Joystiq

The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Forbidden Island

Jessica Conditt — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 15:30:00 EST

Indie developers are the starving artists of the video-game world, often brilliant and innovative, but also misunderstood, underfunded and more prone to writing free-form poetry on their LiveJournals. We at Joystiq believe no one deserves to starve, and many indie developers are entitled to a fridge full of tasty, fulfilling media coverage, right here. This week, Sean Wilson of international indie studio Button Mash Games explains how his iPad title, Forbidden Island, is contributing to the tabletop game's renaissance.

What's your game called and what's it about?

Forbidden Island is an iPad board game where one to four adventurers cooperate to capture the four ancient treasures hidden on a sinking island. As the game progresses, parts of the island sink into the ocean, making it more difficult to collect the treasures. The game is based on the award-winning board game designed by Matt Leacock and published by Gamewright.

How were you able to create a licensed game as a brand new indie company?

This was really a combination of confidence and luck. We reached out to Matt Leacock, the original game designer, and expressed our interest in making the game. We created a small gameplay demo and explained our passion for the project and Matt put us in touch with Gamewright. They believed in our enthusiasm and plans for the game so they agreed to work with us. They gave us the freedom to take the game design in the directions we believed were best, but pushed us to reach further than we would have if we didn't have any outside feedback. The game has tons of improvements directly because of their ideas.

Continue reading The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Forbidden Island

The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Forbidden Island originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 19 Feb 2012 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Get over $1000 worth of pen-and-paper RPGs for donating $20 to Haiti

Mike Schramm — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 02:00:00 EST

Like tabletop RPGs and want to help Haiti? That should include every single one of you. Otherwise, get off this site right now and go roll yourself a 20-sided die and see how much fun it is. Then come back, and go donate $20 to Doctors Without Borders through the Gamers Helping Haiti program on DriveThruRPG.com. Just by throwing a Jackson in the pot, you'll get the chance to download $1481.31 worth of old school pen-and-paper RPG rulebooks, scenarios, campaign settings and addendums. That's more orcs, droids, bards, free actions and critical hits than you'll ever need in your entire lifetime!

The set includes the full Serenity RPG, the Castlemourn campaign setting and full sets of rules for both pirate- and zombie-based roleplaying games, among about a million other little RPG related downloads. Not to mention that by donating, you're helping out the cause of Doctors without Borders in Haiti, and you don't have to be watching CNN to know that those folks need all of the bonuses to Strength they can get these days. What are you waiting for? Don't roll for initiative -- just go do it!

[via The Escapist]

Get over $1000 worth of pen-and-paper RPGs for donating $20 to Haiti originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 23 Jan 2010 02:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Warmachine game attacking PC, consoles

Xav de Matos — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 16:30:00 EST

According to a statement made to BigDownload, the video game adaptation of Privateer Press' tabletop fantasy war game Warmachine is currently in development for the PC and (unspecified) consoles. Quietly announced in August, the Warmachine video game is being developed by the indie team at WhiteMoon Dreams and will feature player control of "various warcasters and their warjack battle groups" across interactive battlefields in both single and multiplayer modes.

WhiteMoon Dreams' Norvell Thomas promises we'll get a chance to see whatever that last sentence even means in a "gorgeous" demo by GDC 2010. Thomas adds that the indie dev's goal is to "wow" publishers at the conference in order to fund full development of the table-top adaptation.

Warmachine game attacking PC, consoles originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 28 Nov 2009 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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D&D rolls with the changes, ported to Microsoft Surface

Griffin McElroy — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:05:00 EST

By the time your average Dungeons and Dragons player has failed his third death save and gone off to that great dungeon in the sky, he or she's spent nearly $800,000 on miniatures and various-sided dice. (Trust us, it adds up.) Keeping that number in mind, we'd like to turn your attention to an alternative to tangible tabletop gaming: Surfacescapes, an in-development application for the Microsoft Surface, which attempts to recreate the D&D experience on an outrageously large touch screen. As the Surface currently costs $12,500, the lifetime savings would be abundant.

