Today, Wizards of the Coast announced a new product: Kaijudo. It’s planned as a three-platform release, with an online game, a trading card game and a TV series.

Now, I don’t normally talk about card games, but as a father of a soon-to-be-four year old, he’s going to begin getting interested in products like this, so I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on this. I played Duel Masters a little when it first came out, as I worked at a game store at the time. This is based in the same world, but with a new game and plotline attached.

Press release below.

 WIZARDS OF THE COAST AND HASBRO ANNOUNCE KAIJUDO™

Multi-Platform Franchise to Launch this Year 

February 10, 2012 – RENTON, WA – Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro, Inc., (NASDAQ: HAS) today announced the launch of a new franchise entitled Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters. Kaijudo will provide multi-platform entertainment that the whole family will enjoy, featuring an online game, trading card game (TCG), and a television series produced by Hasbro Studios and airing in the U.S. on The Hub TV network. 

“As a world leader in creating compelling entertainment featuring stories and fantastic artwork in a variety of expressions, Wizards is looking forward to unleashing the excitement of Kaijudo this year,” said Greg Leeds, President, Wizards of the Coast. “We are thrilled to be working with the talented team at Hasbro Studios and leveraging the growing popularity of The Hub to bring this unique franchise to the U.S. market.”

Kaijudo offers an inspiring story about a young hero, Ray, who possesses the rare ability to befriend and duel alongside fantastical creatures from a parallel dimension. It’s up to Ray to master the ancient art of Kaijudo in order to protect both worlds. 

Through the online game, the TCG and the TV series, kids will be immersed in a world of fast combat and deep strategy where they will develop strong, unique bonds with powerful and edgy creatures, leading them in a battle to save humanity from annihilation.

The Duel Masters TCG is a perennial Japanese market leader for boys 8-12, with millions of fans playing the Duel Masters TCG in Japan over the past 10 years. Kaijudo adapts this highly successful TCG to a new story and product line that are sure to connect with a new generation of kids around the world.

For more information about Kaijudo, visit www.Kaijudo.com or like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/kaijudodojo.

About Wizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast LLC, a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ:HAS), is the leader in entertaining the lifestyle gamer. The company holds an exclusive patent on trading card games (TCGs) and their method of play and produces the premier trading card game, Magic: The Gathering®.  Wizards is also a leading publisher of roleplaying games, such as Dungeons & Dragons®, and publisher of fantasy series fiction with numerous New York Times best-sellers. For more information, visit the Wizards of the Coast Web site at www.wizards.com.

About Hasbro

Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ:HAS) is a branded play company providing children and families around the world with a wide-range of immersive entertainment offerings based on the Company’s world class brand portfolio.  From toys and games, to television programming, motion pictures, video games and a comprehensive licensing program, Hasbro strives to delight its customers through the strategic leveraging of well-known and beloved brands such as TRANSFORMERS, LITTLEST PET SHOP, NERF, PLAYSKOOL, MY LITTLE PONY, G.I. JOE, MAGIC: THE GATHERING and MONOPOLY. The Hub, Hasbro’s multi-platform joint venture with Discovery Communications (NASDAQ: DISCA, DISCB, DISCK) launched on October 10, 2010. The online home of The Hub is www.hubworld.com. The Hub logo and name are trademarks of Hub Television Networks, LLC. All rights reserved. Hasbro’s philanthropic work strives to bring “the sparkle of Hope, the joy of Play and the power of Service” into the lives of the children who need it most through the Hasbro Children’s Fund and other initiatives aimed to help children worldwide. Come see how we inspire play through our brands at http://www.hasbro.com. © 2012 Hasbro, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

KAIJUDO, KAIJUDO: RISE OF THE DUEL MASTERS, and DUEL MASTERS are ™ and ©2012 Wizards/Shogakukan/Mitsui-Kids.  MAGIC: THE GATHERING, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, and WIZARDS OF THE COAST and its logo are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the USA and other countries.    ©2012 Wizards. 

