Engaged Family Gaming is pleased to announce that we will be attended the Connecticut Festival of Independent Games on April 30th, 2016 as press and will be covering a lot of very exciting game. The event is being organized by the team over at Geek Fever Games. They started attending the Boston Festival of Independent Games a few years ago and it inspired them to bring the fun down to CT. This is intended to be another great way for independent game designers to reach a new audience and to provide new avenues for success.
They expected the event to start small and to grow over time, but they learned pretty quickly that they were underestimating how hungry the public was in the Northeast for these types of events. In fact, they initially planned to rent out the social hall of their local church in Southington, CT. But, within a matter of weeks they were left reeling by the interest from local designers and moved to Elm City Games in New Haven. Frankly, even the increased venue didn’t prevent them from selling out quickly.
The bottom line for all of us? This is great news because we have another opportunity to play board games made by passionate game designers.
The CT-FIG team has also announced their list of exhibitors and it is VERY impressive. Take a look below and see if you see anything that catches your eye!
Angry Duck Games
“Love zombies? Hate High School? Then you’ll LOVE this game! The undead have risen among the jocks, teachers, and the bullies in your high school, but you’ve also been bitten! Race against competing students for the cure, then escape while you can before you become part of the undead student body as well.
Student Bodies is an intensely non-cooperative, horror survival game that breaks all of the typical zombie-game tropes. The players start, bitten, at one end of a zombie-infested hallway and must run down the hall in order to find an antidote in the science lab. Only then, cured of the zombie virus, can they attempt to return the way they came, through a host of their undead classmates, to the exit. You win if you get to the Science lab, drink an antidote, AND get out through the Exit door alive — FIRST! Once the first player gets out, they lock the doors behind them and everyone else loses. Because only one player will survive, everyone and everything else on the board – is an enemy! But eliminate another player too early – and they rise with a new goal. to kill you all.”
Corporate Raiders
“Monopolies are child’s play.
The end of the fiscal year is right around the corner, and as CEO, it’s your job to make as much money as you can. To do this, you’ll need to steal employees and business opportunities away from the companies that just aren’t doing so hot right now, making you the greatest corporate raider of them all. Oh, and make sure to layoff everyone before we start the new year – we’ve got to save money wherever we can!
With a learn-and-play time of 30-45 minutes, Corporate Raiders is a perfect lunch-break game. Show them who’s boss today!”
Creative Cove Games
“Creative Cove Games is dedicated to creating innovative and immersive games to spark the imagination of players of all ages to enjoy. We love how games are able to bring family and friends together to have fun, laugh and create happy and enjoyable memories. We hope that our games bring you as much joy as the ones we have played. We are presenting the Depths of Durangrar at the Connecticut Festival of Indie Games
The Depths of Durangrar is a dungeon crawler board game that is played in the dark. Individual explorer players navigate through a 3D maze. Their individual character pieces light up to illuminate small sections of the labyrinth. Their goal is to find treasure in the maze. The catch is that there is one other player, a monster player, whose goal is to hunt down all the other players. This player is wearing night vision goggles and his or her piece does not light up.”
DPH Studioz
“I love games.
The funny thing is, I love making them even more then playing them. The biggest thrill for me is to create a world where others can play, explore and be challenged. While my route into the world of making games was through the visual arts, that is only part of the appeal for me. I enjoy designing at a high level as well as at the systems level. I find the task of creating a visually appealing and intuitive interface a highly rewarding experience. I also find the creative process of working with other talented individuals one of the most exciting aspects of my career. I like to organize and help others to reach their full potential while I too endeavor to reach my own. I have also been involved with high level game coding and rapid prototype development recently. This is my current highest joy within my field. It is for these reasons that I really consider myself more of a “jack of all trades” game maker, despite my concentration in the graphical aspects.
I am also not limited to digital games in my enthusiasm. Board games have really come into their own in the last number of years, and I enjoy following the trends in that world as well.”
Flavor Faction
“Ever wanted to battle using your favorite superpowers? Then this is the card game for you! Originz is a fast, fun & strategic card game featuring 12 superpower sets, deck customization, comic-book art & multiple formats for 2-8 players!
