Well, that was fun!!

Today, the Subtilla Stealth cache finders/keepers give-away (rules here … clues here) came to an end, as the physical cache was found.  The final location was in the woods along the walking path north of the driving range at the Eagle Lake Youth Golf Center in Plymouth, MN.

The instant winner, by finding the cache, was Dan Peterson, from Brooklyn Park, MN.  I will be shipping out his copy of the game in the next couple of days.

The following 4 “eFinders” sent me e-mails naming the correct location: Jaime Habel (Iowa), Cameron Roberts (New Zealand), Brenden Johnson (Minnesota) and Hank Panethiere (Illinois).

Of those eFinders, the winner of a copy of Subtilla through random drawing is Brenden Johnson, from Lakeville, MN. Once I get his address, I will ship his copy out as well.

Check out the official BGG thread for more details around the clues and how Dan went about finding the cache.

Keep an eye out for another give-away like this sometime in June!

(Last Update: Monday, May 1, 2:21 pm — THE CACHE HAS BEEN FOUND!  Need to do a final tally on the eFinders.)

The Subtilla Stealth cache (pictured to the left) has been hidden, somewhere out in the world, and we are looking for 2 winners:

#1 – Whoever physically finds the box

#2 – A randomly selected “eFinder” among those who e-mail me the right answer

For full RULES information, CLICK HERE.

The clues for this finders/keepers puzzle will all be listed in this post.  I’ll be giving out new clues about once per day until the thing is found.  I will be updating this post as each clue becomes available.

If you are in the mood to discuss things, you can do that in 4 different ways:

1. Post a comment directly to this blog using the form at the bottom of this page
2. Join in on the main thread at Board Game Geek: http://boardgamegeek.com/article/9043789
3. Post comments to the related item on my Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/MattWordenGames
4. Talk amongst yourselves, using whatever means you’d like.

eFinder Scoreboard (final standings):

eFinders: 6

Correct City Guessed: 6

Correct Location Guessed: 4

So … here are the clues:

Read more

UPDATE: THE CACHE HAS BEEN FOUND!

The clues were in another post: CLICK HERE.

I will be putting out the first clues for the Subtilla Stealth cache later today (once I’ve actually hidden the target).  So, I thought I would use this post ahead of time to specify the rules around how this thing will work.

Finders/Keepers: This time, due to the package size/content/value/etc., I will not hide the actual game out in the world … instead, I will hide a VHS tape box (a picture of what you’ll be looking for will be shown in the clues post).  Inside it will be a note about how to claim your free copy of Subtilla. The person who finds the box and contacts me according to the info on the note will be sent a copy of the game on me.

Here are some general points about where the box will be found … not really “clues”, just guidelines:

• It is somewhere in Hennepin County, Minnesota
• It is on land that is for public use and not overly difficult to get to
• Please read and follow any signs regarding local ordinances/laws/rules, especially around official “open” hours and public use areas
• There is only 1 box that is hidden … the note inside will give you all the information you need to claim your free game … please take the box and note with you to treasure forever (no littering!)
• There are no other tricks or gotchas to this give-away … you do not need to buy anything or make any promises or sit through any presentations … you find the box and contact me and I’ll send you a game: simple as that!

NEW – “eFinder” Winner: There will also be a second winner of a free copy of the game.  This winner will be drawn from everyone who e-mails me a specific description of where they think the box is hidden.  The description has to be good enough that it could be handed to someone in the area and they could figure out where to find the box just from your description.

The details around being an eFinder are:

• You need to e-mail your location guesses to me at matt@mwgames.com
• Include your name, your location (general city, state and/or country is fine), and the description of where you think the box will be found
• If you want to include other info around how you are known on the Internet (website, BGG user name, etc.), that would be cool too
• I will NOT reply to your e-mail to tell you if you are right or wrong or “close” or “warm”, etc., or give any other sort of direct help
• DEADLINE: I need to receive the e-mail before the physical finder/keeper has contacted me
• You *MAY* (and are encouraged to) revise your guess by e-mailing me again, as long as I get it before the deadline and you make it clear that you’ve e-mailed me already and that you’re just updating your location description
• From all of those e-mails that guessed correctly, I will randomly draw a single winner of a copy of Subtilla
• Again, as I stated above:  There are no other tricks or gotchas to this give-away … you do not need to buy anything or make any promises or sit through any presentations … if you are the winner selected from those who guess correctly via e-mail, I’ll send you a game

Any questions so far?  Please let a comment below and I’ll do my best to answer it.

Enjoy!

-Matt

In the coming days, I will be hiding a copy of Subtilla somewhere out in the world … most likely in the Minneapolis suburbs and providing clues as to where you might find it.

It’ll be similar to what I did in February with the “Jump Gate geocache” give-away.

I will have “lost” that copy of the game somewhere … give out clues that should help you figure out where it is … and then it’s “finders keepers” at that point.

I did learn my lesson from last time … this one will be trickier!

-Matt

John J. McCallion, the boardgame-centric editor at large for GAMES Magazine, published an interview with me in the July 2012 issue of GAMES.  So, go out and buy a copy (if you aren’t already subscribed), turn to page 75 and look for my big, shiny, disembodied head floating in the middle of the page.

