"And So You're Back, From Outer Space..."

Let me freely admit that it has been ENTIRELY too long since I updated these pages. I must "once again" apologize. The combination of the quagmire that is "real" (non-gaming?) life, combined with a bit of the ole designer burn out put me on the shelf so to speak. Worry not, Grant and Mike were working diligently on FREEBOOTERS and other items.

But not I'm back. I will catch up on emails (eventually) and unleash information upon you on a more regular (or semi-regular) basis.

So let's do a quick run down and update since our last post...

1. PRUSSIA'S DEFIANT STAND was released in November. We are happy to report that it's components are the same high quality (mounted board etc.) that you found in COWBOYS. The game is slightly higher in complexity than our previous titles, and we have assembled a FAQ fairly quickly. Actually calling it "Frequently Asked Questions" is a misnomer. It is in actuality some frequently asked questions along with whatever else we saw along the way. You can find the FAQ HERE!

2. FREEBOOTERS is one of our upcoming (very upcoming) titles. We have posted more pictures and information on our upcoming games page HERE. There you will find prototype gameboards and the like. You will correctly surmise that we are indeed providing ship battles AND land battles/missions. You can't have a pirate game without a good ole ship to ship boarding action with cannons blazing AND sorties for treasure. The only thing the game doesn't have is ninjas. I will see what I can do about that in future expansions.

Freebooters will provide not only scenario based gaming, but a story based campaign as well. Look for us to also do this with a certain other modular game we have designed.

3. COWBOYS: We are working on two things for this. The first is of course an expansion. New units, scenarios, boards etc. The second is a scenario book that will also provide a storybased campaign format. You can either pick out the scenarios and play them standalone or play it is a campaign, altering qualities of your characters as you go. Plus you get a fun story! We actually plan to use this format in both the full expansion and stand alone "Script" book.

4. CHAINMAIL: Is the working name of the Richard Berg design I mentioned last time. He has actually been talking it up a bit at our Consimworld Forum. You can check that out here.

5. HEARTS and MINDS: Is still in development. Give us time on this one and do know that it is in active development as we speak.

6. Other new games: There are some other announcements coming soon, let me drop a few keyword hints; Caesar, Siege, Screaming Eagles, Vermin...think about those.

Ok I hope this is a good start. Next entry I will talk about about the design process for the Cowboys Script/Scenario book. I will also start a new feature called "Inspirations" where I wax poetic about games I played when I was 12.

Until then...I'm jazzed to be back.

Keep Gaming!

-Matt

"You're saying you won't tolerate this?" " What? I haven't said anything for five minutes."

So let us knock a few things out right quick.

Richard Berg IS designing a game for us. Yes,Richard Berg of the very grognardian styled fame. We are rather stoked. Mr. Berg's design style will bring a new facet to our lineup. Right now the details straight from the man himself are...

A. Medieval Battles.
B. No Dice! No Charts!

He has been kind enough to drop cryptic comments over in the Worthington Games Discussion Forum at Consimworld.

Second of the few....you can still get the pre-order price for Prussia's Defiant Stand. We extended the order deadline to November 1st as we feverishly await the arrival of the aforementioned game. Feel free to pre-order HERE!

Last item of the enumerated few...We are designing a Pirates game. Perhaps designing is a misnomer as we are in fact actually shoring up the design. I'm not going to give a target release date at this point or too heavy a helping of details beyond the fact that this will be a fast and fun Pirates game that currently emphasizes degrees of ship to ship actions. The current title is Freebooters. A freebooter is a Pirate or lawless adventurer. I had to look this up because when I saw the title I thought we were making some sort of Soccer Game.

SOAPBOX derby

We are always interested in taking Bob Frost's road less traveled and attempting the design of themes with previous few visits. Genre's like Pirates and Cowboys are fun to design for because you are in essence given a blank canvas to work with. You can in essence have your way with the medium.

This is ironically the difficulty as well. With previous few games to satiate desires, a game will have to withstand a wide range of needs from the audience. No game can be everything. If you don't like parts of one Gettysburg or Bulge game you can try another another to fulfill the desired experience quota. If someone doesn't like your game on tactical ninja combat, they have precious few other experiences to fall back on and will most likely complain about what they feel your game lacks. This will happen even if you expressly say it was not your intent to make the exact type of game they are looking for.