This next stage (which can be executed at the same time as the Execution stage) can be pretty hard. But if you want your game to sell, you need to make sure you invest a lot of energy into Graphic Design.

If you are a graphic designer yourself, you’ll be able to do a lot of the work on your own. If you’re not, you should find a friend willing to help you out. This also means sacrificing some of your profits. (Now, if you’re planning on selling this game to a larger company, you can skip this stage, as most companies that buy games, such as Z-Man Games, will probably be doing a lot of the graphic design themselves. But, that’s one of the reasons they are making most of the profit. They take the risk, they make the money.) You should still put some artistic thought into your game, though. You should already know exactly how you want your game to look when you sell the game.

As a Graphic Designer, you might not be doing too much of the art, either. A Graphic Designer on a game takes the art and the game, and makes it presentable. (Builds the templates for cards, game board, rulebook, etc.) So, this means you need art. Where are you going to get that?

Start finding some artists. Hit up some local college art programs for students who want some work that they can add to their portfolio. Make a list of all the art pieces you need, from card art, to turnarounds for the sculpts. (A turnaround is a piece of art that shows a particular character from multiple angles. This piece of art might be re-used in the game, but it is for a sculptor to use to sculpt the little pieces you’ll be using in the game.)

Figure out all the pieces you’ll need, and how much you’re willing to spend on them. Chances are you are not rich yourself, so this also means you’re going to need to come up with some money. You should probably check out Kickstarter, and read the articles on Kickstarter by Gary Sarli. Before you launch that Kickstarter project though, you’ll need to already line up your artists, and come up with an agreement with them on payment, so that your Kickstarter project has those figured added in.

You’re also going to need to figure out how you’re going to print this game. This, unfortunately is knowledge I lack. So start looking around for a place that will print your game, and try to get figures from them, since you’re Kickstarter project will also need those costs listed.

Printing a game is not cheap, nor huge-profit making. But if you don’t make and keep your promises with your artists, you’ll be constantly searching for new artists. Respect and pay your artists, and you’ll start a good, healthy work relationship with them.

This can be a time-consuming stage in the process, but, there are also long lulls, while your artists are working on their art, you’ll be working on the rules, or playtesting your game. But, designing games is not only fun, it’s also hard work. (It will pay off though.)

Be willing to split some of your profits with your artists. But you don’t have to share profits with them forever. You can agree on a “pay cap.” Say you have an artist doing your cover art. You want to pay him $1000 (standard, for a really good piece) but you don’t have a huge budget. Maybe you agree to pay him $500, and then 10% of the profits you make until it hits $1200 (to give them a little extra incentive.) If you game is really successful, and you have multiple printings, then once you’ve paid the artist his total $1200, that 10% you were paying him goes back to you on future print-runs.

Chances are this is the first game you’re designing. So you want to make a big splash with it. Chances are you’re not going to win the Spiel des Jahre (Game of the Year) on your first game, but what you want is for companies to start looking at you, and maybe even offering you more work as a designer. Who knows? You present a good game, you might make enough profit to make another game, and then another, and before you know it you’ll have yourself a game company. Don’t skimp on appearance. A good game sells because it has good art that captures the buyer. Next week we’ll be doing the final Polishing stage.

No, not that kind of execution...

So, you’ve written down your initial Design Document, and you’ve playtested your alpha prototype a couple of times. Now is the time to decide what kind of commitment you want to put into your new game. This stage: the Execution, and the following step, which we’ll talk about next week, can either be done separately, or at the same time. You should plan for this stage to take about 1-3 months. The stage after this, the Graphic Design stage will probably take just as long, which is why you might want to do them both at the same time.