A disastrous experiment has altered the very fabric of reality. Magic is real. Mutations are common. Aliens have invaded. The earth, and the very solar system, is a battlefield. In a desperate attempt to protect civilization, the United Nations formed a global military force, known as the United Provisional Government. U.P.G. forces have tried to respond to crisis after crisis. Most of the time, however, people are left to fend for themselves against the supernatural. You are a superpowered being, fighting for dominance in a broken world…
Here at Flavor Faction, we grew up adoring comic books and card games. In designing this game, we aimed to combine these genres in one complete tabletop box, which is sure to be a hit at your game night. No matter the experience level, your friends and family can play a range of formats without needing to worry about expensive booster packs, over-powered rares, over-complicated rules, and cumbersome tokens and trackers.”
Formal Ferret Games
“Formal Ferret Games is the game imprint of designer Gil Hova, with the silly party game Bad Medicine and the engaging strategy game The Networks.”
Geek Fever Games
“Geek Fever Games is proud to deliver the most exciting and compelling game experiences on this side of the known universe. Founded in 2012 by Connecticut game designers Jason Miceli and Matthew Plourde, Geek Fever Games added Connecticut game designer Tim Mierzejewski and his Firepeng line of games to the company in 2015. Collectively, Geek Fever Games has fulfilled 5 successful crowdfunding campaigns and published 6 games to date. Notable achievements include Boston Festival of Indie Games Tabletop Showcase, IndieDB top 0.1%, The Game Crafter Staff Pick Accolade, The Game Crafter Sanity Accolade, The Game Crafter Artwork Accolade, and The Game Crafter Tachyon Seller Accolade.”
Late To The Table
“Late To The Table is an all new Twitch channel focused on bringing you live board game events and game nights. We host weekly 100% public game nights, news at conventions, and various board game related crafts such as print-and-plays, painting miniatures, and making your own expansions. With an interesting and vast group of players and games from One Night Ultimate Werewolf to Mage Knight, Late To The Table is sure to satisfy all of your gaming needs. So be sure to check us out every Wednesday at 6pm EST and every other Friday and Saturday, or be sure to join us one night!
If you would like to check out the channel you can see us at www.twitch.tv/latetothetable where we host every Wednesday at 6pm EST and every other Friday and Saturday at 6pm EST (we also have improv days). If you would like to join us we are located near central CT and you can reach us at the Meetup.com group GameOn: Chits and Giggles, where you can look for the Late To The Table events.”
Lay Waste Games
““Gameplay. This is where the rubber hits the road for a game, and this is where Dragoon shines brightest.”
– GEEKDAD
“When you pull this game [out] of the bag, it’s like you’re pulling out a treasure map, and the metal pieces feel like treasure.”
– BOARDGAMING.COM
“You get to play as a dragon. Let that sink in for a minute”
– WE DIE A LOT”
Let’s Make Games Connecticut
“Let’s Make Games: Connecticut is a meetup group that meets twice a week in the very location the Connecticut Festival of Indie Games will be held. It is made up of about a dozen individuals from the local New Haven area, including aspiring designers as well as those who already have games published (three of whom are also CT-FIG exhibitors!).
On Mondays we’ll start with a discussion of the weekly readings which will dovetail into design challenges like the game creation activity we worked on at our first meeting. On Thursdays we’ll have a workshop that focuses on our individual projects where people can bring problems and questions that they have in order to get feedback and insight from the group. Both nights will transition to breakout groups that playtest our games once the main event has wound down.”
MacGuffin Games
“MacGuffin Games isn’t a thing.
It’s an idea … a direction.
It’s the driving force behind some very cool games:
- Dungeon Duel
- Elemental Alchemy Dice Battles
- Gladiators of Roshambo
Find them. Play them. You won’t be disappointed.”
Movie Buff
“Ever feel the glorious afterglow of pulling a movie quote out of nowhere? Or feel the triumph of naming the role, AND the actor, from that classic film you watched with your college buddies 10 years back…without having to Google it?! Movie Buff is the place for ALL of that useless knowledge itching to be utilized! It is “a card came which has been designed to make film aficionados giggle and get all tingly inside”* squeezed into a portable box to be taken anywhere, anytime. This trivia card game goes beyond traditional games and draws upon each player’s unique knowledge, never, ever requiring an expansion pack! From novice to movie buff (haha, get it?), this game brings it! Ten cards are dealt to each player and they begin the quest to create “takes” and “scenes” by using a delightful mixture of trivia and strategy cards, connecting film to film to film, until a player exhausts all of their cards…making them the ULTIMATE Movie Buff!! I dare you not to love this highly addictive, ridiculously fun experience…I triple dog dare you! *- Randall Unger, Reel Reviews NYC”
Prettiest Princess Games
“We don’t want to sit around quietly contemplating the optimum series of moves to turn our brown cubes into white cubes so we can impress a provost… We want the most important element of any game to be the interaction between the players. We want to sit around a table drinking beers and talking trash. We want to look you in the eye and tell you we are going to destroy you beneath our unstoppable onslaught and there is nothing you can do about it!
