Tales and Tails Character Storyboards

After the amazing success we’ve had at the Georgetown County Library System with our previous laser cut take home programs we knew we needed to offer a great summer program. Our Glowforge laser printer/cutter is a great resource, and since we didn’t know if we would be in the position to have patrons join us for our traditional summer reading programs we wanted something that worked hand-in-hand with the Collaborative Summer Library Program 2021 Tails and Tales Summer Reading theme. https://www.cslpreads.org/

Amy King (Children Services Librarian), Chris Bell (Teen Tech Assistant), and I (Teen Services Librarian) brainstormed about possible projects. We’d pretty quickly ruled out repeating our mobile project because we wanted to avoid getting into a rut. It would be a shame to just repeat the same, slightly changed, projects over and over when we have such a great team and useful tool like the Glowforge. Other animal themed ideas we considered included puzzles, bookmarks, and ‘shelf hangers’ in the shape of animals that would hang off the edge of the shelves in precarious looking positions.

Story Board display at the main Georgetown County Library System

The project we all rallied around was to offer a new set of character boards each week. This would provide patrons the opportunity for a fun painting experience and then they would have characters to help them create their own Tails and Tales based stories. This project really embraced the theme and even though it had minimal engineering challenges we had an opportunity to express our creativity with the variety of characters we could provide.

The final pitch was that every week for eight weeks our patrons could come in and paint, or take home, a uniquely themed character board. The boards would have four or more easily punched out characters, and some additional items as space allowed. Magnets and paints would be provided so the characters could be put up on the patron’s refrigerator or on the magnetic board some branches provided. Amy also purchased word magnets for week one, which could be used separately or as dialog boxes for the characters.

Based on the number of unique elements each week and the number printed, this was our most ambitious summer reading program to date. However, as presented, the design and manufacturing was broken up into easily digestible chunks. This meant instead of needing everything cut before week one we had a staggered manufacturing process and rollout. Designing and laser cutting the wood started months before we actually started our program, and cutting continued until about week six of distribution.

Unlike our spring Fairy and Gnome Doors project, where each of the six Georgetown County branches had a unique design, every branch would get exactly the same board designs to distribute for the same weeks. But we didn’t turn our backs on our previous project; we made the tokens included on the story boards to scale with the doors so they could be easily used together. http://www.inversegenius.com/gsl-blog/2021/3/22/fairy-and-gnome-doors

Once we had an idea of the project’s direction we took a few prototypes to the Children’s Services meeting. It was exciting to show off the original samples of a sassy iguana, a shifty raccoon, and a rather unconcerned squirrel, to the librarians. They gave feedback and were enthusiastic about starting the first week with Little Red Riding Hood.

Week 1 - Little Red Riding Hood

The fairytale theme was selected for our first week by our librarians, so our patrons could have some humans to include in their stories for future weeks. In a perfect world, and if we were doing this again, week one would have a larger space. Perhaps even twice as large. The larger space would have allowed us to include more animals, props, or people, from other fairy tales. This would set up a nice stage for our patrons to create an even more diverse set of stories.

That said, the tokens for this week one were already the most difficult to make, and were actually the third set to lock in the final design. As it turns out, it was a lot easier to create animals than it was to make human characters we were happy with. I filled up several pages of my sketchbook to come up with the right look before even moving to Inkscape to create the files.

Katie, the primary project painter, painted both sides of the tokens so patrons could see different ways of decorating the tokens. On one side you had Grandmother, on the other a Queen! She painted two different colors of wolves, and our hooded figure was Little Red Riding Hood on one side, and an elf on the other.

Little Red Riding Hood Tokens

Little Red
Big Bad Wolf
Lumberjack
Grandmother
Picnic Basket

Week 2 - Herping

The week two theme was set to support other Children’s Services programming by focusing on herpetology related animals. Amy brought in Ethan Shelay, a local herping expert, to teach our patrons about finding and safely living in an environment with lizards, snakes, turtles, and alligators. Because of the additional exposure for this week we cut out about fifty extra boards of herping characters for the patrons who weren’t also participating in summer reading.

Feedback from our Children’s Services and Branch Managers suggested that we should include something supernatural, or at least non-standard in each set of characters. So for herping week we included a dragon, you don’t get more fantastical than that. We also included some eggs that folks thought were reminiscent of cute eggs from Pokémon games.

Unlike week one, which I designed, Chris designed most of the tokens on this board. I started the dragon design, but Chris altered it to fit the board and added finishing touches while I resumed work on week one.

Herping Tokens

Alligator
Turtle
Sassy Iguana
Dragon
Egg
Hatched egg

Week 3 - Oceanography

Our oceanography characters were a unique challenge. Not because the characters in-and-of-themselves were difficult, but because just last summer we offered our Ocean Mobile project. That hanging art project had already presented many of the most recognizable local sea creatures, and while we could have rescaled those and removed the hanging hole for the mobile thread we wanted to offer a different set of creatures.

This set ended up working particularly well with the Sea Fairy Door that the Waccamaw Neck Branch Library offered this spring.

Ocean Tokens

Orca
Marlin
Horseshoe Crab
Sea Serpent
Starfish x2

Week 4 - Jungle

The Jungle week was a fun week to create, though we had trouble settling on an appropriate mythological creature. I ended up using my power as one of the designers to add in a monkey in pirate garb instead of something out of mythology. I expected feedback to suggest changes, like adding a hat more like Captain Jack Sparrow’s, but folks liked it as is.

It was at this point we realized avian creatures were under-represented and jungles seemed like an excellent opportunity to include a bird. Even though I lobbied for a pirate parrot captain to compliment our pirate monkey, our poll of children’s services staff put toucans higher on the list than parrots. (I will get a parrot in a project eventually, just see if I don’t.)

The jungle cat ended up being very versatile. It could be painted up like leopards, jaguars, cougars, female lions, or even some domesticated cat breeds.

We love pangolins in our room, and have previously used a flexible model of one as a demo for our 3d printer. As such it really needed to be included in one of the character boards.

The large banana and the pineapple were added as our non animal tokens, both for color, and as possible things the monkey pirate would be interested in causing all kinds of trouble to acquire. They would also work well with the picnic basket from the set we offered in week one.

Jungle Tokens

Toucan
Pangolin
Jungle Cat
Pirate Monkey
Pineapple
Big Banana

Week 5 - Farm

The interest in a week of farm creatures really surprised me. With all the exciting and exotic creatures in the world I didn’t expect we’d have demand for domesticated animals, but the reception for this board, from librarians and patrons alike was great. Some even said it was their favorite set of characters.

Maybe it was because we were in the flow of things by this point, or perhaps because we were familiar with the animals in question, but this was an easy set of characters to create. We could have added three or four more without any problem. As it is, this one ended up with more creatures than other sets because I really wanted to add the chicks instead of a pitchfork or other non animal creature.

The most difficult challenge on this whole board was to make the scarecrow not intensely creepy. I’m not certain I completely achieved harmless-derpyness, but people liked it.

This set also plays well with the Herping set, because of the eggs.

Farm Tokens

Pig
Sheep
Hen
Rooster
Donkey wearing a hat
Derpy Scarecrow
2 Chicks

Week 6 - Ice Age Megafauna

Instead of looking just at our current animals and mythology we wanted to expand the horizons of the project and include a batch of prehistoric animals. We went with the base theme of megafauna and modeled them on animals our younger patrons would be familiar with from animated features.

There was some concern from one of our branches that we’d be confused with the characters from the animated Ice Age movies, but our art style was significantly different, and we weren’t branding them as the movie characters, so we were safe. That said, we absolutely included the most recognizable creatures from the ice age, which the movie also did, so that meant there was going to be overlap.

We also weren’t concerned with making certain the tokens included weren’t all from the same time period, which is good because acorns didn’t exist 60 million years ago when the Scrat-ish Cronopio was living the good life down in what is now Argentina.

Megafauna Tokens

Mastodon
Glyptodon (check Week 8 picture)
Megatherium / Giant Ground Sloth
Smilodon / Saber Toothed Tiger
Cronopio Dentiacutus / Saber-toothed Squirrel
2 Acorns

Week 7 - Forest

For Forest Week I had to include my favorite wild creature – the Raccoon, and because our Georgetown Branch has a rabbit named Dewey we felt including a leaping rabbit was relevant to this project as well. The toughest part had to be settling on the mythological creature. The unicorn won out because they are insanely popular, and would help offset the inevitable lag in numbers that happens in the last few weeks of the summer.

Creating the animals for this week was pretty easy. This was in part because two of these, the raccoon and squirrel, were pieces we created to pitch the idea to the other branches. Also, by week seven we had it down to a fairly streamlined process. Chris is a wizard with Adobe Illustrator, and I had gotten a handle on creating vector images in Inkscape.

