Publisher: Valley Games

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Upcoming and recently released games. Go to Gone Cardboard for a full listing of release dates.

Publisher Game Designer Released Release date Hot
Valley Games Bugs no August 2010 1
Valley Games Two By Two no August 2010 1
Valley Games Bargain Hunter no September 2010 8
Valley Games Master Builder
no September 2010 1
Valley Games Crows no October 2010 1
Valley Games Liberté no October 2010 3

Game Announcement

Liberté, Egalité, Play Someday

Submitted by W. Eric Martin on Thu, 2010-07-15 13:20

Liberté (Valley Games)

Game name: 
Designer: 
— October 2001 yes
— October 2010 no
Featured at: Spiel 2010
Players: 
3-6
Ages: 
12+
Playing time: 
90 minutes
Price: 
$60
Language: 
Dutch
Language: 
English
Language: 
French
Language: 
German
Language: 
Italian
Language: 
Spanish
Link to more information
Link to the BGG game page

In early July 2010, I tweeted a note about the new version of Martin Wallace's Liberté being listed by a U.S. distributor, which suggested the game would be released sometime in the near future. (Wallace's own Warfrog Games first published the design in 2001.) Publisher Valley Games made the official announcement of the game on July 14 – Bastille Day, appropriately enough – and here's the description from the publisher:

In Liberté, players shape the political landscape of revolutionary France. They compete in provincial elections to gain votes in the government and opposition which in turn award victory points. Successfully leading the army in battle and winning the election in key provinces will also score victory points.

The game is played over four turns with each turn consisting of multiple action rounds. The most common action is to play a card to stack faction blocks in the provinces. Special cards may be played to weaken rivals. Players may also participate in the battle and recruit the best General, among other options. Players can retain some cards in their personal display. These cards can then be replayed (advanced) to resolve ties. If not used by the end of the turn, they return to the player’s hand, available for the next turn.

After the action rounds, the election is resolved in each province. The three factions competing for the new government are the Moderates (blue), the Royalists (white), and the Radicals (red). The player with the largest stack in a province controls that vote. Ties are very common, however, so players may advance their held cards to gain the advantage.

Read more »

Game Announcement

Rosenberg's Bargain Hunter – On the Valley Games Schedule

Submitted by W. Eric Martin on Tue, 2010-06-15 00:51

Bargain Hunter

Game name: 
Designer: 
— September 2010 no
Featured at: Spiel 2010
Players: 
3-4
Ages: 
10+
Playing time: 
45 minutes
Price: 
$17
Language: 
English
Language: 
German
Language: 
French
Language: 
Dutch
Language: 
Spanish
Language: 
Italian
Language: 
Chinese
Link to more information
Link to the BGG game page
Link to English rules

In August 2007, I posted a news item announcing the return of Uwe Rosenberg's fantastic card game Schnäppchen Jagd from then relative newcomer Canadian publisher Valley Games. Now Valley Games has finally announced a release date for the renamed Bargain Hunter: September 2010.

For those not familiar with the game, here's a summary from that 2007 Boardgame News post:

Schnäppchen Jagd is a trick-taking game that's standard in some ways and unusual in many others. In each trick, each player plays one card to the table, following suit if possible, and the high card wins the trick and leads. That’s the end of the normal stuff.

As for the unusual, the deck has two cards of each suit/rank combination, and if you play an identical card in a trick, you can announce that it's higher or lower than the card already played. More interestingly, trump is determined each trick. If the second player in a trick can't follow suit, that player can name the suit that he does play trump for that trick; if he passes, the third player (if throwing off a third suit) can name that suit trump. Your goal is to collect cards of a particular rank, preferably in large groups, as you score one rank of cards after each round and two ranks after the final round.

This game has been updated on Gone Cardboard.

Bargain Hunter – card images

Game Announcement

Fight Pests and Opponents in Bugs

Submitted by W. Eric Martin on Tue, 2010-06-15 14:53

Bugs

Game name: 
Designer: 
— August 2010 no
Featured at: Spiel 2010
Players: 
3-6
Ages: 
10+
Playing time: 
30 minutes
Price: 
$13
Language: 
English
Language: 
French
Language: 
German
Language: 
Italian
Language: 
Spanish
Language: 
Chinese
Link to more information
Link to the BGG game page
Link to English rules
Link to German rules
Link to French rules
Link to Spanish rules
Link to Italian rules
Link to Chinese rules

Canadian publisher Valley Games has announced an August 2010 release date for Keith Meyers' Bugs, noting that the game is already at the printer.

At first glance, Bugs is reminiscent of Reiner Knizia's Escalation (BGN review) in that players take turns adding single cards or multiple identical cards to a central pile with the goal of taking as few cards as possible in each round.

