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It's our first newsletter of 2022 and we've got some big news items to share from the past few months. First, a new player has joined the Ludoliminal family- we welcomed a baby boy at the end of last November! (Obligatory cute baby photo included at the bottom of this newsletter 👶) The new addition to the family is bringing lots of joy and happens to fill a gap in our internal playtester roster ;)
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Nothing could be better than a new baby, but I'm also happy to share that last fall our game, "Earthquake Eggscape," won the HABA 2021 Game Design Contest. If you follow us on Instagram, you may have already seen the announcement but shortly afterwards we went into baby hibernation mode, so we weren't able to celebrate this lovely recognition very much at the time. To make up for that in today's newsletter we've included a special surprise- a print-&-play version of the game that you can download to try out at home!
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It’s a quiet afternoon in the late Jurassic as you and your fellow stegosauruses are relaxing in the shade watching over your nest of eggs. Suddenly the trees begin to sway and the ground begins to tremble--EARTHQUAKE!
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Earthquake Eggscape is a cooperative game is designed for players as young as 4 to play alongside older players. The original game prototype has chunky wooden pieces for the eggs and dinosaurs, allowing the dinos to carry the rescued eggs on their backs. For the Print & Play version, we've designed a specially folded paper dino pawn with a back pocket to carry an egg. We hope you enjoy both crafting and playing this award-winning family co-op game together!
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This game is only a prototype right now. We are considering developing it a bit further and making a manufactured version available for purchase. We'd love to hear your thoughts on the game so drop us a note from the print & play download page!
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Here are some games we've been playing together recently that your family or friends might enjoy checking out.
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The Princess Bride Adventure Book Game - This unusual cooperative game, based on the classic movie, The Princess Bride, caught my eye last fall. I love the unique book form-factor-- each page is a new board ("chapter") where you work together to play out an iconic scene from the movie. Each chapter's game has different rules and goals, designed to evoke elements from the movie. You can play through the whole game in one session, or you can do what we did- play the game as a series of shorter one-off games over several weeks. I thought perhaps playing the game might pique our daughter's interest in watching the film but so far, that hasn't happened. She enjoys the game all the same.
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Unicorn Glitterluck Cloud Stacking - The Unicorn Glitterluck series of board games has a special place of honor in our home as the original was the first board game our daughter picked out herself. At the time she was 3 years old and obsessed with unicorns. As a prize for winning the HABA Game Design contest this past fall, we were able to pick out a number of new HABA games for our family and she chose U.G. Cloud Stacking. I wasn't sure how it would play for her, now 8 years old and aging out of the target age of the series, but we had a good time with it. The gameplay is very simple, but the central dexterous stacking mechanic was a novel kind of challenge and brought both tension and laughter to the game as we stacked (and yes, sometimes knocked down) unicorns, clouds, and castles on one another!
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Overcooked! 2 - This is a challenging, frenetic co-op game where 1-4 players work together to prep dishes in a variety of ridiculous cooking circumstances. We haven't beaten the whole game yet but so far we've cooked in a crashing air ship, while rafting down a river, and while crossing a city street. It's a silly premise but the cooperation required is quite serious. You must strategize together to be successful. The pacing of the game is intentionally stress-inducing. This is a great game in which to model kind teamwork and resilient failure skills, because you're bound to lose a lot and along the way there will likely be lots of shouting at one another. Play this game with kids ages 7+ who can handle time pressure and be prepared to take breaks if anyone gets too frustrated. To keep focus on positive collaboration, after you lose a level, I suggest you have conversations about what strategy changes you'll try next time and invite your kids to take the lead on choosing strategies and assigning roles.
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We played on the Switch, but it's also available for PC, Xbox, and PlayStation.
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Wordle - Most likely you've heard of this tiny game that has swept the internet. The premise is simple- guess the day's 5-letter word in 6 tries or less, which each guess revealing which letters are or aren't in the word, and if they're in the right position. Each day there is a new word, the same for everyone around the world. Although this short game is typically something you play alone, because the game gives the same single word for everyone each day, it's a nice daily conversation prompt as a family- "Did you do today's Wordle? How many tries? What was your starting guess?" With our 8-year-old, the game has triggered multiple conversations about vocabulary words and strategies for puzzle solving.
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Hey, you made it to the obligatory cute baby photo. Introducing baby Zephyr, the newest member of our family 💙
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How was this newsletter?
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Thanks for subscribing and reading, Friend!
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