News
2nd Edition of Flaming Pyramids released
We've given Flaming Pyramids a makeover for its second edition. Taking some inspiration from Where's Wally, Tim Kings-Lynne has created engaging, highly detailed box cover art to fit the new edition's more cogent theme of neighbours piling up unwanted items for a community garage sale. Newspapers, wooden furniture, and whiteware have replaced the first edition's straw, logs, and rocks, but the tiles remain graced by Aotearoa's birdlife, including kiwis, pukekos, and two species of parrot.
We've got Tim working away now on the art for Glimstone Grab. In particular, the board needs some changes to help smooth gameplay. Granny Wars is long due a makeover, and Tim has also been crafting new cover art for this perennial favourite (scroll down for the latest draft).
2023 Events Kick Off
Events allow us to highlight new arrivals and to do some prototype playtesting. And as always, to interact with existing fans and introduce new people to our special brand of cheeky fun.
Cheeky Parrot had a prominent location at the second annual Cancer Society Games Fair, held in Auckland's Cloud April 29-30. Takashi Sawada, designer of Floating Floors (distributed by Cheeky Parrot) was on hand for demos and joined us again at Hobby Games on May 12 for the official launch event.
In early May I visited Christchurch and Otago and called on retailers and prospective retailers. On the evening of Thursday, May 4, I introduced new players to Flipology at the new Christchurch board game café Meepleopolis.
We will certainly be promoting Floating Floors at Wellycon, taking place in the new Tākina events centre June 3-4. We will donate two copies for Play to Win and there will be dedicated time slots for those wishing to learn how to play from us.
And looking ahead later in the year we have
three Board Games by the Bay events:
Hamilton, June 17-18
Christchurch, September 30 - October 1 and
Auckland October 28-29.
I'll be teleporting in to join a panel as part of a board game festival in Christchurch on June 22 and finally, I've promised to attend Hawkes Bay Con, October 7 - 8, an event we have given prize support in the past.
At all of these events, we will be inviting people to try Glimstone Grab. Our goal is to have it ready for manufacture by the end of this year.
Ulterior Design Coming in Q3
Following some blind tests, the expert input of writer Zirk van den Berg on the rules, and of course Tim's artwork, our card game Ulterior Design is now undergoing manufacture as our eighth title.
After lively discussion on Facebook and off-line, we decided to add on a subtitle: A Game for the House Proud.
Ulterior Design will also include some bling: little golden tokens. These will dip into our profit margin but we think they will pay for themselves in sales and appeal, having observed how much fun our playtesters had fiddling with the Dominion tokens we used to fill in. Still, we aim to retail the game at $25, the lower end of our range.
Ulterior Design players have the choice each turn of redecorating their own home, influencing what is trending, or attempting to sabotage a rival. Judges from home decorating magazines arrive at random between player turns; some are looking for a specific design element like lamps or paintings, others for the total number of objects. They award the player who is closest to the current trend with a token. The first player to collect three of these tokens wins the game.
Our ninth title is also in the pipeline. We're grabbing Glimstones with an eye to refining and polishing up a cooperative game originally pitched to us in 2019!
Glimstone Grab is set in the Hoard universe.
Trolls have settled into a clearing in the forest of Much Middling and are helping themselves to magical Glimstones... and the town's children! Esmeralda and the wizard Widdershins must coordinate to defeat the trolls, rescuing wayward children along the way.
Coincidentally, both of these games were invented by first-time designers living in Christchurch: Andy Bell and Jono McGarvey.