If you’ve read any of his boardgame reviews in the magazine, you know that Mr. McCallion has a way with words … especially an exceptional ability for packing great density of information into a very efficient wordcount.  So, one of the last things I sent to him during our back-and-forth series of e-mails (which was our method for conducting the interview) was that he should feel free to edit my words as needed to fit into the space he had available for the article.  He did that and I think he did a great job of coaxing my original intended meaning out of many fewer words than I originally provided him with.  However, this means that you may notice some phrasing or word choices that you wouldn’t normally hear from me.

My Head: It floats!

I was quite happy that he was able to include my prompts for a few of my favorite game design related things … namely:

• Board Game Designers Forum — www.bgdf.com — A very good online community of designers, from absolute beginners through industry vets.  Such a good resource to learn and to share.
• The Game Crafter — www.TheGameCrafter.com — the publish-your-own-game specialists, where you can buy most of my games.  There is a special paragraph specifically dedicated to discussing the merits of TGC on page 76 of the interview.
• Protospiel — www.protospiel.org — an annual designer get-together held in July in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  I’ve only attended once, in 2009, and I do plan to be there again this year.  Also, there are a number of these sorts of get-togethers throughout the year and all over the country … but my trip to Protospiel had such an enormously positive impact on my designing that it hold special importance for me.

This is quite an honor and exciting thing … please check it out and let me know what you think!

-Matt

Oh, Michael! What has your dog been eating?!

Michael Fox of the Little Metal Dog Show — an always-interesting podcast about board gaming — recently interviewed me via Skype for the show.

That conversation is now part of the latest episode of the LMD Show!  And he lets me ramble on and on about things … for over 20 minutes!

I will suggest that you listen to the whole show, because he starts with a very interesting industry topic — board games getting develop for iPhones and iPads — and ends by interviewing Stephen Avery and Tom Vasel about a game they have in the works by the name of Capo.

However, if you really just want to hear *my* nasally monotones counter-point with Michael’s brilliant and lovely pear-shaped lilting, you can start around the 23:15 mark.  And, yes, I was serious about my part being over 20 minutes long … and that was after some skillful editing!

Enjoy, and let me know what you think!

-Matt

Father Geek posted his review of Subtilla today, and he seems to have really enjoyed it.  He’s been giving my games a lot of great press lately — which is awesome.

You may recall that over the course of last year, he reviewed both Jump Gate and Dicey Curves, and I was honored to receive his Official Seal of Approval.

But since we had a chance to sit down face-to-face and play and talk about games for a couple hours at Con of the North last month, he’s made positive mention of my games on the “On Board Games” podcast, he’s stated that he’s looking forward to the DANGER! Expansion for Dicey Curves, and now he’s played and posted the review of Subtilla. Read more

If you don’t yet have the May issue of GAMES Magazine, then that is an easy thing to correct … just visit your favorite local bookstore or magazine rack and find a copy of it.  It’s usually tucked in around the Sudoku and crossword puzzle mags, since the majority of GAMES’ pages are fun mind-bending puzzles.

However, near the back of each issue, you can find nicely written game reviews, with Thomas L. McDonald handling the electronic games and John J. McCallion reviewing table top games.

You may remember that GAMES Magazine caused the latter part of 2010 to be quite exciting for me as they selected Jump Gate as their 2011 Traditional Game of the Year.

So, I’m pretty excited to see Dicey Curves get a review in their May issue.  It’s right there on page 72 … go ahead, give it a read and I’ll wait …

Not a whole lot of editorial in these reviews … mostly a straight-forward description of the game.  (The editorial/opinion writing is usually more evident in their end-of-the-year GAMES100 issue in December.)

I did, however, pull out a few happy words, such as “entertaining”.  There’s even a mention that the ability to subtly interfere with your opponents’ progress is “delightful, but not brutal.”  Well, the DANGER! Expansion — which, as I keep promising, will be out soon — will amp-up the “delightful” and completely remove the “not brutal”.

The nominees for the various categories of Origins Awards were announced today.  Space Mission, Schmidt Spiele’s European take on Jump Gate, was named as one of the 5 final nominees for the “Best Family, Party or Children’s Game”!

I find it interesting that Family games, Party games and Children’s games are all smished together into a single category while the various RPG stuff is all broken out into separate categories … but I don’t know much about the history or evolution of how GAMA has conducted these awards.

I do know that we will need to wait until June 2nd for the winners in each category to be announced, at the awards ceremony hosted during the Origins Game Fair held in Columbus, Ohio. Read more

That is the question I would be asking if I had been following the posts on this site the past month-or-so … had all of this momentum on a number of different fronts, and then silence for almost two weeks.

The other questions I’d ask is: Where’s the DANGER! release announcement?

Well … I’ve been on vacation.  And this time I actually took a vacation during my vacation.  I actually did no work for my day job, and I didn’t do anything related to game design.  Which means the DANGER! rulesheet is still in-the-works.  (I *will* release by the end of March for sure though!) Read more