Eight Foot Llama News

Next weekend, Nov 12-14, will be the second annual Festival of Games in Louisville, KY. Tom Stevens will be there for us, running and selling the entire EFL line of games. Just look for the man in the blindingly yellow shirt.

We've got a picture page up from some of our summer conventions this year.

I guess we can't help but feel partly responsible for this.

Nice review of MOTM in Italian here.

Giochirari is our distributor in Italy.

I've been invited to host an online chat this Friday, Sept 24, at 8pm ET over at Steve Jackson Games' Pyramid Magazine. I'll be talking about EFL games, euro-style gaming in general, and what it's like on the small press side of the game industry. You have to be a subscriber to Pyramid to participate.

Thanks to the best gaming site on the web, Boardgamegeek, we've learned that someone has translated our own Monkeys on the Moon into Chinese. You gotta love The Geek.

Thanks to Hall9000 for this German review of The Penguin Ultimatum!

Well, it turns out 2 of our typical Essen-going staff are going to have some scheduling problems making it there. And rather than try to handle the teeming throngs at that show shorthanded, we decided to hold off on attending this year. But we'll be back in 2005. The show is just too fun.

And our games will be there anyway -- our full line is carried by both Spielbar and Heidelberger, who will each have booths at the show. Last year we sold out of Penguin Ultimatum early, so if you were planning to pick one up this year, stop by either of those two fine retailers for a copy.

We've been releasing our new games every October, in large part to debut them at Essen. But since we're not going this year, we weren't quite sure what to do with our release schedule. We certainly didn't want to hold off another entire year, and the months of January thru April are really quite dead for the game industry. So we decided to split the difference and release The Nacho Incident next May, so we could debut it at Origins 2005 and also have it in the stores before the con begins. Hopefully that'll all work out. And we'll try to post some bits and pieces about the game in the interim as well.

Manorcon will be held in Chamberlain Hall at the University of Birmingham this July 16-19. Eight Foot Llama games will be available for play there -- look for Pete Card and the "Games from Pevans" sign at one of the tables!

The Origins game fair was held in Columbus, OH from June 23-27. Eight Foot Llama was there, sharing a booth with Angela Gaalema from Plenary Games, and we had a terrific time.

First a hello out to Tom Stevens, our tireless convention assistant; both Sharon at Rogue Publishing and Anye at Dancing Eggplant, who helped us with some promotions; Kevin from CCG Workshop, who is the programmer for the online version of Monkeys on the Moon; Marcus King from Titan Games, whose legion of retail employees will be wearing shirts with our logo at Gencon 2004; all the folks at Game Table Online, who are bringing Ed's Pants to the web; and Rick Thornquist and many others from the Gathering crowd, who we certainly wish we could see more of.

This was the first time we brought The Penguin Ultimatum to a USA show (last year we had the demo version for select viewing) and it was a definite hit. It's very easy to explain, quite suitable for non-gamers, and takes only half an hour to play. Even better, the con organizers gave us a dedicated demo table in the boardgame hall, and our own Jim Burns ran TPU almost non-stop there. Having an enormous stuffed penguin on the table (generously loaned by Tom Stevens and his daughter Amanda) only helped to draw folks in. Photos coming soon.

Word appears to still be getting out about Monkeys on the Moon. It seems nearly everyone who plays that game goes on to buy it, but lots of people still haven't heard of it. Ed's Pants, as always, practically sells itself.

Speaking of which, Plenary Games was showing off its Dice Boot at our booth. This is a small, clear, plastic, nigh-indestructible dice tower that can easily be disassembled and carried around. The idea of course is that when you use it to roll dice, you don't wipe out the game you are playing. Plus people can't cheat. :) This item was a big hit, especially after people bought them on Thursday and then used them for the games they were playing later in the con. This caused others to ask who was selling dice boots... by Sunday, it seemed like all of Origins had one. I expect this to take over the world very soon.

Kudos to the Origins organizers for making the show even bigger, and getting lots of folks into the exhibit hall and boardgame hall. This was a big problem in 2003 and it's no longer an issue at all. Our sales were double the previous year.

