Time to take a look at another publisher, this time, the French based, Gigamic Games.
Back in 1991, three brothers got together to form the company, it seems Quarto was their first game and since then they have have expanded and gone from strength to strength, from wooden abstracts to deception games through drawing and card games, they have tackled most corners of the board game market, here is a small selection (the usual 5) of their outstanding work that we enjoy!
Not quite a corridor…
Released in 1997, this is, arguably, Gigamics best known game. Simple rules but deep on strategy like all their growing range of abstracts, Quoridor has stood the test of time and still please newcomers and seasoned players alike.
Played over 81 squares in a 9 by 9 grid with grooves between them, all you need to do is get across the board before your opponent does or any of your 3 opponents in a 4-player game.
What makes this tricky is on your go you either move or place a wall in a groove to slow down your opponent. There are a couple of extra rules that drive this game to be the gem it truly is. From simplicity comes quite a deeply strategic game, trust us.
If you’re looking to make your Quoridor experience even more epic there is firstly the Giant Quoridor version which is about 4 times as big and makes it feel suitably ‘Giga’… or the recently created Pacman Quoridor that gives it a reskin as well as adding a Pacman variant game in to the mix too.
Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde await you!
This one’s got levels…
Here’s a more recent game which has done really well in our cafes, Akropolis. It’s a wonderful tile laying game with a simple rule set, just enough interactivity that you feel you can affect the other players but not so much that there will be tears and it’s colourful and just crunchy enough for gamers and non-gamers alike.
It’s all about building the best akropolis and the trick here is as you build higher and higher, the points multiply by the level you go up… simple but effective, I’m a huge fan of this as it doesn’t out stay it’s welcome and has minimal downtime too.
Did you know there is a QR code in the rulebook that takes you to a webpage that does the scoring for you? So useful, also, an expansion is due out real soon called Athena, keep your eyes peeled for that… it’s gonna be monumental!
You’ll have to be quick on the draw…
Drawing games are few and far between as much as we’re concerned, whether you are a Monet, Picasso or more of an unknown doodler, creation and games go hand in hand for a fun experience, even if you consider yourself a bit sketchy.
In Kontour you are under pressure to draw a concept in 30 seconds. You also only get 15 strokes of the pencil too. Blimey. There’s the challenge! Everyone else around you is shouting out guesses and that’s pretty much it. Points to the guesser and artist too and the game itself comes in a handy tin so is great for travelling.
6 choices per side of a card too, so plenty of variability to keep you going. We’ll draw a line under his one here, but do try it!
Not to be swept under the rug…
The bustle of the rug bazaar in Marrakech, wheeling and dealing, placing your rug has never felt so important, will Assam stop on your rug? Can you gain the most money?
Marrakech came out in 2007 and was nominated for, yeah, you guessed it, the Spiel des Jahres in 2008. It may not have won but it has stood the test of time and is still around today, that’s pretty impressive.
The game itself is simple, your turn consists of turning Assam (the market organiser) left or right or not at all, rolling a dice to move him, paying out if he lands on an opponents rug and then placing one of your rugs next to him. Easy for old and young minds alike and a nice mixture of luck and strategy.
Assam is a quality size and style as are the lovely rugs and the oversized dice. Great table presence and even the coins are nice and chonky.
So play this and act like a dusty rug… never get beaten!
Take it back now y’all…
Apologies for the ear-worm, you should be used to it by now! Slide is a new game to the increasing roster by Gigamic, it has literally only just come out this year. It’s great too, there are a bunch of cards, numbered 1 to 10 and each player (up to 6) gets 16 to place face down in a 4×4 square.
Everyone turns over a card and places it in the middle of the table and in player order everyone selects one of the cards and slides it in to their grid so that the hole they made earlier disappears. Do this 16 times. Game over. You now add up any cards that are not next to a matching number. Lowest score wins! It’ll be all over in no longer than 20 minutes.
Do you go for the 10s as no one else wants the high numbers or risk the low numbers that everyone is likely to want, will there even be another of the number you have taken? So simple and the fact that to open the box, you have to slide the box open, genius.
So, Cha-Cha-Challenge your friends today to some sliding action!
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So there it is, just a short selection from a great gaming company, Gigamic. Check these out and more of their titles today at our cafes across the country!