🎉 It’s almost 2021!! 🎉

by Ted Alspach December 21, 2020

🎉 🎉 It’s almost 2021!!!! 🎉 🎉

by: Ted Alspach

2020 is almost in the rearview mirror, and the potential of a shiny, wondrous 2021 is directly in front of us, which can be summed up in just one four words: massive, amazing, boardgaming potential.

We’re cautiously looking forward to getting to see all our fans at trade shows, going to game nights with more than just a few select people, and mostly being able to show everyone all the great games that will be on the way in 2021.

First up, we have the just-announced Castles of Mad King Ludwig Collector’s Edition, which we’ve been working on for most of 2020. In fact, playtesting the brand new expansions with the staff was one of the highlights of the year. We dedicated ourselves to come up with the best possible combination of premium components and new elements, all efficiently organized with GameTrayz™. And if any game is deserving of a giant version, it’s the sprawling layouts you make each game, so we’re also making a Castles Colossal Set of rooms which are 4x the size of the originals, which is just an incredible thing to play (and even watch being played). The Kickstarter will launch January 19th, and it will ship before the end of the year.

Colossal Castles of Mad King Ludwig Edition

Next, we have the slightly delayed launch of Maglev Metro (Magnetic Levitation Rail), which is the first new strategy game I’ve designed in over 3 years. Maglev Metro isn’t just a compelling, deep, replayable train game unlike any you’ve played before. It also has world-class components, starting with transparent track tiles that can be stacked on each other to allow you to see up to four players’ worth of train lines.

Each player has recessed player boards where passengers that you’ve dropped off at color-coded stations are placed securely. That player board is a combination tech tree/engine builder, giving your train and train line more and better abilities, like letting you place more track, carry more passengers, and move more quickly between stations. The gameboard is also recessed in a way to hold your oversized, super thick station tiles in place, serving as anchors to keep those transparent track tiles from sliding around. And the trains…well, they have to be seen to be believed. The bottom is shiny chrome, made of metal so it feels really solid when you pick it up. But the top part that holds the passengers is translucent plastic, giving it an amazing futuristic look and feel. Maglev arrives at a station near you in Q1, just a few months from now.

There might be less masks next year, but those maskless faces still might be hiding the fact that they’re werewolves, because Ultimate Werewolf Extreme will be hitting store shelves and werewolf dens and gaming groups sometime in the summer.

This re-imagining of werewolf games has amazing new artwork, updated, more modern rulesets and roles, and a brand new game balancing system that’ll keep more games going until the last few players than ever before. There are tons of new roles, too, like the fan-favorite Illuminati who knows everyone’s role at the start of the game, and wins simply by staying in the game as long as possible. And one of the components that’s always been missing from werewolf games will finally be here as well: a moderator app that can build a balanced deck for any number of players, and more importantly, really truly assists moderators for running games. Thanks to the new digital codes embedded within the artwork on each cardback, the moderator can quickly use their phone to enter roles, names, and even images of the players, all while keeping track of where they are relative to each other. And the app goes even further, walking moderators through each game, ensuring they don’t miss any critical details or reveals.

We also have a few surprises in the works for 2021, including Bezier Games’ first truly cooperative game, a new entry in the Silver line, and more. We can’t wait to show off what we’ve got coming next year!