetti and Alessandro Tetati is a sarirical Color codes, target groups, features, icons and GABIS are 2 ISSUE 468 / AUGUST 2014 explained on page 5 and at the bottom of pages 42 and 43 www.gamesjournal.at PLAY Modena 2014 / 40 LINES FOR MEEPLES t OUR REPORT Lusquinos Rodriguez for 2-8 players, ages 12+. Cranio Creations Soqquadro by Simone Luciani, Lorenzo Tucci Sorrentino and Daniele Tascini is a game on the topic election campaigning in Italy, you stand for Prime Minister and try your hand at unconventional campaign strategies. Six Keys uses colored geometrical shapes in a game where you form letters and words prototype of a card game for 2-12 players, ages 8+; you need to roll dice in a real-time 40 Lines for Meeples game, implement the action or roll again; Dagmar de Cassan, Editor-in-Chief Actions are taking cards, swapping cards or running to find items around the house. „Who has tampered with time?” Paulchen with those shapes. District Games Panther is not the only one to ask this, many Zulf by Filippo Cresti for 2-4 players was gamers ask it too, having come back from shown as a prototype with a fantasy topic, the Toy Fair in Nuremberg and waiting for Warage by Luca Grasso and Pietro Puglisi the new releases 2014. is game of deck building and dice rolling That SPIEL at Essen was only a few months ago and that hundreds of new games were announced and released there, too, is already nearly forgotten in our fast-paced times. Well, while waiting for new games of 2014 we get another surprise - already we see an- nouncements for the new releases at SPIEL in October 2014! Who has really tampered with time? We should stop it, anyhow, to play at least the new releases from the last 12 months. on territorial conquest with use of different But the games market is obdurate, if you are weapons. too late, you are punished by the Novelties including role playing elements; each hero Presentation! If you do not announce your has hit points and pays with those points for game in time you will not be noticed! Corvus Belli each card that you play. And so a new genre of games has formed, a genre that in past years was the norm in computer games: Vaporware, smoke games! Infinity: Operation Icestorm - A re-launch dv Giochi How shall we navigate those news and man- or presentation of the already published age not to overlook good games coming to Miniature Tabletop game, by Gutier the market? With this we can help, because our WIN fea- tures all those games that should be part of a games collection, so have fun reading it! Do you like our WIN? If yes, please become a subscriber! We have a PayPal account, so the payment of € 6,00 for an annual subscription can be made easily and safely, see also http://www.gamesjournal.at. Unser Games companion GAME BY GAME 2014 is available since SPIEL at Essen: http://www.gamescompanion.at WIN The Games Journal now also available as eBook! www.gamesjournal.at For all information on that check our website. ISSUE 468 / AUGUST 2014 3 OUR REPORT u PLAY Modena 2014 Besides the games already shown at Essen - des Herrn, (Dogs in Gods Garden), Dogs are Bang! The Dice Game by Michael Palm and Giovani nel Tempo not canines, but watchdogs of Faith - in a Lukas Zach for 3-8 players, ages 8+, Lucca Wild West setting you must proclaim your The City of Games by Alessandro Zucchi- faith, which you can create yourself. ni for 3-5 players, ages 8+, and The Great with games intended for senior citizens Montsegur 1244, in this narrative game Persuader by C. H. Dilek, N. Tekin and Ş. Ç. or children to improve concentration and Barlok for 3-8 players, ages 12+, there was memory abilities; Mentabile by Mirella the Italian edition of Eight Minute Empire, Cerato featuring picture tiles, Verba Volant Otto Minuti Imperio, by Ryan Laukat for 2-5 players, ages 8+: You build an conquer an Empire in eight minutes by taking one of six cards in turn, for an action and a com- modity. Actions help to conquer land, sets of commodities are scored at the end. New was Samurai Sword Rising Sun, another you take on the roles of Catharists; will you stand by your faith, renounce your faith or flee from the fortress? by Ennio Peres on letters and words and In the role playing game Stets zu Diensten Non c’e 2 … senza 3! by Leo Colovini and Meister, in this version you must, as a Carlo A. Rossi, a memo game with triplets of pictures. Iannone Nicola expansion for Samurai sword featuring 12 new characters, 40 new cards with power- ful weapons; an additional role cards allows After a break of several years Nicola Iannone play with eight players. was back again this year and presented Ghenos Games tortured and deformed minion, dissolve your connection to a crazy and cruel master. Here, too, the Essen releases 2013 were Psi-Run by Meguey Baker is a role playing shown, Leonardo by Charles Chevallier for 2-4 players, ages 8+: Leonardo is featured as a young, impetuous observer of the world who culls inventions from his observations; and The Sheep Race by Roberto Mancino for 2-6 players, ages 10+, a multi-lingual edi- tion, plus some games that are distributed again his MedioEvo Universalis for 3-10 by Ghenos in Italy, among them the new players, ages 14+, a complex development edition of Taluva by Marcel-Andre Casasole game set in the 13th century. Merkle from Ferti. Again a guest at the Ghenos booth: Narrativa game around psychic powers enhanced by drugs, on lost memories and pursuers, Three games are published in cooperation explained by a comic. with Ulisses in Germany: Cani nella vigna is called Hunde im Garten Onion Squire An interesting topic and financing via Kickstarter: Game Developerz by Marco Tonetti for 3-6 players, ages 10+; you need to set up your studio, hiring - among others - employees for Game Design, Art, Programming and Marketing in order to publish a game. Color codes, target groups, features, icons and GABIS are 4 ISSUE 468 / AUGUST 2014 explained on page 5 and at the bottom of pages 42 and 43 www.gamesjournal.at PLAY Modena 2014 / GABIS t OUR REPORT GAMES BUYER INFORMATION SYSTEM - GABIS Politecnico di Milano STRUCTURE Each game review also features an evaluation which can As in 2013, The Milano Politechnical School help you to find the game that best suits your tastes. The color accompanying each game title represents the USER showed games as part of a studies course Group. The headline also contains icons for age and number on the topic of Game Theory and also of players. The BAR in the evaluation box displays color codes for up to 10 features of a game.