On the downside, EFL was supposed to demo games to teachers in the Teacher's Lounge on 2 nights. But nobody could tell us where that was. When we found it, it was empty. Likewise, almost no one knew where the sleepover was being held. I understand it was packed on Saturday night, but empty on the others. These are both new programs and I hope these things get better organized in 2005.

But overall, a very good show and good time. We shall return.

On whim we entered the The Penguin Ultimatum into the Mensa Mind Games competition this past April. This is something of a strange event; a bunch of people, including a high percentage of non-gamers, converge to play 30-50 different games non-stop for 3 days. And then pick their favorites.

Alas TPU did not win, but we're grateful for the nice comments it got from the Mathpuzzle May 3 blog entry which led us to even nicer comments from Wei-Hwa, who was dedicated enough to review and photograph every game he played. Plus TPU was apparently unique enough to make it into Mensa's press release, even though Mensa didn't quite accurately describe the game's theme.

Eight Foot Llama will be at the Alliance Retailer Summit in Baltimore from September 12-14.

Just returned from Alan Moon's Gathering of Friends, and wanted to post a quick report. (Take a look at our articles page if you are not familiar with the event).

A great time, as always. This time I got to game a lot with James Kyle of Glastyn Games, which is about the most fun you can have. Also terrific to see Anye Sellers and Kevin Nunn of Dancing Eggplant Games fame, Alan Ernstein over at Hangman Games, Stefan from Alea, Tara and Frank from Ravensburger, Tom from Hans im Glueck, and sci-fi author Walter H. Hunt. There are dozens of other wonderful gamers I'm leaving out of course, but a special note is in order for Heli, who was brave enough to enter a Password tournament for a game not played in her native language. Very impressive indeed.

Anyway, some of the games I played, in random order:

Santiago -- absolutely terrific game about (get this) irrigating farmland. Can't wait to get this one.

Flower Power -- Steffan O'Sullivan taught me this 2-player abstract. I played it expecting very little, since it is about arranging flower gardens and has by far the worst cover art I've ever been exposed to. But, it's actually quite good. I'd be happy to own it (with a bag over the cover).

WordBuy -- Sid Sackson unpublished game coming out from Face2Face. You buy letters, make words, and sell them. A fairly fun way to pass time, but it lacks interaction and interesting decisions. It'll be a hit with wordfrieks, I'm sure.

The German Talisman Game -- Never did get the name of this one, but it's a fantasy adventure game from Pegasus obviously patterned after Talisman. Frank Branham says Pegasus is planning an English version, and if so, I think it could be a big hit. It's much better than Talisman, in that it is deeper, has subplots to it, and has variable endings. Very nice.

Password -- Easy to forget how enjoyable this game is.

Crokinole -- about 25 games of this. James Kyle and I made it to Round 2 of the tourney. Woo-hoo!

Pitchcar -- A bit of a letdown. Board is tiny and it's impossible to catch folks with a big lead. If you want to flick pucks, just get a Crokinole board.

Can't Stop -- Nice little dice game. Got lots of play and I'm sure I'll own it someday.

Fast Food Franchise -- Old game from TimJim, and I think it's out of print. It's essentially a Monopoly variant with a couple nice features.

The Game Show -- Peter Sarrett put together another game show this year, and it was evident that he put an impressive amount of time+effort into it. It was a series of puzzles that teams of 4 tried to solve under time pressure. It was clever and enjoyable, but lacked the light team atmosphere of 2003's Family Feud game.

Prototypes -- There were tons of these at the Gathering. I played in about 6 of them, and obviously can't discuss what I saw. But I will say this: Frank Branham and Kevin Nunn are very good at what they do.

Our fourth family strategy game, The Nacho Incident (EFL804), will be released this Fall! Players are nacho vendors at the annual Mexican FoodFest in Green Bay, Wisconsin, trying to feed the hungry hordes. But the real money lies elsewhere -- smuggling Mexican food into Canada.

