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 Ulterior Design, then he'll move (back) onto Glimstone Grab. 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 Event Schedule
We are looking forward to attending several events in 2023, to highlight new arrivals and to do some prototype playtesting. And as always, having the pleasure of introducing new fans to our brand of cheeky fun.
Cheeky Parrot is the distributor for the upcoming Kiwi-designed dexterity game: Floating Floors, which is expected to arrive in April, possibly in time for the second annual Cancer Society Games Fair, to be held in the Cloud in Auckland April 29-30. In any event, we will hold a launch event at our retailer, Hobby Games, with the designer, Takashi Sawada, on hand to autograph copies!
In early May I'll be visiting Christchurch and Otago and calling on retailers and prospective retailers. On the evening of Thursday, May 4, come and see me at new Christchurch board game café Meepleopolis, which will be featuring Flipology as its game of the month.
We will certainly be promoting Floating Floors at Wellycon, taking place in the new Tākina events centre June 3-4. We will donate a few 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 much later in the year (September/ October dates TBA) we have promised to attend Hawkes Bay Con, an event we have given prize support in the past. We expect to be able to debut our latest title, Ulterior Design, there.
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.
Under Development
Following some blind tests and the expert input of writer Zirk van den Berg on the rules, card game Ulterior Design is close to being ready for manufacture as our eighth title.
After lively discussion on Facebook and off-line, we've 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.