The 93 Made Games team visited Wollongong and Canberra for its Viewpoint tournament tour, which coincided with the company's second anniversary. Find out why the team can't wait to do it again and why you’ll want to be involved in Viewpoint tournaments leading up to the Viewpoint Championships in December 2010. The tour commenced when we rolled into Wollongong late on the night of Friday 16 April. Because we aren't locals to the area we made a beeline to the nearest Good Games store to talk with the manager Pat. We'd been invited by Good Games management to host Viewpoint tournaments in several of their stores and jumped at the chance to do so. We were also really keen to get down to Wollongong as we'd already met many nice people from the local area who are keen Viewpoint fans. We discussed the plan for the Sunday tournament with Pat and he then pointed us in the direction of the restaurant district so we could satisfy our ever-growing hunger. We wound up having dinner at a dinky Indian cafe and got back to the hotel just in time to watch the end of the Friday night football. During the day on Saturday we managed to catch up on plenty of sleep lost over designing upcoming games. This also allowed us to gather our energy for a scrumptious double roast dinner with two of Viewpoint's best fans - Barry and Jason. After dinner and much conversation about old school games, sci-fi, music and the like, Jason managed to topple everyone in a game of Killer Bunnies. Beware the Cyber Bunny! Sunday continued with excitement as Sean was able to play in a pre-release for the latest Magic: The Gathering set - Rise of the Eldrazi. He ended up going 2-1-1, which he thought wasn't too bad for someone who hadn't played in 12 months. After the pre-release, we rounded up Pat, Adam, Colin and some of the other local Magic gamers into the Viewpoint tournament. Adam's prowess with organised card play shone through as he trampled his way to straight wins to receive a Viewpoint t-shirt, Good Games gift voucher and free entry into the Viewpoint Championships in December 2010, where the prize pool includes a minimum $1000 first prize, trophies and lots of other goodies. The fun continued when we visited the University of Wollongong Guild Gaming Society, which is the local gaming haunt of Barry and Jason. After two rounds of cursing and finger pointing, Theo reigned victorious by knocking out father-and-son combination David and Ryan and the close-but-no-cigar Jason. Then everyone joined in for a big 8-player, 2-deck game, which immediately degenerated into a pick-on-Barry party. We'd never seen anyone miss every single turn, be stripped of all of their cards and cast multiple voodoo hexes on his opponents before! After leaving Wollongong with such good memories, we'll flash forward a week to the night of Sunday 25 April in Canberra. We shan't discuss what happened during the day at the Raiders vs. Rabbitohs match as it is still too painful for Sean too mention and Julia still hasn't stopped grinning about the result. So we rocked up at the local Good Games store where Dallas welcomed us in for more Viewpoint shenanigans. We rounded up more local Magic gamers - there seems to be a trend here - who blindsided each other through two knock-out rounds. After the dust settled, we saw Thomas, the youngest of the players, stand tall as the victor. Nice one! During the rounds, we were also treated to some old-fashioned magic tricks performed with Viewpoint cards, which shows just how versatile the game is. ;-) 93 Made Games birthday celebrations extended beyond the South with the League of Extraordinary Gamers (LXG) in Brisbane and Mega Games in Penrith both holding Viewpoint tournaments over the fortnight. The 93 Made Games Oztag team even joined in by winning their first ever game! We plan to run many more events throughout 2010 leading up to the Viewpoint Championships in December, so feel free to drop us an email or browse around the website for details on how you can get involved in running or playing in Viewpoint tournaments, including the Championships and how you can share in the fun and prizes. We'd like to thank everyone who joined in with us on our anniversary tour including our friends at Good Games, the UOW Guild Gaming Society, LXG and Mega Games. We look forward to seeing everyone at the Viewpoint Championships on Saturday, 4 December 2010. Be sure to sign up to the 93 Made Games mailing list for all of the latest information on Viewpoint and upcoming games. Viewpoint is a fun-packed and easy to learn card game for 2 or more players aged 7 and up. Be the first player to reach 100 points by looking into the future, spying on other players and blindsiding your buddies!
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The much anticipated Viewpoint movie started filming today in the Himalayas. The movie, which is touted as the next great 3D epic is due to hit cinemas on 31 September 2011. The movie stars Sam Worthington as Blind Freddie and Patrick Stewart as The Triclops. Special guest cameos are also planned with James Earl Jones providing the voice for the Magnifying Glass. Viewpoint: The Movie is set in a future ice age where humanity has been enslaved by the evil Monoculars led by Stewart's Triclops. Worthington plays the movie's hero who has been blinded by the Monoculars' Blindsiding Ray and must overcome his handicap to free humanity from the Monoculars' rule. The movie is being produced by Old Line Cinemas and 93 Made Games. Viewpoint: The Movie director, Steve Spielberg explained, “this is the type of movie that I have always wanted to produce as it questions and answers so many things about Earth's future.” Casting calls for extras in the movie are currently being held in cities all around the world. For your chance to star in Viewpoint: The Movie go to Viewpoint. Viewpoint is a fun-packed and easy to learn card game for 2 or more players aged 7 and up. Be the first player to reach 100 points by looking into the future, spying on other players and blindsiding your buddies!