As a designer you just have to say, "Oh well." If you are honest about the goal of your design, if you do things like post the rules well in advance of release, if you in essence provide the proper mission statement of your work...then you are covered. You just have to roll with the punches and understand that you can't please everyone in a wide open genre.

It could be put this way...I don't get angry when I go to a seafood restuarant and see a menu full of shrimp and flounder. I won't throw a hissy fit because I see only one or two chicken and steak dishes. I realize hey...it's Red Lobster...I should expect fare of the oceanic variety.

Does this make a game above criticism? Certainly not!

COWBOYS 2: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO

That would be a glorious title. There is a lot of action going on with Cowboys right now. It is enjoying the widest initial release of any of our titles. We are getting a lot of feedback from you good folks and we hope you are enjoying playing it!

Naturally there is a lot more we want to do in the way of expansions, add-ons and the like. A personal project of mine has been to meet the desires of those of you looking for a more RPG like experience.

Now I'm afraid I don't have it in me to write you a full fledged dungeon masters book for Cowboys. However what I AM thinking is a halfway union of a movie script and RPG Guidebook. In essence it would be a Cowboys Game Script. It will contain story elements interwoven with new scenarios and characters that you can build and alter as you progress.

Don't worry this won't take the place of any boxed expansion. It would be a fun add-on for those of you looking for something different. The upcoming Blog entries will server as a chronicle for the launching point of our work in this venture.

Stay Tuned and as always...Keep gaming.

"You did it Pa!"

Ok last time I said I was back...now I'm really back. Some personal downtime, (letting Grant and Mike carry the burden as a dynamic duo), along with a trip to Triadcon has reinvigorated my boardgame design energy!

We have a couple things going on...

First we just posted a set of "Advanced" rules for Cowboys: The Way of the Gun. They can be found on our website at http://www.worthingtongames.com in the Downloads section. By the way, does anyone know why I can't seem to post URLs when I post to blogger from my Mac? What the devil is going on? These rules should also find their way to the geek very soon.

Regardless, you will find some interesting things to use for those of you who might want something a little different. We still stand by the basic rule set, but we are always looking to find a new audience and these rules should bring even more people to Cowboys.

The game is already devloping quite the following. A few people have emailed me to say that Cowboys was the darling of the convention at WBC. Tables of people playing raucously is what I like to hear about. Cowboys is perfect for group play with a few beers.

We are definitely going ahead with the expansion, which will include a printed version of the advanced rules. I am also working on something that might interest those of you looking for a more RPG like experience...scripts if you will. Keep an ear out for that.

PRUSSIA'S DEFIANT STAND is defiantly working its way here. We expect the physical specimen in October with disbursement thereafter. I'm really interested to see what people think of this game. The Ron Draker design adds something quite new to our game line-up. You can still purchase the game for the Pre-Order price on our website.

TRIADCON was a nice little jaunt for us. The event was hosted over September 8th and 9th at the University of Maryland. Despite a bit of heat in the game room I was pleased to have a chance to sit and play some games. Grant and I also had a chance to talk to a few friends. I look forward to seeing how Triadcon continues to grow.

UPCOMING DEVELOPMENTS are...well developing. We have a few new titles almost ready for unveiling. I should also mention that we have a few designers working with us, a name here or there that you might know quite well. Look for word on that as soon as we can type them.

Like I said above, I'm feeling reinvigorated and ready to design some games. I look forward to updating all of you soon.

Until then...Keep Gaming!

-Matt

WALK IT OFF

Golly gee whiz Wally...Finally I'm back.

Reports of my demise were greatly exaggerated. We have been a busy bunch these past couple of months and it looks like things are only going to pick up.

This week part of our team heads up to the World Boardgaming Championships in Lancaster Pennsylvania. Grant and Mike will be heading up festivities this year. Ryan and myself will be unable to attend due to commitments at the home office.

The Clash for a Continent Tournament is still on however. We had a turnout of 26 people last year, double the previous year. I hope we can reach 50 this year and show that Clash belongs as a century event.

In September we will also be part of the Meet the Designers event at Triadcon in Washington DC. I'm really stoked about this as I will be in the presence of a pretty prestigious group of designers and developers, all in my favorite city in the nation.

Please feel free at either of these events to drop by say hello. We genuinely enjoy meeting all of you.

So lets recap a bit of what has gone down in the Worthington World...

COWBOYS ROLLOUT

Cowboys has enjoyed a pretty successful rollout both directly to customers and to our distribution partners. Of all of our titles this one has enjoyed the best release thus far.

It's rating is holding well at boardgamegeek and is bound to go up as the game reaches more and more gamers. Getting it complete and out was quite the experience for us. We have enjoyed the response and gamer interaction a lot though. There have been a lot of questions and ideas on boardgamegeek and consimworld and we have been pleased to answer and comment when necessary. So thank you all and don't hesitate to toss out questions, we will answer them as quickly as possible.

PRUSSIA'S DEFIANT STAND IS COMING

Not quite as soon as expected, but nontheless looking at a soft Fall release period. We are committed to taking the same high quality approach as always to this title. It really is something quite different in that it's difficulty is about one step above Forged in Fire.

This was an exciting challenge for us. Could we step up and make something with a tad more complexity than our usual titles without sacrificing playability and enjoyability. My short answer is yes. Ron Draker has done a a splendid job on the design and I look forward to highlighting it in the coming weeks.

We will also be holding a PRUSSIA related contest in the coming weeks. Keep an eye out for that.

TITLES IN DEVELOPMENT

Oh boy, Oh boy, OH boy. I am pretty darn stoked about these, and there is so little I can say. One was hinted at months ago and I can't remember if I let the cat out of the bag on that one yet....but there are a couple more in addition to the previous titles on the list which we hope to have out soon.

I will tell all of you more, as I am allowed to tell you.

48 HOUR FILM FESTIVAL

I was fortunate to have the opportunity to work with a team of fellow filmmakers in creating a short film for the local 48 Hour Film Festival. In short, you have 48 hours to write, shoot, and edit a short film. You are given a genre, prop. character. and line of dialogue that must be in the film. You are then given literally 48 hours to complete and deliver the project.

We pulled the SPY FILM as our genre, and had to use a cell phone as our prop. I like what we came up with. I had the good fortune to co-direct and act in the film. We didn't win for our city, but we did make a pretty darn good film that won one judges award at least. Check it out HERE ( http://www.celloutmovie.com/cellout.htm ) if you get the chance.

Thats a quick and dirty recap of this past month. Obviously I am going to go more in depth as I elaborate more and Prussia and the designs to come. We also have some Podcasting to do! Allright, it feels good to be back. Keep your eyes peeled, I will have more for you soon.

Keep gaming!

Busy, Busy, Busy.....

Yes, as most of most of you undoubtably should know by now..Cowboys is here! Some people have already received their copies. We are shipping them out first directly to customers. Then retailers and distributors get shipments.

Also..the first Worthington Games Podcast is up at http://www.worthingtongames.com/Podcast/Site/Podcast/Podcast.html

We are still working out the kinks so that people can download the episode from the site and Itunes. But for now you can listen in your browser at your leisure. This episode is a short introduction (15 mins) with a little bit about our designs.

The preview copy came to us in the mail not two weeks before the first shipment. It is everything I hoped it would be. I feel like we have raised the bar on Wargame component quantity. The American style art mixed with the Euro quality printing has created the perfect synthesis. But hey..I'm biased!

Check some of my poorly photographed previews





I must again apologize for the lack of posts these past weeks. Here is what has been keeping me from publishing on these fine pages..

1. Working on the arrival of Cowboys.

2. Podcast. This was a bit harder than I expected. Even for someone who does a lot of editing this took time to figure out the methods for recording. I feel like we have it now.

3. Prussia's Defiant Stand: We are hoping to have this ready by WBC. Ron Draker's design is great. We are trying to make the art and production quality match. We are in the rules and graphics stage right now.

4. And of course...the big shipping extravaganza.

Now this doesn't mean we don't have a ton more on tap. My hope is to have more podcasts. The current plan is to do one about every other week. They will be shorter, Generally no longer than 30 mins. We will be taking questions and topic suggestions via email.

We also want to try to do a few videocasts. Our current plan is for the first episode to be an example of play for Cowboys. We will then back track a bit and go through our older titles. Maybe even a video about the upcoming Clash for a Continent Tournament at WBC.

