I've not had much gaming lately working on Tricky Chicken for the iOS platform and dealing with resetting this garden wall. I had to pull all of the stone off the wall and dig down to the footer to realign the out-of-level footer and then I'm slowing rebuilding it.

A few months ago I and two long time friends embarked on a project to implement an iOS-based application starting with the iPhone and moving towards the iPad. We already had a corporation set up from some previous ventures and were primed and ready to go when an opportunity fell into our laps. I was contacted by Michael Schacht concerning iOS implementations of a couple of his older and lesser known titles and over the course of a few weeks, he and I were able to work out a licensing agreement to start with one of his games.

Michael and I, although we've never met, have exchanged numerous emails in the past concerning my implementation of his game, Coloretto and the hosting of it on his own site. When he contacted me concerning in iOS implementation I got very excited. Unfortunately, Coloretto was not up for grabs (that would be a great game on the iPad) but an older game Crazy Chicken was available. Unfortunately, we've run aground on the name. A German company produces DVD-based videos and games under the name Crazy Chicken so we've gone with Tricky Chicken as a play on words for card tricks and it carries over some of the feel of the crazy illustrations. We liked "Whacky Chicken" but alas, in German, the word whacky doesn't have that same je ne sais quoi that you'd hope for.

However, I'm proud to say that development has been coming along nicely although I've been struggling greatly with some Core Animation glitches on slower 2G iPhones. On faster 3G and 4G phones it doesn't seem to be a problem. Here are some early screen shots of some of the game. I'm sure some aspects will change but that's what we're working with so far.

The game currently allows for one on one play (you against the computer) as the original game was designed. A later incarnation of the game called "Drive" that had different artwork and some minor rules changes to support a 3rd and 4th player are not supported.

We're excited to be bringing a little known but very neat game to the iOS platform and we're working hard to get it polished off and available in the App Store.

Tricky Chicken Splash Page

Tricky Chicken Main Menu

Tricky Chicken Game in Progress

Five of us met at my house for August's installment of Analog Game Night. We expected to get in a game of Witch's Brew, Carson City, and High Society but we decided to dig into Carson City first.

Carson City is touted as being Caylus-like and since we groove on that game we dug into the rules explanation and with all the moving parts we didn't come out into the light until about an hour later. Yes…an hour. With the iconography and the in-game/rule text inconsistencies it took us a long time to understand relatively simple concepts that become clear after the first full play. For example, we kept thinking that a parcel was represented by the player's colored square and that was confusing us when the Ranch payouts referred to free parcels. Once we understood that a parcel was any plot of land in the grid, then it made more sense.

Carson City is a odd bird. It's a cross between Oregon, Caylus, and Bang!. Players first, according to turn order, choose a role placard that grants the player a special ability or action and indicates the players turn order in later phases of the round. In addition, the placard indicates how much money the player is allowed to roll over into the next round. Once selected, players place cowboys on a track of "actions" somewhat like the Caylus "road" but it's prebuilt and the buildings on the road are pulled randomly from a bag.

Besides buildings, the road contains various actions and payouts. Players are allowed to place their cowboys on the same spot as others but in most instances that triggers a duel. In addition to the road, players also place cowboys on a grid of land parcels on the board indicating a desire to establish ownership of the parcel or steal income from an existing property. Once all cowboys have been placed (players can pass before placing all their cowboys), the actions of the road are taken one by one, duels fought, parcels purchased, payouts granted, etc. until the items on the road are exhausted.

When buildings are purchased, players build them on owned parcels and certain bonuses are granted based on what other properties are near the building (similar to Oregon) or on the board. Depending on the building built, additional houses or roads must be built to satisfy placement requirements.

The duels can be relatively devastating. They're played with dice augmented by a number of gun tokens amassed during play. One role card affords the owner a boost of three guns for the round. The loser of the duel gets his cowboy back which acts as an additional gun in subsequent duels this round but also rolled over into the subsequent round affording the player an additional "worker" for placement. At round end, players must shed all moneys larger than their role affords them by either dumping it or buying victory points at an exorbitant price of $10/pt, and then take a fixed number of cowboys indicated by the round (carrying over any cowboys that lost duels).