Danny Frahm reigned supreme at the League of Extraordinary Gamers (LXG) Legends of Summer Viewpoint tournament on the weekend of 20-21 February but he wasn't the only LXG member to win that weekend. LXG hosted a Legends warm-up tournament on 17 January to introduce the club to the Viewpoint tournament scene. Alexander Done owned everyone on the day by winning all of his games. Alexander then joined Danny and other gamers for the main event at the LXG Legends of Summer tournament on 20-21 February. After three tight rounds, Danny managed to sit atop the tournament pile. Along with automatic entry into the Viewpoint World Championships, Danny will also receive a 3D-eye Hologram trophy from LXG. A second Legends tournament was held the next day, which saw Darren Catton win his first tournament. Well done Alexander, Danny and Darren! Danny who is a big fan of Eurogames said of Viewpoint, “I think the real strategic beauty of this game really comes from the deceptive value of cards. I really enjoy this level of complexity as it rewards those people whom can work out which cards are more important and when to use them.” The gods must be smiling on Danny Frahm as he is having a wonderful game playing year. He also won The Settlers of Catan tournament at Cancon in January and will be heading off to Germany to represent Australia in the Settlers World Championships. LXG will be hosting the Queensland Viewpoint Championship at Gencon Oz in September. This event will feed into the Viewpoint World Championships to be held in December 2010. The Queensland League of Extraordinary Gamers (LXG) is a games club that meets on the third Sunday of every month at the Cavendish Road School Hall. At LXG you can play boardgames, roleplaying games, miniatures games, collectable card games and anything else that looks interesting. The club library has too many games to count. LXG meetings have a relaxed and social atmosphere in which you can learn the rules of a new game or practice for a tournament. For more information on LXG go to http://lxgbrisbane.com/.
93 Made Games are proud sponsors of the Gamicon Tau gaming convention in Iowa City, Iowa running over the weekend of the 12-14 of February. Our friends in the US will get a chance to check out Viewpoint up close at Gamicon. Gamicon is the longest running Iowa gaming convention. 93 Made Games, who are patrons of Gamicon, sent packs of Viewpoint to the convention organisers for prizes and demonstration of the game. Other sponsors of Gamicon include Out of the Box Games and Rio Grande Games. Attendees of the event will be able to play role-playing games, board games, card games, miniature games and the like. There will also be a Game Auction and attendees may purchase all sorts of games and gaming equipment in the Dealer's Room. Attendees may see the Gamicon officials to receive a demonstration of Viewpoint or to arrange a tournament for a chance to play in the 2010 Viewpoint World Championships in Sydney, Australia. Viewpoint is a fun-packed and easy to learn card game for 2 or more players aged 7 and up. Be the first player to reach 100 points by looking into the future, spying on other players and blindsiding your buddies!
93 Made Games is aiming to attain a BoardGameGeek (BGG) rating for its Viewpoint card game by the end of 2010. You can help us attain this rating by registering on BGG and submitting a user rating and comments on the Viewpoint BGG page. We need at least 30 user ratings to attain a Geek rating and we need your feedback to let us know what you really think about Viewpoint. BoardGameGeek is the definitive resource for tabletop gamers around the world. The BGG website includes a comprehensive database of tabletop games, such as board games, card games and miniature games. The database also includes information on game designers, artists and publishers. You can also jump onto the forums to find out about upcoming game releases or to resolve a long-standing rules question. The games listed on the BGG website are ranked in order of 'Geek' and 'Average' ratings. Average ratings are attained and updated whenever a registered BGG user submits their personal rating of a game (from 10 (awesome) to 1 (lame)). A Geek rating is attained once the game has received 30 or more user ratings. The game's Geek rating is also biased by the number of user ratings it has received and the bias is improved by receiving more user ratings. By submitting a user rating and comment, you are letting us know what we did right with Viewpoint and/or how you think we can improve it. We need as much honest feedback as possible so don't hold back. If you think we should remain at our day jobs then include this in your comments. If you are willing to kidnap us to fast-track the release of the next expansion then let us know. There are no unreasonable comments... apart from death threats! Once you have registered on BGG, scroll to the bottom of the Viewpoint page and click on 'Record information' in the 'User Information' section. You can then add your rating by clicking on the 'Rating' field and add your comments by clicking on the 'Comment' field. We thank you for all feedback as it will help us to bring you the best-designed games along the themes that you like most. You may also drop us an email to tell us what a good job we are doing or how we need to pull up our socks. Viewpoint is a fun-packed and easy to learn card game for 2 or more players aged 7 and up. Be the first player to reach 100 points by looking into the future, spying on other players and blindsiding your buddies!