We also don’t want to take ourselves too seriously, life is too short for games to be about anything other than fun.
Khitan General: Conan, what is best in life?
Conan: To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women!”
Pure Fun Games
“Pure Fun Games exists to bring vibrant, wholesome, and challenging content to gamers everywhere. As innovative mobile/board game developers, we constantly mold exciting and diverse games. We love light-h earted, clean-themed, and challenging games with social value.”
Rampage Games
“From the owners (Chris, Nick, Steve, & Tim): We established Rampage Games in 2009 with one objective: Design Games! Rampage Games started with a living card game that the owners developed in high school. We wanted to find a way to bring our creation to the public, so we started a company. Today, we design and sell independent card and board games for a variety of genres. Over the years we’ve developed over a dozen games and continue to innovate. Our current collection are some of our favorite designs. We make games geared towards casual gamers, strategists, experienced gamers, kids, and everyone else! Most of our games are economically designed to be affordable while still maintaining high quality components. We take great pride in all of our products and strive for exceptional customer service. Feel free to contact us regarding any of our games if you have any comments or suggestions. We look forward to hearing from you!”
Rock Manor Games
“Established in 1980-something, Rock Manor Games is a game development studio based in Wilmington, Delaware. The company isn’t really much of a company since it is made up of one sole game designer, Mike Gnade, but he’s a decent guy so humor him.
Rock Manor will be showcases their game, Brass Empire, coming out this summer 2016. Brass Empire is a competitive deckbuilding and battle game for 1-5 players set in the steampunk world of Cobalt. Players spend labor and construction to hire new employees and build powerful buildings and steam-powered contraptions. It offers a dynamic play experience where players have to react and adjust their strategies as the game progresses.”
Small Cave Games
“Small Cave Games will be showing off three great games:
- Ophidian Wars: Intergalactic bloodsport is king. The deadliest gladiators from every corner of the universe fight for pride, fame, and the roaring crowds.
- This is Only a Test: A pre-apocalyptic scramble for the best supplies in fear of a major disaster – or if not, This is Only a Test! Beeeeeeeep.
- GATUCA: A DNA-based dice battle and evolution game. Monumental combat at the microscopic level.”
Super Hazard Quest
“Super Hazard Quest is a tabletop game inspired by the classic age of video game side-scrollers.
I know… you’ve probably heard that before, right?
8-bit art and retro inspired games are pretty popular these days. But Super Hazard Quest not only references classic video games, it plays like one too.
Heroes build and explore an ever-changing, randomly generated level. Along their adventure, they’ll discover new items, tackle enemies and beat powerful bosses.
But their most dangerous threat are other heroes. Who will be the first player to defeat the final boss and take the glory?
It’s all the fun of multi-player retro gaming without ever having to blow into a cartridge!”
The Pericles Group
“The Pericles Group wants to transform education at every level by answering the eternal question “Why are we learning this?” in a completely new and completely engaging way–a way that paradoxically comes from the ancient world. The Pericles Group’s practomimetic courses give students the chance to explore learning as a narrative and as a game. When students explore that way, their attitudes and behaviors change along with their level of knowledge, and they become active learners, on their own mission to use their learning to make the world a better place. The metaphor of a practomimetic course–that by learning the material the student will save the universe–becomes a reality through the power of imagination.
VERBA is the new language learning card game developed by The Pericles Group. The concept is incredibly simple — one player (acting as a judge) draws a random card containing a fill in the blank sentence in the target language and the other players play a card containing a noun from their hand. The player who has played the sentence card then chooses the best card played and that player scores a point. Play continues with that player as the new judge.”
Winter Moon Games
“Pandemonium Estate is an adventure board game that takes place in a mansion filled with tricks, traps, and shifting doors. Modular wedges create different pathways depending on how you choose to set the board. Duel your friends, find powerful items, play as mysterious characters with their own special Traits, and take your chances against the mansion’s Pandemonium Events. With three different ways to play, you’re guaranteed to have a unique experience every time!”
.. AND SO MANY MORE!!!!
