This is part 3 in a 3 part series. Click HERE to see part 1 and HERE to see part 2.
Still Hot: Toy-esque Games
We’ve seen this for a few years now and it still seems to be going strong — especially unbranded/unlicensed stand-alone toy-esque games.
Three Little Piggies – SMART Games (comes with a cute little book to go with play!), Thumbs Up! – Blue Orange, Pingo Pingo – IELLO, Maitre Renard (Master Fox) – IELLO, Mashin’ Max – Hasbro, Sands Alive! – Goliath
Not pictured but of note: Bugs in the Kitchen – Ravensburger, 3D …
This is part 2 of a 3 part article; click HERE to see part 1.
Mini-Trend: Stacking Plus
Stacking is a classic play pattern, but this year I felt I saw it a few times in games that also had something else going on. So not just straight stacking – instead it was stacking plus something else (cards, dice, whatever). Here are a few examples:
Neck of the Woods – Fat Brain, Wonky – Usaopoly, Not pictured: Mighty Mice – FoxMind
Still Going Strong: New Packaging
Me: “What have you got that’s new?” Game Company: “We re-did our …
It’s been about a week since New York Toy Fair ended so it’s time for my trends article! Here we go…
TREND: Dinosaurs
OMG the DINOSAURS! With the Jurassic World movie coming out this June it isn’t much of a surprise that dinosaurs seemed to be everywhere at Toy Fair. I’m not just talking about the licensed product for the movie either – generic dinosaur games and toys seemed to be all over the show. Maybe they want to ride on the coattails of the movie or maybe this classic theme has …
And it was a bit more awesome than my trip… watch and enjoy!
I like winning — go figure! — so I’m thrilled to announce that I had the most read article on Global Toy News in 2014. Before this post turns into the internet version of me hopping up on a table claiming victory, I’d like to take a sentence or two to say why this is important to me. It’s because the article was on gender-based marketing, and frankly I’m just not a fan. I get that there are toys that girls are more attracted to and ones that boys are more attracted …
The Chicago Toy and Game Fair is over and it’s time to recap a few of the interesting games I played while I was there! There were so many publishers there so these are only a small sampling of games I haven’t already covered. Which means I have to skip games like Rummikub, which I could have sat down and played all day with random strangers at the Goliath booth. Maybe next year I’ll enter into the Rummikub Tournament! (If you’ve never been to the fair, there are huge companies like Spin Master and …
EXCELLENCE IN GAME DESIGN
Oliver Morris, designer of Gravity Maze
This year’s field of inventors (Dan Klitsner/Hasbro Design - Simon Swipe, John Neal/BMT - Shark Mania, Oliver Morris – Gravity Maze, Richard Garfield - King of New York, Steffen Bogen - Camel Up) had some pretty big game names in it and I find it interesting that a solo player game (which some might call a brainteaser) won. Granted, I do think Gravity Maze did a great job of making something that requires quite a bit of brain power look really fun, which is cool. I’m just surprised that a more traditional “multi-player …