If you are a gamer, game designer, artist, graphic designer, publisher, retailer or distributor then the Australian Games Expo - Australia's premier tabletop gaming exposition - is the unmissable event of the year. The 93 Made Games team (Sean, Anthony and Julia) recounts their wonderful weekend in Canberra at the 2010 expo and highlights why it is such a great event. Friday - Setup and Boardgames Australia Awards We arrived at site of expo - Exhibition Park In Canberra (EPIC) - just after 9am. Expo coordinator, Phil Davies of Mind Games Albury gave us a tour of the expo hall and a run down of each of the exhibitors. The 93 Made Games booth was conveniently positioned in between Even Toys & Games (Australian distributor) and Crown & Andrews (Australian publisher). Our interior design extraordinaire, Julia, whipped us into action as we setup our booth in quick time. Afterwards, we took the opportunity to check out the neighbouring hall which was hosting CanCon - Canberra's yearly gaming convention. The hall had gaming tables clustered as far as the eye could see. We hadn't been to CanCon for a few years and it looked like participation had more than doubled since our last visit. After spending some time talking to booth operators at the expo and CanCon, we got prepared for the Boardgames Australia (BGA) awards being held that night. The awards are held to recognise excellence in game design and are judged in accordance with a range of guidelines such as enjoyment, originality and replayability. This year's and previous winners of the awards are listed on the BGA website. The awards night gave us and other designers/publishers an opportunity to mix and mingle with various industry representatives including the BGA crew, Giles from Rio Grande (US publisher) and Naomi from Elementaurs (Australian designer/publisher). The free drinks and food were an added bonus. Saturday - Visitors from UoW and Learn About Play Forum Day one - fun, fun, fun. We demonstrated Viewpoint all day to people new to the game and existing fans of the game. We also had a special visit from Barry and Jason from the University of Wollongong Gaming Club. We revealed our latest prototypes of Show'n'Go, Gladitorus Millennia and Viewpoint Reflections to Barry and Jason who were so enthusiastic about them that they wanted copies for their club as soon as possible. We also made sure that Barry and Jason received their very own Viewpoint t-shirts so they could be the envy of their gaming club. Whilst Anthony and Sean continued to entertain the expo-goers and mingle with other exhibitors, Julia participated in a 'Learn About Play' forum convened by Melissa Rogerson from BGA. The forum had four main sessions - Learn Through Play (a presentation by Dr Wood Challenge Centre about lesson planning with games), The School Game Night (a presentation on boardgaming nights for community-building and fundraising for schools), Play Time (a hands-on session in which people got to play with the games presented during the two previous sessions) and a Round-Table Discussion (a discussion of the use of games in education). Sunday - Protospiel and Viewpoint Tournament Day two - games for me and you. Demonstrations of Viewpoint continued as Sean play-tested games at the Canberra Protospiel, which was organised by Richard Vickery from BGA. He discovered a space-based Euro/strategy game and an NRL Trivia game; the latter of which he somehow managed to win. He also demonstrated Show'n'Go and received valuable feedback from his play-test group. BGA plans to hold Protospiels throughout 2010 and beyond. Sean also sat in on a talk on 'designing games and getting them published' by Craig Browne (inventor of Sorts for Kids - 2009 BGA Australian Game of the Year). Meanwhile, Anthony ran the CanCon Viewpoint tournament as a precursor to the Viewpoint World Championships to be held in the second half of 2010. More qualification tournaments will be held around Australia and the world including those at Good Games stores up and down the Eastern seaboard. Check out the Viewpoint Leaderboard for a list of those who will receive free entry into the world championships. The prize pool and international representatives will be revealed later in the year. Monday - Chill Out Day and Pack Up Day three - you can't do that with a Wii. After two full-on days of demonstrations, workshops and seminars, we got to play some of the games from the other booths such as Elementaurs and Motus. Pack up began at around 2:30pm but not before the team and some fans got in a monster game of Viewpoint in which two decks were used with the objective being to reach 200 points. The dust settled after about 30 minutes with Shirley winning (again!), Ed, Claudia and Julia close behind and Sean lagging well below 100 points. Obviously, the game's designer needs to reassess his game play strategies for larger games. The car was abuzz with energy on the trip back to Sydney after such a wonderful weekend where we got to meet so many nice people and play so many enjoyable games. To cap off the great weekend, the 93 Made Games oztag team scored its best result of the season that night - a draw! 2010 was the last year that the expo will be organised by Phil Davies. Phil started the expo in 2006 and it has been growing in attendance and stature ever since. The expo will be coordinated by Charles Bishop and Steve Rohan-Jones of O2C Solutions in 2011. Both Charles and Steve were at this year's expo and gave us plenty of their time to discuss how we think the expo can improve on its impressive roots. 93 Made Games would like to thank Phil for all of his time and effort in building up the expo and wish Charles and Steve all of the best for future expos.
After some terrific entries into Viewpoint's Twelve Combos of Christmas competition, we have sifted through them and declared the winners for each week and the overall winner; who submitted the best Viewpoint card combination. The following weekly winners will receive Viewpoint posters. Week 1 – Double Crossed (Fox Murdoch) