Christmas Message

This is a magical time of year for most people, but it can also be a lonely time for some. If you have neighbours who are not as lucky as you this Christmas, why not get them round and play a board game, it might make their holiday!

We at the Ministry hope that you have a lovely time and that all your dice roll high :0)

AEG preview Smashup cards during #boardgamehour

This weeks theme for #boardgamehour was Sci-fi and its was a great discussion (sorry if you missed it). my highlight of the week however was when a little (not really) board game company by the name of alderac entertainment group (AEG to you and I) popped up with some sneak previews of new Smash up cards! here they are:

Alderac Ent Group ‏@alderac

For #boardgamehour sci-fi theme today, here's a new preview of Smash Up: Science Fiction Double Feature! pic.twitter.com/bxA5nDZp3o

Alderac Ent Group ‏@alderac

@BoardGameHour @MartyM1981 well thanks for the warm reception, makes us want to show another... #boardgamehour

Alderac Ent Group ‏@alderac19h

Ok 1 more! The Shapeshifters are infiltrating the Innsmouth-ians apparently! #boardgamehour #SmashUp pic.twitter.com/8rRydzLJWf

Thanks again to AEG for sharing these with us!

Daniel Solis Interview part 3 of 3

 This is final part of a great interview. Not only did the board game community ask some great questions our guest provided some really interesting answers. Enjoy:

@reldnahcire #boardgamersask Before I forget, thanks for all your answers! Who would you want to see on this event next?
@DanielSolis #boardgamersask I'd love to pick Antoine Bauza's brain about making elegant, accessible systems.

@RMBLees #boardgamersask you’ve a few games on kickstarter now, do you think it’s a fad, or does it have a long future in BG industry?
@DanielSolis Crowdfunding as an model is here to stay. The platform/site for that funding may change over time, though. #boardgamersask

Daniel Solis Interview part 2 of 3

 Here is part two of our Daniel Solis interview. Enjoy :0)

@64ozGames How much playtesting do you manage on so many titles? Do you have a harem of playtesters? #BoardGamersAsk
@DanielSolis #boardgamersask This year, I've been blessed with a regular and generous game community at my local game store. Any given Monday, there is a diverse and eager crowd of gamers at @Atomic_Empire. Great for game testing!

@MartyM1981 #boardgamersask how important is illustrations and theme compared to game play? I loved the way Belle of the Ball looked!
@DanielSolis #boardgamersask In the final production? Very important. I've turned down games because they just looked unfinished. But in development? I try to keep my protos very barebones. Keeps focus on the mechanics.

Daniel Solis Interview part 1 of 3

Our guest for #boardgamersask on Friday 13th Dec was Award winning game designer Daniel Solis... Here is part one of his crowd sourced interview:

@BoardGamersAsk I'd imagine @danielsolis is around, so you can start asking questions as soon as he *waves*, its going to be good #boardgamersask
@DanielSolis Today's #boardgamersask coming to you live from the coffee shop by my local game store! Ask this man anything. http://t.co/VxXoGN80uE

@reldnahcire #boardgamersask Is there a short version of how you got started with the board game hobby from a play and design standpoint?
@DanielSolis Played chess with my stepdad a lot. Couldn't win, so I changed the rules. That's how it began. #boardgamersask

#boardgamersask Ryan Metzler

Join us on Friday Dec 20th 2pm (EST) for our last live Q&A before an xmas break. Our guest this week is the Dice Towers own Ryan Metzler. Ryan specialises in Short snappy board game reviews.

Here is his profile information:

Ryan Metzler grew up on the basic board games: Monopoly, Risk, Trivial Pursuit, and the like. At a relatively young age he was introduced, through some friends, to Magic: The Gathering, and a true gaming addiction was born, although never nurtured and limited to the CCG scene. Due to progression through life (highschool, girls, college, the dreaded "real job", graduate school, and now the perpetual job search), Ryan lost touch with his gamer side for several years. In 2009, a rekindled friendship from his MtG days led Ryan back to his passion for gaming. He quickly found BGG, and has since amassed a modest collection of games, ranging from simple card games, to his preferred choice, the Heavy Eurogame. Ryan quickly became active in the gaming community in his efforts as a play tester, rules editor, and volunteer consultant for Alderac Entertainment Group. He gets great joy from reading about, watching, hearing about, and playing all sorts of games.