We will have a demo copy of the game for play at Origins... stop by booth 310 and take a look!

Origins is doing a number of nice things this year, and we're thrilled to be a part of one of them.

At Origins 2004, there will be a Sleep-Over for one night of the con. This is essentially an all-night gaming room at a nearby hotel, complete with pillows and blankets and tables and snacks. And more importantly, free games to play!

We're co-sponsoring the event (along with several other great companies), so EFL games will be available for you to try out. Origins asks that you have a valid badge for the day before+after the event, plus a hotel room key. Then, you can game all night, for free.

We applaud GAMA/Origins for working to make the show a 24/7 affair, and if you have the urge for late-night gaming, we hope you make it to the sleep-over.

We recently attended the International Toy Fair in NYC held 2 weeks ago. Not as exhibitors, but just attendees. Eight Foot Llama is in the hobby game business, but of course we want to know more about the mass market. It was well worth the trip to see what Toy Fair was all about.

Summing it up in one word: yikes.

It is often lamented that there are too many game manufacturers in the hobby game business. And we concede that this is true, given the limited profit to be spread around. But after beholding the behemoth that is Toy Fair, we have to admit we feel a little bit better about it!

There are about 1500 (!!!) exhibitors there, each showing their newest doll, stuffed animal, wooden block set, train, scooter, baby video, teach-the-alphabet game, science kit, remote-controlled truck, baseball glove, training bike, skateboard, rollerblade, pogo stick, building set and plastic tool kits (It would be very easy to go on). Every category of toy is replicated at least 6-10 times in various booths. It took us 4 hours to walk the halls. Quickly. Once. In short, it's actually bigger than Essen.

So, our point is, this show is not at all for small hobby-game companies. In fact we saw only about 6-10 companies there could even be described as "in our business." And most of these were fairly large, established companies, trying to branch into more independent toy stores.

Toy Fair seems to be for folks who have specifically designed something to be carried by stores like Toys-R-Us, and not for the average game manufacturer -- certainly not the small one. Attend it if you wish, since it's quite a spectacle to behold, but don't exhibit there imagining instant national recognition.

Game companies usually abhor discussing sales figures, but I did recently read this little tidbit from an informed industry insider: only 5% of games from the small-press sell more than 1000 copies in a calendar year.

Which of course is sobering testimony to the tiny size of the hobby game market.

But it was nice to hear that all 3 of our games ranked in this top 5% -- Who Stole Ed's Pants, Monkeys on the Moon, and The Penguin Ultimatum all topped the 1000 mark in unit sales for 2003. This despite the fact that Pants is over 2 years old, Monkeys is over a year old, and Penguins was only available Sept-Dec of 2003.

So -- many thanks for continuing to play our games!

Eight Foot Llama games can now be ordered through Ulisses Spiele in Wiesbaden, Germany.

A nifty game, this is. It is almost always described as "a wargame for people who don't like wargames." This is true, but no more informative or compelling than describing something as "tofu for people who don't like tofu" or "a prescription-drug plan for people who don't like prescription-drug plans."

So yes, it's a Civil War game, with a small hex board and three different kinds of units with different capabilities -- how far they can shoot, how fast they can move, and so on. The board itself is blank, but the game includes hex tiles with terrain on them that you can place anywhere you like, facilitating different scenarios you can play. So it's really about 10 games in one, and of course you can invent your own scenarios.

The key is that normal wargames have 100 rules, each with 100 exceptions; strict turn sequences; lots of bookkeeping; and take 2-8 hours to play.

Battle Cry skips all this with the use of Order Cards. Each turn, you might have 5 in your hand, and get to play one. The card tells you what you can do that turn. Then, you draw a new card and your turn is over.

Realism goes out the window, and with it, the immense weight found in typical wargames. Cards say things like "use 3 units on your left flank" or "use all your cavalry on the board" or "summon another unit" or "take a potshot at the enemy general." Bizarre situations arise where one of your units is tearing up the opposition, but they are powerless to fight back because they lack the correct card to activate a defense. This is sure to infuriate grognards, but they are off playing Squad Leader and Flat Top anyway, so that's ok.