At game end players score their owned parcels and buildings, shed money by buying victory points and the player with the most is the winner. I liked the game but there are a lot of moving parts. In my opinion is a much harder game than Caylus to predict the payoff of any particular move. The duels introduce a bit of chaos in the game but it's the sheer number of variables that go into making a decision that make my head spin. I'd like to play again but I may need some ice water handy to cool off my brain once in a while.

Unfortunately, we didn't get to play Witch's Brew but closed the night with a quick game of High Society. HS is a filler game much like For Sale that I may actually like a bit more although it's a hard call to make. Well, thanks for coming guys and see you all next month.

Six of us got together for our monthly game night; thanks for hosting Jared! Our sixth was going to be a bit late so we tossed out a 5 player Dominion game using 5 randomly chosen base game cards (Cellar, Festival, Library, Remodel, Witch) and 5 randomly chosen Seaside Expansion cards (Caravan, Embargo, Explorer, Haven, & Island). I like using Dominion as a "filler" game but with five, the speed of play is a bit slow for my tastes. I like the Seaside expansion but using more than one version seems to unnecessarily complicate and extend the set up and tear down times.

By the time we finished, our sixth had arrived and we played a couple quick games of Werewolf. Yeah, we know it blows with 6 but a few people had not played so we played a couple of games to introduce the concept.

We split up into two groups of two mainly so that I could teach Roll Through the Ages to a couple of people while the other end played Hanging Gardens. We finished up RTtA relatively quickly and broke out Dice Town and burned through that quickly with three to end not long after the other group finished up their game.

We lost three to having to get up early but three of use stayed for a game of The Golden City to finish up the night.

Thanks guys and as usual, I'm looking forward to next month.

BGG classifies The Golden City, a Michael Schacht design, as an area control/area influence, auction/bidding, and route/network building game. I'd throw in set collection as well.

Three to four players attempt to build connected networks of wooden buildings across the four terrain types that lead to the Golden City at the center. Outside the outer city walls, each terrain type (desert, mountain, grassland, forest) comprises ports and a network of pathways connecting villages that eventually lead to the city walls that form a circle of 12 segments (3 of each terrain type). The rural areas are separated from one another by rivers that also leads to the city's center. Inside the walls and within each pie shaped quadrant of the city there exist three segments of the city: two outer segments and one inner segment. City segments are connected by bridges.

Players begin their journey to the Golden City at the ports, building businesses (placing wooden bits) in the connected villages along the pathways outside the city. Eventually, players enter the walls of the city and hopefully make their way into the center of the city. Along the way, players earn "letters" (victory points) and the player who earns the most by game end is declared the winner.

Play is relatively straightforward. Each round, a deck of "landscape" cards, depicting terrain types and ports are drawn and placed face-up (equalling twice the number of players in two columns). Players place "hands" on pairs of cards indicating a desire to take those two cards. Subsequent players may either place their hand on an unclaimed pair of cards or kick someone off at a cost that increases every time it's done within the round. In essence, players bid on pairs of cards and eventually all of the pairs are claimed, the bids paid, and the cards allocated to the players hands.

In turn order (always clockwise), players build zero, one, or two businesses (place wooden bits) onto the board. To place a bit on a port, the player must play a single port card. To place a bit in a rural area or in one of the two outer segments of a city, the player must play two matching landscape cards that depict the appropriate terrain type of where the building is being built. Two matching terrain cards can be played as a single wild card for any desired terrain type. When building a building, the only restriction is that you must be able to traverse the pathways to a neighboring village or city segment where you've already built a building. Ports and rural villages can only contain one building. City segments can contain multiple buildings but only one of each color.

All building locations come with a bonus for the builder that takes the form of an extra landscape card, money, bonus cards, keys, or goods. Players build their network of buildings towards the city center but sometimes branch out to gain the favors represented by the individual building locations. The key favors are especially critical in that when one gains a key, it allows them to unlock one of the cities central segments for placement of a building. The key is good for one use and given that the game only contains 6 keys, they're a highly contested item for players trying to gain the big rewards of building in the city center.

After all players build (or opt not to), a scoring round occurs. An individual scoring card (flipped up each round) determines two fixed scoring goals for the round granting "letters" (victory points) to those players who have managed to obtain a matching goods card, have built along a river that separates the rural segments, or have built in the specified city segment.

An additional bonus deck of cards allows players (when building in the appropriate villages) to obtain end-game scoring letter bonuses for building in specific locations or acquiring specific items of interest (e.g. goods).

In my opinion, The Golden City is a simplified form of an earlier Schacht title China which was itself a simplified form of an even earlier Schacht title Web of Power. The Golden city throws in the auction mechanic and the simplified but more varied scoring opportunities for the delicious tension provided by the end game scoring in China. The ability to block access to keys seems relatively easy and unbalanced. Although the 10 letter swing in points gained by being the first in the city's inner segment may not make or break the game it is a significant swing in points.

Landscape card play is identical to China but there is no penalty for "opening" a new region. In fact, The Golden City makes it even easier to start a new network of buildings by requiring only a single port card to establish a "disconnected" presence in a terrain type.

The flipping of the "score" cards each round do provide short-term goals but in many situations it's very difficult to do anything about them given that it can take several turns to build up to some goal. It might make more sense to introduce a house rule similar to Kreta or Dos Rios where multiple cards are visible each round and you can plan on building presence towards an eventual scoring N rounds from now.

There is an official two-player variant provided by Michael Schacht that I have yet to try but it seems that game would work best with four. With three there doesn't seem to be enough competition for rural land spots as well as less competition for the auctioned cards. Looking forward to more plays to see if my hunches proves correct or not.

I like The Golden City and, as I said, I'm looking forward to more plays. It definitely is a fairly simple gateway-style family game that's easily picked up by even those that don't play games that often. Given this position in my collection, I'm targeting it for a group of couples that gather at our house once a month and for a opener/filler for my more meatier gaming group. Unfortunately it only goes to four players so it might not see the table as often as I'd like.

Due to the pressures of life, I was only able to commit one day to Origins this year but I had a great time. I didn't spend a lot of time playing games but instead spent the time in the exhibit hall talking to people and looking at the current state of the gaming community. I've collected a few images in the gallery and I'll highlight some of them here but feel free to slideshow the rest at your leisure.

I arrived at the Columbus Convention Center about 10:15 on Friday June 25th. I had intended to arrive a bit earlier but on my way downtown, while waiting at a light, my position in line allowed for a front row seat for a relatively horrific two-car accident that left the two drivers unhurt but shaken and lots of debris, fluid, air bags, glass, and pretty much the front half of one car in the roadway.

It's been a few years since I've been to Origins but I must say that they've remained consistent in their level of confusion. I think they would do well to hire somebody to organize the visual aspects of the event or fire the person they've been using. Don't even get me started about the web site. Yes, it was better this year than last but it stands as a testament to confusion. I'd wanted a single $5 Exhibit Hall Day Pass and arrived to see several lines at "booths" clearly marked Registration as well as a single long line at what appeared a coat check booth with an Origins Logo projected onto the wall above and numerous paper signs taped over the opening; all of the them drooped over occluding the text describing the purpose for the line. I could hear many around me asking what line they were supposed to be in.

On close inspection the droopy paper signs, printed one large block word per sheet of paper read something like "Exhibit", "Pass", "And", "?", "Event", "Regist", "ration". Even if I could read the "?" sign I still might not understand that the "One Day Pass", as stated on the web site, was the same as the item described as the "Exhibit Pass". Luckily, my hunch was right and after paying my $5 and getting a paper wrist-band I was on my way through the doors and into the melee of the Exhibit Hall.

Front and center in the hall were the Mayfair, Rio Grande Games, and Queen booths. Mayfair's booth was clearly marked and gigantic. The play tables were filled throughout the entire day.

Somewhat tucked around the back but still clearly visible was the RGG booth which sported a small but functional area for purchasing games and a dozen or so tables for playing games. They had copies of Assyria, Egizia, Macao, Albion, etc. for playing but I was only lucky enough to slip in on the first 2/3 of a game of Assyria. I checked back regularly but was never able to find an open spot.

15 minutes before the closing of the hall, I was able to get a shortened demo of Albion. Seemed like a relatively simple game of putting crap on a board to gain stuff with a bit of schadenfreude thrown in to dice it up. The demo "docent" kept stressing that he thought the game was mis-themed (a space theme would have worked better) and that the game was relatively deterministic 4 or 5 turns from the end.

On the other side of the Mayfair booth was the Queen Games booth which, in my opinion, was not well marked. I'd received an email about finding time to meet Rajive Gupta, the CEO and boy is he a hard man to track down. I hovered around the booth off and on for over an hour but finally caught him when he stood still for once and was able to have a nice chat. I'd love to get my hands on a copies of Fresco and Samarkand: Routes to Riches for review.

Near the back of the Queen booth was a manufacturer that specialized in fancy gaming tables. The one shown above was listed at some 20k USD so I'm sure they sold out of all 1000 copies they brought :-) They did however have a pretty neat coffee table that made my woodworking juices start flowing a bit. If I only had more hours in my day to play.

I snuck down to the CABS Board Room and although I didn't have a ribbon, George let me sneak in for a few shots and for a shot of the stack of over 100 copies of Wallenstein that Queen donated.

Given all the give aways and the free food that Rio Grande Games was giving away I wish I'd could have spent more time and been able to focus on the Board Room. Unfortunately I wanted to check out the miniatures.

I'm not a miniature player but my middle school summers were almost completely taken up by camping out in a friend's rec-room where we build plaster of paris mountains and glued on grass and trees for a realistic setting for his trains. You can do a lot with 2 4x8 sheets of plywood, let me tell you. The miniature hall brings back lots of memories and I can appreciate the work that goes into building those dioramas. I did get to see a bit of the Gettysburg Soldier battle that took place in the evening and talk to the guy that was running the game. Very cool stuff.

All in all, my short trip to Origins was a great one. I managed to get in games of Drive, Hansa Teutonica, and Ra The Dice Game spread out from North Market to the Beer Haus and didn't make it home until after midnight. Now I'm itching for CABS' own Buckeye Game Fest later this year…

Over the years, Michael Schacht, a relatively well known German board game designer, and I have gotten to know each other fairly well via email and BGG "geekmail" and we're currently embarking on a business relationship for an earlier game of his for the iPhone platform. Too bad we live on opposite sides of the planet; I'd love to meet him in person. In the meantime, I've gotten a bit of air time on his website. Use the rolodex under the book to jump to the "M"s.

With the approval of my partners at Sophisticated games and the additional web traffic they send my way, I'm glad to announce that my implementation of Ingenious has been played over 1 million times.

Here's to hoping the next million are just as fun!

In cooperation with Sophisticated Games, I'm proud to announce the successful deployment of Callisto here on Marquand.net.

In this Reiner Knizia designed title, 2-4 players vie for placing all of their tiles on the board that morphs in shape according to the number of players.

This implementation of Callisto not only allows you to get a feel for the game before purchasing your own physical copy, but it also gives you that quick fix of playing against computer opponents over lunch, after work, or any time you have only a few moments to play or you can't find a sufficient number of opponents.

Hop over to the Callisto Home Page and treat yourself to a few games.

Callisto currently supports English, French, and Dutch but along with my partners at Sophisticated Games, we'll soon be including German, Spanish, and eventually Italian.

Enjoy.