Ryan's involvement in the gaming community evolved in 2011, when he joined the video review staff of The Dice Tower (http://www.dicetower.com). Since, Ryan has posted reviews of over 350 board games to both YouTube and BoardGameGeek, garnering nearly 2 Million views. He is known for his extensive, yet easy to follow, rules explanations of complex games.

Ryan recently completed his Ph.D. in the field of Physiology & Biophysics. Located in Wisconsin, Ryan is neither a fan of cold weather nor snow. He hopes to delve even further into the gaming community, and one day flesh out one of the several game design concepts he has been neglecting for so long already.
Here are some examples of Ryan's reviews:

http://www.dicetower.com/game_reviews/numbers/12-realms-preview.html
http://www.dicetower.com/game_reviews/c/castellan-2

http://www.dicetower.com/game_reviews/n/new-science-the-2.html

So the big question is how does #BoardGamersAsk work?

It's simple, we will announce a guest interviewee and give you a little bit of their background info. To take part in the live interview just be on twitter at the time and day listed below:

Every Friday - start times are:
7pm (GMT)
11am (PST)
12pm (MST)
1pm (CST)
2pm (EST)

To ask them a question just use hash-tag #BoardGamersAsk . To see what everyone else is asking or to see the answers being given by our guest just search for the same hashtag!

If you miss the event (try not to :-) don't worry we will put together the highlights for the interview and post them on this site.

For one hour every week, #BoardGamersAsk is your chance to ask questions of the "people behind the digital meeples"

Rumrunners Interview

On Friday 6th of December the board game communitty got to put there questions to a group of software developers who were working on a digital board game... Here is what happened:

@RumrunnersGame Hey folks, we're ready to answer questions! #boardgamersask

@rhiochs Is Rumrunners timed? And, if so, why that instead of a multi-player turn-based game? Deception and intrigue on the go. #boardgamersask
@RumrunnersGame @rhiochs Rumrunners is timed. We've found that rounds can drag on depending on how strident people are. In rumrunners, the clock applies to everyone as turns are simultaneous -- discussion is the most important part. #boardgamersask"

Rumrunners pulled early

Today we can announce that Rumrunners has been cancelled, but the project creators are looking to bring it back in the future. Here's what they had to say:

"Hi Folks, Sad news for Rumrunners today. We've taken a look at the campaign from every angle that we can think of, and we've come to the conclusion that this campaign is not going to be funded in the remaining time. Therefore, we've decided to face this difficult decision head-on and cancel the campaign.

#boardgamersask Daniel Solis

Hi folks, this weeks LIVE #BoardGamersAsk guest is an multiple award-winning designer Daniel Solis!

Daniel is a game designer who has designed Happy Birthday, Robot! and Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple, both published by Evil Hat Productions and Smart Play Games. His most recent game is the card game Belle of the Ball which is being published by Dice Hate Me Games.

He does layout and graphic design for a wide range of games. Board game credits include Race to Adventure, Zeppelin Armada and Velociraptor! Cannibalism! Role-playing game credits include Reign, Delta Green, Freemarket, Shelter in Place, Houses of the Blooded and Lacuna.

He and his wife founded the Thousand-Year Game Design Challenge. A now-concluded competition for a $1,000 to create a game that will be played and enjoyed for the next thousand years. The challenge encouraged designers to think about the longevity, universality, elegance and sustainability of their games. More about the challenge at http://www.thousandyeargame.com

He is also associate creative director at an advertising agency.
So the big question is how does #BoardGamersAsk work?

It's simple, we will announce a guest interviewee and give you a little bit of their background info. To take part in the live interview just be on twitter at the time and day listed below:

Every Friday - start times are:
7pm (GMT)
11am (PST)
12pm (MST)
1pm (CST)
2pm (EST)

To ask them a question just use hash-tag #BoardGamersAsk . To see what everyone else is asking or to see the answers being given by our guest just search for the same hashtag!

If you miss the event (try not to :-) don't worry we will put together the highlights for the interview and post them on this site.

For one hour every week, #BoardGamersAsk is your chance to ask questions of the "people behind the digital meeples"

Bureaucracy fail

Where is the #boardgamersask interview from Friday you ask.. Were are the highlights from yesterdays #boardgamehour you ask?