Forest Tokens

Raccoon
Rabbit
Squirrel
Unicorn
Pine Cones

Week 8 - Dinos

For our final week we went so big that we went back in time. Dinosaurs, and other ancient creatures, not only have some interesting tails, but are pretty exciting in general. For this set we didn’t worry about what creatures were alive at the same time, but instead just went with one predator and three that had amazing tails.

For the small tokens we considered fossilized footprints, a nest with eggs, a mosquito in amber, and super small mammals. In the end we went with Trilobites because they are some of the most common fossils on earth.

(Glyptodon was mistakenly pictured with the dinosaurs because of the bright pink spots, but it should have been included in our week 6 pictures.)

Katie went wild with the paint job because we wanted more colors.

Dino Tokens

Allosaurus
Archaeopteryx
Ankylosaurs
Stegosaurus
Trilobites

Numbers

As with all summer programs numbers and participation changes from week to week and even day to day. Initial estimates were 475 kits per week, spread over six branches, including our bookmobile. However, the bookmobile opted not to participate. Also, because of the ongoing pandemic, and the unexpected issues facing the opening of our Southern Georgetown Community Library and staffing issues at other branches our initial offering was 400 per week for the first five weeks. At four weeks we reevaluated what we’d need for weeks 6-8, and for those four weeks we ended up shaving some numbers and distributing 295 sets divided up amongst the five branches.

From Monday June 21st, until August 13th we distributed approximately 3020 units to our branches for summer reading, including demo pieces so each branch could paint a set for display, plus another fifty Herpin Week boards. Plus approximately 20-25 sheets of failed or faulty prints, bringing the total to more than 3180 units.

Time wise we were cutting boards for over 200 hours over the course of the production run, plus cleaning and test cuts we made while developing the characters.

Thoughts for improvements

What changes would I make to this program if we were to offer it again? If budget were no option (hahaha) we would source better wood. The wood we ordered was cheap Baltic Birch that had voids or big blobs of glue between the layers. This caused us to have a non-trivial amount of failures, costing us as much as 15-20 full sheets of wood. (8 storyboards per sheet.)

On the limitless budget front, it would be great if we could make certain all branches included magnetic boards in the week one offering, and it would be ideal if they were half again as large as the boards we offered. On the same line of thought, it would be great if we could include more tokens for week one and week eight, to really endcap the project.

With more weeks I’d absolutely increase the variety of animals to include an even more diverse collection of creatures. Like what? More birds, like scissortail flycatchers, peacocks, parrots, bird-of-paradise, and so forth. We also neglected insects. It would be great to offer some animals that gain or lose tails over the course of their life, like tadpoles to frogs, or animals that lose their tails and regrow them. But perhaps that is another project entirely.

Displays and Marketing

Our painted demonstration tokens were a huge success, doubly so with the first set that had different paint jobs on the two sides of the token. I should have encouraged Kate to worry less about getting the paint jobs super realistic, and to just have fun with them, or have both. The examples she gave us when she took her own lead to use wild colors the results were easily as amazing as her realistic paint schemes.

On a related note, we might have benefited from sending an example set to each of the branches a week earlier than we did so they could each have a painted set on display to build up anticipation for what was coming next week.

And if our Glowforge hadn’t needed repairs I would have produced larger versions of them for in-library displays, and used those to get even more press for the activity.

Future of the Project

Since the end of Summer Reading we’ve compiled all of the characters into one file, and hope to make laser cuts of the complete set available through donations to the Friends of the Waccamaw Library like we have done with our Ocean Mobile and Spring Garden Mobile. While we offered them for free to patrons during Summer Reading, it is wonderful that they can continue to be offered in such a way that they will support future library activities.

How does this relate to gaming?

That’s a fair question on the Games in Schools and Libraries blog. Like our previous Fairy Door project these tokens and creatures can be used in many games. We hope to use them in some of our RPGs at an upcoming ShushCon, or for game design workshops. These would make great pieces in prototype board games.

I have to mention how the skills developed painting these can be used in miniatures and terrain making. Several patrons attending our summer minis painting and terrain creation workshops used many of these characters in the Pringles Can Tower workshop to decorate their fortresses.

Final Thoughts

Overall this was an incredibly gratifying project to work on. My only disappointment is that, despite parents telling us their family loves the tokens, we haven’t had nearly as many pictures of painted creatures as I had hoped for.

I had a great deal of fun working with Chris to create the animal files, and learned to really enjoy working in Inkscape. We became pretty adept at picking up when the other one of us began to lag, and helping each other stay realistic about outcomes. The moments of frustration were eclipsed by the sense of achievement and just getting to make art.

Amy and Kate were important contributors and amazing to work with. They provided ideas and feedback, as well as prepared the example displays for our patrons. Also they were incredibly supportive when I was frustrated with my artistic shortcomings, or when we had Glowforge issues. Most critically they made certain the characters were released on schedule, and managed everything to do with the supporting material like paint, magnets, and the like. They were as essential to the program’s success as Chris and I.

And now, it is time to plan our winter holiday programs. Snowmen? Ornaments? Trees? New “gingerbread” houses?

Let me know how you’ve used laser cutting in any of your school or library programming.

Donald Dennis
Teen Services Librarian
Georgetown County Library System

Three little pigs! Can you tell which one built their house out of straw, sticks, or bricks?

The Games in Schools and Libraries blog and podcast are produced in association with the Georgetown County Library System and with the help of Inverse Genius.
Games in Schools and Libraries Guild at Board Game Geek or Page on Facebook
Email us: schoolsandlibraries@gmail.com

Posted on October 8, 2021 by Donald Dennis and filed under Library Programming and tagged Glowforge laser cuts summer reading Tails and Tales miniatures.

Fairy and Gnome Doors

*The Coral Door from the Waccamaw Neck Branch and the Mushroom door from the Bookmobile*

*The event announcement posted on social media.*

The Georgetown County Library System is rolling out Fairy and Gnome Door kits to all branches and the bookmobile this week. Though not explicitly games related, fairy doors are certainly game adjacent. They can be used as props in RPGs, wargames, or maybe even as part of a board game. I have already started working on an escape room using fairy doors.

Even though it appears the end of the pandemic may be on the not-to-distant-horizon we are still trying to find ways to connect to our community. One of the big tools that has helped with this has been our Glowforge laser printer. From it we have created three significant projects, including last summer’s ocean creature themed mobile, and our gingerbread house. Both made of Baltic Birch plywood, not gingerbread; we do not recommend eating them.

This spring Amy King and I, (Department Managers at the Waccamaw Neck Branch Library) brainstormed a project full of whimsey and creativity. The idea started simple “Fairy doors for books”. The next thing we knew, as is the way of things, it had completely spun out of control. While we’d offered our laser cut projects to other branches before there had only been moderate uptake. This time we wanted it to be different. We wanted to show that though each library is different, we are all still part of the same family.

In the project’s final form each library would have a unique door to give to their patrons. In that kit all of the other libraries would be represented by charms that reflected their own theme. The coastal Waccamaw Neck Branch Library had a coral framed door and was represented in each kit by an anchor while the Carvers Bay honey pot was represented by a fairy bear on each board. Andrews had a train, and Dewey, Georgetown’s mascot bunny, was present as well. To match the leafy and flowery art concept sketches provided by the brand new Southern Georgetown Community Library they were present on each board as a butterfly.

Chris Bell and I created art for six different kits, one for each branch in the system including our bookmobile, with some elements based on amazing sketches provided by library staff. Each kit has a different theme, a sign for that library, a fairy key, and charms representing all six different branches in the system. Each door has a layered doorframe element to help them seem more 3d and substantial. The laser cuts were made from SVG files which were created in Inkscape, or Adobe Illustrator, depending on who was doing the work. Chris is proficient in Adobe Illustrator, while I was working at becoming proficient at Inkscape.

The final door and supporting charms were all cut out using our Glowforge. Red lines mean cut, the tiny blue mean don’t cut, and the black lines are engraving or scoring to give patrons an idea on how to decorate. This project cost us about 125 hours of manufacturing of the laser cut boards, plus about 20 hours of additional Glowforge cleaning and maintenance. These numbers don’t include the non-trivial design and prototyping time, which we were not tracking but may have been upwards of a month.

To make the kits easier to prepare and distribute all of the wood door and charm elements are attached to the wooden frame by tabs. This means we don’t have to sort all the laser cut bits in addition to the other elements of the kit. We kept the tabs super small so the patron can pop out the bits when they are ready. On a previous project we had a patron paint everything then pop the bits out and they reported that worked rather well.

Amy and Katie turned our project into something more than cool bits of laser cut wood by organizing additional crafty bits and adding them to the bags. This started with filling thousands of little tubs with a variety of colors of paint, including some that was glow in the dark but also meant other decorative elements like buttons, colorful stones, glitter glue, and paint brushes. It wasn’t until we had the bags filled and set up all at once that the full scope of the project was really evident. Also, I have no idea how many hours of work they put into getting this organized, but it was a significant endeavor.
Once everything was ready, on the Thursday before the launch, Amy and Katie packed up all of the kits destined for other libraries and took them to our main location in Georgetown. From there they would be dropped off at their respective branches by our library courier on Monday, March 22nd.

