GAMA Trade Show 2010 Report–Part 8
This Part 8 of our ongoing coverage of the GAMA Trade Show 2010! Check back tomorrow for more or subscribe to the Livingdice.com RSS feed and not miss a single post.
Now that Trask has finished his run-down, it is time for me to talk about the booths that I visited. Just as before, these companies are not presented in any special order (just the order their booth was visited).
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Out of the Box is known for their family orientated party, card, and board games. Two of their most popular games are getting some new love. Word on the Street, a word brainstorming game with a twist, will be getting a “Junior” version for younger players. And Ninja versus Ninja will be getting a sister game called Pirate versus Pirate. And yes, the games are compatible, so we can finally answer that age-old question of Pirate vs. Ninja! Other new games they were showing off include 10 Days in the Americas and Shake n’ Take.
Smirk & Dagger, producers of the widely popular Cutthroat Caverns and Hex Hex, were showing off two new games that caught my eye. Hex Hex, which has been out of print for a while, is being re-released as Hex Hex XL. This game will include all the cards from the original Hex Hex and Hex Hex Next, as well as adding in new cards never seen before. Also, from the same lineage of their Run For Your Life, Candyman board game comes SHOOTIN’ LADDERS: Frag Fest. The zany game of gingerbread man PVP takes place on the old school Shoots and Ladders board. It was very fun and there will be a full review coming to LivingDice in the near future. And Cutthroat fans don’t fret, there is new stuff in development.
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Art Whirled is a new company trying to get their game called Struck into the market. It is a game similar to backgammon and checkers with a puzzle twist. Both you and your opponents pieces can change color throughout the game, as can the board. Even though they are still looking for funding / publishing for their game, that hasn’t stopped them from getting Struck out there. You can currently download it for your Apple iPhone / iPod Touch from the App Store for $2.99.
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Konami is, of course, known for two main things in the gaming community. At GTS, they left their video game line at home (with one exception below) and brought the spotlight down on Yu-Gi-Oh! There were more than a dozen new or near future releases on display. Take a visit to the Yu-Gi-Oh! Product Page if you are interested in specifics. Konami had the best booth of the show, with a 10 foot dragon in its center. And one product caught my eye more than anything else at their booth, Their Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Terminals. I don’t want to go into specifics now, because we will be doing a full review at the end of the GTS rundown posts. But basically it is a video arcade game where players can face off.
Acrylicos Vallejo is a Spanish company that is known for its hobby paints. They have two main lines of paint, Model Color for show and historical painters and Game Color for fantasy painters. Some of the new products from Vallejo including Vallejo Pigments for weathering and ageing effects and RLM colors, the historical colors of the German Reichsluftfahrtministerium that have been added to their Model Air line of aviation miniature paints.
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A game show can not be a game show without rows and rows of dice. Thankfully, Chessex delivered. This year Chessex has some six new dice colors called “Menagerie” and will be adding more colors to the Gemini Dice line. But the coolest thing was the Dice Holder Jewelry. Now you can proudly display to the public that die that brought down the mighty ogre. Unfortunately, Chessex has had problems keeping the supply for these stabilized, so they are currently on-hold. But they will be coming out soon.
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Looney Labs was there to showcase their new Fluxx (you know, the card games with ever-changing rules) games. Adding to the Fluxx universe is EcoFluxx and Family Fluxx. There are also working on a really cool themed version of Chrononauts this fall. I know what it is, but I am sworn to secrecy. Look for a full review from a Looney Labs product in the near future.
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Wizards of the Coast
There is not much more to say about WOTC’s presence at GTS that has not already been covered here. We had the notes from the Wizards of the Coast GTS 2010 Seminar and some close up photos of the upcoming Orcus Miniature. Judging by the traffic hitting LivingDice.com, most people seemed to be interested in the upcoming Red Box Set. Unfortunately, they did not have that at the booth to drool over. They did have their latest push for in-store D&D playing, D&D Encounters. There will be a full review of D&D Encounters Year One coming soon. As seen below, they also had the new set of D&D Dungeon Tiles: Harrowing Halls.
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A special thanks to Brad Carter (Out of the Box), Curt Covert (Smirk & Dagger), Elise Barley (Art Whirled), Yumi Hoashi (Konami), Robert Kingery (Acrylicos Vallejo / Darkson Designs), Greg Stickler (Chessex), Jessica Blair (Looney Labs), and many helpful people at the Wizards of the Coast Booth. Thanks for showing me all of your new games!
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Check back tomorrow for more great GTS 2010 exhibitors!
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Haaldaar
