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AstroNuts is a game in which you have to colonize the Galaxy to discover the "Nuts", the colored resources on the planets.

You can improve the technology of your fleet, meet Aliens, attack other players' colonies, and buy new ships...controlling the actions you have each turn.

25.308 points, 907 minutes of play, 68 gamers, 17 team, 7 games, 6 referees, 2 games of play, 1 winner: game

I think Springsteen's main point is that it's no longer necessary for artists to play by the rules of a specific genre to make music that resonates with a crowd. You don't need to strive for authenticity in the same way that artists of a previous generation did because the rules for what it means to be authentic don't apply anymore. The proliferation of new genres has, in a sense, freed musicians to do whatever the hell they want. An artist doing his version of classic blues on a synthesizer is just as authentic as is a folk artist doing an an acoustic cover of "Robot Rock". What counts more than one's inclusion in a genre subcategory is an artist's workmanship and basic creative impulse.

I've played (relatively) few new titles since the middle of 2011, so I'm blending personal knowledge, crowd observation, and wild-eyed guesses in order to make my choices.

Josh [Miller, whose picks preceded mine in the list,] has a decent list of qualifications for SdJ nominees – visually attractive, easy to learn, smooth play out of the box, and vast sales/expansion potential. Africana and Kingdom Builder have all of this in spades. (I’ve yet to play Takenoko, but Antoine Bauza won the first Kennerspiel with 7 Wonders, the components are gloriously appealing, and the game has widespread German distribution, so it seems like a solid third choice.) One element he didn’t mention, but which seems important when viewing previous SdJ winners, is that the nominees tend to straddle the family/gamer line – that is, casual gamers can play them, have fun and do reasonably well while gamers will look deeper, discover more and play better. Again, Africana and Kingdom Builder fit this qualification well. Why choose Africana over Kingdom Builder? Partly due to its contrast with 2011 SdJ winner Qwirkle in that Africana has a realistic thematic setting, and partly due to the German love of travel.

All three of my Kennerspiel nominees – Glory to Rome, Hawaii, and Village – are excellent designs, and all fit the Kennerspiel category of games for connoisseurs as they're more involved that your average game, yet not off the charts in terms of complexity or opaqueness, although GtR might have one foot across that line. Still, I think GtR is an incredible design that goes beyond what you normally think is possible in a card game, and with Lookout Games having released an attractive version in German in 2011, I think it could get the nod.

As for Hawaii and Village, both are straight-up Eurogame designs that present gamers with interesting-to-explore game systems in an inviting setting. They're not too difficult to learn and play, making them ideal for those who have played the basics and want something more. I prefer Hawaii over Village as the money management and tight competition for goods among players makes the game tougher than Village, while also providing a wider range of set-up variability, which kicks your brain in new directions each game. Village gets my vote, however, as it has the homey thematic edge, just as Thurn & Taxis had the home-turf advantage over Blue Moon City in 2006. Yes, your villagers die and sure, that could be morbid for some, but that aspect of the game also encapsulates the broader cultural outlook in Europe, with people viewing themselves as part of history-in-the-making rather than above it, as seems to be more common in the U.S.

Who knows? I could just be blowing smoke...

The style is a cute, lighthearted, pastel-colored look at the wonderful world of forcing your way inside a female against her will. There are, to my mind, a lot of things wrong with this....

Tentacle Bento's Kickstarter success is the product of a society that doesn't take sexual assault against women seriously enough. It shows that enough people think it's "not a big deal". The argument comparing a game about rape to games about violence is limited by the fact that murder is almost universally penalized in our culture, meaning there is a clear line between fantasy and reality there. With rape and molestation, that line is not so clearly drawn, and it results in "cute" games like Tentacle Bento.

I have been told the game isn't overt about its scenarios, and is more about innuendo than obscenity. But there is no doubt where it comes from, and what it's drawing on. And molesting girls "just a bit" or through innuendo does not make the game much better.

The "tentacle" genre is a well known cliché in the anime/manga fan circles. This product is one of many products we have designed, or are designing to touch on interesting or odd clichés or themes in popular Asian and Japanese sub cultures that have found their way over to the US. They simple "are", and we wanted to give a snapshot that was true to the weirdness of the subgenre. A tip of the hat to one of the weirdest things I have ever seen come out of Japan, and one of the most "unspoken" of inside jokes within the US anime subculture.

Back to our previous response, it is something that "is". The project was an interesting premise, and we test marketed that premise with our target audience with great feedback, we overcame whatever our personal misgivings were and gave it a shot. We felt we dealt with the subject in a funny way to play up the relational iconic images of aliens snatching up humans for nefarious purposes, if those purposes were for eating them up... we wouldn't be having this conversation, the natural inclination of sexualized imagery in some Japanese manga and anime lends to a more lascivious bend, and in the culture, it simply "is".

Here are a couple of interesting quotes from his demo that seem to negate the clean image of the game he is trying to propose. At the 1:15 mark, he says, "In this case we grab poor sidney, drag her to the classroom, and we have ourselves a 'cram session'." After saying this, he suggestively bites his lip. At 1:53, he says you can "take a sexy student to the headmaster's office, and then get slippery when wet". Does this not imply sexual contact, in his own words?

I've played (relatively) few new titles since the middle of 2011, so I'm blending personal knowledge, crowd observation, and wild-eyed guesses in order to make my choices.

Josh [Miller, whose picks preceded mine in the list,] has a decent list of qualifications for SdJ nominees – visually attractive, easy to learn, smooth play out of the box, and vast sales/expansion potential. Africana and Kingdom Builder have all of this in spades. (I’ve yet to play Takenoko, but Antoine Bauza won the first Kennerspiel with 7 Wonders, the components are gloriously appealing, and the game has widespread German distribution, so it seems like a solid third choice.) One element he didn’t mention, but which seems important when viewing previous SdJ winners, is that the nominees tend to straddle the family/gamer line – that is, casual gamers can play them, have fun and do reasonably well while gamers will look deeper, discover more and play better. Again, Africana and Kingdom Builder fit this qualification well. Why choose Africana over Kingdom Builder? Partly due to its contrast with 2011 SdJ winner Qwirkle in that Africana has a realistic thematic setting, and partly due to the German love of travel.

All three of my Kennerspiel nominees – Glory to Rome, Hawaii, and Village – are excellent designs, and all fit the Kennerspiel category of games for connoisseurs as they're more involved that your average game, yet not off the charts in terms of complexity or opaqueness, although GtR might have one foot across that line. Still, I think GtR is an incredible design that goes beyond what you normally think is possible in a card game, and with Lookout Games having released an attractive version in German in 2011, I think it could get the nod.

As for Hawaii and Village, both are straight-up Eurogame designs that present gamers with interesting-to-explore game systems in an inviting setting. They're not too difficult to learn and play, making them ideal for those who have played the basics and want something more. I prefer Hawaii over Village as the money management and tight competition for goods among players makes the game tougher than Village, while also providing a wider range of set-up variability, which kicks your brain in new directions each game. Village gets my vote, however, as it has the homey thematic edge, just as Thurn & Taxis had the home-turf advantage over Blue Moon City in 2006. Yes, your villagers die and sure, that could be morbid for some, but that aspect of the game also encapsulates the broader cultural outlook in Europe, with people viewing themselves as part of history-in-the-making rather than above it, as seems to be more common in the U.S.

Who knows? I could just be blowing smoke...

Courtier began its game life as Henry the Great. This title may bring to mind Henry VIII of England, however my game was about the much-revered Henry IV of France (1553-1610). Champlain's Dream, David Hackett Fischer's engaging history of French-speaking settlements in the New World, inspired me to make a game about the complicated court intrigue surrounding Henry IV.

Fischer describes a world populated by strange but important-sounding figures such as Intendant, Chancellor, and Marshal who sought to administer the kingdom of France. Many religious groups, both Catholic (Jesuit and Recollet orders) as well as Protestant (Huguenot), and numerous artisans and businessmen all vied for the patronage of their king. Added to this web were several layers of nobility and those supporting the Queen, Marie de Medici (yes, those Medicis). In 1600, the famous Cardinal Richelieu was only a bishop, yet he had already begun to maneuver his way into the royal court. And hardly anything was done without the consent of the powerful Minister Maximilien de Bethune, duc de Sully. Champlain, the great explorer and founder of Quebec, routinely wove his way in and out of this complex mess to secure needed permissions, capital and supplies.

I admired Champlain's skill at navigating this sea of bureaucratic red tape. It seemed like a compelling setting: the kind of story that could be told by a board game.

So, a little background: John [Stavropoulos] made some observations about RPG rules presentation on a Google Plus thread. Luke Crane suggested this could be modeled as a hierarchy by some designerly folks. I took the case and made slight slight tweaks broaden the scope to board games, too. Feel free to use this in your discussions. I'm not really interested in getting into game theory debates though.

Didier Bonvin, multimedia journalist, and Manuel Rozoy, game designer at Ubisoft France and former editor-in-chief of the late JsP magazine will talk about "Video games / board games: a strange love affair". Didier will tell us about the various attemps of video games to get closer to board games through the last three decades, while Manuel will tell us about similarities and divergences between designing video games and board games.

By Jeanne and Michael Strongin, April 27, 2012

We are Ned Strongin's children, writing in response to a series of articles and interviews in which Howard Wexler has been taking all of the credit for creating the Connect-4 game. From our observation, Howard's self-promotion seems to have begun in earnest a few years ago when Ned's health was deteriorating and has continued more aggressively after Ned's death last year shortly before his 92nd birthday. We can't sit quietly and see these claims made without challenging them any longer. Though our perspective is very different from Howard's, we believe it is factually accurate based on existing documentation, discussions with our dad from the time Connect-4 was licensed until his death, and our own personal observations. We feel it's our responsibility to set the record straight since Ned isn't around to speak for himself.

In the early 1970s, Ned Strongin, an established independent toy designer, formed a company with Howard Wexler called "Strongin & Wexler Corp.", owned equally by him and Howard. Ned was a street smart, informal, self-made businessman who had not graduated high school and had pretty much always been his own boss. Howard was a formally educated Ph.D. who insisted on being addressed as "Dr. Wexler" and who came to the partnership with a large corporate mindset after having worked at Hasbro for several years. Because Ned had reservations about having a partner (particularly one with such a different background and business style), he kept his already existing company, Ned Strongin Associates, together with its existing toy designs, office lease and employee artists, designers and model makers, separate from the newly formed Strongin & Wexler Corp. Their partnership was short lived and would have been considered a failure except for one thing: it produced Connect-4.

Strongin & Wexler Corp. licensed Connect-4 to Milton Bradley (which was later acquired by Hasbro) in 1973. Ned and Howard dissolved Strongin & Wexler Corp. shortly thereafter. To this day: (a) Connect-4 continues to be owned equally by Ned Strongin Creative Services (the successor in interest to Ned Strongin Associates) and Howard; (b) Hasbro continues to manufacture and sell the original version of Connect-4, expanding upon and updating it with a variety of spin-off versions, thereby maintaining its uniqueness and relevance; and (c) royalties from such sales continue to be shared equally between Ned Strongin Creative Services and Howard. These are undisputed facts.

Ned always acknowledged that the initial idea for Connect-4 was Howard's, but told us that Howard presented Connect-4 to him as a horizontal game, like checkers, to which he said "the world doesn't need another board game, let's make it vertical" – and really isn't that the underlying uniqueness of Connect-4? Ned's design process was collaborative in nature. The centerpiece of Ned's office was a big white round table, where Ned and his artists, designers and model makers would present and discuss ideas. Some of these ideas came from him, some from one or more of his employees and some from one of the many independent designers who came to him with unfinished ideas who didn't have the expertise or wherewithal to complete them and bring them to market. By the end of a discussion the resulting product was often a true collaborative effort. Connect-4 was redesigned and developed by Ned and Howard via this collaborative process until a final design was agreed upon, artwork was produced, a model was made and Connect-4 was presented and licensed to Milton Bradley.

Ned was active in the toy business through the late 1990s, including all discussions and negotiations with Hasbro regarding a variety of Connect-4 issues that arose over the years. During that time he was responsible for the design of many other successful toy products through that same collaborative process. If our dad were alive today, he'd get a chuckle out of Howard's Connect-4 claims. He'd tell us to leave it be, the truth is the truth, anyone old enough to care already knows the truth and the 50/50 ownership and royalty split speak for themselves. Nevertheless, we believe Ned Strongin's contributions to Connect-4 should be acknowledged and hope this letter promotes that in some way.