As of March 22, 2021, a limited number of these kits were made available for free to Georgetown County Library System patrons, and they can get the kit from their library. While we don’t know for certain what demand will be, patrons who visit their local branch this week should be able to pick them up. Eventually the Friends of the Waccamaw Library may offer them in the FOWL store, or as part of their garden tour fundraiser, but if you are in Georgetown County, SC you can get one for free now at your local library.

At this time the files are not available for purchase, though they may be made available for free or by a donation to the library in the future. Click through the link to see more pics of the process and get a better idea for the scope of the project.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/P6j6sKhSiX86duyr7

Let me know how you’ve used laser cutting in any of your school or library programming.

-Donald Dennis

Posted on March 23, 2021 by Donald Dennis and filed under Library Programming and tagged Glowforge Fairy Doors laser cuts miniatures.

SushCon Online Cancelled

Unfortunately due to Georgetown County Library internet issues we are having to cancel the online ShushCon event scheduled for March of 2021. We still plan to move ahead with the in-person October event, so please check back for more information as that event gets closer.

Posted on March 15, 2021 by Donald Dennis and filed under ShushCon and tagged ShushCon2021.

ShushCon Schedule for 2021 UPDATED

The Waccamaw Neck Branch Library in Pawleys Island is excited to announce the ShushCon schedule for 2021.

ShushCon Online 21 March 26-28, 2021 CANCELLED
ShushCon 21 October 15-17, 2021

For the past six years ShushCon has been the premier celebration of gaming on South Carolina’s Grand Strand. We have introduced hundreds of patrons and conventioneers to the amazing games that form the foundation of the gaming hobby. Our goal has been to share both the classics, and the new hotness with seasoned and novice gamers alike. For 2021 we will be hosting two ShushCon events, one online only and the other in-person.

The chaos and disruption of 2020 caused the cancellation of last year’s in-person event. Instead ShushCon organizers offered four online Condemic conventions to offer gaming options for the socially isolated. From the lessons learned we are hosting ShushCon Online (March 26-28, 2021), a convention focused exclusively on online play.

On Friday March 26th, the first morning of ShushCon Online, we will offer tutorial seminars to help game masters and patrons alike get the most out of online game play. This will include tips and tricks for utilizing modern gaming platforms, as well as how to navigate the ShushCon discord, schedule pick-up games, and find games with openings. Also, check back to this blog where we will provide some links to tutorials recommended by the platform creators or community members.

To participate go to our registration form and sign up! After that you can log in the day of and find games that still need players. If preferred to plan and be prepared you can browse our growing list of events as we post them on the ShushCon blog or on ShushCon Facebook group. You can also reply to events in the ShushCon Discord server, which will open up in March.

If you are a creator and would like to participate or support the show please contact us directly! We would love to have you demo your games, appear in panels, or otherwise engage our attendees.

Check back after March for more information on our October event!

ShushCon and Games in Schools and Libraries are produced in association with the Georgetown County Library System and with the help of Inverse Genius.
Games in Schools and Libraries Guild at Board Game Geek or Page on Facebook
Email us: schoolsandlibraries@gmail.com

Posted on February 1, 2021 by Donald Dennis and filed under ShushCon and tagged ShushCon2021 ShushCon Online.

Next Generation Consoles in Libraries Part 2: Subscription Services

If you have questions about the next generation of gaming consoles but haven’t checked out Next Generation Consoles in the Library Part 1, you may want to start there. If you know about the hardware, read on!

With the next generation consoles now out in the wild, options for gaming purchases have been truly revealed. As mentioned in part one, both Sony and Microsoft have managed to divide their markets by having different tiers, or form factors, of their consoles this generation. That choice brings with it a brand new question; “Does your institution need game consoles to be able to access games on physical media, or are purely digital versions of the games sufficient?”. Both options have their merits, and we hope to give you a good idea of which option best fits your budget and operational needs.

The first and most important question is “what’s the difference between physical or digital?”. Both Xbox and PlayStation have a physical edition and digital edition for the new generation. Physical media for this generation means buying games by disc, while digital media can include purchasing codes from authorized vendors, through the console’s online marketplace, or obtaining games through a subscription service.

Physical Media

Using physical media, instead of purchasing digital only versions, allows libraries with more than one of a given console the option of playing the game on any of that brand of game stations. This provides excellent versatility in spaces with multiple sets of hardware. Also, if budget issues are a top-concern, physical copies have historically gone on sale more frequently than digital versions purchased through either the PlayStation or Xbox marketplaces.

While physical media requires storage consideration, and is more vulnerable to theft or destruction than digital downloads, it is also generally more convenient if kept in good condition. If your institution has a game installed on multiple machines, the disc can be changed between the stations so different patrons would have access to the game without needing to purchase the title multiple times.

Another significant benefit is overall console security, including the convenience of not having to worry about patrons gaining access to game marketplaces with credit cards attached, making physical media the superior choice for some environments. Doubly so if you also plan on tracking game use statistics or circulating games separate from the game stations.

Be aware that having a physical disc doesn’t mean you won’t have large downloads, game discs are really more like keys to play a game than an actual physical copy of the game. To play a game on a disc, the console will still need access to the internet at least once, to download a working and patched copy of the game. Also, keep in mind that not all games are released on disc, and some games require online access whenever they are played.

Online Play with ”Free” Monthly Titles

As for digital media, while sharing becomes a near impossibility; with a major exception (we will get to that), you are open to an entire host of new options for padding out your gaming collection. Both Xbox and PlayStation have subscription models for online gaming and game catalogs. Xbox Gold and PS+ respectfully.

With this online subscription you can play online games but also get a selection of ‘free’ games added to your account monthly. You get to keep all these games for as long as you have an active subscription. If you cancel and then re-add the respective pass you regain access to all the games you previously acquired, though you will lose out on games only available during your lapse in coverage. If you don’t go into the appropriate marketplace and grab the new ‘free’ games each month you won’t have access to them in the future, so make certain to get them while they are free. Having an opt in style feature also allows you to curate your collection a little bit better. If you're not looking to have your children's area own Grand Theft Auto, you can always decide not to add that to your account.

The major exception to digital games being locked to a single account is a feature called Gameshare. This feature is included with both Xbox and PS. It allows for the master account, or the account that owns the game, to share its collection of digital games with a different account on another system. Unfortunately not all games support this feature, many games only partially support this feature, and only one account can play the game at a time. The usefulness of this feature will depend heavily on how many consoles you feature, and how you police which games people are playing and at what time. Also note that gameshare only works between the same brand. Playstation cannot share with Xbox, or vice versa.

Bulk Catalog Subscriptions

At the time of writing the Xbox is the superior choice thanks to one single service. The Xbox Game Pass. This is separate from Xbox Gold, and is an active library of games that you instantly gain complete access to once you sign up. It’s an extra $15 per month but works just like a netflix subscription. This pass also frequently includes brand new AAA titles created by Microsoft or EA on launch. In the subscription business, Xbox is a clear winner, but only if you're ready to drop an extra $15 per month per console to take advantage of it. Also keep in mind that games do rotate in and out of the game pass. Every month you can expect games to be added and fall off, so keep an eye out for what games are leaving.

To add to everything Microsoft is also trying to step into the PC gaming sphere with the Game Pass Ultimate. Game Pass Ultimate includes all the benefits of Xbox Gold and Xbox Game Pass, and allows for the same account to be used for both PC and Xbox, meaning if you offer PC gaming you can run both at the same time on the same account. Microsoft is also beta-testing a cloud gaming/streaming service through Game Pass Ultimate, so the very nature of the Game Pass could change or expand in years to come.

PlayStation has a response to the Game Pass in the form of PlayStation Now. Similar to the Xbox Game Pass PSNow offers downloading games to play as a subscription based service. PSNow also features a streaming services for games, instead of downloading the games, players stream a game hosted and played on a Sony server. The quality of this stream is heavily reliant on internet speed, distance from the server, and connection quality. If any one of these three elements is not flawless the service suffers greatly to the point of extreme frustration or unusability.

Historically PSNow has been viewed negatively. Many AAA title games are missing from the service, as well as the streaming service being of a generally low quality except for a few locations with amazing internet connectivity. However, much like the Game Pass, it can add a substantial selection of games to your collection for a monthly fee. Playstation has promised to make the service a better experience, but currently the value is unimpressive with the service costing $19.99 for a back catalog of older games.

The Clear (current) Winner

From a hardware perspective both consoles are nearly identical in everything except for price and shape. In terms of digital offerings however the Xbox has a massive advantage. At the time of posting, Sony has promised to improve its subscription services but has not historically done great in the digital department. From a library perspective Xbox is the way to go if you can include the subscriptions in your budget. Outside of the subscriptions pick the console that has your favorite exclusive games.

