Game Review: Bethel Woods by Garphill Games

Written by Chris King

Today, I’ll be reviewing Bethel Woods by Garphill Games  This game was successful on Kickstarter .  Bethel Woods is a co-operative game for 2-4 players ages 12 and up, and about 40 minutes to play.

In this game you and the other players are trying  to construct all 6 pieces of the Daydreamer machine to protect the orphanage from the terrors of this futuristic world that this game is set.

Setup:

Setup for this game couldn’t be easier.  The game comes with a double-sided game setup/ malfunction player aid on the back.  NOTE: When setting up, none of the machines can be in a critical state. More on that later.

Very handy

Randomly deal 1 of the 8 available character cards to the players.

Front side

Back side

There are enough cards for everyone to have a character and an unused card for the player aid which is a nice touch.

So this is what a game will look like when all done:

Game play:

The start player will take all pawns at 1 machine in a single direction, start dropping them off 1 at a time using a mancala-type mechanic.  As soon as you drop of a pawn onto a machine, check to see if the pawn you placed matches at least 1 of the colors of the Malfunction at the machine.  If the colors match you get to take the malfunction off the board.  (ex: your last pawn is a blue on #5 and 1 blue is already there.  Therefore you remove 2 blue malfunctions from #5.)  Any malfunctions removed this way are taken off the board and now known as Knowledge   You can never hold more than 7 knowledge at one time, discards any extras/

Once knowledge is gained, it can be used in 3 primary ways

1. Constructing the Daydreamer
2. Uncovering spies
3. Using your character’s ability

To end your turn, you must place 3 malfunctions from the bag and place them accordingly  The next player in clockwise order now takes their turn.

Spies/Machines Going Critical

If at any point a machine gets a 4th malfunction, that machine goes critical and a spy will enter the board.  When a machine goes critical 2 things happen.

1. The malfunction tile next to that machine is flipped over.  This will affect the game immediately.
2. The top spy from the spy stack is drawn.

A spy  will lower the number of malfunction needed at a machine to go critical  by 1

On the spy it tells you where to place it, and which two colors are need to remove him.

In order to remove a spy you must drop your last pawn at the spy’s location and discard the required knowledge.  Once defeated, the spy will return to the bottom of the spy stack

Note:  Multiple machines can go critical at a time, but only spy will be placed a turn

Constructing the Daydreamer/Winning

To win, all you need to do is construct the 6 pieces of the Daydreamer!  Easy right?  Nope!  Each of the machine are connected to a path in the center of board.  Each path has 2 color options  Only 1 of the 2 will be used.  You   need to end you movement in the center with that color pawn and  discards 1-6 of 1 type. of malfunction.  It doesn’t have to always match the color of the pawn placed.

Keep in mind that once you send a pawn into the center it will stay there for the rest of the game!

Lastly there are 3 ways to lose this game

1. all 6 spies are out on the board
2. 4 machines are critical at the end of a player’s turn
3. When there are no malfunctions left in the bag to draw.

Here are some pictures from one of my last games:

Looking good

2 more…

Almosyt there…

Just 1 more…

We ended up losing! NOOOOOOOOOOOO!

My Review:

So what do I think of Bethel Woods?   This is a very solid game.   For starters, this game is a breeze to set up everything needed can be found on the setup card provided!  The Mancala style gameplay makes this game really simple to play, but also gives some strategic depth to the game.  I am a fan of co-op games and this one fits right in.  Bethel Woods could be a cousin to Pandemic but played  in less time.  It has the same level of tension as the game goes on.  On you turn it is very simple.  Pick a group, move in a single direction picking up malfunctions along the way.  Don’t be fooled though, while turns go quick in this game, the game can turn bad just as quickly with the spies and the machines going critical all around you.  I find this balance of your choice will alter the game for better or worse with one move!

Okay, so,  on the negative.  There’s not a lot to say here but if you play a lot of co-op games this next statement won’t be a shock.  Depending on the players this game can suffer from Alpha Gamer Syndrome or AGS!  I have noticed AGS once  during my plays and it was kind of annoying.  I know they mean well but sometimes you can’t think three turns ahead..  So just be aware of AGS!

