It was Ludo Outaouais time again this week end and attendees on Saturday got a special treat in the form of early sale copies of Blueprints and Expedition: Northwest Passage courtesy of game shop Multizone! So, these are a couple of great games, but the really awesome part of all this is that they are both designed by local Ottawa designer Yves Tourigny! Hit the jump for more on Yves and the games.
I met Yves about two years ago after releasing Shake Out! He invited me to attend his weekly designer meet ups where he and other local designers test prototypes and help develop each other's game ideas. He does this under the banner of the Game Artisans of Canada a nation wide group that fosters sharing, collaboration and encouragement to help all members produce the best possible board games. He is always full of great feedback and super encouraging. So, a big congratulations to Yves on getting two fantastic games published.
"So, what about the games!?" I hear you all saying. Well, I'll tell you about the games! Expedition: Northwest Passage is a mid weight strategy game based on the crossing of the, titular, Northwest Passage and recovering the lost expedition of Sir John Franklin. The game employs tile laying to simulate the exploration of the unknown and having the choice to manage both sea and land expeditions at once is really cool. Blueprints on the other hand is light and easy to teach and learn but full of great tactical decisions. The game has you stacking dice as a metaphor for constructing buildings using different colour dice to represent different materials. The drafting of dice from a central pool leads to many moments of seeing what you want snatched up from right under your nose and satisfying white knuckle rounds watching all other players passing on the material you so desperately want for yourself. This one was an obvious hit at the con as I spotted it being played several times over the weekend at tables full of smiles.
If you are into board games, do yourself a favour and check out these two excellent games! I'm sure you won't be disappointed.
P.S. Hey, Yves. High Five!
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