Games in Schools and Libraries is produced in association with Inverse Genius and the Georgetown County Library System.
Games in Schools and Libraries Guild at Board Game Geek or Page on Facebook
Email us: schoolsandlibraries@gmail.com

Posted on January 14, 2021 by Donald Dennis and filed under Video Games and tagged Next generation console Xbox PS+ PlayStation Game Pass games with gold PSNow PS5 XBOX Series.

Next Generation Consoles in the Library Part 1

Side by side of the new XBOX and Playstation consoles.

Libraries looking to create or update gaming rooms have a new set of consoles peeking just around the corner. The next generation of gaming consoles arrives at the beginning of November (12th for PS and 15th for Xbox) and with it, a new host of questions and concerns for any library looking to break into this new generation. In this article, we will be covering the technical specifications of each console and how libraries need to consider these elements in their space.

The PS5 and the Xbox Series are the next generation consoles each coming with a pair of options for prospective buyers. The PS5 and the PS5 Digital Edition or the Xbox Series X and S, not to be confused with the last generation Xbox One X and S. Make sure your purchasing department understands the distinction between the Xbox One and the Xbox Series or you could be very disappointed with your not-so-new technology.

Both companies sport the same choice, a new console with or without a disk drive. For the Xbox series X, or the version with a disk drive, the price is $499. The S, digital games only, is $299. The PS5 follows a similar route with the PS5 being $499 and the Digital Edition being $399.

Physical or digital

For this console generation it is essential to know how the XBOX Series and PS5 play, store, and access their games. Either system will treat the game the same whether you purchase a physical disk or a digital copy. On each the game will be copied or downloaded to the hard drive and run exclusively from there because game disks access data far too slow for a game to run. Even with the previous generation of consoles discs are effectively only proof of purchase and a way to kickstart the download process.

For libraries a disk can provide versatility allowing play on different machines at different times, and a way to track which patrons are playing which games. For the next generation of gaming, the decision of disk or diskless mostly depends on your preference of how you want to manage your game inventory, and how much your programs or circulation numbers will benefit from the extra flexibility of physical media. From a performance perspective it will make no difference; the storage taken by the game will be exactly the same.

Storage

With games accessing more and more data in a shorter time the next generation of gaming consoles requires a next generation storage solution. Both the Xbox and PS will sport a SSD storage solution. What this means is they both will be utilizing one of the fastest consumer facing storage solutions on the market. Unfortunately this also means the next generation games can ONLY use this storage solution. If you want to pull a little more storage space from your console you will need a proprietary storage expansion, but only kind of. Both the PS5 and Xbox series X/S will come with a sampling of backwards compatibility. Each console sports its own list of compatible games. These games can be optionally stored on an external hard drive using a USB connector. Any games from the next generation can only be stored either on the respective main hard drive or on either console's external expansion solution.

So how much storage do you get out of the box? The PS5 will sport 825GB of storage. This is not as much as it can seem with current generation games routinely taking up 100GB of space, with some notable games taking up as much as 200+ GB of space (looking at you Modern Warfare). Xbox will have two different amounts. The Series X will boast 1TB of storage while the S will only have 512GB (Disk and digital versions, respectively). What this means is any library looking to hold a collection of more than 5 or 6 games is going to need to buy some form of storage expansion.

For the Xbox, you will be required to buy a specific type of memory card that can only be used by Xbox. It comes in the shape of an old school storage card for the low price of $220 per Terabyte of storage at launch. The idea being if you want to move your games around, you simply need to unplug and re-plug the appropriate memory card. Useful if you want to limit games to a specific type or rating to a specific group.

The PS5 will support any NVMe storage card on the market. These cards range in price from $100 to $1400 depending on how much storage you actually want. A comparable 1TB of data for an M.2 (the cheapest NVMe usable on ps5) is priced at about $170 at the time of writing, however these SSDs go on sale all the time for much lower prices. This installation will be less mobile, but these cards will certainly be more accessible at the launch of the PS5.

To Sum Up

The largest takeaway would be that both the Xbox and PS are basically the same system at this point. The only notable differences being access to which games and what services. Games created specifically by Microsoft or Sony typically stay with their respective consoles. Sometimes companies make deals for exclusivity contracts as well. Overall both consoles would be a huge boost to any library looking to pull interest into an activity room especially during launch.

Games in Schools and Libraries is produced in association with Inverse Genius and the Georgetown County Library System.
Games in Schools and Libraries Guild at Board Game Geek or Page on Facebook
Email us: schoolsandlibraries@gmail.com

Posted on October 8, 2020 by Christopher Bell and filed under Video Games and tagged Next generation console XBOX Series PS5.

With Gridopolis, build and play in 3D like never before!

Educators and researchers unanimously agree on the positive impact playing games can have on the learning process. Playing games of all kinds can help young people understand new concepts, view ideas from an alternative perspective and work as a team to accomplish a mission or a goal.

At Gridopolis Games, we too are on board with the idea that learning can be fun and engaging. A passion which led us to create the innovative educational ‘strategy game + platform’ called Gridopolis.

Gridopolis is a first-of-its-kind game where players think creatively and logically in three dimensions. Gridopolis is both a strategy game and an expandable gaming system, which is why it's such a fantastic and fun tool for STEM education.

For what we have classified more directly as ‘STEM without screens,' we recently developed our first lesson plan for use at home and in the classroom. This curriculum outlines therapeutic, knowledge, and behavioral objectives of the game system.

For the therapeutic objectives, students will practice recognizing shapes, colors and methods of assembly, addressing spatial skills, reasoning, memory and more. For knowledge objectives, students plan, move and strategize in three dimensions, teaching strategy, logic and creativity. Examining the behavioral objectives, students collaborate as they master the rules and game play, targeting socialization, collaboration and communication skills.

In addition to being a practical and fun learning system, Gridopolis would be an excellent fit in a schools and libraries setting due to its durability, simple instruction guide and vibrant color scheme.

Article by Gridopolis Games
Games in Schools and Libraries is produced in association with Inverse Genius and the Georgetown County Library System.
Games in Schools and Libraries Group on Facebook
Games in Schools and Libraries Guild at Board Game Geek
Email us: schoolsandlibraries@gmail.com

Posted on June 7, 2019 by Donald Dennis and filed under Computational Thinking, Tabletop and tagged STEM.

ShushCon Story Games Workshop

Once again the Waccamaw Neck Branch Library and Games in Schools and Libraries are kicking off ShushCon, the Grand Strand’s premier FREE public gaming event, with a free day of professional development for teachers, librarians and other educational professionals. We will be offering sessions dedicated to the use of games in story based programs in their curriculum and community outreach activities.

Workshop activities have a soft start at 9:00 am on Friday, March 22nd with the first presentation at 10:00am and will focus on Story Game Workshop activities until we adjourn for lunch at 1:00 pm. After lunch our ShushCon activities will continue and all Story Games Workshop participants are encouraged to join the fun by experiencing story games first-hand by playing with convention attendees.

The convention schedule offers a variety of games including a children’s game track, hobby and game enthusiast games, organized play, Virtual Reality Games, and an exclusive Stephanie Frey escape room!

ShushCon is a games and geekery convention March 22 – 24, 20189 at the Waccamaw Neck Branch Library in Pawleys Island, SC. To register, and for more information, visit shushcon.com or contact ddennis@gtcounty.org

ShushCon Facebook Page
ShushCon Facebook Group

Posted on February 15, 2019 by Donald Dennis and filed under Library Programming and tagged ShushCon ShushCon 2019 Trade Day.

Evolution: The Video Game launches with a 1,000 board game giveaway!

The folks at Games in Schools and Libraries are fans of North tar Games in general and Evolution in particular. We’ve had Dominic Crapuchettes, Evolution designer, join us on Games in Schools and Libraries #58, and Bruce Voge, of North Star Games, is a recurring host for On Board Games.

To sum up, we like Evolution because there are so many ways to play. Sure the classic version, with or without the flight expansion, is pretty neat but that’s old news. Evolution the Beginning is Donald’s favorite because it is fast and streamlined so every turn is filled with action and interesting decisions. On the other hand Chris prefers climate because it adds a great deal of variation to the base game and is a bit deeper game more suited to game enthusiasts.

They sent us the following press release, that we thought you’d find interesting. Doubly so because they are giving away so many games.

Evolution: The Video Game Launches on Darwin's Birthday

North Star Games Will Give Away 1,000 Evolution Board Games to Celebrate!

KENSINGTON, MD. - Feb. 11, 2019 - The official launch date of Evolution: The Video Game, the strategy game of adaptation from North Star Digital Studios is Tuesday, Feb. 12th. It’s also Darwin’s Birthday. Coincidence? Nope. It just seemed like a natural selection!

Over 4 years in development, Evolution: The Video Game represents a massive evolutionary leap of the Evolution board game. It's the most refined and beautifully detailed board game conversion ever. From the very start, players will adapt nigh-infinite species combinations by merging natural traits such as climbing or horns to survive deadly predators and dwindling resources. North Star Games has created a new Release Trailer with new environments and campaign footage.