Sure, there's a few kinks to work out -- the dice roll a little slow for our tastes, though this would make saving throws infinitely more dramatic. There's also the small matter of how introducing this technology into the game might diminish the whole "role-playing" element. If used just for combat encounters, it could be a powerful streamlining tool. For everything else, it would need to be fitted with an Imagination Manifestation Drive[TM], and those don't exist yet.

Check out a demo of Surfacescape's proof of concept in the video after the jump.

[Via Engadget]

Continue reading D&D rolls with the changes, ported to Microsoft Surface

D&D rolls with the changes, ported to Microsoft Surface originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Blood Bowl dev wants to work on Games Workshop's 'forgotten IPs'

Griffin McElroy — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 03:30:00 EST

If you're a fan of tabletop war games, you're probably hotly anticipating Cyanide's video game adaptation of Games Workshop's classic fantasy-football mash-up, Blood Bowl. You are also probably pretty old, and have a large, curly beard. Likely a gray or white beard, due to the aforementioned elderliness.

We've got great news for these senescent war game enthusiasts -- in a recent interview with Eurogamer, Cyanide's Antoine Villepreux explained the developer would be glad to tend to Games Workshop's "forgotten IPs that we think deserve video game adaptations." If the words Inquisitor and Mighty Empires bring haste to your old, old heart, a table-to-TV adaptation of your favorite Games Workshop franchises might be within the realm of possibilities.

Blood Bowl dev wants to work on Games Workshop's 'forgotten IPs' originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 30 Apr 2009 03:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Joystiq impressions: Ubisoft's RUSE

Kevin Kelly — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 12:21:00 EST

Randal Graves: I don't appreciate your ruse, ma'am.
Indecisive Video Customer: I beg your pardon?
Randal Graves: Your ruse. Your cunning attempt to trick me.

Clerks (1994)

Ubisoft is betting against Kevin Smith and hoping that you will appreciate its cunning attempts to trick you with this real-time strategy game that feels like a board game on steroids. Ubi announced the game at GDC earlier this year, but besides the strange Euro-trailer and a few screenshots, there wasn't much to go on. Thankfully, the publisher has released the above gameplay video that shows off the new IRISZOOM engine that powers the game -- now you can see what the game's all about.

RUSE has a very robust tabletop feel, and opens up to an impressive scale. Read on after the break to see just how the "ruses" work.

Gallery: R.U.S.E.

Continue reading Joystiq impressions: Ubisoft's RUSE

Joystiq impressions: Ubisoft's RUSE originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 21 Apr 2009 12:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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New Blood Bowl trailer pits rats against lizards

Jason Dobson — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 07:00:00 EST

Like you, we've spent a good deal of time in our backyards, wrangling together neighborhood mice and lizards and forcing them to play miniature games of football. Now, a new trailer for the video game re-imagining of tabletop favorite Blood Bowl looks to bring that fun indoors, as the rat-like Skaven skitter about down field against brutish Lizardmen. That's something you won't see in Sunday's big game.

In development at Cyanide Studio, Blood Bowl is expected to take the field for the PC, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS and PSP in the second quarter of 2009. Finally, we'll be able to settle the age old question of which is better at tossing around the pigskin: reptiles or stupid, stupid rat creatures.

Download Blood Bowl Skaven vs Lizardmen Trailer HD (36 MB)

New Blood Bowl trailer pits rats against lizards originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 30 Jan 2009 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wii Warm Up: Card and board games (without the cleanup)

David Hinkle — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 08:00:00 EST

Filed under: Wii Warm Up

The news that Uno would be gracing WiiWare came as a pleasant surprise to us. We love card games, board games, and anything of the like, but we're just not big fans of cleaning them up. Or, in some cases, setting them up (looking at you, Axis & Allies).

What card/board games would you want to see grace WiiWare? Do you think a WiiWare is due for some Texas Hold 'Em or something?

Wii Warm Up: Card and board games (without the cleanup) originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 13 Jan 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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PAX 2008: Count all the pretty pieces in the tabletop gaming gallery

Kevin Kelly — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 21:00:00 EST

Filed under: Culture, Puzzle, RPGs, Strategy, Casual

One of the best things about PAX is that it's not just all about video games. There are legions of people who still enjoy doing it old school, and that includes board games, tabletoppers, and RPGs. We witnessed people playing everything from the massive, sprawling, plastic-fest of Twilight Imperium to the simple wordplay of Apples to Apples. Heck, even the final elimination round of the Omegathon was a Jenga showdown.