As for how the games differ, while the cards in Escalation are distributed across a rough bell curve – lots of 6s and 7s, few 2s and 13s – the card distribution in Bugs takes a cue from The Great Dalmuti: nine 1s, eight 2s, and so on to one 9. When playing onto an existing swarm of cards, a player can lay down cards matching the value previously played – for example, adding a 4 to one or more 4s played on the previous turn – or playing higher valued cards that sum to more than the current bug total.

Bugs – one of each card

A bigger difference between the two games is that when a player chooses not to play or cannot play, she picks up all the cards in the swarm and adds them to her hand. Thus, she'll have more possibilities for what to play down the road. In addition, if a player has the lead, she can discard all cards of a single value from the game if she has all of them in her hand.

A few action cards mix up the otherwise straight numbers game, such as an exterminator that drops the swarm total back to zero and a wild bug that can be paired with any type of insect.

This game has been updated on Gone Cardboard.

Game Announcement

Crows

Submitted by W. Eric Martin on Sun, 2010-06-27 13:39

Crows

Game name: 
Designer: 
— October 2010 no
Featured at: Spiel 2010
Players: 
2-4
Ages: 
10+
Playing time: 
45 minutes
Link to the BGG game page

Use your shiny objects to attract crows and win!

Game Announcement

Master Builder Coming Again from Valley Games

Submitted by W. Eric Martin on Wed, 2010-06-16 14:09

Master Builder

Game name: 
Designer: 
Designer: 
— September 2010 no
Featured at: Spiel 2010
Players: 
2-4
Ages: 
10+
Playing time: 
60 minutes
Price: 
$55
Language: 
English
Language: 
German
Link to more information
Link to the BGG game page
Link to English rules

Canadian publisher Valley Games released Wolfgang Kramer and Hartmut Witt's Master Builder at Spiel 2008 in English and German – but the game never materialized on store shelves after that date. Now Valley Games has announced that the second printing of Master Builder will be available in September 2010, with enchanced artwork compared to the initial print run. Here's a summary of the game play from the publisher:

You are a great master builder in the Middle Ages. You employ master craftsmen, foremen, tradesmen and apprentices. You bid on building contracts and with your workforce construct buildings. Upon completing each building you receive money so you can pay wages and possibly take on extra workers. Unforeseen events such as town fairs, fires and higher wages in other cities can make managing your projects very difficult. Also, not all workers are as committed to their jobs as others and some may just not show up for work simply because they were out late the evening before. All this could result in you having to deal with higher costs, late completions of your building projects or the need to dismiss workers.

In the course of the game beautiful buildings will be created and at the end a medieval city will stand in the middle of the table – complete with city walls, fortified towers, city gates, houses and a town hall.

Master Builder – display

Your aim is to become the greatest and most famous master builder of the Middle Ages. Of course, your opponents will have the same aim so a lively contest will develop for supremacy in the building trade. The winner will be the player who has the most money at the end of the game.

Read more »

Game Announcement

Keep the Animals Safe in Two By Two

Submitted by W. Eric Martin on Thu, 2010-04-08 17:00

Two By Two

Game name: 
Designer: 
— August 2010 no
Featured at: Spiel 2010
Players: 
2-4
Ages: 
8+
Playing time: 
45 minutes
Price: 
$40
Language: 
English
Link to more information
Link to the BGG game page
Link to English rules

Canadian publisher Valley Games will release Rob Bartel's Two By Two sometime in 2010. Here's a brief game description from the publisher:

This is a wonderful title of collecting animals along the storyline of Noah and his Ark. Players move their boats around a steadily deteriorating landscape, matching pairs to rescue stranded animals. The goal is to find matching pairs of animals and bring them onto your ark before your opponents raise the waters. There are six animals of every type, except for the unicorns, of which there are only two.

The game has two variants for play, for the younger crowd a simple matching and collecting method, where the more advanced version adds different scoring options that makes the game competitive right from the beginning!

Two By Two – game board

This game has been added to Gone Cardboard.

Related content

Convention report

Origins 2010

Submitted by Mary Prasad on Fri, 2010-08-20 20:23

Origins Game Fair logoThe 35th Origins Game Fair was held in Columbus, Ohio, June 23-27, 2010. Attendance was up from last year by just over 6%, from around 10,000 to 10,669. Exhibitor space sold out this year and sponsorship increased to 19. Fair-only passes were once again offered for a cost $5 per person/day or $10 per family/day. Fair-only passes allow entrance to the exhibit hall, art show, Origins Theme Area for breakfast or evening events, auction, open gaming, and the Mystery Dinner (with additional $40 fee), but not ticketed events.