Within moments of playing their first game, even new players will understand why the Evolution board game became an award-winning franchise with more than 1.6 million players around the world. Anyone can jump right into the diverse ecosystem on PC, Mac, iOS or Android.

1000 Free Board Games

North Star Games is so confident that players will be blown away by the lush game-play, they are giving away 1,000 copies of the original Evolution board game just for trying it out. Every day for the first 100 days after launch, 10 winners will be randomly selected out of everyone who played an online game that day. It's free to enter on iOS and Android. Just download Evolution (free-to-try in the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store) and play an online match each day. New winners will be selected daily out of everyone who played an online match that day. Winners cover the cost of shipping.

While Evolution’s digital adaptation is loyal to the original board game, it has also done some evolving of its own. Stunning new artwork, animated cards, lush environments, distinct enemy A.I. Bosses, and a new campaign mode are but a sample of the new features exclusive to the digital edition.

Playing against human opponents from around the world provides its own thrill in fast-paced games. Cross-platform multiplayer provides a deep pool of players to battle wits with, and skill-based matchmaking encourages healthy competition. Evolution’s digital form has been crafted to play as fast as possible, so matches generally last less than ten minutes.

“Since its release in 2014, the original Evolution tabletop game and its many iterations have been a huge hit with players,” said Scott Rencher, president and co-founder of North Star Digital Studios. “We wanted Evolution: The Video Game to not only stand out as a worthwhile adaptation of the tabletop original, but as a great strategy video game all on its own.”

Evolution: The Video Game is available in English on PC and Mac via Steam for $14.99. It is also available as free-to-try on iOS and Android with a full version available for $9.99 as a one time purchase. Those who purchase the game in the first week will receive a 20% launch sale discount.

If you would like a free copy for review, reply and let us know which platform you prefer (PC/Mac, iOS, or Android).

For more news about Evolution: The Video Game and details on the 1,000 Games Give-Away, follow North Star Game Studios on Twitter and Facebook or visit the official website.

About North Star Digital Studios

North Star Digital Studios is a digital board game development house based in Kensington, MD. Founded in 2014 by Scott Rencher and North Star Games, the company is devoted to adapting North Star board games into digital versions that capture the heart of the originals while taking full advantage of what video games have to offer. Evolution: The Video Game is the studio’s first release.

Posted on February 12, 2019 by Donald Dennis and filed under contests and tagged press release.

The Secret Gamers Society of the Spartanburg Library and Other Programs

Hello!

I’m Michelle from the Spartanburg County Public Library System. I’m a Teen Assistant, running several programs for teens at our library’s main branch. Some of the programs I oversee are the Secret Gamers Society, Cosplay Workshop, Outline & Design, and the Art Show Opening Reception. Other staff in our Teen Department run programs like Project: Anime, homeschooled, and Rock Out, just to name a few. For this post, I’ll be going over how I run some of my programs.

Secret Gamers Society

Occurs: Monthly with popups

Secret Gamers Society is our monthly tabletop game program, with the occasional popup program. Popups usually happen on days when there’s no other programs but we have a good number of teens to wrangle into a game.

For the monthly program, I generally choose a game to feature as the main entry, with a focus on games I don’t think many of our teens have heard of or tried in hopes that they broaden their gaming horizons. I’ll also bring out other games, including ones that either relate to the theme of the program or games we’ve tried in previous sessions that they’d like to play again. It works well; oftentimes, after the program, they’ll want to stay and keep playing, or they’ll ask to play the game in the Teen Hub, our teen room.

At times when the Secret Gamers aren’t gathering we still keep some games set out in the room for our teens to use with the rest filed away in the back of the office. (Those we circulate to other branches or let the teens borrow if they want to play one.) Sometimes the teens will even ask to have leave out the games we used for our Secret Gamers pop ups so they can borrow them for a few weeks afterwards.

Cosplay Workshop

Occurs: Monthly

Cosplay Workshop is a monthly cosplay program that I started and built from the ground up shortly after becoming a Teen Assistant. Every month we focus on a different topic or material. Generally we have a craft or activity that relates to that topic, complete with a quick PowerPoint presentation that highlights various methods, materials, and tips before showcasing several different cosplayers relating to the topic at hand.

Sometimes it gets tough trying to think up new ideas or topics but there’s a lot of online resources you can tap into, including…

3D Printing: A guest speaker and friend of mine visited with two 3D printers, and various 3D printed cosplay props to talk in depth about and answer questions from our teens. For the duration of the program, we had the printer running so they could really see it in action, and afterwards we gave out some cool smaller 3D printed Bulbasaurs.
Patterns: We talked about various pattern-making methods, and applied this new info to making pauldrons out of EVA foam, nylon, and buckles. Then we got out of the way and let them decorate it however they liked.
Convention Masquerades: There’s a lot of variety in cosplay contests, so we went over the different types, looked at some rules and categories for them, and talked about what makes a good performance. Afterwards, we watched different cosplay stage performances and pointed out what helped to make it a good performance. Then, they all had the chance to come on stage and try out different walk with a variety of video game and instrumental soundtracks in the background. Some of them were light and playful, others were dramatic, spooky, or adventurous.
Face Off: This one is fun, but always gets really messy. We talk briefly about different types of body paint, special effects, and makeup used in cosplay, and then they have a face off where they compete against each other to come up with the best look.

Outline & Design

Occurs: 2-3 times a year

Outline & Design is a program where patrons paint alongside me. I choose something fun to paint ahead of time and then, at the program, we’ll paint step-by-step together from start to finish. Some of the more successful Outline & Design programs have been space painting, where they paint different galaxy-themed environments and splatter painting, mostly because our teens really enjoy splattering paint. As a precaution, we take extra measures to keep the messiness contained, such as using old banners as tarps on the tables and around the floor when necessary, and monitoring how hard or at what angle they choose to splatter paint.

Art Show Opening Reception

Occurs: Quarterly

Every month we feature a teen artist on the walls of our teen room. For the Art Show Opening Reception, that teen and the teens for the next two months are encouraged to invite their friends and family to enjoy refreshments and show their support. It’s a win-win situation because we get to look at beautiful art on our walls everyday, and they get to show off their art in a public space.

If you’d like to see more of what we do in the Teen Department, then follow us on Instagram at www.instagramcom/scplteens and Facebook at www.facebook.com/scplteens or email us at teens@infodepot.org!

Article By: Toni Michelle Chavez
Games in Schools and Libraries is produced in association with Inverse Genius and the Georgetown County Library System.
Games in Schools and Libraries Group on Facebook
Games in Schools and Libraries Guild at Board Game Geek
Email us: schoolsandlibraries@gmail.com

Posted on January 11, 2019 by Donald Dennis and filed under Library Programming and tagged guest post Michelle Chavez Spartanburg County Public Library System.

Self Teaching Games: More Fast Forward

Fast Forward: Fortune
Designer: Friedemann Friese
Players: 3-5
Ages: 10+
Time: 5ish minutes per hand, about 75-90 minutes when playing through the entire deck

Fortune is the newest entry in the Fast Forward series from Stronghold Games.

In Fortune, like the other games in the Fast Forward series, the rules are broken into very small chunks so the players can more easily learn as they play through the deck their first time. The complete lack of a ponderous tome of rules to be read before starting the game is a huge advantage - play begins by reading the starting rules on the first card on top of the deck and following the instructions. Players don’t even know what maximum hand size is or how to win until they are eleven cards into the deck. As players draw cards new rules surface and are incorporated into the game, either adding to the game or replacing previous rules.

Card 1 starts the game, and the next rules show up after several cards have been drawn by all the players, just as they start wondering what they are trying to accomplish.

On their turn, players each draw a card from either the deck, or the discard pool. Then, if they have more than three cards, they either discard a card, or if they have a card with a special action they want to use play the action card in front of them. Once six cards are discarded the final round is triggered, and scoring happens quickly thereafter. However in Fortune the goals and scoring can change; in one hand players may be playing a variant where they compete to get the highest score while in another they may be trying to get the lowest value or gather a specific kind of card for a really huge score.

Fortune has all kinds of cards. Cards with numbers, cards with special actions, rules, cards, and cards that change the way a player’s cards are scored.

Play changes as rules change and cards are removed from the top of the deck between rounds, so what worked last round may not work again. New cards add a variety of special abilities that either have an immediate impact when played during the game or may remain hidden in their hands until revealed during scoring. One set of cards may provide a score of over 100, but if you change just one card your hand may have a negative value. That kind of swing may be a good or a bad thing, if the way cards are scored changes when a new rule is flipped.

Once the deck has been played through it can be resorted by number, to provide a fresh discovery experience to new players, or the base rules can be set aside while all the other cards are just shuffled together and played as a complete game with some rules changing over time. For more intense competition players can track wins over multiple games, with a natural stopping point being the depletion of the deck.