Check out the gallery below that's filled with people who still love how a pair of dice feels in their hands. To those about to roll, we salute you.

Gallery: PAX 2008: Tabletop Gaming

PAX 2008: Count all the pretty pieces in the tabletop gaming gallery originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 31 Aug 2008 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Zombies!!! coming to Xbox Live Arcade???

Kevin Kelly — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 08:00:00 EST

Filed under: Retro, Microsoft Xbox 360, Action, Adventure, Casual

Hopefully that's enough punctuation in one headline for you. Apparently an eager gamer had sent in some ideas on how to turn their Zombies!!! game, which pretty much keep them rolling in brains and entrails, into an Xbox Live Arcade title, and was told "that they were already underway with this very project." We decided this was something we needed to look into ourselves, given our love of tabletop gaming.

We caught up with Todd A. Breitenstein of Twilight Creations in the extremely slim booth congregation at Comic-Con's gaming portion and he said, "I can neither confirm nor deny the existence of such a project... but do you think it would be cool?" A tile-flipping game was an escape from ravenous zombies plot? Heck yes, we would. While we enjoy getting our game on in Catan, Carcassonne, and even Ticket to Ride, we'd also love to see some good old-fashioned killing of the undead happening as well. Maybe they could even include their flipside game Humans!!! in the deal.

[Thanks, Barry!]

Zombies!!! coming to Xbox Live Arcade??? originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 30 Jul 2008 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Blood Bowl isn't just a vampire's breakfast

David Hinkle — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 14:50:00 EST

Filed under: News

No, in fact it's a video game. Imagine that? Arriving courtesy of French developer Cyanide, Blood Bowl is a title based on the Games Workshop fantasy tabletop game of the same name. Cyanide assures us that the game will be a "faithful representation" of the tabletop experience, so fans should find their title intact on the DS, barring any unforeseen circumstances.

If you want to check out some of the many versions of the tabletop game, hit up this link here.

[Via Joystiq]

Blood Bowl isn't just a vampire's breakfast originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 15 Nov 2007 14:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Off the Grid reviews Diceland

Scott Jon Siegel — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 11:46:00 EST

Filed under: Reviews, Strategy

Every other week Scott Jon Siegel contributes Off the Grid, a column on gaming away from the television screen or monitor.

Continuing our love-fest with the games of James Ernest (we'll be moving on to other designers soon, I promise), we've come to Diceland, a unique two-player tabletop title that's been the opening game of every PAX Omegathon thus far. So, you know, it must be doing something right.

What makes Diceland so unique is its game pieces: large, eight-sided paper dice that the players assemble themselves. In the standard game, players select a team of five dice, each representing a different character. Rather than play cards or position miniatures, the placement of characters is accomplished by literally rolling them onto the table; where they land is where they are. From there, players take turns repositioning dice, rolling new ones, or aiming to take out their opponent's. Points are scored for each defeated enemy die, and first to 50 points wins.

Continue reading Off the Grid reviews Diceland

Off the Grid reviews Diceland originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 29 Jun 2007 11:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tabletop gaming con comes to Iraq

Kyle Orland — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 17:25:00 EST

Filed under: Culture, Retro, RPGs

We know that those serving in Iraq tend to be big on first-person shooters like Halo and Star Wars: Dark Forces, but what about Army gamers whose tastes run a little more cerebral? For them, Ziggurat Con will provide the opportunity to blow off some steam with a day of good, old-fashioned tabletop role-playing.

Described as "the very first D&D convention/game day ever held in a war zone," Ziggurat Con will give soldiers "a place where we can go somewhere far away from the IED's, mortar attacks, and gunfire, without ever leaving the safety of our camp," said Con organizer David Amberson. The Camp Adder/Tallil Airbase Community Activity Center will become a role-playing and anime-watching paradise for nine hours on June 9, with the blessing of the Army's Morale, Welfare and Recreation Department.