This games also reminds me a little bit of Five Tribes with the ever-changing board state.  In these types of games, I have a little mantra that helps me during games.  “Don’t look at the board, don’t look at the board!”  It’s hard to plan but I do best when it gets closer to my turn.

So, to date I have played this 4 times now and lost every time.  We’ve gotten close but never won!  This I think is a good sign of a co-op game.

Game Review – Ice Cool from Brain Games

“If we can just get past the hall monitor…….”

Over the past couple of years, dexterity games have become quite popular, with many titles coming into the marketplace. Building off of some concepts of games like Crokinole, a new flicking game is out that puts a play on cutting class in school, trying to avoid the hall monitor and get into some mischief.

Enter………Ice Cool from designer Brian Gomez, published by Brain Games Publishing. Ice Cool is a dexterity game for 2-4 players, ages 6+, and it plays in about a half an hour.

QUICK GAME SUMMARY

In Ice Cool, the game is played over multiple rounds. In each round, one player takes on the role of the Catcher (hall monitor) with the other players taking on the role of Runners. The Runners goal is to skate around the school, through certain hallways to gather up fish and collect points. The Catcher’s goal is to catch the runners and take their IDs to score points.  A round will end when either any Runner has collected all 3 fish tokens of their color or The Catcher has caught all Runners. Then start a new round and repeat. The game ends when each player has been the Catcher once.

OVERVIEW OF GAME PLAY

I am not going to go over all of the rules in-depth, but if you want to read the rules, click the link –> GAME RULES

The first thing that has to be done is to assemble the game board, which is made up of smaller boxes that all fit together to form the play area. All of the boxes are numbered

Each of the game sections is numbered.

and each of the doorways is color coded to match up.

Just match up the colors to build the game board.

When everything is finished the board looks like this:

The board set up with players.

Each player chooses a color and takes their player pieces.

Some of the player pieces including ID, color reminder and fish token.

One player takes on the role of the Catcher and places their penguin in the kitchen. All of the penguins are plastic with the pieces weighted at the bottom where when the piece is at rest is stands up straight. All of the Runners will place their fish tokens over the doorways that are marked with a fish icon.

A bit about the Runners…

In turn order, starting with the Runners, each one  will start in the classroom and flick their penguins around trying to get through hallways to collect fish and score points.

The starting spot in the classroom for the Runners.

Players need to move completely through a door with a fish token to be able to collect it.

S

Skating through this door will gain the yellow player a fish.

This is accomplished by flicking the penguin in a way that it will move through the doorways to score.

Flicking is the way to move the penguins.

There are a number of different techniques that can be used to flick the penguins around. The video below produced by Brain Games shows some great moves that can happen in the game.

 

If a penguin is flicked out of the game play area, just place it back where it started, however the turn is over. Penguins can be flicked over doorways, but in order to collect fish the penguin must go THROUGH the door.  When a penguin goes through a door with a fish token of its color on it, the token is taken and a fish is collected. A card is drawn from the fish card deck that awards points. Each fish can be worth 1 to 3 points. The fish cards are placed face down in front of the player, partially covering their color reminder.

Fish cards that award points.

Eventually, the Runner will be caught by the Catcher. If this happens, the Catcher takes that Runner’s ID. The Runner can still collect fish to score points.

A bit about the Catcher…

The Catcher’s goal is to catch the Runners and take their IDs. For a Catcher to take an ID, all it has to do is touch the Runner. The Catcher is always last in turn order.

The Blue player is the Catcher and just touched the green Runner and will take their ID.

In the pictures you see red lines on the boards. These are used as boundaries to place a penguin on if it is too close to a wall to flick or gets stuck in the middle of a doorway. The rulebook explains how to deal with those situations. Also, if your penguin is moved when it is not your turn, either through a doorway or into the Catcher, you resolve those effects. That means it is possible to gain a fish card or lose your ID when it is not your turn. If a player, including the Catcher wishes, they can gain an extra turn by revealing two cards that have a value of 1 on them. There are ice skate icons on the bottom of the cards. Revealing the two cards at the end of the turn gives that player ice skates and allows for an extra turn. Multiple extra turns can be taken in a row if there are enough cards to be used.

