This week in our news round-up we’ve got a few different items on the docket.
Dorfromantik wins the Spiel des Jahres
The Spiel des Jahres is Germany’s annual Game of the Year award and it’s given out to a typically very accessible game. It’s also one of the most coveted awards in tabletop gaming as the winner tends to go on to sell a plethora of copies of the game. This year Dorfromantik: The Board Game (Pegasus Spiel) has taken home the prize. It’s based on the video game of the same name, which already kind of felt like a board game.
“In Dorfromantik: The Board Game, up to six players work together to lay hexagonal tiles to create a beautiful landscape and try to fulfill the orders of the population, while at the same time laying as long a track and as long a river as possible, but also taking into account the flags that provide points in enclosed areas. The better the players manage to do this, the more points they can score at the end. In the course of the replayable campaign, the points earned can be used to unlock new tiles that are hidden in initially locked boxes. These pose new, additional tasks for the players and make it possible to raise the high score higher and higher.”
Good News for Cthulhu Wars
Troubled board game publisher Petersen Games has been operating as a skeleton crew since last June when they had to lay off most of their staff. Since then, they’ve been slowly trying to get their much-delayed Kickstarter for Cthulhu Wars out the door. Funded in 2019, it is now 3 years past its original, estimated delivery date. The most recent trouble for the campaign came from Petersen Games lacking the funds to get the games from the fulfillment house to backers’ doors. Well good news has arrived. In a recent Kickstarter update, Petersen Games has revealed:
“We have secured funds from a fan who wishes to remain anonymous which will allow us to fulfill all remaining backer orders for Cthulhu Wars Onslaught 4.”
In addition, they added that:
“In addition to securing funding for backer fulfillment, we are penning an agreement that would mean the biggest shift ever to transpire for us.
Here is all I can say at this moment:
1. The news is HUGE.
2. The news is ENTIRELY GOOD.
3. The news will paint a clearer picture regarding our other outstanding Kickstarter projects, as well as future game releases (and keeping product lines like Cthulhu Wars™ in stock!). It should restore confidence in the future of Petersen Games.
More news in coming weeks → especially heading into GenCon!”
Time will tell what’s in store for Petersen Games and their many unfulfilled Kickstarter projects.
Chaosium Announces Horror on the Orient Express: The Board Game
In more Lovecraftian news, RPG Call of Cthulhu publisher Chaosium is branching out into board games with their upcoming game based on one of their most iconic RPG adventures. Designed by Michał Gołąb Gołębiowski (Destinies) and Adam Kwapiński (Nemesis, Frostpunk), the game will be Kickstarted in the first half of 2024.
“What does Horror on the Orient Express: The Board Games offer gameplay-wise?
- Customize your character, develop their skills and face the monstrosities that await you on this horrifying journey
- Use Unique and innovative interrogation/talk mechanism
- Enjoy custom dice representing passengers and their different states of mind – you do not roll them at all.
- Travel through the actual train with various cars occupied by Investigators (player characters), suspects (non-player characters), and passengers (represented by dice)
- Race against time – solve the mystery before the train reaches its destination.
- Manipulate all the game parts in order to protect the train and its passengers against the monstrosities lurking in the shadows.”
HABA Layoffs
In sadder news, word has leaked out that family games publisher HABA (who produced much more than just board games) will be laying off about a third of its workforce. Due to a drop in sales, especially in retail, HABA will be doing “a massive reduction in personnel”.
