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Hi everyone!
This is an exciting week for us, as yesterday marked the Initial Launch Day for Playdek's long-awaited digital edition of our best-selling game, Twilight Struggle!
We have a ton of other news in the Update today, but let's talk first about details of the Twilight Struggle digital launch.
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Twilight Struggle Digital Edition Goes Live!
Yesterday, April 13 was Launch Day for the Mac and PC Steam versions of Playdek's Digital Edition of Twilight Struggle! It's been an exciting launch! There are a few minor issues, but Playdek is on them and players are having fun with the game. Already we have a LOT of new Twilight Struggle players who'd never even heard of our boardgame asking strategy questions of us and in the online forums. Naturally, we think this is great!
Here are some sample customer reactions:
Great game. I bought the game even without playing the board game but I love this game. You would feel the tension of the cold war by trying to play the right card or action. And it's way cheaper than the board game and you could play with your friends over the internet. 10/10. - Sepand, via Steam
If there's a turn-based game you need, this should be it. Twilight Struggle is one of the best 2-player games of all time. This plays well, although the AI is a little underpowered.... But the interface is great. 4.5/5 for me. - Turbine2k5, via Steam
Great realisation of a fantastic boardgame which made me write my first review ever. AI is still in need of polishing, but fine for the beginner player. - georg.ziegler, via Steam
I played around with the digital version of Twilight Struggle last night for about an hour. It's way nicer than I expected to be honest. Looks good and the interface is easy to use. Nice work. - Lee Moneta-Koehler, via Consimworld
I think Playdek did a terrific job on the port, especially the UI, which is very elegant and easy to use. The game features both online and solo play. For you guys who are concerned about the AI, my take, after playing it quite a bit for the past couple weeks, is that the AI is going to play a challenging game for beginners and a generally competitive game for casual players, although the sharks in the TS community will not have trouble beating it. I've played TS quite a bit, but casually, not in competitive tournament play, and I find it a pretty good challenge (lost twice to it so far - arghh!) And Playdek is committed to making it even better (in future updates), so I'm very happy on the AI front.
The game also features a nice tutorial to get new players into the game. It is a well-implemented in-game tutorial (so you can pick up playing where the tutorial leaves off it you want) based on a tutorial script provided by one of the game designers, Ananda Gupta. So, although card-driven games in general can be tough for newcomers to boardgaming, I think Playdek has done a nice job of lowering the barrier to entry for digital Twilight Struggle.
You guys with multiple devices will be happy to know that Playdek has built the game so that you'll be able to access, leave, and re-enter both your online and solo games from multiple devices (as long as you own the game on that platform). This will be pretty cool down the road, as I can easily envision playing a card early morning from home on my Macbook and then rejoining the game at lunch to see my opponent's move and making a new one from my iPad. That's going to be nice.
The versions launched yesterday were for Mac and PC on Steam. Playdek is turning next to finish the iOS and Android versions, while continuing to update the PC/Mac versions with improving AI and more options that were detailed in the Kickstarter campaign.
If you like to play Twilight Struggle, or would like to learn it, this is a great opportunity to learn and play online at a terrific price. When you buy the Steam version linked below, you get access to both the PC and Mac versions of the game. The price is $14.99, but there's a one-week Launch Special of $11.99, so get it this week if you want an even better deal!
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New P500 Addition!
We have one new P500 addition this month - Arquebus - game #4 in our Men of Iron series. This looks very cool, including a bunch of battles for your gaming bucks. Click the banner or link above to check it out!
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Mounted Map Charging/Shipping This Month for Unhappy King Charles
Tony surprised me this month. We got a new shipment of various games and parts in last week, and included were the
Mounted Maps for Unhappy King Charles. I guess the printer was able to work them in with another shipment. Good news for our customers who ordered them!
So, sorry for the short notice, but we'd like to send these out ASAP to you guys who ordered them via P500. So we're going to charge them next Tuesday, April 19th, then ship them with the batch of games going out on April 27th.
I hope you UKC players enjoy this cool addition to your games!
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Rahdo's video for Welcome to Centerville
I've know for some time now that
Welcome to Centerville is a terrific game, one of Chad Jensen's best designs, with the potential to be a huge seller for us in the Euro/Family Game market. But for the life of me, I haven't been able to get that across to our customers, and the game has languished in the low 200s on our P500 list.
