Board Games: What They Play at IT Offices This Year

Hello!
It so happened that I have been here all year telling you about the work of Mosigra from the inside, and then in early December I start showing the games themselves. I know you are already looking for gifts. So, go inside for games and a couple of stories. About how you do not need to choose gifts for IT specialists, an engineering idea with Tetris, IT girls and gifts for them, a fun submariner and a bunch of other things.

Well, behind the traditional one already habraskidkoy , of course. And then - tell us about your favorite dashboard in the comments and see what other hawkers advise.

I'll start with general things about choosing a gift

It is difficult for an IT specialist to make a good present. Even very difficult . Giving something for a hobby is useless - most likely, everything is already there for sure, and any thing chosen without a deep knowledge of the topic is a failure. It's like giving a keyboard (you can only choose these things yourself). Ordinary "souvenirs" are evaluated for practical reasons - and most often fly to the far corner of the closet, because what for are not needed. Useful things already exist, because IT has good earnings (and there is simply no household need), plus we can clearly think through what and when to. As a result, it turns out that you can give only those things that really please. That is, not the object itself as a collection of atoms, but the emotion associated with the gift.

In our market, this understanding is only developing (or simply, we are slowly reaching it).The most expensive thing we are willing to pay for is, in fact, great memories. Experiences. New feelings. For example, you can arrange something crazy or just go somewhere. Last year, one person was very helped by the idea of ​​hunting for a cart in a supermarket: you need to go to the store with the birthday boy and find the first abandoned cart near the checkout counter. And to buy everything that it has, without exception, and vodka, and women's magazine, and a strange moldy cheese. So, it is very difficult to choose and do such “designed” gifts-emotions - but they are completely worth it. A simpler option is the emotions of communication. We sell them in boxes with board games.


Dashboards are such a communication protocol. The more social networks develop, the greater the need for communication in real life, the more popular desktops.

That's it, now the lyrics are enough. Let's go see what is interesting.

Hive: new insects to increase combinatorial complexity

A long time ago, a great insect strategy came out - the Hive. The game is very simple in concept: your hive suddenly touched an enemy hive. Now you need to run away to visit and surround the enemy queen. The game resembles what happened once in Dungeon Keeper after accidentally breaking an imp wall to a neighboring player. So, the game, I repeat, turned out great. Everyone liked commanding ants, making moves with grasshoppers, and slowly crawling bugs. But very quickly a big, big flaw in the matmodel was revealed - the game was extremely simply calculated by exhaustive search. Obviously win-win strategies have appeared (by the way, the only world-wide game that has so far been solved only for special cases on current computing resources is Go).



The creator of the Hive thought and decided to increase the estimated complexity of the game. For this, two additions came out: "Mosquito" and "Ladybug", which gave new insects. Well, everything worked out - and went massive online tournaments in which live people began to play, not bots. But, apparently (this is already my assumption), one of the participants nevertheless wrote the correct mechanics using the method of branches and borders or simulating annealing, as a result of which another stroke was required to complicate the analysis of the situation on the table without developed game intuition. So there was the last addition - “Mokritsa”.

We were thrown the rules for localization at the time of their appearance in the beta version, and in the tests we even managed to find one bug. It was fun. Supplements themselves in the form of individual insects for understaffing boxes came from abroad only the other day, and now you can just pick them up and strengthen the basic set. Yes! And the Beehive has one extremely unusual feature. For some reason, he captivates IT girls just on the spot. What, generally speaking, do not expect from an insect strategy. So if you don’t know what to give, take a closer look .

How to transfer Tetris to the real world

It turned out - the task is solved elegantly and simply. You need to take Jenga ( such a wooden tower) and just replace the bars with figures from Tetris. But cut off the edges a little, because the maximum length of the figure is 3 cells. And to build a tower of them already. Unstable and a lot of holes? Just add two-cell sticks and small corners of three blocks. Play with the roster - and now you have a game on the table.


That's the kind of thing that turned out.

In general, the Hasbro guys who are engaged in the localization of Jengi are worthy of respect: they use the mechanics of 1983 and manage to port it so beautifully for various features (including tablet apps) that it just takes envy. So, this Jenga TetrisNow I have reached Russia. True, because of the price they buy it, mainly in Moscow.

About space and curve modular code

By Cosmonautics Day, we rolled out the release of the European megahit - Galaxy Trucker or " Space Truckers ". This is an amazingly cool game that right to the point of madness pleases even the seasoned. Most importantly, you are assembling a spaceship. From everything you find at hand. You get it crooked, like a code on crutches in front of an early deadline. And on this trough you fly to overcome difficulties at the back of the galaxy. Either the asteroids will fall into the open gateway, then the pirates will fly in, and you don’t have batteries for the gun - and so on. Pleases without measure. If you love space and are looking for a gift for your son - do not press, take a box. Although it is healthy (that is, more expensive than the average game), it is completely worth it. Well, look at yourself too, if there are a couple of enthusiastic friends.


Ship with bugs

By the way, after this topic with a review on our game libraries, it became clear who reads Habr.

Manhattan Project

It was our long-lasting construction last year. As a result, we were so happy that this game about nuclear research was released onto the shelves, that we almost wiped out the newsletter with the intriguing theme of “57 nuclear explosions in Russia and 11 in Moscow.” With a test that starts with the storyline, as in War of the Worlds. Fortunately, we managed to slow down the process and change it to a calmer one - given the size of the base, I think we would definitely raise a local panic in this way. As for the game, then, perhaps, the Project- One of the most difficult chances to understand the rules the first time without prompts. We need to play for the nuclear weapons development team and compete with the same colleagues from other countries. Engineer training, mine construction, ore dressing, first reactors, tests, loading into bombers, espionage, air raids on universities and enemy factories - everything is inside.


Box

Steam torpedo

Two more localizations with history. The first game, “ Raise the Periscope! ”, Is about submarines and steampunk. Just a tactical duel between two boats, deep in the ocean, quite complicated. You manage a team that is located in the compartments and uses all the equipment of the submarines. The translation of the rules was checked by a submariner who advised him to remove the card about the Gatling gun, explaining in detail that the structure as in the picture would not shoot under water. That is, the plot about the death of 90% of the Earth’s population due to Telin gas, the shift in focus of operations to the seas and other joys in this “documentary game” did not bother him, but specifically the gun - yes. By the way, it arouses respect: what he understood - corrected clearly, without questions and with justification.


At the same game, I tested the tightness of the heat shrink: the guys from production made versions with different numbers of layers, and I threw the game into the aquarium sequentially to shoot a beautiful splash. It turned out that good shrinkage in one layer withstands about 20 strokes per meter. I don’t know further - I trained to throw, and took off without polyethylene already.

Simple games

This year, our audience captured the same older people. Just when you already know how to write SMS on your phone or register Vkontakte, but still do not understand why you need half the buttons on the remote control from the TV or air conditioner. The ideal game in the segment of a gift to parents has always been Jenga, Boom was sold a little less often. Now we have found an absolutely perfect option - this is " Spoiled Phone ". The game is extremely popular among all ages. And its extreme simplicity and deliberate preparedness of all components determined success for those who find it difficult to understand the new.

The bottom line is that you write a word in a notebook (for example, “Sombrero”), pass it on to your neighbor, he draws a word (you get a hat picture), the next player writes a guess for the picture (hat), the next one draws (this time a hat on his head), the next one guesses again - for example, he writes “cowboy”. The task is to bring the word without distortion. So, firstly, the principle is very clear. Secondly, everything is in the kit, including notebooks with a special surface for erasable markers. Thirdly, literally every component is provided with a contextual “tooltip” For example: “Look at the picture on the previous page and draw it here.” Everything is perfectly visually zoned. In general, for me this is one example of an interface in reality, which is very well understood.


Here is this game

More bulk tips

• The Jackal is traditionally popular - a strategy originally from Moscow State University-70. This year a new edition came out immediately with an addition in the box.
• I really, really recommend Resistance , a psychologically deductive game based on the Mafia engine. But without emotions, only with cold logic.
• Imaginarium . Famous Russian crowd project. Now there is a version with 3D pictures, the other day it will go on sale.
• I remind you about Startup - generally an IT game with its own atmosphere.
• Well, I can not advise my beloved classic " Kuhandel " with pencil drawings.
• I recommend the Call of the Jungle about completely stubborn painted animals, logic and bluffing for children. Just look at the elephant, here it is:

You haven’t seen this boar yet

! Yes! And we also prepared a great New Year's surprise - a bomb game. But about this a little later.

A discount

Say the password " Habrahabr " in the store or write in the note when ordering online. There will be a small pleasant discount. Valid until December 20 in Mosigre in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kiev, Minsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg, Ufa, Chita, Izhevsk, Krasnodar, Kaluga, Zelenograd, Novokuznetsk, Novosibirsk, Stavropol, Yaroslavl, Astrakhan, Yakutsk, Donetsk, Kazan, Orel, Omsk, Ulan-Ude, Ivanovo, Stupino, Kursk, Sochi, Vladivostok, Surgut, and even in the distant, distant Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.

About useful

• How to write texts for the site: rake and useful tips
• About our lifehacks online store
• Market without patents
• Mechanisms of development on the example of reading
• Custom translation features
• Why localize games without words
• About mailing lists
• Shoals of printing houses
• How a freelancer and a customer consider each other idiots
• Useful books for business one , two and three .

All. No, not all. Please tell us in the comments about your favorite board game .
Thanks in advance.