This year was a bit of a challenge for the GAMA (Game Manufacturers Association) crew running Origins. Although the convention has been running for 35 years, this past year or two saw a lot of turnover. In some cases it was like starting over. This included the website and registration system. In addition, on Wednesday, the first day of the convention, they were unexpectedly overwhelmed with registrants. From the Executive Director of GAMA, John Ward: "We had a fantastic surprise on Wednesday as 68% of last year's numbers were already in the door by close of business Wednesday night! Next year we will be ready for the rush!" Read more »

Game designer diary

Two By Two: Part IV – Rainbows & Unicorns

Submitted by Rob Bartel on Sun, 2010-07-18 01:00
Discussed game: 

Game Announcement

Keep the Animals Safe in Two By Two

Submitted by W. Eric Martin on Thu, 2010-04-08 17:00

Two By Two

Game name: 
Designer: 
— August 2010 no
Featured at: Spiel 2010
Players: 
2-4
Ages: 
8+
Playing time: 
45 minutes
Price: 
$40
Language: 
English
Link to more information
Link to the BGG game page
Link to English rules

Canadian publisher Valley Games will release Rob Bartel's Two By Two sometime in 2010. Here's a brief game description from the publisher:

This is a wonderful title of collecting animals along the storyline of Noah and his Ark. Players move their boats around a steadily deteriorating landscape, matching pairs to rescue stranded animals. The goal is to find matching pairs of animals and bring them onto your ark before your opponents raise the waters. There are six animals of every type, except for the unicorns, of which there are only two.

The game has two variants for play, for the younger crowd a simple matching and collecting method, where the more advanced version adds different scoring options that makes the game competitive right from the beginning!

Two By Two – game board

This game has been added to Gone Cardboard.

In Two by Two, a colorful 45-minute family strategy game for 2-4 players, coming in August 2010 from Valley Games, players take turns navigating their boats along the shores of a rapidly deteriorating landscape, placing raindrops, revealing new animals, and rescuing them in pairs for endgame scoring.

Part one of this designer diary discussed the origins and early playtesting of Two by Two, part two described my trip to Columbus, Ohio to demonstrate it at the annual Origins Game Fair; and part three discussed how the game found its way into the hands of publisher Valley Games. "Rainbows & Unicorns," my final installment in the series, discusses the art and product positioning of Two by Two and some of the choices Valley Games and I made along the way.

I always find it fascinating to watch different people as they play my games. Most interesting of all is blind playtesting, where you hand the game off to some brand new players and watch as they struggle with the rulebook, try to make sense of the components, and play through the game from start to finish with no outside assistance or intervention. As a designer, it can be hard not to jump in and provide a minor rule correction or little strategy tip, but if you can find it in yourself to button your lip and sit back and observe, you can learn all manner of things. Read more »

Convention report

Origins 2010 Report from Ted Cheatham

Submitted by Ted Cheatham on Sun, 2010-07-04 23:04

Ted Cheatham attended the 2010 Origins Game Fair in late June and filed this report, which merges audio interviews from the convention with still photos of booths, designers, games and more.

Game designer diary

Two by Two: Part II – Keeping One's Head Above Water

Submitted by Rob Bartel on Sun, 2010-07-04 20:27
Discussed game: 

Game Announcement

Keep the Animals Safe in Two By Two

Submitted by W. Eric Martin on Thu, 2010-04-08 17:00

Two By Two

Game name: 
Designer: 
— August 2010 no
Featured at: Spiel 2010
Players: 
2-4
Ages: 
8+
Playing time: 
45 minutes
Price: 
$40
Language: 
English
Link to more information
Link to the BGG game page
Link to English rules

Canadian publisher Valley Games will release Rob Bartel's Two By Two sometime in 2010. Here's a brief game description from the publisher:

This is a wonderful title of collecting animals along the storyline of Noah and his Ark. Players move their boats around a steadily deteriorating landscape, matching pairs to rescue stranded animals. The goal is to find matching pairs of animals and bring them onto your ark before your opponents raise the waters. There are six animals of every type, except for the unicorns, of which there are only two.

The game has two variants for play, for the younger crowd a simple matching and collecting method, where the more advanced version adds different scoring options that makes the game competitive right from the beginning!

Two By Two – game board

This game has been added to Gone Cardboard.

In Two by Two, a colorful 45-minute family strategy game for 2-4 players, coming in August 2010 from Valley Games, players take turns navigating their boats along the shores of a rapidly deteriorating landscape, placing raindrops, revealing new animals, and rescuing them in pairs for endgame scoring.

My first designer's diary for Two By Two discussed the origins and early playtesting of the design. In this second diary, I'll describe some of the later changes the game underwent and my trip to Columbus, Ohio to demonstrate it to players and publishers at the annual Origins Game Fair.

