SPIEL 2014

.... since we booked the hotel yesterday (it's funny that it's only April and most rooms in Essen are already booked out O_o ):
I'll be at the SPIEL. In October. Yay!
Every year I promise myself it'll be the last and four months later I already yearn to visit the next one. Since I have no idea if I'll be able to make it next year this one will be special. I hope I won't end up dragging huge piles of bought games home but I guess.... I will anyway. Probably even more.

A lot of things happened in the last couple of weeks but I will sum up with photos and pictures when I have some more time.

New Stuff!

Einhornzauber Puzzle Set

Mensch ärgere Dich nicht- das Kartenspiel

Mauerhüpfer

Webrahmen Set

Some more things to come. Last year was so packed...

Hello Essen....

 My hubby and I... went to Essen and fangirled (I did at least) at the SPIEL. And though it was exhausting it was heaps of fun. I wish I could write a bit more about it but honestly it has to wait till the end of November when three four deadlines are over.
I should be inking for the junior scouts (deadline tomorrow) right now but at least some words:
My eyes are still bleeding from the game art work. Some were beyong awesome and I have such a huuuuggeeeeee WANT-list it's scary.

I had to post this one because the game title is simply awesome and I wonder if any other kind of lol speak will ever make it into a game title. I guess I could vote for "I can has your Karte?" for the next card game but I doubt my editor would love the idea as much as I do. Sadly.

We had free evening and watched "cloudy with occasional meatballs 2" (I loved it) and "Ender's game" (still unsure if I like the books more but it was effect galore nevertheless). When I have some time and we manage to test some of the board game we bought I'll post some more pics.
We met Dheny and his folks which was a pleasure as always.

Till next year, I guess? :)

Fühlzwerge -board game

"Fühlzwerge" will be released in September. It's a tactile game where you have to feel for the shapes of the different items.

The actual card illustrations were done by another illustrator- but are pretty cute nevertheless ;) It was fun to draw the characters... and a tooth gap.

The game costs around 15 Euro and can be purchased in stores, on Amazon and the online Schmidt Spiele shop.

Flieg Mit, Kleine Eule! - what's inside

 The little owl figurines. Six are included. Oh, I love them....!!!!

 The box cover for the German-Switzerland-Austria stores.

 The plan is close to the original American one. We tried and discussed a different layout but this one was and is actually the best solution and in my opinion you could only make it worse. Some might say "buh, cheating" but doing something completely different just to make it different doesn't always serve the game.

 The manual got a hoot hoooottt look as well and I like the final printed version a lot. It's not plain and boring and I hope people will spend 30 milliseconds longer to read he background story. ;)

 And the size of the owl figurines. They look really small in my hand but keep in mind I'm 5'11 and the figurines need to fit into smaller kid's grabby hands and they do well. The feather ears keep the figurine from slipping out of the hand and that's one of the reasons they got those things. Natural stopper >_<

 And since it's still cold here in Berlin... the cats constantly hog the heater. One of the few moments they -oh what a wonder- stick together.

Best cushion in the world is a fuzzy booty cushion... Tretel likes!

And for anybody who might be interested: Timon and me will be in Essen this year. Again. Hopefully not sick as a dog after one day.

Flieg mit, kleine Eule!

"Flieg mit, kleine Eule!" is the European version of "Hoot Owl Hoot!" by Susan McKinley Ross. She's the author of Qwirkle and when I got the project I was super excited because the game is for little ones and super cute.
The American version has owl chips whereas Schmidt Spiele got little chubby owls produced and those are so darn cute. We matched the figurines as best as possible to the illustrated ones and I love them. You want to poke their small round booty all the time! *cough*

More information can be found HERE and the game should be available up from February for around 20 Euro. The price depends where you buy it so it could be a lot less as well.

New Games :D

Super Race -Schmidt Spiele

A smaller game in a shiny metal box (ohhh, I love those metal boxes... my editor doesn't). It's the one I did in my vacation and though we had only 7 days for everything I'm pleased with the whole thing.
The cover was actually the thing that took most of the time but hey, sometimes it's like that.

more information (German language) can be found here

Mensch Ärger Dich Nicht Kids- Schmidt Spiele

It's one of my favourites.... I only did the animals but doing chubby animals is like asking me if I want BJ ice-cream (*runs screaming yesssss* ). Of course I want! It's Ludo for smaller children who are too small for the dice-count-version since it's played with a color code only. The good thing is that you can decide if you want to play bunny, cat, mouse or dog rather than "I want to be...yellow".

more information (German language) can be found here

... and one more open for February but they haven't announced that one... yet. Eep!

Kniffel- Das Kartenspiel

It's one of the board games I did this year and it's one of the more abstract ones. And gosh, since I already have my printed version (whoot!) I can say the print turned out gorgeous and the colors simply awesome (ever tried to convert a pretty RGB violet shade to CMYK?... pure nightmare!). We had such a rough start and I struggled a lot with the concept but once I skipped the idea to adapt the old style and make it very 2012 the project was fun.

For those who know the old Kniffel game(s) and loved it you might fancy to check out this one as well.
Basic information and the backside can be found at boardgamegeek. Kniffel will come out in February after the Nürnberg fair (and three other ones I'll blog about as soon as I'm allowed to).

I'll show some pics after Christmas- at the moment I'm trying to squeeze so many different things into one day it's kinda scary. Duh. I'm happy when we can finally flop down on the couch after Christmas.

Oh wee!