Fortune, of all the Fast Forward games, feels like there is a lot that could be done to expand the game play. More goals and rules, more cards with special powers, and greater use of the existing iconography. It is easy to imagine another Fortune game of a similar level of complexity that could be shuffled into this deck to provide a richer game experience.

The particular genius of the Fast Forward Series is how approachable it is. Though die-hard gamers are likely to find Fortune a little lite, especially at the start of the deck, it really is an amazing game for a public library or even in classrooms where quick games are needed or basic math skills are being reinforced. The changing rules help familiarize players with dealing with a changing environment while the sense of discovery keeps Fortune interesting over time.

Article by Donald Dennis
Games in Schools and Libraries is produced in association with Inverse Genius and the Georgetown County Library System.
Games in Schools and Libraries Group on Facebook
Games in Schools and Libraries Guild at Board Game Geek
Email us: schoolsandlibraries@gmail.com

Posted on December 18, 2018 by Nephalope and filed under Self Teaching Games and tagged Self Teaching Games Fast Forward Computational Thinking Card Game Stronghold.

Self Teaching Games: Role-playing Games

Fog of Love
Designer: Jacob Jaskov
Players: 2
Ages: 17+
Time: 60-120 minutes

Imagine a blind date as a board game and you have Fog of Love.

Each player takes on the role of a character in a budding relationship, using cards to shape themselves, their partner, and the events that unfold over the course of the game. Each player chooses their occupation and inner personality, while their co-player determines their physical traits (re: the things that attracted you to them in the first place). The rest of the game is spent playing cards back and forth to determine what sort of hijinks happen, such as a simple breakfast in bed or seeing your partner with another person. After each card played, players secretly answer questions which affect their character’s satisfaction in the relationship as well as shared and individual objectives on the board.

Fog of Love has a lot of complexity, but introduces players to all its different mechanics one or two at a time by using a shorter introductory scenario. The introductory scenario comes packaged ready to play and teaches players new rules as they draw cards from the different decks. Play continues until new tutorial cards are drawn, at which point the rules expand. Numbers in the corners of the cards and asterisks are used to help players know which cards are part of the starting scenario and how to reassemble the decks for the next time they play with somebody new.

Fog of Love is a complex game, but the introduction really helps to reduce the learning curve and is a blast to play through. It’s a lot of fun playing out the dates of a new couple, and Fog of Love handles this subject with a lot of interesting nuance: characters can be either gender, unaffected by physical traits; professions run the gamut from gutter to glamorous; and personality traits can enable or get in the way of relationship satisfaction. Our playthroughs varied from romantic comedies to daytime soap opera and everything in between. It has a lot of replayability and plenty of interesting looking expansions on the horizon.

In all, Fog of Love is a good game to have in any collection that caters to late teens and adults of all age groups. It gamifies relationships in ways that teach not just computational thinking, but interpersonal skills.

The Cloud Dungeon

Designer: Andrew Miller
Players: 2-6
Ages: 7+
Time: One two hour session, or three sessions of less than 45 minutes.

It’s tough to imagine an RPG style game where nobody needs to read the rules or do any session prep, but The Cloud Dungeon does it in style. Print out the PDF, get some standard six-sided dice, and set out the craft supplies: you’re ready to go!

Craft supplies? Yes! The Cloud Dungeon, the first in the DIY Adventure Games series from AndHe Games, is a papercraft game where players cut out elements, color them, and attach them to the characters they play. Using their creativity and their adventuring gear, players overcome challenges. Sometimes they save the day by working together, and sometimes they do it in competition with each other--and it’s never the same game twice.

This is a great introduction to tabletop roleplaying games for younger kids, and the papercraft aspect adds a diversity of activity so children more interested in art than being the center of attention will feel engaged as well. It’s well-presented, easy to get into, and the person running the activity can read ahead while players are customizing their characters. A GM isn’t really needed, but with younger kids who get distracted easily it probably is a good idea to have one present just to keep the game focused.

The Cloud Dungeon is a great game on its own, or an exciting supplement for small story-time activities. If you are going to get The Cloud Dungeon for repeat use, we recommend getting both the spiral-bound book and the PDF. Use the book as a reference, but print out the pages you need for each run, and do expect to go through a lot of paper and other art supplies.

Posted on November 5, 2018 by Nephalope and filed under Self Teaching Games and tagged Self Teaching Games Computational Thinking RPG And He Games Jacob Jaskov.

Self Teaching Games: Board Games

Fast Forward: Fear
Designer: Friedemann Friese
Players: 3-5
Ages: 8+
Time: 15 minutes per hand, about 75-90 minutes when playing through the entire deck

Fear is the first entry in the Fast Forward series from Stronghold Games, where players learn the game as they play it for the first time. One of the key selling points is that the game has no rulebook. Instead players begin with a deck of cards with the starting rules on the first card. Players draw cards to begin playing the game; as they work their way through the deck, new rules cards surface so players learn the relevant section as they play.

On their turn, players each draw a card and play a card from their hand. The goal is to force other players to push the total value of the cards in play over 15, all without doing so themselves. The hands end when someone raises the value over 15, and the person who causes the pile of cards to exceed 15, but the person who has the highest value in their hand wins. Play changes as cards are removed from the deck and rules evolve as players dig deeper in and new cards are added to the mix.

The core mechanism is simple, with interesting decisions from both designers and players, all of which add both to the dynamic of gameplay and the sense of the discovery. Conflict is indirect; instead of simply attacking each other, players try to arrange things so that their opponents are forced into making the critical error that ends the hand. As players become familiar with both each other and the ever-evolving rules sets, the game gets more difficult: the same strategy rarely works twice, and any stunt you pull might well inspire an opponent in the next game.

Fear is perfect for just about any public facing collection. It’s a devilishly basic game that works well as an alternative to traditional games like Uno, Crazy 8s, Skip-Bo, and Spite & Malice. It works equally well for circulation or in-house collections.

Fast Forward: Fortress
Designer: Friedemann Friese
Players: 2-4, best with 4
Ages: 8+
Time: 15 minutes per hand, about 75-90 minutes when playing through the entire deck

Fortress, the second in the Fast Forward series, is a bluffing game. Unlike Fear, the first entry in the series, Fortress focuses on direct conflict as players try to conquer the titular fortresses using sets of monsters they gather to increase their combat strength. The number you play of a given type of monster increases their effectiveness when taking over or defending a fortress. Over multiple plays, the variety of monsters available change, and the number of fortresses expand, as do the rules pertaining to them.

Play starts with all the core rules on the front and back of a single card. New rules emerge from the deck over multiple rounds, called “hands.” Re-sorting the deck once players have completed all the rounds isn’t a hassle, but it also isn’t necessary. Once players have played through the whole deck, they can either re-sort the game and play through it from phase one, or shuffle all of the non-rules cards and play with all of the rules available from the start of the new game.

In all, Fortress is a perfect library game. It has enough depth to have interesting decisions for a wide range of game skills, while the conflict of attacking fortresses owned by other players will be exciting for kids raised on video games. Players who like traditional games like War, Old Maid, Battleship, Risk, or Stratego will find Fortress right up their alley.

Fast Forward: Flee
Designer: Friedemann Friese
Players: 2-4, best with 4
Ages: 12+
Time: 75-90 minutes

Flee is the third and (to date) final Fast Forward game. Like Fear and Fortress, Flee’s first cards instruct players on how to start the game, with new rules being revealed on other cards over the course of play. If you’ve been following our takes on this series, this should sound familiar, but don’t get too comfortable. Where the other Fast Forward games are competitive, Flee is a puzzle that players must cooperate to solve.

Because of its nature as a puzzle game, the deck can’t be shuffled and re-played from scratch as a complete game once players have made their way through. It’s basically one-and-done, but the end result is an engaging and highly structured Alice in Wonderland-themed game where players try to work through the deck, overcoming challenges without a game ending condition being inflicted on them--and by game ending condition, we mean “being eaten by monsters.”

Because Flee is cooperative, the cards players gather are played face-up where everyone can see them, becoming actions they can utilize and pass off or discard over the course of the game, with a certain amount of collective commentary and strategizing. Flee is a tense and exciting drama that that builds teamwork and critical thinking skills as players stave off inevitable defeat long enough to learn what they will need to do to get further on their next play through.

Flee, unlike Fear and Fortress, is not suitable for just any game collection. It stands out as a difficult problem to solve, making it appealing to fans of logic puzzles but less so to casual gamers. We liked Flee, and played multiple sessions of it, but never actually completed the game by making it through the deck and defeating the required number of monsters. It’s a good capstone to Fear and Fortress, but don’t expect heavy circulation if you stock it.

Posted on October 29, 2018 by Nephalope and filed under Self Teaching Games and tagged Self Teaching Games Fast Forward Computational Thinking Card Game Stronghold.

