Aaaand We're Back!

I was out of contact last week because I was in Vegas at the GAMA Trade Show.

I've talked to a few people about the show and I had a really hard time judging the show. Nothing seemed to be exciting to people -- although I'm sure the stores are pumped to get some money flowing from the release of D&D 4th Edition -- and nothing really seemed to be angering people, so it wasn't all that exciting.

Jim, Gil, and I had a good time meeting with people, demoing the games for people, and talking up Red Juggernaut. At the show we learned that our first game, Battue, made the list of semi-finalists for the Origins Awards. That was honestly pretty surprising and cool. Sure, we'd submitted the game, but considering the number of board games released (and I'm sure, nominated) every year, we were happy to see us on the list. The whole category is:

BOARD GAME OR EXPANSION
Pillars of the Earth, Mayfair Games, Michael Rieneck and Stefan Stadler
Kingsburg, Elfin Werks, Andrea Chiarvesio and Luca Iennaco
Qwirkle, Mindware, Susan McKiney Ross
StarCraft: The Board Game, Fantasy Flight Games, Corey Konieczka and Christian Petersen
Last Night on Earth, The Zombie Game, Flying Frog Productions, Jason Hill
Chang Cheng. Teknigames, Walter Obert
AmuseAmaze, HL Games USA Limited, Ethan Goffman
Battue: Storm of the Horse Lords, Red Juggernaut, Jim Long
HeroCard Orc Wars, TableStar Games, Nico Carroll
THUGS!, Tiny Mantis Entertainment, Nik Mikros and T. W. Cooney

We'll find out shortly if we've made the shortlist of actual nominees in the running. There are a number of large companies on there with a lot more fans than we currently have, so we'll see how that goes. I'll keep you updated.

A couple weeks before the show, we released out first expansion to Battue, called The Walls of Tarsos. I hadn't seen the final product before, so that was good to hold in my hands. I brought a copy home with me and have it nearby. It turned out very well and really adds some cool things to the game.

We also had a copy of our next game, Mansuba: Challenge of the Pharaohs, on display for people to check out and demo. It also looks really good. I wasn't able to grab a copy of that, but it should be out in the next (let's say) six weeks.

I'll post again soon. I have some business to take care of.