What is left is a classic Eurogame dilemma: you have 5 cards, all of which do something useful, but none are perfect... which do you choose?

Not a game you'd play til dawn, but I definitely look forward to playing more scenarios... and drawing more people into this clever little game.

We've posted some pictures taken at this year's Gencon, held in Indianapolis.

The Lowell Sun ran a story on Eight Foot Llama in their Sunday edition.

Happy to say that Alhambra is a very nice 2-player game. The scoring is a bit strange with only 2, since there are no second-place awards, but I think it's very fun this way nonetheless.

Also got a look at "10 Days in Africa," the English version of Moon+Weissblum's "Europa Tour." It's essentially the same game, but the production value is much better, including very nifty wooden stands and thick cardstock. If you liked the idea behind Europa, but found the map too small and the language barrier too high, 10 Days should be to your liking.

Our report from Spiel 2003 is up.

We've just returned from the four-day Spiel game fair in Essen, Germany, where we had even more success than last year. Every copy of The Penguin Ultimatum was sold out by the morning of Day 3, and we sold all the Monkeys and Ed's Pants games by show-end as well. Looks like we'll have a couple more foreign distributors ordering from us too. We'll get a full report up in the next few days.

The Games 100 List for 2004 is out, and The Penguin Ultimatum has been honored as one of the best Family Strategy Games of the year!

Nice to see Moon+Weissblum's New England get top honors -- much better game than the SdJ winner Alhambra, IMO. Other selections of note: Clans, Domaine, Pick Picknic (English translation of Hick Hack in Gackelwack), Fresh Fish, Edel Stein+Reich, and Motherlode of Sticky Gulch. Sticky Gulch of course was designed by none other than the artist for both Monkeys on the Moon and Penguin Ultimatum -- Scott Starkey.

We've picked up distribution into South Korea... very exciting! We're also told that a Korean rules translation of The Penguin Ultimatum will be coming along, so we'll get that onto the TPU page as soon as it arrives.

Welcome to our blog!

This space is brand new as of today, and from now on it will be a log of assorted news and notes from Eight Foot Llama. Herein you'll find mentions of what we are up to, games we're playing, comments about the industry, and so on.

We begin below with an abbreviated history of what has transpired to this point.

News from earlier in 2003


October -- The Penguin Ultimatum rules are translated into German (by Nic Kraus) and Dutch (by Johan Francois).

September -- The Penguin Ultimatum is published and is reviewed in Games Magazine's November issue.

August -- Our games get distribution in New Zealand. GameTableOnline begins development of an online version of Who Stole Ed's Pants.

Summer -- The Penguin Ultimatum gets its first public viewings at Origins and Gencon.

June -- CCG Workshop signs a deal to develop an online version of Monkeys on the Moon.

May -- Eight Foot Llama games get distribution into Canada.

News from 2002

November -- Monkeys on the Moon is honored by Games Magazine as one of the best Family Strategy Board Games for 2003. Who Stole Ed's Pants is also renamed to the list as one of the world's best Card Game offerings for 2003.

October -- Monkeys on the Moon is published and debuts at the Spiel game fair in Essen, Germany. Its rules are translated into German (by Nic Kraus) and Dutch (by Johan Francois).

May -- The first print run of Who Stole Ed's Pants sells out. The game is reprinted.

March -- Who Stole Ed's Pants starts to get carried by stores in Europe. Bruno Faidutti graciously translates its rules into French.

News from 2001

November -- Who Stole Ed's Pants is mass-printed just as it is named runner-up Best Family Card Game for 2002 by Games Magazine. It is carried by stores nationwide.

August -- The first edition of Who Stole Ed's Pants debuts at Gencon.

January -- Eight Foot Llama kicks off, issuing a desktop-published game called LifeLinks. This puzzle game teaches children about environmental interdependence. It is played in schools around eastern Massachusetts and is sold in stores like the Appalachian Mountain Club and the South Shore Natural Science Center.