Protospiels are popping up all over the midwest. Still one of the biggest, Protospiel-Madison welcomed over 200 game enthusiasts to Monona Terrace at the beginning of December. Here is a summary of the hot new prototypes I was able to check out.
Category: Played @
Reviews of games played at conventions, Protospiels or other gatherings of gamers and game designers.
Played at Protospiel-Minnesota 2017
The midwest is getting chock-full of Protospiel events; Michigan, Milwaukee, Madison, Chicago, and the most recent I attended–Protospiel Minnesota. I traveled to frigid Minneapolis in January for another great weekend of gaming. And a busy weekend it was! From Thursday night to Sunday evening I played 15 games plus my own game twice. They ranged from ideas hatched in the last 24-hours to nicely produced prototypes and even an expansion to a published game. There was also a wide variety of themes, audiences, and play weights. Rather than sort games in the order I played them, for this article I have roughly ordered them by their “weight” from light family games to more intense strategy games. This post, part one of two, handles the lighter half, seven great prototypes from Protospiel Minnesota.
Played@ Gamehole Con 2016
Fairway had a tough weekend for a convention, but managed to get in a few games: Lanterns, Valeria Card Kingdoms, The Guardians: EXPLORE, and Potion Explosion. Check out these mini-reviews!
Played at Protospiel-Madison 2016
If you’ve never been to a Protospiel event, you owe it to yourself to check one out. Whether you come as a game designer or playtester, it is a weekend jam-packed with great people, good games, and lots of fun. Last weekend was, as far as I know, the biggest such event, Protospiel-Madison. All told, 174 people attended. I was one of them, and so was Fairway. (Read his write-up here.) The following is a rundown of some of the games I played.
Played@Protospiel Madison: 2016
Fairway returned from Protospiel Madison having played a bunch of prototype games from a lot of up and coming game designers. Some of these designers were kind enough to let him feature their games in this round up of games.