Thanks to Two by Two, my sophomore slump was broken and fun ideas for other games sprang up with increasing regularity in the months that followed. Amidst all of the new games, however, there was still work to be done on Two by Two. The animal pairs were too numerous, for instance, which is why the beaches were added, thereby limiting the number of animals initially revealed. End-game scoring was too high, rendering the water scoring irrelevant, so it was reduced until the two were equivalent. The endgame could bog down in near-endless water scoring, with each player hesitant to reveal the final animal and trigger the end of the game, so a firm limit was placed on the number of water tokens and exhausting them became another end condition. (This also had the side benefit of reducing the component count and making the game more affordable.) Read more »

Game designer diary

Two By Two: Part I – The Flood

Submitted by Rob Bartel on Sun, 2010-06-27 02:00
Discussed game: 

Game Announcement

Keep the Animals Safe in Two By Two

Submitted by W. Eric Martin on Thu, 2010-04-08 17:00

Two By Two

Game name: 
Designer: 
— August 2010 no
Featured at: Spiel 2010
Players: 
2-4
Ages: 
8+
Playing time: 
45 minutes
Price: 
$40
Language: 
English
Link to more information
Link to the BGG game page
Link to English rules

Canadian publisher Valley Games will release Rob Bartel's Two By Two sometime in 2010. Here's a brief game description from the publisher:

This is a wonderful title of collecting animals along the storyline of Noah and his Ark. Players move their boats around a steadily deteriorating landscape, matching pairs to rescue stranded animals. The goal is to find matching pairs of animals and bring them onto your ark before your opponents raise the waters. There are six animals of every type, except for the unicorns, of which there are only two.

The game has two variants for play, for the younger crowd a simple matching and collecting method, where the more advanced version adds different scoring options that makes the game competitive right from the beginning!

Two By Two – game board

This game has been added to Gone Cardboard.

A wide-eyed unicorn peered out of the dense underbrush of the inland jungle. The sandy beach spread out before her and, beyond that, a grey and choppy sea that swelled to fill the bay. And there amidst the wind-tossed waves, the strangest sort of boat approached – short and squat, deep-bellied with no sail to speak of, capped by a peaked roof. Monkeys leapt and screeched across the deck and a pair of mourning doves cooed softly to each other in the rafters, taking shelter from the rain. Nervous, the unicorn watched the ark approach. The raindrops flowed beneath her hooves and out onto the beach where the ever-rising waters swallowed up the sands. She raised her head and stomped her hooves against the loamy earth, calling out for her mate on the far side of the island, praying for an answer...

So begins Two by Two, a colorful 45-minute family strategy game for 2-4 players, coming in August 2010 from Valley Games. In it, players take turns navigating their boats along the shores of a rapidly deteriorating landscape, placing raindrops, revealing new animals, and rescuing them in pairs for endgame scoring. Two by Two is my first published game, and as I'm sure you can imagine, I'm excited to see the finished product, read reviews, and hear reports of how its faring in the wild. In the meantime, I thought I'd share a behind-the-scenes look at the creative process behind the game. Read more »

News

Valley Games Sets a Date for Two by Two

Submitted by W. Eric Martin on Thu, 2010-06-17 20:44

Two By TwoCanadian publisher Valley Games has announced an August 2010 release date for Rob Bartel's Two By Two (2-4 players, 8+, 45 minutes, $40). For a summary of the game play, let's reprint part of an April 2010 post on Boardgame News:

This is a wonderful title of collecting animals along the storyline of Noah and his Ark. Players move their boats around a steadily deteriorating landscape, matching pairs to rescue stranded animals. The goal is to find matching pairs of animals and bring them onto your ark before your opponents raise the waters. There are six animals of every type, except for the unicorns, of which there are only two. The game has two variants for play, for the younger crowd a simple matching and collecting method, where the more advanced version adds different scoring options that makes the game competitive right from the beginning!

Bartel has promised a game designer diary for publication on BGN prior to the game's release. This game has been updated on Gone Cardboard.

Two By Two – representation of a game in play

News

Torben Sherwood on the Trials and Tribulations of Publishing

Submitted by W. Eric Martin on Thu, 2010-06-17 04:45

Valley Games logoValley Games' Torben Sherwood has written a two-part abbreviated history of the Canadian publisher on LivingDice.com. An excerpt:

There are so many things that can go wrong that are out of your control, things like shipping, or moisture in the games, or damaged components and boxes, or wrong components. The list goes on – don't get me started on things like customs and "random inspections" that happened every time we brought something into the USA for the first two years....

The next question I know that you are going to ask is "Why don't you quit then?" and my response would be "I might, but I think I just need to figure out a different way." Then I would tell that person that the business reminds me a little of golf. You can play that game your whole life and it frustrates you all the time: there are always shots that go wrong, your scores are never consistent, you are constantly dealing with weather issues and your equipment lets you down all the time. But then you have a good game, you hit the ball well, you putt great, the sun was shining, you and your friends had some laughs and a drink afterwards – that was a good day, I can't wait to go again because it has to be like that again.