Unpub 4 – Quality games with quality people.
I went to UNPUB 4 for the first time about two week ago because one of my clients recommended it. I had no idea what to expect – except that I have had such a great time at every event or show or festival that is related to games – that I was encouraged – even when I found out the drive was going to be 4 hours with traffic instead of the 2 and a half I had mapped out on the laptop. Fortunately my very best companion for this trip – my daughter Rayne – was very excited to attend – so – after school on Friday – I scooped her up and we headed out down to Delaware. I had checked it out briefly on the computer and it did not seem like it would be too far -maybe 2.5 hours. Once we got on the road though – our Navi was saying things I did not want to hear. Like over 4 hours. How is that even possible? But we kept on – we stopped and ate something and then we did eventually get to Delaware in about 4 hours – just like the danged thing said. Dover Delaware, in fact – at about 9 PM.
We were just in time for the Friday Night get together at the Grotto Pizzeria – where the back room was already a first night get together, check in, free meal, goody bag giveaway, and meet and greet and announcement session – already in progress. When I got there I did not know anyone – except Darrel Louder – who was my contact for the event and the man in charge. Within 10 minutes Glenn Given (of SLASH – Romance without Boundaries , PACK THE PACK and the business card game) found me and introduced me to some people there. UNPUB is a community of game designers, publishers, players, retailers, artists (and now Ad Magic) all working towards the creation of new and upcoming table top games to entertain veteran and hobby gamers alike. I am a self proclaimed accidental gamer – because I only discovered my appreciation of playing tabletop games after I started printing them and attending game events. But UNPUB 4 – so called because it is UNPUB’s 4th year – was even more fun than I thought it would be. Besides meeting some of my existing clients in person and getting excited about some new games, I finally got to PLAY the game that Ad Magic awarded the prize to for best tabletop game at Boston FIG in September of last year – ORE: The Mining Game. Ore: The Mining Game is an independently developed table top strategy game where players compete as mining barons in the Industrial era. It was a challenging and engaging game – it lasted about an hour – and Rayne and I both enjoyed it equally. She did far better than I did scoring wise in the end, – but I guarantee I will do better selling off those barrels next time rather than holding on to them. Anyway, last year I had a giant check designed and I handed it to the winners during the Boston FIG award presentation for Best Tabletop Game. It was pretty cool – here is a pic) In retrospect – I guess I could have even made it a little bigger.
Ad Magic awards 1st prize to Ore at Boston FIG
Here is a pic of us playing ORE.
Rayne and I playing ORE at UNPUB 4
We also got to play one of the other games we saw at Boston FIG – Game of 49, by Mark Corsey. Game of 49 is one of my favorite games personally – I enjoy the game play and the strategy behind the game – and was not surprised to discover that Rayne really enjoyed it as well. I am hoping to have a finished copy of that game in my possession in 2014 – hint hint Mark.
Someone I have been talking to for some time now but had never met before was kickstarter designer Doug Lewandowski of Gothic Doctor. In Gothic Doctor, players are doctors at a clinic on London’s medically-renowned Harley Street in the 1850s. You and your so-called-colleagues compete to earn the most money treating patients – the monsters from Gothic literature. Gothic Doctor is going to launch a new kickstarter soon in 2014 – and I for one – am definitely going to back it.
We met Nick Ferris who was demo-ing two games right next to where we had a small Ad Magic booth setup, both of which we really enjoyed. One is called Super Shopping Spree – which is a fill up your cart as fast as you can with the right items game – and the items are determined by cards that are drawn that round. Fast paced and exciting – when this one is printed it is going to be a staple in my family room. I didn’t even win and I still liked it 🙂 Nick also designed – Les Miserables – a spades type of trick taking game with some some really clever twists revolving around the length of the lives of the players, and the special cards Nick has inserted to make it even more interesting.
I also got to meet Chris, from Dice Hate Me, who we teamed up with to support the Dice Hate Me 54-Card Challenge, which received over 100 entries.
The 54 card challenge was a contest to “create a fun, engaging game using only 54 cards and then put it in front of a bunch of strangers to see how you fared”. Three games were picked as winners, and Chris has some awesome plans to bring them to market in the spring. Personally I love 54 card decks because they are easy for us to print – but as I like to tell clients (and anyone who will listen) – you can print 56 for the same price – so why not add those two extra cards and make some promo cards or something? Just saying. Maybe next year it will be the 56 card challenge Chris?
Something really exciting was the TV NEWS video made by WMDT about Unpub which was actually filmed during the show on Saturday. In it you can see Rayne and I playing Ore The Mining Game. You can even see the Ad Magic banner in the background and all of this was really quite the thrill for us as we had never been on TV before. You can see the news spot here. Thanks to Joe and Jason from ORE for sending me the link to the spot and thanks to Jarred Hill – @jarredhill – the author of the spot – for reposting it on YouTube for me when the TV station took it off their site to make more space.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPalw0zMcfk&feature=youtu.be
I asked her if Rayne would write a review for each of the games she played from a 5th grader’s perspective, as I was unable to play as many as she did and I was interested to see what she thought of them. Her reviews are below.
Rayne’s Game Reviews
The whole time we were there, Rayne was meticulously filling out game reviews in return for door prize tickets, and of course – I was doing the same thing. Finally after losing drawing after drawing (I didn’t think she would ever win anything at all) – Rayne won a great door prize – a special edition of Mars Needs Mechanics signed by the game’s designer – Ben Rosset – pictured here. I tweeted and asked him if he could maybe come up and give us some pointers on the game. Hey Ben – Washington is only 4 hours from here based on google maps…
But you never know with these Navigation systems. Maybe we’d better just Skype instead 🙂
Designer Ben Rosset signs a copy of Mars Needs Mechanics for Rayne
More cheers,
Shari
Tagged as: ad magic, admagic, custom board games, Custom card games, game designers, shari spiro, Unpub, UNPUB 4, unpublished games