Midwinter Gaming Convention has held a special place in our hearts ever since we launched the Kickstarter for our first title RobotLab from the exhibit hall floor 2 years ago. Back then, we were one of the only board game publishing companies at the show. This year, we were thrilled to find 6 other board game companies in the exhibit hall, and we had a lot of fun playing their games. Below, we’ve highlighted a few games we enjoyed playing.
HABA
HABA isn’t a new-comer to board games but was new to this convention. Based out of Germany, HABA has been around for over 80 years. It was great to have them here because their games are tailored for young children which can be challenging for parents to find. Honestly, we can write an entire post about HABA but for now we’ll highlight two notable games at their booth.
Dragon’s Breath won 2018 Kinderspiel des Jahres (Children’s Game of the Year). We loved this game because the design is cute, and we love the shiny gem components. The winner is randomized and luck-based, which is great for kids who may not like to lose too bad. Educationally, the game teaches kids to organize gems by color and to count the gems.
Unicorn Glitterluck is another cute game where players roll a die, move around the board, and try to land on special clouds to earn gems. When a player lands on the last cloud, the game ends and players count their gems. Players with the most gems win. We really like how they’ve thought to print a count your gems chart on the back of the board. Again this is a dice rolling, luck game that teaches counting and has bright pink gems. We loved this game so much that 3 members of XYZ Game Labs brought home a copy for their daughters and goddaughters.
Phil N. Blank
Phil N. Blank is a 5 person (2 teams of two players and 1 judge) party game. Phil or Phyllis N. Blank is trying to win the game of life by dying first. Teams consist of one angel and one devil. The Angel helps your character by winning quarter-life situation cards with their positive story that incorporates a phrase card. The Devil tries to stop the opposing team’s character from winning quarter-life situation cards with their negative story that incorporates a phrase card. Teams win situation cards when God (a judge), decides whether or not the Angel or the Devil story won that situation. As teams collect situation cards, their character progresses through this challenging story of life starting with childhood, moving onto teenage-years, and ending at the adult years until a character dies. First team to die, wins!
We like that it’s a fun, story-telling party game. Like most party games, it’s heavily dependent on the people you’re playing with and hoping that they’re funny and open to getting real creative with their stories. We especially like that you can sabotage another team’s character by playing the Devil. Since Phil N. Blank is in the early phases of development, we had a lot of feedback but it’s safe to say that they’ve got a game!
Oathen
Oathen is an RTS style hero combat game like League of Legends or DOTA. Each player controls a hero with specific powers. We were amazed by the sheer number of playable heroes and diversity of their abilities. The game is played on a small grid of tiles which start face down to simulate ‘Fog of War’. Players choose actions from a deck of cards, either a move action or some other defensive or offensive ability. The Designer even included a small “cooldown” track that abilities are placed on after being used. Every turn, abilities move down the track one space and when they get to the end they are ready to use again and go back into your deck. Some abilities have longer “cooldown” periods before you could use them again and thus are placed higher up the track. It’s often hard to replicate video game mechanics on the kitchen table, but this was done excellently. Finally, we love the striking art and cool minis for the heroes which made the game really immersive. The designer told us he is going to Kickstarter soon, and we will for sure be keeping an eye on Oathen’s campaign.
ArchRavelry Playtest
We ran two events called “XYZ Game Labs Super Secret Playtest”. These events are a chance for us to get some playtesting feedback on prototypes for some of our upcoming games and give folks a sneak peek at what we’re working on. One of the games we tested was ArchRavelry, a game about competitive crafting. Players have the option to shop, browse, and craft items. A combination of crafted items completes a project which are worth points. Players with the most points at the end of the game win. Use your resources wisely because any leftover yarn or your “Basket of Shame” is deducted from your final point total. We received some excellent feedback from both game enthusiasts and knitters during our playtest. Players were so enthused that some even wanted to take home our prototype! At least we know the game is heading in the right direction!