A round will end when either a Runner collects all three of their fish tokens OR the Catcher catches all the Runners. At the end of the round, starting with the Catcher, each player draws 1 card for each ID card they have. So a maximum of 4 fish cards can be gained by any player at the end of each round.  Reset the board for another round just like the start of the game, with a different player taking  on the role of the Catcher. The game will end after each player has taken on the role of the Catcher once. There are rule variations for a 2-player game where each player has to be the Catcher twice. The player with the most points is the winner.

IMPRESSIONS

PROS

• Simple Rules
• Convenient box in a box storage
• Quick Play time
• Wide audience range

CONS

• Boxes may shift some during play despite being clipped
• No variable board setup
• Uneven skill levels can result in blowout scores

Ice Cool is my first experience with Brain Games since they are rather new to the US market. I have to say that Ice Cool is fun game. It is no wonder that the game has won awards, most notably 2016 UK Games Expo Best Children’s Game, and 2016 Game of the Year Award from Creative Child Magazine. Now to me Ice Cool is not just a kid’s game. Adults can enjoy this as well. I like the theme of the game, with a fun play on cutting class to go get some food. I like that the rules are simple and players will be up and running in just a few moments. There is even a nice tutorial in the rules that shows flicking techniques and has the players do a practice lap around the board.

With some practice, going through the door won’t be a problem.

The game play itself is rather simple. Flick your penguin to do what you need to do… either collect a fish token or catch a Runner, depending on what your role is. The design of the penguins, with their shape, offers some cool moves, like making them curve, and also making them jump walls. Now me, personally, I am like a bull in a china shop when it comes to flicking games, with bad aim, and no finesse when it comes to the flick. However, I was able to make my penguin jump a wall. I think this is the strongest point of the game. All the while, when flicking the penguin around, players are developing fine motor skills. So Ice Cool can be used in Occupational Therapy sessions besides being played as an activity. The points collected are purely based on the luck of the draw, but I do like the “catch-up” mechanic where players may reveal two “1” value cards to get an extra turn. This can help at least give a jump on getting another scoring opportunity.  The game plays quickly, in under 30 minutes making this game great for schools for rainy-day recess as well as a lunch game at work. And one thing I really like is the way the game stores, with each box being slightly smaller than the next and they stack inside each other.

I did have a minor issue with the boxes staying perfectly aligned during game play. The boxes are held in place with 1 wooden clip and I had instances of the boxes shifting. It is not a major issue, but it does have an effect on the size of the door opening.

Sometimes the boxes may shift.

In the picture above, the two boxes are supposed to be offset, but notice the dots in the doorway, as they have shifted during play. I do like that the game boxes stack inside themselves for storage, but I do wish there was alternate board setups to change things around. Again, not a big issue, but after while, seasoned players will have a strong feel for the board layout and that will work to their advantage over players with less experience.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Ice Cool is a quick, fun game that can be enjoyed by a lot of different types of people. With a 30 minute or less play time, younger players will stay engaged the whole time without losing interest. The game is great for developing fine motor skills when it comes to flicking techniques. With uses for school and also Occupational Therapy, Ice Cool branches out beyond the gaming table. If you are looking for a dexterity game that involves flicking, Ice Cool is one you will want to check out.

For more information on Ice Cool, click HERE

*Disclaimer* This copy of Ice Cool was provided by the publisher for the purpose of review.

Game Review – Draconis Invasion from Keji Inc.

Deck building games are still a rather new breed of board game. I’m always shocked when I’m reminded that the granddaddy, old geezer of deck builders, Dominion, is not even ten years old yet; however, its safe to say that the genre has made a big splash and there are deck builders at every turn clawing at your wallet like some massive horde of raving undead screaming “BRAAAAINSSSSS…and don’t forget to shuffle well….”

It’s pretty clear that the market for deck builders has not wavered in the slightest as more and more games get released with countless expansions. Deck builders have a way of forming an almost cult like presence with its followers. There are purists that insist that Dominion is the end all, be all and every game that has come after are just wannabes, while others have latched on to highly interactive deck builders like Star Realms and then there are the new kids on the block…deck builders with a game board! Woah!

So where does that put Draconis Invasion, the new deck builder from designer Jonathan Jeffrey Lai and Keji Inc.? Let’s find out.

I think we need to get something out of the way right off the bat. It’s impossible to ignore the fact that Draconis Invasion is clearly inspired by its great granddaddy, Dominion. It just has a lot of similarities. Is that a bad thing? Yes and no.

The similarities are seen in a lot of deck builders of this ilk. The core mechanic of using a starting hand to slowly build a better deck throughout the course of the game is here. A fixed market of better cards that you want is there. Junk cards are often put in your deck which may inhibit a turn you’ve been setting up for. In this game, they call them Terror cards and we will get to those in a second because they are much more important in this game than others. There are three types of cards: money or gold, action cards, and attack cards…wait…attack cards? Oh yes, my pretties, be patient for a moment.

So it has the basic formula for a deck building game. But then it does some things that make it stand out just enough without trying to jam a bunch of NEW, SHINY STUFF down your throat.

And I appreciate what they have done here.

On a turn in Draconis, you can play a single action card from your hand to do cool stuff like trash junky cards or draw cards or give other players terror cards (I suggest you cackle wildly while doing that) and then you can do one of a few options. You can buy an action or defender card from the open market with your gold. The more expensive the card is, the better it is usually. That’s a pretty standard, yet essential part of any deck builder. It lets you hop in the driver seat and attempt to build the best deck you possibly can.

And now get ready for some different stuff.

The second thing you might do on your turn is get new campaign cards. These cards act like secret agendas. Accomplish whatever task the card says to do and you will get bonus points at the end of the game. I love it when games do things like this. They help direct your game should you choose to pursue a secret quest dealt to you.

What kinds of things do these secret missions, campaign cards want you do, you ask? They simply want you to kill more stuff!

You see the way you get points in Draconis is a little different. There are big hulking monsters that are called Invaders. You wanna kill em and kill em good. You do this with your attack/ defender cards that you’ve been acquiring from the market. Kill a creature and its worth points at the end of the game. The secret missions on your campaign cards will grant you bonuses if you kill specific monsters. It’s all very simple until you realize that your Defenders are super greedy monsters as well! That’s right. Nothing is free in the game of Draconis Invasion (well…except those cursed Terror cards that I’m gonna get to…I promise). Those Defenders will help you, but you have to pay them with a specified amount of gold from your hand. This is a great design move because it forces players to really diversify their deck through the choices they make in market purchases.

Okay…time to talk about the Terror cards. Because I really think this is my favorite part of Draconis. Terror cards are junk cards that don’t help you do anything at all. They just occupy a space in your hand where a better card could have been. You get these from a variety of places, sometimes self inflicted…but that’s not the cool part. The Terror cards act as a crazy train of a game timer. Every time somebody plays a terror card from their hand this evil little D6 die goes up once. If it ever ticks up to 6, then an event card is revealed. These are cards that punish the players, especially the player that is currently in first. It’s an awesome catch up mechanic that you don’t see often in this style of deck builder. It also acts as a timer because there is a limited amount of event cards and when they run out, the game ends. So it leads to some interesting situations. Sure you want to give your opponents lots of terror cards, but at the same time it will dramatically speed the game up and if you aren’t ready for that it could blow back up in your own face!

On top of all that, Draconis Invasion is a simply stunning game. The artwork is top notch, components are great, the custom terror die is a nice touch, and it even came with nifty labeled dividers for every card type. It’s definitely not lacking in the production department.

So let’s run Draconis Invasion through the FRAK! Test.

Fun? It is. I’ve enjoyed playing Draconis a good deal. It’s simplicity is nice and it certainly would be a great deck builder to start with. The player interaction is pretty minimal but I think that’s okay for this style of deck builder.

Replayability? There’s a lot of variety here since you get to select what cards go into the market. Play with a different market and you are playing a different game. There are a lot of different cards in the base game alone and seeing how half the box is empty I see expansions are inevitable.

Affordability? It costs about $50 or so which is pretty standard for these bigger box deck builders. I’d say based on the art alone the game is worth that and the high replayability ensures you will get your hard earned moneys worth.

Keep? Totally. This one will see play at my table. Is it one I will grab all the time? Maybe not, but since it’s so accessible when it does hit the table we will be able to get down to business very quickly without having to consult the rule book every time. That’s a small blessing but a big part of why I like Draconis Invasion in the first place. If you enjoy easy riding, smooth deck builders with great production, look no further.

DISCLAIMER: The copy of Draconis Invasion used in this review was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.

Game Preview – Unlocked: The Mansion of Mana from Good Knight Games

by David Taylor

This is a preview article for a project currently on Kickstarter

Game Designer Sean Howard of Good Knight Games has created a new game that challenges players to navigate through a mysterious Victorian mansion to save “Uncle Alfie.” Uncle Alfie has been researching interplanar travel and unfortunately has become stuck in one of the planes of existence. To free him, players must navigate through the mansion to free him. The problem is…..every room is locked and they can only be opened by using a runic key.

At its heart, Unlocked is a race game that is driven by a set collection mechanic. Players will be collecting rune cards, casting them to build keys that will allow players to move through the mansion, where each room is locked, trying to be the first to save Uncle Alfie and win the game.

This is easier said than done because Unlocked: The Mansion of Mana has some interesting twists to it:

• The runes must be cast in sequential order to build the keys.
• All of the keys in the game are unique
• Each key has an ability that can be used to either help you or hinder your opponent(s)

 

OVERVIEW

Let’s take a quick look at the flow of the game. If you wish to view the complete rules, here is the link to the rules: http://www.good-knight.net/Unlocked-MoM/Unlocked-Mansion%20of%20Mana-rulesv17-final.pdf

For setup, the key deck is prepared by first removing any necessary keys, shuffling the remaining keys, and arranging  a number of them in a tableau of 5 columns. The number of cards used will vary based on the number of players. The remaining cards in the key deck are set aside in a face-down pile.

Key cards set up

Then the rune cards are shuffled , 4 cards are dealt to each player,  and then “The River” is created in the center of the table based on the number of players. The remaining rune cards are placed in a face-down draw pile, with room available for a discard pile.

The River for 3 players

A quick round of Wizard’s duel will determine first player.

Before we jump into the actual game play, we need to take a look at the Key cards themselves. Each key card has information on them. First, there is the key image itself and the name of the key. There are a number of different icons on the cards, but a reference cards is available for each of the players that explains what they mean. Each card has a rune requirement on the left side of the card. There are a number of runic symbols in a vertical column(s) that show what runes are required to build the key and/or upgrading certain keys. Each key has an ability symbol on it, an activation track which shows if a key is ready or exhausted, and also a symbol that explains when the key is active.

One of the many key cards in Unlocked

A player’s turn has 4 phases that are executed in order.

Phase 1: Activate Keys – during this phase reuseable keys that have been exhausted are readied, and any keys that a player wishes to use during their turn, players will exhaust.

Phase 2: Draw Runes – during this phase, players will draw new cards into their hand. Players will draw 2 or 3 cards depending on if the cards were drawn from the face-down draw deck, the river, or the discard pile. These cards will either be runes or special cards. The special cards can be played at any time during a player’s turn.

Phase 3: Cast Runes – during this phase players play rune cards to the table in front of themselves in order to build keys. This is where the heart of the game lies. When players cast runes to build the keys, the runes must be cast in sequential order of the rune requirements on the corresponding key card. Players can play out as many cards in their hand as they want during this phase, but they are limited to having 2 unfinished keys in front of them. When a key is built, that player claims the card in the tableau by placing a token on it in the ready space of the key’s activation track and then discards the rune cards used to build the key. Multiple players can claim the same card, and players can claim the same card multiple times to gain the key effects for multiple times.

Working on completing a sequence to create a key

• Some interesting things to note:
  Special cards can be played that help players and/ or add some player interaction to the game.
• If a player ever gets a rune stolen from their incomplete key tableau, and runes in the sequence after the stolen rune are placed in the discard pile. *this can be quite nasty*

This one is quite annoying!!

• If a player wishes to start a new key sequence and already has 2 incomplete sequences, that player may discard one of the sequences.

Phase 4: Meditate – During this phase, players must be down to their hand limit, which is 3 cards plus any key effects that increase hand limit. After cards are discarded, the river must be reset by shifting all remaining cards away from the draw deck and filling in replacements moving towards the draw deck. If no cards were removed from the river, the oldest card (the one furthest from the draw deck) is discarded and the cards shifted and a new one is placed into the river.

To win the game, a player has to be the first to have token on a key card in each column, showing a path from start to finish, ending the game immediately.

Be the first to get your tokens on a card in each column to win

IMPRESSIONS

There are enough things going on in this game to make it worth taking a look at. The biggest thing to mention is the artwork. I have to give credit to the artists Scott Rogerson and Margarita Kiseleva for creating a visually appealing presentation. Second, the game itself is engaging and will offer a quite a bit of replayability because of the sheer variety of key cards in the game and the number used. So the combination of cards will change the feel of each game.

The gameplay is very straightforward with the set collection, however, the need to play the runes in sequence is what gives the game some meat to it. So there is a lot more game that one may initially see. This challenges players to have to plan ahead in order to complete the keys. The special abilities of the cards are very cool, giving little twists here and there to make the game more interesting. The special cards are quite powerful and can really throw your opponents for a loop if used at the most opportune time.

The iconography on the cards is not too bad, and I am happy there is a reference card to use. But the first few games will be a little clunky trying to read the cards and looking up the icons.

I think there is a good balance of a euro style game, working to complete what you need to, and adding some player interaction that can create some “interesting” moments in the game, like swapping cards, stealing runes, or even adding a new column to extend the game.

So if you are a fan of set-collection games, this one has a little more substance to it and certainly worth a look.

To visit the project on Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/goodknightgamesllc/unlocked-the-mansion-of-mana?ref=nav_search

 

 

 

Game Review: Pie Rats of the Carob Bean Farm by Wild East Games

Aye matey!  Would ye like to join me crew? There be glorious booty for us to snatch from the farmer’s wife!  She be makin’ the most scrumptious pies!
Pie Rats of the Carob Bean Farm by Wild East Games, which was successfully funded on Kickstarter is for 2-4 players (6 with the expansion)

 

Mid game

Action/Item  Cards can be played whenever the card states

In this game each player is a rat captain trying to amass a crew strong enough to carry off pies from the windowsill of the Farmer’s Wife and score points.

Game setup: 

1. Everybody chooses a captain card

2. Shuffle pie cards together and deal 10 facedown in a stack

3 Deal each player three cards from the main deck.

You are ready.
Game Play: 

At the start of each round, turn over the next pie card from the deck. Next in turn order, each player will add any charisma cards to their captain if desired. After charisma cards have been added again in turn order and any crew from your hand to the table

The next step is to decide if you would like to protect a crew member or attempt to lure a crew member away from an opponent again intern order. If you decided to lure, Target a player.

To lure an opposing crew member away, need to have a higher charisma total than the opposing cards loyalty total. (Your total charisma is made up of your captains base charisma plus any charisma cards placed on him.
If you decide to protect a crew member turn that crew members card sideways. That crew member cannot be targeted for being lured away that turn
The very last phase during a turn is to loot a pie. To loot a pie intern or just announce you are going to be losing a pie from the center of the table. In order to Luna pie you must have more strength points Dan the pie you are trying to boot in order to score it.
Once all six phases are finished everyone drives back up to three cards and the new round begins with revealing a pie. The six phases will continue until the last pay card is taken and all the player with the most points is the winner
My Review:  I don’t think this game is any good.  Doesn’t seem to be much of   a game here.  A cute idea but not done well..  There were three major issues I had with this game:

1.  Turn order is mentioned a lot in the rules for “strategic” reasons.  After playing a few rounds, it seemed that there is no reason to hold back cards.  Basically play all 3 cards so you could have a full hand for the next round .
2. Phases 4 &5 are separated, and I think they could have just combined into one phase altogether.  (Phase 4 is to make a decision to either protect one crew member, or to lure one away.  So, if you if you decide to protect, you would just be skipping phase 5, lure  altogether.}
3. There are over 100 cards, and there are only 10 action/item cards in the entire deck.

I am an avid Kickstarter backer.  Most of my  games come from smaller companies and end up being decent and fun.  I think this needed a little more polish.  This might be okay for kids just getting into gaming, but I can’t see this one lasting  too long.

To the Table – 2016 Designer of the Year

By David Taylor

In 2015 I had started out with an idea I had called “The Cardboard Bridge.” As a guest on the Meeple Syrup show, a question was asked about an opportunity for content in the boardgame community. I had responded with a need to offer more exposure for the creators of the games we enjoy. My first installment was my Designer of the Year for 2015, Alexander Pfister, where I talked about him and his games.

This year I am proud to announce my choice for Designer of the Year for 2016. Let’s get to know him. Without further ado, my choice is Kane Klenko. I had an opportunity to interview Kane and I wanted to share more about him.

To The Table’s 2016 Designer of the Year

LET’S GET TO KNOW KANE

Kane Klenko lives in Wisconsin along with his wife and 2 sons. Outside of game design, Kane works in the real estate industry as a mortgage closer at a bank. Kane has been designing games since 2010, with his first published games coming in 2014 with Mad City from Mayfair Games’ Fun Fair line, and Pressure Cooker from Rio Grande Games. Both of these games are real-time games, where the driving mechanic of the game is time.

One of Kane’s first published designs

In 2015, Dead Men Tell No Tales, published by Minion Games was released. This game was not a real-time game, but a cooperative game that uses the classic action point allowance system with some interesting twists. It is a pirate-themed game where players are trying to loot a burning ship.

Kane’s first published strategy game

In late 2015, early 2016, Renegade Game Studios released FUSE, which is yet another real-time game. I asked Kane, what his attraction to real-time games was. Kane responded: “Before I started designing real-time games I had only played one or two of them. Early on, when I was first starting to design, I was thinking about why video games are so much bigger than board games. One of the things that stuck with me was the real-time nature of most video games. My goal is to have most of my games accessible to a mass market audience, so I thought that real-time games might be a way to do that. Once I started designing them I was hooked. The playtests were always fun and lively, and I seemed to have a knack for coming up with new real-time mechanics.” 

In 2016, Renegade Game Studios released Covert at Gen Con. This game is a strategy game that uses a unique dice placement mechanic for choosing actions. To me this showed Kane’s maturity as a designer, with Covert coming in #3 on my top games of 2016 and at this point is my favorite game that he has designed. I asked Kane if there was any back story for Covert. Here is what Kane had to say, “In December 2014 I was reading the rules to Bora Bora, hoping to play it sometime soon (which didn’t happen). After reading the rules I had the thought that it would be fun to try to design a medium weight Euro dice game.” Coming off of his design work with FUSE, Kane said he wanted to challenge himself to make a heavier game using dice. I was really surprised when Kane revealed that the design for Covert, which is a bigger game, was done in only a few months.

One of my top games of 2016

Kane makes an appearance in the game as one of the characters. This was a promo card that was in Santa’s Renegades.

Kane is in his own game!

I asked Kane what designers have inspired him. At the top of the list are Reiner Knizia and Wolfgang Kramer. These two are also some of Kane’s favorite designers. Kane says he loves that they have a wide range of styles, and that even their heavier games are intuitive and streamlined. He also appreciates Vlaada Chvatil in that he tries to be innovative and try new things. Kane says he is more inspired just by playing different types of games, or even movies, tv shows, random conversations, etc. Kane states, “My mind is always thinking about the next game, and anything can trigger what that will be.”