Well the answer is simple. We have hundreds of bureaucrats working day and night at the Ministry. Their only job is to collect the data from these two events, process it and bring it to my desk for me to post to this site.
From what I can make out of the plethora of internal memos, the kettle in the office has blown a muse. This unfortunately means section 354c of the "feed collection protocol" has been triggered. E.G. No work can take place without a cup of tea...

As soon as this problem has been fixed I will get the suited men and women back to work!

Board Gaming Session

Just wanted to let you know that I am playing board games ALL DAY today so will not be posting anything here. Sorry to those of you not playing today, but surely knowing that I am makes it better?

If that does not make you feel better, why not sign up to our News Letter, that is bound to make you smile!

#board game hour topic

The topic for this weeks #boardgamehour, as voted by you, is "House Rules"..

Do you like them? Do you use any, if so for which game? What does the new rule do to the game? Are there any game you would never house rule? Are you a game designer, how do you feel about house rules?

Come along and join in on our live twitter discussion - 7pm (GMT) 2pm (EST) - Monday December 9th!

News - new game from Terra Nova Games

Terra Nova Games have announced their new game "Ophir"and here's what they had to say:

"Terra Nova Games is excited to announce their next game release, “Ophir” (oh-feer), designed by Jason
D. Kingsley and Charles Wright. Ophir was discovered while it was on demo at the Publisher/Designer
speed dating event at BGGCon 2013 and is the debut design from Jason and Charles. ! !

#boardgamehour highlight suggestions

Hi Folks, just a quick post to say that with the amount of interesting conversation that happens during #boardgamehour each week it is easy for me to miss lots of it. If you have suggestions for highlights, just pop me an email and I'll do my best to put them together for all to see :-)

Just email: Boardgamehour@gmail.com

Thanks!

Line up until Xmas for #Boardgamersask

Hi Folks, thought you might want to know about who we have line up for you to do live Q&A's with before xmas. Here is the scheduled for you to put in your diary (don't pretend you don't):


December 6th - Palomino Labs - Designers of digital board game Rum runners

December 13th - Daniel Solis - Award winning game designer of Happy Birthday, Robot!; Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple; Belle of the Ball & Koi Pond

December 20th - Ryan Metzler - Board Game Reviewer for http://TheDiceTower.com & former play tester, rules editor, and volunteer consultant for Alderac Entertainment Group

In the new year we have none other than Rob Daviau award-winning game designer whose games have been sold world-wide. His work included Risk Legacy, Betrayal at House on the Hill and the much anticipated SeaFall.

If you want us to keep getting such cool guests for you to ask questions of live on twitter then make sure you get involve each week.

Every Friday - start times are:
7pm (GMT)
11am (PST)
12pm (MST)
1pm (CST)
2pm (EST)

For one hour every week, #BoardGamersAsk is your chance to ask questions of the "people behind the meeples"

News - Ares Magazine set to launch

Are you interested in a science fiction magazine that comes with a board game in each issue?

One Small Step Games has announced a crowd-sourced funding campaign for Ares Magazine that will launch on 01 January 2014.

Highlight reel from #Boardgamehour - Games for the Holidays

We are approaching Christmas at break neck speed (I'm so excited) so this weeks topic for #boardgamehour was "Board Games for the holidays".

Once again you fine people trended across the Internet and there were even more people taking part than last week. Here is a very small look at some for the best bits:

Holiday re-skin for a board game
The @TheOneTar asked "What very un-holiday game do you wish there was a holiday reskin of? #BoardGameHour" and a monster idea was created

#boardgamersask Palomino Labs

Hi folks, We are back into our LIVE twitter Q&A format this week, Friday 2pm (EST) 7pm (GMT), and we have something a little different for you to get your teeth into! I was surfing twitter (literally standing on my phone) a few weeks ago and I came across a project that really caught my eye and then my imagination. 

It was a game called Rumrunners, a traitor-based board game of deception and intrigue set during Prohibition. "Oh another one of those were wolf games" I thought, but hang on this has a twist. This is a game you play sat around a table with your friends, but it hinges on a digital component. This is based on an app for your phone, but with all the real life interaction of a board game. This is what got me thinking and it's the reason I want the board game community to ask these guys a lot of questions.

Answer for #boardgamersask Scott Nicholson

I am very excited to be able to post Scott Nicholson's answers to our #boardgamersask questions!


Here are the questions that you asked: