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Welcome to our Week 11 News Round Up!
The more astute of you will have noticed that something odd happened last week. Your weekly dose of Otter-orientated news, pics and other bits and pieces was mysteriously AWOL from your email tray. I was going to make up some spurious, witty and entirely too contrived story about bees, chaos theory, rogue email servers and a rip in the fabric of space. I might still if I get bored! 🙂 Sadly the truth is more mundane that my review writing exploits, preparations for UK Games Expo and my day job sending me away to exotic Amsterdam for a couple of days interfered with my update writing schedule. Fear not however! Things have toned down from Blade Runner type insane to a more sedate Oliver and Hardy’esque type slapstick so I’m back on the job (so to speak). Now my rambling excuses are out of the way, what have we been up to I hear you ask!
Well currently life in Otter World is more exciting than a small Scotty dog who has a new friend with a ball to play with. We had a winner for our massive $150 April “Win a board game” competition in the shape of Frank Auge who chose Cthulu Wars as his prize. Our T-shirts and mouse mats arrived for UK Games Expo and we duly reserved a bunch of them for UK Games Expo attendees from the Boardgame Group, and our sample prints of Creature College are nearing completion across in China!
We’ve also reviewed a couple of games this month in the shape of Trench by Rui Alipio Monteiro and Five Tribes – The Kingdoms of Naqala. Neither of which has stopped us from backing a whole bunch of stuff on Kickstarter including Gruff which has torn through it’s Kickstarter target and is obviously on it’s way to greatness.
Lastly Happy Otter Games now comes to you with added Otter! We’ve partnered up with the wonderful folks over at the International Otter Survival Fund to help raise awareness and funds for the great conservation work they do.
T-Shirts and Mouse Mats
That’s right! We now have Creature College merchandise which we’ll mostly be giving away at exhibitions across the summer.
If for some mad reason you fancy one of these just drop me a line at orhan@happyottergames.com. The T-shirts are £15($22) and the mouse mats are £5($7.50) both with free postage.
Creature College Really Exists Now!
Well not the actual college itself but the game at least! Our brilliant printers Wingo across in Guang Dong province China have been beavering away and have sent us the first photos of production proofs of the game!
They’re working on the final samples right now and should be finished for the 20th May so we’ll have a real game to play at UK Games Expo! Which for those people that don’t know is at the Birmingham NEC Hilton Metropole from the 29th-31st of this month.
Review Fever
I’ve been meaning to do some game reviews for a while and finally got around to it over the last couple of weeks. Trench had intrigued me for a while and I’d seen some reports of it. Rui was kind enough to let me buy a copy and sent it all the way from the shores of Portugal. The whole idea of the game really fascinated me and after a couple of games I knew tthat I really wanted to review it. You can read the review here if you missed it.
I’d also seen and heard great things about Five Tribes, the latest blockbuster from Days of Wonder. Amazon kindly furnished me with my copy and after the very first game I was hooked playing it three more times before the end of the weekend! Although there are lots of reviews on this terrific game already you can read my thoughts on it here.
Kickstarter Spree and More Gruff!
So a whole bunch of Kickstarters grabbed my attention and hard earned cash this month. Some of them are still active so you can still have a flutter if the mood takes you! Cauldron is a game of competitive alchemy and looks like a good cross over game for board game newbies and more seasoned gamers. Dragon Punch describes itself as a tiny card game and at a $10.50 pledge level is one of the more affordable of the Kickstarter games. Next isn’t a game but I had to give it a shout simply because it’s such a great idea. Mash Me is a piece of software that intends to take you and turn you into an animated avatar. At only a $20 minimum pledge level to get the software this is really cool functionality.
Finally…yes it’s still out there and it’s smashed through it’s target…it’s Gruff! I know I’ve harped on endlessly about this but if you haven’t backed it yet it’s only $25. Go back it now! Mutated Monster Goats…I mean…come on!
Happy Otter Games Now With Added Otter Power
We’ve always wanted to marry good business and great fun with worthwhile causes and now we’ve got the chance thanks to the lovely people over at the International Otter Survival Fund. The European Otter is a “Near Endangered” species and the folks over at the IOSF do great work helping to conserve these beautiful animals. You’ll see us collecting for the fund at most of the events we’re going to this year.
Well that just about wraps it up for this week. Until next week, have fun, play some great games and stay safe!
Orhan.
Happy Otter Games 