Last month, I was stunned when one of the guys I work with sent me an email indicating that I should drop the game from our P500 list, given it's lack of movement. "Have you lost your mind?" was my unspoken response. "This is a 'Chad game.' It's awesome!" Needless to say, I ignored the advice to drop the game. But the fact remained: P500 orders
were lousy, and the marketing guy couldn't figure out how to change that.
Well, you can file this under "Chad is smarter than Gene," because Chad recently had the idea to send a prototype copy of his game to Rahdo (Richard Ham), who is famous in the BGG community for his "Rahdo Runs Through" series of Video reviews. Unsurprisingly, given the quality of Chad's game, Rahdo loves it, and he proceeded to produce a very detailed, professional, and favorable video review, which he posted less than a week ago on BGG.
The results have been tremendous! In less than a week, P500 orders have spiked from 239 to to 371! Great job, Chad! Richard, thanks so much for your help!
OK, for everyone else who's reading this who doesn't yet have a P500 order in for
Welcome to Centerville, PLEASE go take a look at
Rahdo's Run Through of WtC, then go order and help us get this game produced. Or, if you'd rather not watch a video and just trust me that this is going to be a terrific light-medium weight Euro that you can play with friends and family, just go order! :-)
Thanks so much for your support of Chad and this cool game. I'm hoping that, now that the word is getting out there about what an outstanding game this is, we'll get this one to 500 quickly and can assign it a production slot.
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Discounts! New Additions to our SPECIALS Page
A
s of today, we are adding the following eight games to our
Specials Page.
They're all really good games, but we currently have too many of these in our warehouse, so we're giving you guys an opportunity to pick up a copy (or an extra copy) at really great prices.
Here's the list:
Game Original/Special Price
Enjoy the specials! I hope you get some games that will bring you many hours of gaming enjoyment!
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Thunder Alley Crew Chief expansion on Kickstarter
For you
Thunder Alley players, I want to let you know about a new Expansion for the game. It's not from us, but it has our blessing. Designers Jeff and Carla Horger and their company
Nothing New Games have a Kickstarter project for a
Thunder Alley Crew Chief Expansion, designed by accomplished designer Richard Launias (
Arkham Horror, Defenders of the Realm, and many others), who is a huge fan of the game.
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GMT Digital Gift Certificates!
Just a reminder that we DO now have digital gift certificates available on our website.
PLEASE NOTE that Gift Certificates do NOT work for P500 orders, only for in-stock orders.
To purchase and send a gift certificate, just go to our
Gift Certificate Department and select "Email Gift Certificate." You'll then be able to choose from $10, $20, $25, $50, or $100 Gift Certificates. Then when you checkout, once you Update your cart and hit the "Checkout Now" button, our system will ask you to fill in the recipient's name and email address for each Certificate ordered (you can include multiple gift certificates on a single order). You'll also be able to include a personal note to the recipient.
We hope you enjoy this new addition to the GMT website and that it helps you with your gifting for holiday, birthdays, etc.
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This Month in InsideGMT!
Here's a look at our most recent InsideGMT articles:
And, in case you missed them, here are links to our previous month's InsideGMT articles:
As always, I invite you guys to head over to
www.insidegmt.com, check out the articles, leave us your comments, and tell us what else you'd like to see us do to make
InsideGMT even better!
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GMT Weekend at the Warehouse April 21-24
The hotel has already blocked rooms for us, so feel free to go ahead and make reservations whenever you are ready.
If you'd like to attend, just call or chat with our office ladies and they'll reserve your spot.
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Keep up with GMT Online
Virtually every day, we announce new information or show off upcoming products or give you a peek under the hood of our new designs in our various online sites and forums. For you guys looking to keep up with us online, here's where you can find us. Drop in and start a conversation!
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That's it for the news bytes for this time.
Here's what you'll find in the rest of today's update:
- Charge and Shipping Update
- Production Outlook
- P500s
- Project Updates
- P500 Reprint Update
- Website File Additions
Thanks, as always, for your support of GMT!
Enjoy the games!
Gene
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Charging and Shipping Schedule
Shipping
:
All P500 orders of Eagle of Lille have been shipped. We will begin shipping the following three games on Wednesday, April 27:
Charging
We finished charging for the three end of April releases yesterday. If you have an order for one of those three but didn't get charged, please contact our office ladies right away and they'll sort it out for you.
We (rather unexpectedly) received the mounted map for Unhappy King Charles recently. In order to ship them out with the end of April shipment, we're going to have to charge to them quickly. So, next Tuesday, April 19, we'll charge for all P500 orders for the UKC Mounted Map.
The next charges will be approximately May 15 for the early June releases.
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Tentative Production Schedule
Here's our most current Tentative Production Schedule. As you can see, we have a packed schedule for Summer and Fall. It's going to be a busy year!
Won by the Sword Update Kit
July, 2016
August-September, 2016
Possible for 4Q, 2016
Twilight Struggle Deluxe Reprint
Possible Early 2017
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Project Updates
In this new section, we'll be passing along updated status on a variety of projects, generally direct from the designers of developers. We have several this time:
Wing Leader Supremacy: 1943-45 - Lee Brimmicombe-Wood ( posted on BGG)
So March has been a busy month. I have been slowly getting atop the art mountain. Ian has something like two-thirds of his work on the aircraft art done while I'm a couple of weeks away from having master copies of all my aircraft done. In my case it's a long way from finished. I have to derive variant paint schemes from all my master files, make detailed art for the ADCs and then lay everything out on counter sheets. But it's a milestone of sorts.
I'm still aiming for delivery of files in September, so we have something like five months of test and production left, assuming we can get the production slot we want from GMT.
Scenario-wise we did some testing of one of the jet scenarios. The jet rules seem to be fine but the scenario was not. That's the problem with jets--if you play them as they were used historically you might have a less-than-exciting scenario. So we are going to have to redesign that scenario around a different historical action that mixes jets in with piston-engined jobbies.
In other news I took the opportunity to do a major editing pass on the rules this month. I've managed to clean up a lot of verbiage, and the Volume 2 rules are looking much cleaner for it. They now incorporate all the errata, fixes and changes for the second edition.
And you are all welcome to look at the Volume 2 rules set and even play them. Over on Consimworld I have posted the revised rules and play aids for Volume 2. You can download them here:
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Pericles - Mark Herman
Mark's follow-on design to Churchill in his Great Politicians Series is almost ready for the P500 list. In an InsideGMT article published today, Mark gives us an update on how the design is progressing:
Delian League Diaries #2 - InsideGMT
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Mr. President - Gene Billingsley
My design work on
Mr. President since last month's update has focused on updating and improving the domestic side of the game.
Toward that end, I have replaced the old (nameless) advisor system with an "Executive Resources" mechanic that allows you to proactively choose how to use your limited number of Exec. Resources (representing in a broad way key cabinet members, advisors, executive departments, and funding) for that month's round. You'll never have enough Resources to do everything you want, so you have to decide how to balance long-term "Building a Greater Society" efforts with dealing with Domestic Crises and enhancing your diplomatic efforts, your impact at the UN, improving the economy or homeland security, etc. It's a lot more fun now, but testing and adjusting for balance remain.
Developer Mike Bertucelli and I will be demoing the game at the GMT Weekend at the Warehouse next week, where we're hoping to have a prototype of a new game map.
Keep and eye on InsideGMT for an
ongoing series of articles covering the first game months of a new President in office, as well as future articles on various aspects of the system design.
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Wild Blue Yonder - Chris Janiec
Chris has been posting update articles for
Wild Blue Yonder on InsideGMT, and plans several more in an ongoing series of articles. Check them out here:
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Won by the Sword Update Kit - Gene Billingsley
At last, we have all the components for the update kit in our warehouse. We are assembling them now and updating existing stock. We will ship them out to current owners along with the P500 shipments on April 27.
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P500 Reprint News and Tracking
Here's the current status of all the games on our P500 reprint list. Please help us determine what to print by pre-ordering any of these that interest you (you can click on the name link below to go to the P500 reprint page). Thanks for your help. Here's the current P500 Reprint list - with current order totals and a +/- order growth since last month:
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New Game Support Files, Vassal/Cyberboard, and Sneak Peeks
Here are new support files we've added to our website since our last update. Enjoy!
Game Support:
Vassal/Cyberboard/ZunTzu:
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Sincerely,
Your Friends at GMT Games
www.gmtgames.com Toll Free Order and Support Line: 800-523-6111 E-mail: gmtoffice@gmtgames.com |
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