Now that you’ve played your prototype, it iss time to do some more hard brain work. You need to do some heavy rethinking of the obvious problems. How can you fix them? Should you remove those features entirely? After you’ve done this, its time to make one more prototype. This time, be a little more cautious. Use some good pieces from other games. Your goal at this stage is to make sure that your players are not distracted by odd pieces in your game. You want your game to flow smoothly, so that you can see how well the game plays on the table. (When I play a game, whether prototype or finished game, appearance can really hang me up. If the game looks shoddy, I can’t “get into it.” I have to push this urge aside when I play a prototype. And thus, when I make a prototype, I try to make sure my players are playing with a game that already feels finished. If I play a shoddy finished game, I don’t enjoy myself at all, and I judge the designer for not having good vision. Just something to keep in mind.)

Once you’ve done this, and you’ve playtested the game a few more times, you’re going to take a break from playtesting, sit back, and really assess the game. Fix any additional problems, and make another prototype. Also, write up a set of rules as best as you can. (This will take practice, and you’ll be re-writing it several times.) At this point you will probably want to start planning out art and such, but I’ll cover that step next week. An important note though, if you do the Execution stage and the Graphic Design stage at different times, you’ll save some re-design work later on. (Since once you start figuring out final piece counts and art, you are likely to have to cut some of them.)

Now you’ve written some rules out, and modified your prototype to better match those rules. You need to make a second, and maybe even a third copy of the prototype. Find some friends, or groups of friends who are willing to playtest your game. (It’s even better to find a couple of groups of friends out of town, from college, or somewhere else, so you can mail them your prototype.) This way, those groups of friends will have lots of hard questions for you. You won’t be able to watch their game play out, and you can’t hold their hands during the playtest. This way, the hardest questions will be raised, and you can make sure that the next version of the rules reflect those problems.

Now, you don’t HAVE to make prototypes for each of your playtest groups. And in fact, once you do give them a prototype any changes will have to be implemented by them. But it’s a common courtesy to at least provide them with a playtest prototype. After-all, they are playtesting for no pay. (Though you should promise the group a minimum of one copy of the game once its complete.)

Have each group playtest the game 3-4 times. In between games they can ask a few questions, but what you really need from them is to type up a play-by-play document, and afterthoughts. You need them to be brutal and honest, but you also need them to defend their findings.

You can even disregard some of their comments, so long as you take what they are saying relatively serious. I’ll cover this in a future article. Just understand that some gamers (surprise) are sore losers, and may take it out on your design with criticism.

After you get their feedback, make the changes you need to, and then send them (by email) the changes. Have them introduce one new player into their group, so you have a fresh set of eyes on the game, and have them go through another round of playtests.

You might have to wash-rinse-repeat this stage a few times, until you feel you’re ready, but you will also need to decide when to stop. There may be a few things you’ll want to keep fiddling with, but you might also be just fiddling. Hold back those urges, and know, you’re very close to completing your game.

Game Design is a really fun process. It pushes your imagination and creativity, and it gives you a chance to make something that is for your own pleasure, and hopefully others.

The first step is coming up with an idea. Most games don’t get past this point, because you can often tell when the idea was something that needed to be put on the back burner until later, or while working on one idea, you may be sparked with a new, better idea.

The first thing you want to do is start writing down your idea. Write down everything you want you game to do, what you want it to be about, what games it is similar to, and so on. Mull it over, and write down some more.

You can spend as long as you need on this. But honestly, 40 to 80 hours is probably the max you want to spend. It’s important at this point write up your Design Document.

The Design Document is a two page summary of all the great things your game will include. An elevator speech, to keep on file, and keep on file. This design document will probably change, but you’ll nee it when you start shopping your game around.

The last step in the Idea step is the alpha prototype. You don’t really want to spend more than a day or two making this. You need to just throw together a prototype with what little you’ve written for rules, on the cheapest possible budget.

Play your prototype. Something will work, other things really wont, and other things will be really awful. Now that you’ve done this though, you’ll know if your game is good, or if its time to go back to the drawing board. From this initial playtest, you can make obvious modifications, and start the really hard work. Don’t throw away your prototype. You might even want to play it a couple more changes afterwards.