Self Teaching Games

One of the most difficult aspects of incorporating activities with a high cognitive load, like games, into a school or library program is managing multiple activity streams and instructing diverse groups in how to play a variety of titles. Not knowing how to play a game is always a barrier, but it’s significantly tougher for potential players unaccustomed to internalizing new and complex rules structures. Fortunately there is a new trend in tabletop games, one that video games adopted years ago: have the game itself teach players how to play - without needing to wade through an impenetrable rules book.

That impenetrability raises a further question: why are most rules books so horrible? The reasons range from poor visual presentation to simply overwhelming new players with irrelevant information. A set of rules that effectively teaches players how to play a game is a different beast than one that acts as a good reference guide once players already know the the structure of the game.

Game companies have tried a variety of ways to sidestep these issues. Some games have introductory scenarios while others include long narrative examples to provide more context than players would get out of a bullet point. It’s also become common to find “How to Play” videos on YouTube in an attempt to mitigate the difficulty of thickly written or poorly designed rulesets. If a game can’t be taught effectively straight out of the box, there are options. But having to take that extra step just to learn how to play isn’t exactly a good thing.

With games like those in the Fast Forward series, Stronghold Games has embraced the idea of teaching the game as it’s being played. The three games of the Fast Forward series - Fear, Fortress, and Flee - have no ponderous tome of rules. Instead players start with a deck of cards, and the starting rules are right on the first card. Players draw cards to begin playing the game, and as they work their way through the deck new rules cards surface so players learn the relevant sections as they play.

The Fast Forward system is an elegant framework allowing players to explore a growing gamescape. The sense of discovery is intense and exciting, despite the small steps players take towards learning how to play the complete game. Fear, Flee, and Fortress are each amazing because at the end of the experience, players can either rebuild the starting deck so they can be played again from scratch, or the rules cards can be kept out and the cards can be shuffled so the games can be played in their final, completed form.

While this system of game instruction is ideal for games with relatively simple rules that can scale and evolve, that isn’t the only place where this structure would work. Hush Hush Projects’ Fog of Love is a rich game with a much more complex set of interactions, and their tutorial system steps players through their first play of the game with named and numbered cards integrated into numerous decks. Besides the significant difference in complexity and subject matter, Fog of Love also has well structured rules that exist less to teach players how to play the game, and more to act as a reference to answer questions that pop up during play or in future sessions of the game.

Not all games need to inflict a significant learning curve on players. Even richly detailed games which have a fully functional rulebook, like Fog of Love, can still walk players through an engaging learning experience while shorter games that need repeat plays to experience seem ideally made for this format.

Escape Room Games http://www.inversegenius.com/gsl-blog/?category=Escape+Room

Unlike the other entries on this list, escape room games aren’t a single product with a single publisher or a single way of doing things. Many have a “Get started now!” option, but games like the Unlock! series also have a tutorial that teaches you how to play without having to digest a rulebook, as well as an app that helps manage the game experience without needing to have a librarian standing by and answering questions. Check out our series of reviews on escape rooms for more information. http://www.inversegenius.com/gsl-blog/?category=Escape+Rooms

Self teaching games also support computational learning activities by serving as an example for how to chunk instructions by breaking up information and providing them as needed instead of all at once. This has really served as an inspiration for how we manage game design classes; our young game designers write their rules on note cards so they can better examine how to organize and present them during play.

Not only can self teaching games like these help reduce the load on staff during high traffic game days, but the sense of exploration through play is intoxicating. It’s a joy of discovery: the playing field is leveled between the people who would normally be running the game and the people who play it, preventing any one personality from dominating the group and allowing everyone to bring their own ideas and interpretations into play. That same element of discovery encourages a level of collaboration often missing from games that give away all the rules up front.

The rest of this series will have in-depth reviews of the games mentioned here, as well as The Cloud Dungeon, and other self teaching games as they become available.

Posted on October 22, 2018 by Nephalope and filed under Self Teaching Games and tagged Self Teaching Games Fast Forward Computational Thinking Card Game Stronghold Fog of Love.

Unlock!

Title: Unlock! The Formula, Squeak & Sausage, The Island of Doctor Goorse, The House on the Hill, The Nautalis Traps, The Tonipal’s Treasure, A Noside Story, Tombstone Express, & The Adventures of Oz
Publisher: Asmodee MSRP: $14.99 each
Recommended ages: 10+
Time: 60 Minutes
Reset: Easy
Players: 2 - 6
Recommended Players: 4 Players
App Required: Yes

Unlock! is a fantastic series of escape rooms. This series is made up of a deck of cards that can easily be reassembled after each playthrough, making them perfect for circulation. Players put cards together, such as a screw and screwdriver, adding the numbers on the cards together to check if their solution is correct. While this system sometimes does allow for accidental puzzle solving, it’s easy enough to realize if you’ve solved something out of order.

Unlock! teaches players how to play by putting them through a tutorial room. It shows players what kinds of puzzles they can anticipate as well as making excellent use of the cards by teaching them step by step with each card they pull.

An app is required to play, but does the work of a Game Master and the various locks found in a live escape room. If players are stuck then hints are given or if a sound is required for a puzzle then the app provides it. It adds a layer of ambient immersion to the puzzles that an analog-only escape room board game would not be able to provide. The one downside is that the need for an app makes the game impossible to play without a device.

The Formula and Squeak & Sausage rooms are exceptional. The puzzles are creative and intuitive without being completely obvious. They make excellent use of the app in interesting ways. Overall they have just the right kind of outside the box thinking. Unfortunately, The Island of Doctor Goorse left much to be desired. This third installment splits the party, and the puzzles feel obtuse. While the party is split, puzzles need to be simpler due to the party’s brain power being divided. Even when reunited though, some of the solutions were baffling. While we highly recommend the series, you may want to pass over The Island of Doctor Goorse.

If mobile devices are not an issue, then the Unlock series may be the best escape room game for schools and libraries.

Article by Donald Dennis & Stephanie Frey
Stephanie Frey can be found roaming Twitter. She can also be found selling goodies on Society6.
Games in Schools and Libraries is produced in association with Inverse Genius and the Georgetown County Library System.
Games in Schools and Libraries Group on Facebook
Games in Schools and Libraries Guild at Board Game Geek
Email us: schoolsandlibraries@gmail.com

Posted on August 20, 2018 by Nephalope and filed under Tabletop, Computational Thinking, Escape Rooms, Libraries / Ready to Code and tagged Escape Rooms Unlock.

Escape Room the Game

Title: Escape Room the Game
Publisher: Spin Master MSRP: $39.99
Recommended ages: 16+
Time: 60 minutes
Reset: Not without printing or using page protectors & dry erase
Players: 3 - 5
Recommended Players: 3 - 4
App Required: No

Escape Room the Game easily has some of the most unusual technology of any tabletop escape room experience. When you open the box the first thing you will notice is a giant plastic mechanism with codes and ciphers stamped into the side, a bunch of strange plastic keys, and several bags - each one containing their own scenario. These elements makes Escape Room the Game truly unique and worth exploring.

That this box contains not just one but four different rooms is pretty amazing for the modest price of $40. When you add in the custom plastic keys and the “Chrono Decoder,” you know you’re in for a different kind of experience. The countdown timer adds tension, while sliding the keys into place and checking to see if you’ve found the right answer adds a physical element that sometimes feels lacking in other escape room products.

The hint system is utilizes red filter technology and players are allowed to look at hints after enough time has passed. We ended up looking at hints even if we didn’t feel like we were behind, and on at least one occasion the hints caused us more trouble than they helped. Overall it’s a great system, but it doesn’t always work.

When it works, the Chrono Decoder is a great prop that also tells you when to look at hints. Escape Room the Game has expansion packs that utilize the Chrono Decoder provided in the base box. The themes are nice, but fairly standard for escape rooms.

Sometimes the Chrono Decoder doesn’t accept the correct keys, which penalizes you time and stalls out the game play. A couple of the puzzles are very poorly designed. It’s no good for more than four players and, except for the Nuclear Countdown room, is best with three.

As much as our group enjoyed Escape Room the Game I can’t recommend it wholeheartedly. It is in turns rage-inducingly frustrating and stunningly brilliant. The Prison Break isn’t a great starting scenario and the Temple of the Aztec is the worst of the lot. (Aztec felt like it needed a couple of extra components that were removed at the last minute.) The best scenario in the starting box set is the Nuclear Countdown room; just make sure you have a charged cell phone ready when you play it.

Posted on August 13, 2018 by Nephalope and filed under Escape Rooms, Computational Thinking, Libraries / Ready to Code, Tabletop and tagged escape room tabletop Escape Room The Game.

CT Games: Think & Learn Code-A-Pillar

Ages: 3+
Requires Batteries: 4 AA
Single Player
Publisher: Fisher-Price
Price: $49.99

Code-A-Pillar is an electric Caterpillar toy where children plug in segments labeled with commands into the main Caterpillar body and then watch as it carries out each command one by one down the line.