That is a nice time to bring up the WBC in July. We will be there in full force. We will of course be hosting the Clash For a Continent Tournament and demoing Cowboys. WBC is more than a heap of fun. It is flat out good gaming. If you are on the fence about going...go! Trust me. If I could enjoy Lancaster, PA, so can you.

Ok that is it for now. But there is a lot more to come this month. Keep an eye out.

If you have any suggestions or questions you would like answered on the podcast please submit them to wg@worthingtongames.com with PODCAST in the subject heading. We will do our best to answer them and give you a mention.

Until then...

Keep Gaming

Hearts and Minds Contest and Intar-Web Chicanery....

Did I spell "chicanery" correctly? According to Websters online I did. Today's word will be "chicanery". Anytime you see the word "chicanery", please let out a scream, much like Pee Wee's Playhouse.

Let us get down to business...


HEARTS AND MINDS CONTEST....

We announced this a few weeks ago but we wanted to extend the deadline due to proximity with our last contest....

The Vietnam War stands as a watershed event in world history. Many of you in the gaming community have the amazing perspective of having participated in this conflict. We would like to honor you, your family members, friends, and comrades as we prepare to release our Vietnam Wargame HEARTS AND MINDS.


Often as gamers we tend to see only a unit or counter with a crude graphic. Our hope is that this will give us a chance to better understand the terrible conflict that the rest of us can only simulate.

Send us (at wg@worthingtongames.com) a personal combat story of yours, a family member, or a close friend. The stories need to be from Vietnam, the Gulf War or any US conflict since Vietnam. Photos are also appreciated. We will pick a winner at random from all entries and they will receive a free game of their choice from Worthington's titles. Some stories may be posted on our website. Deadline is May 30th.

Our goal with this is not only to provide the winner a free game but to honor the service of our friends and families who have sacrificed so much in these conflicts.

AARON BELL WHERE ARE YOU!?!

Aaron Bell was the winner of April's Forged in Fire contest. Aaron if you are reading please email us at wg@worthingtongames.com, or reply to one of the emails we've sent. We want to send you your prize! To curb "chicanery" (aahhhhhhh!) please use the same email account used to send in the initial contest entry. We want to send your game..to you...not someone using email "chicanery". (ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!)

CSR AWARDS

I onestly thought about using a portion of this viewing space to slyly entice you to vote for one of our 2006 releases for the 2006 CSR awards. I decided against this chicanery because....well I found it wasn't that important to me. Don't get me wrong...A designer always wants recognition. Seeing various geeklists and threads about the subject ALMOST gave me the urge to campaign.

But, as many football coaches have said, at the end of the day, it's about the game...not the awards ceremony. My real hope is that the CSR awards benefit the hobby as a whole. One can argue about how valid certain awards are, or what the categories should be all they want. The key is that the CSR or any other gaming award never caused anyone to NOT buy a game. Well I hope not at least.

With all of this being said. On my own personal ballot I did send a vote to Sean Cooke and Gary Zaboly for the work they did on the artistic portions of our 2006 releases. Those guys are underrated, regardless of whether or not it is my game they are working on. The Alamo Map alone is a testament to this.





Thanks to both Gary and Sean for their hard work.

(Did I just commit an act of chicanery? I'm not sure)

WEBSITE UPDATE and PODCAST!

If you have had the chance to hop over to our website HERE, you have probably noticed our redesign. Again thanks goes out to Sean Cooke. I really like the new design. It has integrated our new storefront quite nicely. It is also really cool to look at.

If you notice up top, in the menu bar you will see links to all of our various offerings...including one yet to come...PODCASTS! Yes folks that is correct we will be podcasting in the very near future. Our offerings will be something a little different. We are not, of course, trying to compete with the top notch shows like Point 2 Point, Dicetower, and Cat Fancy. We will instead be offering something a little different. The Podcast will give gamers the chance to listen to Grant, Mike, and myself joke each other as we chronicle our history, explain the way our sorta unique design process works, and talk about news and releases. Maybe this can spawn some of the Podcast Wars that I suggested to Jason White. We hope you will listen! Keep an eye out.

COWBOYS UPDATE

Like the impending meteor/asteroid in several 1998 disaster films...it is coming. Please believe me when I say no one wants this to be here more than me...right now at this very moment. COWBOYS has very much become my third child. I've built a crib, bought it clothes, now all I need is some water breakage.