Many game manufacturers have agreed to donate materials for the gamers, but the scarcity of gaming stores in the greater Iraqi area may force attendees to share dice. It's true what they say ... war is hell.

Tabletop gaming con comes to Iraq originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 20 Apr 2007 17:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Halo figurines molded for WizKids' Clix wargame

James Ransom-Wiley — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 13:29:00 EST

Filed under: Culture, Strategy

Halo is now the latest brand to be miniaturized for WizKids' tabletop 'Clix' wargame system. The HeroClix maker has reached a deal with Bungie and Microsoft to design a collectable miniatures game (CMG) based on the Halo universe, dubbed Halo ActionClix. The first set will include more than 80 figurines, including representations adapted from Halo 3. Figures will be sold in randomized booster packs, while vehicles and a 'Starter Game' will be sold in diorama display format.

Halo ActionClix is expected to go on sale in September. Pre-release promotional figures will be featured at San Diego Comic-Con (July 26-29), and at Gen Con Indy (August 16-19).

WizKids founder Jordan Weisman and Microsoft share a history of business ventures, likely explaining how the coveted Halo license has landed in WizKids' hands. Weisman, who co-founded FASA Corporation, sold the company's video game division (FASA Interactive) to Microsoft before eventually departing FASA to form WizKids. WizKids has produced CMGs based on MechWarrior, Shadowrun, and Crimson Skies; notable because Microsoft has or will publish video games also based on these IPs. Now we add Halo to that list.

[Thanks, Jonah]

Halo figurines molded for WizKids' Clix wargame originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 05 Feb 2007 13:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Japanese hardware sales, 18 September - 24 September: Dungeons and Dragons edition

Jason Wishnov — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 19:30:00 EST

Filed under: News

The Dark Sage, Lyte, has been travelling 'cross the land, defeating evil monsters wherever they may roam!

What's my level?

21, now quiet. You're ruining the mood. *ahem* So, you come across a dark cave. Rumors say this cave holds a treasure of infinite power. Do you wish to enter?

Totally.

Dude, a Dark Sage wouldn't say ... never mind. Okay, you go in the cave. A trap! Spikes come up from the floor. Roll to evade.

Why do you always put traps in caves?

I'm the game master, dammit, I can do whatever the hell I want! *ahem* Roll. Ah, a 17! You manage to evade the traps. You venture deeper into the cave. What...what's this? Oh, it's horrifying! It's ... no, but it can't be ... but it is! It's the evil Passion-Sucking Pixie! It attacks! You lose 23,118 HP!

Oof! Uh...I cast Magic Missile!

The spell did 139,835 damage! The Pixie dies! You gain two experience points!

Just two?

Dude, you've killed it like a thousand times.

- DS Lite: 139,835 4,950 (3.69%)
- PS2: 32,673 1,516 (4.43%)
- PSP: 23,118 3,877 (14.36%)
- GBA SP: 2,145185 (7.94%)
- Game Boy Micro: 1,186 58 (4.66%)
- Xbox 360: 1,109 181 (19.50%)
- Gamecube: 763 133 (21.11%)
- DS Phat: 316 162 (33.89%)
- GBA: 20 7 (25.93%)
- Xbox: 8 1 (14.29%)

(Note to readers: the DS Fanboy staff is rather inexperienced with D&D, so we apologize for any inaccuracies. Or if we offended. We love you guys!)

[Source: Media Create]

Japanese hardware sales, 18 September - 24 September: Dungeons and Dragons edition originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 29 Sep 2006 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Best Buy gets exclusive Mage Knight promo

Alan Rose — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 11:30:00 EST

Filed under: PC, Action, Adventure, Online, RPGs

Namco Bandai Games has announced an exclusive retail promotion with Best Buy for Mage Knight Apocalypse, which will be available next Tuesday. This limited edition version of the action-RPG includes a redemption coupon for a free Mage Knight dragon figurine from the popular WizKids tabletop game. According to a Namco Bandai spokesperson, the collectible is intended to give gamers "extra incentive to dive into the Mage Knight universe." Hopefully, Apocalypse will live up to its expectations, or we could be seeing lots of little dragons on eBay in the near future.

See also:

Best Buy gets exclusive Mage Knight promo originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 21 Sep 2006 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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