Next week we’ll discuss the next step: Execution, where we’ll continue the design process and prepare our game for full-blown playtesting.

Hello all, this is Monday’s Hero, known to some as Andrew, known to others as Dice Monkey’s (Mark’s) brother.

I spent as a year at Fantasy Flight Games as a Creative Content Developer, which pretty much means I did whatever people put in front of me, from writing fiction for the games, playtesting, theorizing with other game designers, and doing some game design too.

Among the games I worked on were the new Shogunate faction for Tannhäuser, some other Tannhäuser expansions, the Print-on-Demand expansions for Death Angel, and the most recently announced expansion for Runewars, Banners of War.

I spent two years before I started work at Fantasy Flight Games learning what I could about game design, but learned a heck of a lot more once I worked for FFG for a year. Now I have the information I need to strike out on my own and become a freelance game designer. I’m working on a few projects now, which you’ll no doubt hear all about here at Dice Monkey in the following months and years.

Those are my credentials. More importantly though, I want to share with you stuff you may not know about game design in this series.

I’m not going to be revealing any big secrets, or sharing the special key to success (who can truly know what that is?) I’m here to tell you that the game design process does not take nearly as long as you think it does. In fact, you could easily have a game started today and have it ready to see the light of day six months from now, and on shelves three months after that. What it really takes is not only the age old adage “practice, practice, practice” but it takes determination, and time investment.

I’ll be getting into the meat of the process in the next blog. Until then, you’re going to need a few things.

-Challenges for Game Designers by Brenda Brathwaite (ISBN:9781584505808)

This book is an absolute must. I picked it up around 2 years ago, and it has provided me with countless ideas for games. It is technically aimed at computer game designers, but it is my opinion that this is because there is not a big enough market to market toward board game designers. The premise is a semester and a half of lessons to go through, learning the theories behind each type of game, from area control, to casino games. At the end of each chapter you are given some idea seeds to design a board game relating to the chapter you’ve read.  (With Borders closing, you better go get your order in, and you might get it for cheaper with the coupons no doubt headed your way.)

-Sketchbook

I got into the habit of using non-lined sketchbooks in college, because I drew my own stuff and took notes in class on the same page. It takes practice to fill one of these up, but having lots of paper to write down every little idea you have is important.

-Pencil

A given.

That’s all you’re going to need for now. Until next week, start thinking of ideas for games. It doesn’t matter how complicated they are. We’ll simplify them later on. I’ll cover the idea, and what it means to prepare a design document, and then we’ll move on from there toward execution.

Monday out.

So, after a bitter failure to gather a group of players for my group (only two of eight people showed up, neither of which could play), I’ve decided that perhaps I’ll try different methods, and should maybe get back into Magic: The Gathering to actually find a group to play with. There’s always people to play Magic with.

Back when I played, I didn’t actually collect random packs of cards. Since I worked in a game store, I instead picked up only the cards I needed from the boxes of Magic cards the game store had.

The result of which was my deck of Elves, a streamlined and exquisite little deck that was pretty great, swarming the battlefield with Elves and Ents, while steadily building my Life counter into the hundreds.

So I’m thinking about getting back in, though collecting slowly and without breaking the bank. My goal isn’t to win, it’s to have fun.

There’s a fantastic program out there called LackeyCCG. If you haven’t seen it, and you like playing any form of Collectible Card Game, you need to get it. Follow the YouTube videos to install and set up the software, and let me know once you’re on. I’ll play some games with you!

The elegance of the program is that it has literally every single Magic card in the software, as well as every card from a lot of other games as well, such as Warhammer Invasion and more.

Speaking of D&D and Magic, keep your eyes open tomorrow…

Yes, that’s right! We’re going to tell you exactly where we’ll be!

(Note there are a lot of board games here. We actually play a lot of board games here at home, so we’re happy to get out there and play some we’ve never tried before.)