We all have our favorite games and so I had asked Kane about his. His reply, “This might seem like a lame answer, but my honest 2 favorite games are Covert and the upcoming Flatline. I probably shouldn’t pick my own games, but I guess that makes sense since I can make my games whatever I want them to be. I worked on them until they were my favorites. Other than those, I’d say my favorites are Ra, Dominion, and Pandemic. They all have one main thing in common for me: a simple and unique mechanical hook, and accessible and fun gameplay. That’s what my goal is with my games, and I think those 3 games nailed it. Every time I play Pandemic I still am amazed at how brilliant that card mechanic is.”

WHY I CHOSE KANE KLENKO AS DESIGNER OF THE YEAR

I have been familiar with Kane’s designs and his games since they started releasing in 2014. For me personally, I am not a big fan of real-time games, so typically they don’t hit my table, so Mad City and Pressure Cooker are not in my collection. However, I do appreciate the designs and the effort to make them. I did enjoy Dead Men Tell No Tales and I thought the game was well designed and showed a forward direction in Kane’s design ability. I like the action point allowance mechanic with the twist of being able to pass action points to other players. This was a clever idea that works well in Dead Men Tell No Tales.

Although FUSE released in December 2015, it really did not start showing up until 2016, so I will go ahead and say that Kane had 2 releases in 2016. It was with these 2 designs that I saw Kane really mature in his game design. FUSE uses the real-time mechanic along with dice that results in a super tense cooperative game that is 10 minutes of adrenaline. Although I don’t own FUSE, there are people in my gaming group that do own it and at this point is the only real-time game I will play (at least for now).  I still have not won the game and I will probably blame our group for not addressing the issue that we only have 10 minutes to save the world, so time is of the essence.

Covert is the game that made my choice for Designer of the Year very simple. Covert was on my Gen Con Games of Interest Geeklist and when I first played it, I knew the game was going to be one of my top games of the year. In Covert, the actions players take are dictated by where players place their dice on these rings. Each ring has space for 6 dice, 1 space for each pip side. What makes this design really shine is that when players go to place their dice, they can only be placed in the open spaces adjacent to a die that has already been placed.

This dice placement mechanic………I love it!

This unique dice placement mechanic showed me that Kane upped the ante in game design. And it is this maturity in game design that warrants Kane being selected as my Designer of the Year.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR KANE

Of course I had to ask Kane, what he was working on and what he had coming out. So based upon what he could discuss, here is what Kane has coming up in the near future. First, this Spring, Kane’s favorite game Flatline will be coming from Renegade Game Studios. Yes, Kane has 3 games published by them and he likes working with Renegade and they like his designs.

Flatline……Think of it as FUSE for gamers

An expansion for Dead Men Tell No Tales called Kraken is in the works because Kane says “the game needs to be harder, right??”

I asked Kane : Any plans for more strategy games like Dead Men Tell No Tales or Covert? Kane did reveal this: “I do have one game that should be out at Gen Con that is closer to that weight, but probably a little lighter. Other than that it’s just whatever inspiration hits and I get excited about. I literally have new game ideas every day. I can’t work on them all, so I just write them down and move on. Sometimes there’s an idea that just won’t let go, as was the case with Covert. When that happens I just go with it, whether that’s a 10 minute filler or a 90 minute strategy game. I never know what’s coming next, and it’s kind of fun that way. Sometimes there’s a plan, like with an expansion, and I’m hoping Covert does well enough to warrant an expansion, because I already have some good ideas tested and I want to see it get made.”

WHERE CAN YOU MEET KANE?

One of the great things about this hobby and industry is the convention scene. Kane attends one major convention: Gen Con. Other than that, he goes to conventions that are local to him such as  Gameholecon in Madison and Nexus in Milwaukee. He also attends Protospiel to test out his game designs. Kane says, “Wherever I am though I go to meet with publishers, make connections, and show my games to people. I’ve never gone to a convention to actually play games.” Kane says he is planning on attending  BGG.con this year, probably  running demos for his 2017 releases.

BRINGING IT ALL BACK

I am proud to name Kane Klenko as my choice for 2016 Designer of the Year. He has shown great strides in his game design ability, especially with Covert. I am looking forward to his future work and I am glad that he took the time to share a bit about himself for you to read. So again congratulations to Kane and I wish him much success both for 2017 and in the future.

Game Review – Onami from Wyvren Gaming