Code-A-Pillar teaches the basic framework of Coding, inputting commands and the machine following them. The tactile nature and durability of this toy makes it very approachable for young age groups and perfect for experimental play. Users can also create extra challenges for themselves through creating obstacle courses or just trying to get Code-A-Pillars from a start point to a specific endpoint.

Code-A-Pillar is adorable. It’s too cute not to touch and play around with as our teens and patrons can attest. It’s also very durable and has safeguards in place to keep it from breaking, such as a bump sensor that keeps it from running itself into objects. There is also a large variety of different parts that can be purchased to expand what commands Code-A-Pillar is capable of, such as a pack of silly sounds or extra movement with 180 Degree turns and Repeat Action blocks.

Code-A-Pillar is pricey at $49.99 MSRP and availability is limited. It requires 4AA batteries (which are included). Code-A-Pillar is loud and there’s no way to turn down the sound without taking it apart , which may be a big concern if you work with children sensitive to loud noises.

Code-A-Pillar is a fantastic and sturdy introductory toy to programmed movement for young age groups. It’s great for programs of its own if you can afford multiples or do workstations and as supplementary to existing programs such as storytime. While pricey our Code-A-Pillars see a lot of play, and there are a number of venues that sell them at a discount.

Article by Stephanie Frey
Stephanie Frey can be found roaming Twitter. She can also be found selling goodies on Society6.
Games in Schools and Libraries is produced in association with Inverse Genius and the Georgetown County Library System.
Games in Schools and Libraries Group on Facebook
Games in Schools and Libraries Guild at Board Game Geek
Email us: schoolsandlibraries@gmail.com

Posted on July 30, 2018 by Nephalope and filed under Libraries / Ready to Code, Computational Thinking and tagged Code-a-pillar CT Games Computational Thinking Games.

CT Games: Turing Tumble

Ages: 8+
Requires Batteries: No
Single player
Publisher: Turing Tumble LLC
Price: $64.95

Turing Tumble is an introduction to computational thinking that was born on Kickstarter. It consists of a white board on a stand, a ton of red and blue marbles, a small plastic key, and six kinds of ramps and bits. The basic idea is that players place the ramps and bits on the board to program a path for the marbles from the top of the board down to the bottom. The key is used to help determine which color marble falls first. It’s easy to learn, challenging to master, and really fun once you’ve got the hang of it.

The game also comes with a 100-page booklet that serves as instructions, provides challenges, and tells the story of Alia, the girl on the box cover, as she explores an alien maze and makes an unexpected friend. It helps that the booklet is broken up like an RPG campaign or a video game: Alia’s story is the ‘cinematic’ scene between levels.

Turing Tumble is really good at introducing players to things like pattern recognition, designing based on trial and error, and breaking up big problems into smaller, sequential ones. It’s meant for players 8 and up and runs best as a single-player game, but I’ve seen smaller children trying it out under supervision and it can also be played with a group.

Its main flaw is that the marbles are small, easy to lose, and can be difficult to collect and put in place. The board doesn’t come with something like a tray to catch them if they bounce free, and gravity can make things a little unpredictable at times. With so many losable pieces and a price tag of $64.95, it may be a little too expensive and breakable for some libraries and schools.

All in all, we recommend Turing Tumble as a fun way to teach kids computational thinking. It’s not too shabby for the adults either.

Article by Ben Blythe
Ben can be found on Twitter @FlailingWriter. He's also got a blog on WordPress. And he even reviews things on GoodReads!
Games in Schools and Libraries is produced in association with Inverse Genius and the Georgetown County Library System.
Games in Schools and Libraries Group on Facebook
Games in Schools and Libraries Guild at Board Game Geek
Email us: schoolsandlibraries@gmail.com

Posted on July 23, 2018 by Nephalope and filed under Libraries / Ready to Code, Computational Thinking and tagged Computational Thinking Games CT Games Turing Tumble.

Computational Thinking

In the preface to their Exploring Computational Thinking collection, Google defines computational thinking as a “problem solving process.” Computational thinkers take a problem and break it down into smaller sections, then resolve each section in a particular order t o get a desired outcome. It requires planning, pattern recognition, and learning how to operate within certain boundaries (what you can do, how you can do it, what resources you have on hand, etc.).

It’s worth pausing to note that while there is plenty of overlap, computational thinking is different from the scientific method or critical thinking because of its focus on process and predetermined outcome. It’s sort of like the difference between scientists, academics, and engineers: scientists and academics study, engineers build. Their methods have similar processes but they’re shaped by different goals.

Computational thinking is emerging as a cornerstone in STEM education. As its name implies, it’s a good skill to have in the information age, and tech companies in particular value it for how readily it translates into programming. The same basic approach of breaking down a big problem and finding solutions piece-by-piece can be applied across any curriculum: it’s a core tenet of outlining a paper, solving mathematical equations, building a bot, or drawing a picture.

Now let’s consider what makes board games an ideal tool for teaching computational thinking.

Board games…

…rely a lot on planning your next move (whether it’s competitive like Machi Koro or collaborative like Mechs vs. Minions)
…often revolve around recognizing patterns (like spotting which cities will be infected in the next Pandemic outbreak)
…require you to operate within certain boundaries (rules of the game, what materials you have to work with, what you’re allowed to know going in, etc.)
…often involve breaking a bigger problem down into smaller, more manageable ones (Escape the Room-type games tend to be really good at this)

It’s not just newer games that do this! Even old stalwarts like Chess and Monopoly can teach the basics of computational thinking. And lest you think this is all kid stuff: The CIA has been using board games to train its analysts for years. They even have their own version of Pandemic. Other government agencies and private businesses have also realized the value of board games for training and teambuilding, leading to a huge uptick in escape rooms and corporate game libraries.

The important thing is that your library—whether it’s in a school or a secret government base on the moon—has a good stock of board games to choose from. Sure, something like Tsuro is about running your opponents off the board, but the real value of the game is the lessons you learned (and applied) along the way.

Article by Ben Blythe
You can find Ben on Twitter @FlailingWriter. He's also got a blog on WordPress. And he even reviews things on GoodReads!
Games in Schools and Libraries is produced in association with Inverse Genius and the Georgetown County Library System.
Games in Schools and Libraries Group on Facebook
Games in Schools and Libraries Guild at Board Game Geek
Email us: schoolsandlibraries@gmail.com

Posted on July 18, 2018 by Nephalope and filed under Libraries / Ready to Code, Computational Thinking and tagged Computational Thinking Games Computational Thinking Libraries Ready to Code.

Webby's Challenge: Breadboard Puzzle

Webby’s Challenge premiered at ShushCon 2018 and we made a couple modifications from the Print and Play Model to spiff it up. The biggest modification was the Breadboard puzzle. We used some Breadboard and wires that we had laying around to give participants a more tangible experience in place of the default circuitry puzzle. The following puzzle replaces the Circuit Puzzle in Webby's Challenge, but can be used as a standalone puzzle or incorporated in a different Escape Room all together.

Setup

Breadboard
8x Wires
3x Green LEDs
2x Yellow LEDs
2x Blue LEDs
2x AA Battery Pack
2xAA Batteries
Printer
Scissors

Print the Breadboard Puzzle Kit.
Set out the 3x Very Important sheets, Instructional sheet, Breadboard, Battery Pack sans batteries, all the wires, and LEDs.
Set the 2x AA batteries with one of the sets of clues that players need to unlock. Make sure it isn't the stack that unlocks from solving this puzzle (Answer:3220).

Fun Fact: The reason there are no Red LEDs in the room is due to technical difficulties we had with them burning out and smoking. Make sure to try out various setups ahead of time to make sure all of your LEDs are in working order, and be sure to ke… — Fun Fact: The reason there are no Red LEDs in the room is due to technical difficulties we had with them burning out and smoking. Make sure to try out various setups ahead of time to make sure all of your LEDs are in working order, and be sure to keep spares on hand.

In this puzzle, participants find the LEDs, wires, Breadboard, instructional papers, and battery pack scattered in the room but not the 2x AA Batteries. This keeps participants from immediately burning out the batteries by touching the positive and negative charges together. It also gives them time to read the various instructional warnings laid out on the table before they truly get started on the puzzle.

The batteries will be unlocked with which ever answer they correctly solve first. If using lock boxes with Webby’s Challenge, then put the batteries in either the Robot Path or the Colored Shapes lockboxes.

Participants will use the parts list to make sure they have all of the pieces they need. They’ll then use the list with the various numbers and letters to place the wires and LEDs in the correct sections of the breadboard’s grid. They’ll also have to make sure to put the batteries into the battery pack. Once everything is assembled the LEDs will light up and participants will be able to see what colors the LEDs are. They’ll use this information with the colored boxes page to get a 4 digit combination either to give to the moderator or for a 4 digit lock, or if you’re feeling extra spiffy, a 4 digit color lock.

Access Webby's Challenge for free on Google Drive

Posted on May 8, 2018 by Nephalope and filed under Libraries / Ready to Code, Tabletop, Escape Rooms and tagged escape room.