Let’s start with Friday, our first day there. We’re assuming I’m going to be able to get that Friday off work to drive down.

FRIDAY

11:00: “I’m Wil Wheaton, and I’m a Gamer“: We’re going to go see my “Wil Save” himself, Bridget’s old pen pal. I’m really looking forward to the opportunity to talk to him.

12:00: Mouse Guard: Winter 1152: This is my Mouse Guard game I’ll be running. If you’re interested, contact me on Twitter. My handle is @markmeredith. This will run for a couple of hours.

3:00: Warhammer Fantasy RP 3e: This is the Warhammer game I’ll be running. Again, if you’re interested, etc. We’ve already got a few people interested.

And that’s it for my scheduled stuff. Bridget and I are going to go on a date that night, since we don’t have much time to when we’ve got the munchkin in tow. That evening, we’ll be milling about, so if you’re interested in hanging out, I’ll be on Twitter all weekend.

SATURDAY

10:00: Guillotine: We’re excited to play some Guillotine, one of our favorite card games.

2:00: Ticket to Ride with Europa 1912 Expansion: Bridget’s never played, so we’ll be using this to occupy our time until…

4:00: GM’s Jam: I’ll be on this panel with Zach from RPG Blog II and a few others. We’ll be talking about RPGs and how to be a better GM.

6:00: Atlantis: This is a board game we’ll be playing. Neither of us have played, and we’re interested in seeing how it turns out.

8:00: Media Meet & Greet: We’ll be here to chat with anyone about blogging and podcasting. We really look forward to seeing all the RPG Bloggers there!

After that, we’re pretty much free! I’ll have my phone synched with Twitter to get any @’s.

SUNDAY

Sunday we’ve only got two events planned.

10:00: Hey, That’s My Fish: This is another board game we’ve been interested in playing.

12:00: The Adventurers: This game by AEG looks pretty awesome.

And beyond that, we’ll be free for other activities.

We’re looking at hitting up some other events in our free time: Tower of Gygax, WotC’s Lair of the Dread Witch, Dark Sun, some free painting, perhaps one of the HirstArts seminars, and the MechWarrior Simulators.

I look forward to seeing a lot of people there, including some game designers and the guys from Fear the Boot. And getting some interviews and an episode recorded for RPG Circus, of course.

If there are any events we’re missing that are going to be big, let us know! If you want us to play in your games, let us know!

For those who don’t know, Three-Dragon Ante is supposed to be a card game used in actual D&D worlds, including Eberron, Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance.

I know that they’re coming out with an expansion to Three-Dragon Ante, Emperor’s Gambit, and there will probably be rules for playing the games in 4e, but I found 4e rules to them from Drew Spencer at BoardGameGeek.com. You can see the original post here.

“With the release of Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition, the rules presented for using skills as special abilities when playing Three-Dragon Ante in character are now out of date. I present the following modifications:

Withhold Funds
“One, two… hey, barkeep, more drinks over here… four, five.”
Bluff vs. Passive Insight
When paying 2 or more gold to another player, pay 1 fewer gold.

Under Pressure
“When things get tense, I’m at my best.”
Streetwise vs. DC 15
Whenever you ante, unless another player’s hoard has less gold than yours, pay 1 fewer gold to the stakes.

Grant Favor
“This could work out for everyone.”
Diplomacy vs. Will Defense
Before your turn this round, if you are the leader, you may choose another player to be the leader this round instead.

Intimidate
“Don’t even think about it.”
Intimidate vs. Will Defense
As long as you and any other player tie for the strongest flight, you can’t be chosen as the opponent with the strongest flight.

Sleight of Hand
“I’m just lucky sometimes.”
Stealth vs. Passive Perception*
After you discard the top card of the deck while buying cards, you may discard a second card from the top of the deck. If you do, pay the second card’s strength in gold to the stakes instead of the first card’s strength, even if it’s higher.