I am currently in quaratine with a virus which is kinda odd and annoying and I'm staring at the ceiling and think "I sooo want to do something... anything...". Next to having problems with a sore throat and coughing and sitting around doing practically nada I wanted to say: SPIEL fair was so cool!
I was overwhelmed like a kid in candystore.
I met Dheny and Dirk and those two being -in my opinion- hardcore boardgamer we tested two games and though they totally stressed me out... I bought them.
If you wonder:
Escape
Panic Lab
Prepare for sweat if you buy those!
I am happy Dheny dragged us along, I think I'd never found Panic Lab myself. I met some colleagues, saw a lot of nerds, even more nerds and the hardcore nerds and I really want to be there next year as well. Oh Ty will crawl up the walls when he reads this. I guess I should tell him beforehand.

Oh, and since the Carcassonne Winter-Edition is FINALLY out:

The cover illustration- a collab with Irene (engelszorn.deviantart.com). I am so pleased how the whole game came out in print. If you remember this you know what I was working on. The detail work was imo worth the cramps since the details are still there, tiny tiny details you can see if you look very close. It's so awesome.
I am still amazed that I could do this and got into happy bunny mode as soon as I could get my hands on a package. Raww!!!! :D

And because I post never rarely pics of myself... the current me is this:

It's nice how much eating healthy (I eat a lot nevertheless... and I really mean A LOT) and sports can do for you. I highly recommend it. If you have a desk job being a couch potato is no option- that's the lesson I learned. 

*pressing the publish button before I start regretting it >_< *

It's coming....

... only five more weeks :3
Click Click for awesomeness!

For those who will be at the game fair in Essen:
Ty and me will be there on Friday, hopefully shopping myself into bliss and chatting with Dheny. *yay*

Anybody else who will be there?

Bumm Bumm Ballon!

 Yay! One of my highlights this year -jobwise- because that game is effin fun!

Actually the game will be available in other countries as well but with a different cover, packaging and not our awesome manual (the manual is really awesome, me so proud!).

In Germany you'll be able to get it directly at the SPIEL in Essen (I cross my fingers for it- at least) or regular in stores.
Publisher: Schmidt Spiele
rating: Awesome! Get it as soon as it is out!

On Amazon Germany



It's kinda awesome how simple the packaging looks when you know how many hours I actually put into that thing. O.o we're still mulling over some additional things but basically I'll be happy to watch people test it in Essen :B And yes.... Ty and me will be there (whoot!).

How it works?

Origins!

Matt send me a note that "Space Mission" got nominated for the 38th Annual Origins Award in the US. Yay!
I have no idea if we have a chance but I cross my fingers. >_<

... that would be the reaction of my parents...

Furthermore German readers can peek at Zebra-Schwein here. They wrote a very detailled review with some pictures of the actual game. I got mine last week but haven't had any time to take pictures. Duh....

And because it's so fluffy I wanna die:
Pillow covers for everybody
Joey and Kate make custom pillow covers that are so soft you wanna huggle those forever. You can get my moon bun, maneki and some other motives there but I'd like you to check the shop generally since the quality is simply awesome and the team so freaking nice.

Oh yes. And I'm half the way through my comic pages. Hurray =.=;..... sloth me is slow.

Oink! :D

I bet the final pig also glows at night.... couldn't pick up my game this week because I was sick *mimimi* but I'll post some photos next week. :)

Zebra-Schwein

Again a board game! It's the last one I did last year and it's again totally different from "Mount Drago" and "Space Mission" but for me the most hilarious and funniest game.
Actually it's for kids but I think if you have a bunch of people who are willed to play a game that happens to include drawing (it doesn't really matter if you are GOOD... really) you might have many laughs, tears and odd doodles.

The game comes in five languages (German, French, Italian, English and Dutch I think) and costs around 22 Euro (regular price). Included is a very pink pig buzzer, 30 animal cards, a sketch book and all my love, sweat and hours I spend on it.
(You have no idea how often we changed the cover... ).

Available on (German) Amazon HERE

Win, win, win for only 1 Like on Facebook!

Whoa... getting competitive!

Schmidt Spiele, myself and hopefully all of you will rock the boat with a tiny like on Facebook.
Normally you have one spot for a game. We made two... :)

Basically the graphics have the same base- animated by my awesome 3D superheros Mehran and Amin- and a concept we finetuned over the last couple of months.
For Version B Bobby Soulo, a wonderful colleague of mine and very talented musician you should keep an eye on, made the music and lend us his voice.

Long talk, short info: The music and voice-over differs a lot and that's where you can decide what you like best. If you don't speak a word of German: no matter, listen, experience and like. It's your choice!

What you can get for participating?
A lot!
<b>The Prices:</b>
- The very first game package we get (game languages are German, French, English, Italian and Dutch i think... English 100%ly!)
- a signed A1 promo poster (i just finished 2 days ago...)
- aaaannnnd.... the original design of one alien (of course I chose one of the cuter ones...) made on paper.
The only chance to get an original piece for free :D

I'll upload the piece when I get a chance to get it scanned properly. But trust me: I'd really like to keep it >____<

An example of the look of the designs can be found here: http://cliquenabend.de/spiele/062100-Space-Mission/bilder.html
Of course the one somebody will get is not displayed but you might get a hint.
 
Where to vote?
http://de-de.facebook.com/SchmidtSpiele

Questions? Shoot! And be so kind to spread the news. We made a bet how many votes we get and I really wanna get the cookies! :yum:

Anne