As of what I have right now, it is supposed to he hopping on a boat and crossing the Atlantic very...very...soon. We are bending the fabric of time and space in our conversations with friends from Duetschland. May the boat be fast, and the seas be true. Bear with us.

I think that is it for today. Once again I have put off my article on "For Honor and Glory". At this rate the game could very well sell out before I expound on some of my thoughts about the design. I will do that soon...

Until then...keep gaming.

-Matt

PS. CHICANERY!

To the victor go the spoils...

So the Forged in Fire contest is complete and I am very happy to announce the winner...

Congrats to Aaron Bell for his winning entry. He will receive a free copy of "Forged in Fire" for his following submission.


"My favorite piece is the lowliest of the lowly. History had not even left us his name; he was just a 1-2. He came into the game when Hannibal, that mighty 4-6, had faded and passed. It was the final turn of Pax Romana's Punic War, and Carthage was squirming beneath the boot of Scipio. In a last desperate act, 1-2 led his miserable force of mercenaries to the gates of Rome. He was beaten off with losses, but the next activation was his. Head unbowed, he threw himself and his increasingly meagre force against Rome again, and then once more. The gates creaked, the towers shuddered, and the walls fell. 1-2 is 1-2 no more: from now on he is the Conqueror."

I would like to thank everyone that participated. There were a lot of entries and pretty much every one was well written and unique. Really great job by everyone involved. If you would like to read some more of those entries I posted a range of them in a geeklist HERE. This is not a ten best list, it is instead a broad assortment to give everyone an idea of the assortment of answers we received. It really was a great contest and a fun read. Thank you to everyone that participated. I would also like to thank BoardgameGeek, Consimworld, and Point 2 Point Podcast for allowing/helping us get the word out. It really made the contest a lot of fun.

In that same vein if you get a chance, listen to Jason and Scott riff about their favorite leaders on Point2Point episode 21. And yes guys, we will accept Wellington as an answer, even if it is just because he wins a lot. Their forum also has a pretty good discussion about the topic going HERE.

With that completed we have already begun the next contest.

HEARTS AND MINDS CONTEST

The Vietnam War stands as a watershed event in world history. Many of you in the gaming community have the amazing perspective of having participated in this conflict. We would like to honor you, your family members, friends, and comrades as we prepare to release our Vietnam Wargame HEARTS AND MINDS.


Often as gamers we tend to see only a unit or counter with a crude graphic. Our hope is that this will give us a chance to better understand the terrible conflict that the rest of us can only simulate.

Send us at wg@worthingtongames.com a personal combat story of yours, a family member, or a close friend. The stories need to be from Vietnam, the Gulf War or any US conflict since Vietnam. Photos are also appreciated. We will pick a winner at random from all entries and they will receive a free game of their choice from Worthington's titles. Some stories may be posted on our website. Deadline is May 15th.

PRUSSIA, PRUSSIA, PRUSSIA...

The building interest for Ron Draker's, PRUSSIA'S DEFIANT STAND is not falling on deaf ears (or perhaps blind eyes in the case of email). In an attempt to meet this growing interest, I present some newly updated images to you. Perhaps you would like a look at the renovated map and some updates on the cards.



These are still prototypical in nature.

The game is in it's development stage right now. I am working on getting a playtest report up, the game takes a bit longer to play than our normal games however. The entire campaign scenario is definitely a two evening afair, as opposed to the rest of our titles which were one evening games. That being said, we will be offering robust scenarios that can be set up and played comfortably in an evening. The game is maybe one step past the complexity of Forged in Fire.

I find that the battles are particularly exciting. You have options to rebuild your forces so you can allow yourself to swing for the fences every so often, which makes for good block battles. All in all we are really impressed with the design. Kudos to Ron Drake for the original map design and Sean Cooke for taking the evolution to the next step. Sean will definitely have a post all about him in the near future. He does amazing work for us.

I will post up more game specific content up for this as I get it...I promise.

Two final notes: Victoria Cross and For Honor and Glory are getting to the point of where they might be scarce for a while before a reprint down the road. I would grab one soon if you are interested in either. Just sayin!

Allright that is all for today. I will have more game specific info next week.

Thanks and keep gaming!