Read Face
“You can hide your cards but not your face”
Perception vs. Reflex Defense
When an opponent plays his or her second card, if both cards are the same color dragon, you may look at his or her hand before any powers trigger.

Snatch Gold
“If no one sees it, it’s not cheating”
Thievery vs. Passive Perception*
After you steal gold from the stakes with a card’s power or a strength flight, if the stakes have 2 or more gold, you may steal 1 more gold from the stakes.

Wild Card
“Trust me, I know exactly what I’m talking about.”
This special ability does not use a skill check. You may use it only if you are a dragonborn, half-dragon, or full dragon.
Once each game, if you played a mortal this turn, you may count the mortal as the third dragon of any color only to complete a color flight.

These are all just modifications of the abilities mentioned in the Three-Dragon Ante rulebook, only which skills are used and what they roll against are modified.

* Roll vs. the highest passive skill of all opponents, excluding any opponents who would not obstruct whatever shenanigans you’re trying.”

End of repost from boardgamegeek.com

Now, of course, if you were to fail your roll on, say, Snatch Gold or Withold Funds, whichever NPCs your playing against would probably notice, and won’t take kindly to your attempting to cheat them. It would be a great opportunity for a fight to break out, for example. If you use these rules, let me know!

I was sent a copy of War for Edadh recently, a new game by WarriorElite. One morning, my wife sent me an email at work, informing me a box from England had arrived. Everyone’s good friend, Ed Healy, had set me up with WarriorElite to review this game, and I had completely forgotten it was coming in. So I was very excited when it arrived.

War for Edadh (pronounced Eh-dath): The Beginning is a strategy card game with a rich backstory and beautifully detailed cards. This is something that stood out to me right away: the production values on these cards are top notch. They’re gorgeous.

The two players are each in control of a warband of heroes, armed with spears, bows, and in the case of the Huaos-Dzaa (the more advanced military organization), guns and blunderbusses. The other faction, the Angueth, remind me very much of the Na’vi from Avatar.

There is no dice or randomness to the game at all. The game is resolved with cards you have in your hands at all times, which you play through choosing the correct card at the correct time, trying to figure out which card your enemy might play.

There’s a lot of information on the cards. A lot. But if you begin with the “apprentice” rules, you should be fine, as most of the numbers on the card are ignored. The cards are a little busy with numbers and symbols, as you can see on the right. As you advance in levels of play, more of the cards rules will be played, as well as more cards from the set, but it comes in increments, allowing you to fully learn and utilize the rules to their full potential.

The attack cards you play are ingenious. They are numbered 1-12, and high card wins, and you have all cards in your hands at all times (no drawing cards). You would naturally assume you’d want to keep playing your high cards, but that’s where knowing your opponent comes into play. The lower cards have the ability to convert to higher cards when played against certain other cards. That may sound confusing, but let me give you an example: Say you play a 12, and your opponent plays a 1. You would think you’d have one, if not for the text on the card stating that the 1 is actually a 14 vs. 12.

Like I said before, the cards do look a little busy, and the thin, non-bolded text can be difficult to read (so be sure to play in a well-lit area). But the game is a fantastic simulation of two armies doing battle against one another.

More advanced games can implement all kinds of types of terrain, impeding and aiding armies.

There are due to be more expansions out soon. The current expansion is The Art of Conflict, introducing more cavalry and such. Later expansions promise to introduce naval conflict, sieges, and possibly even a roleplaying game!

I did end up losing to my wife, me playing the Huaos-Dzza, and her playing the Angueth. There is quite a lot of strategy involved, deciding what cards to play at the right time. You learn your opponent, determining what they’re going to do next.

This game is definitely worth checking out and picking up. I know I’ll be picking up any further expansions WarriorElite puts out.

And I’m really looking forward to that RPG.

You can watch some YouTube videos of Nigel, the designer of the game, explaining the rules and giving a general overview.

War for Edadh Game Overview

War for Edadh Basic Gameplay Overview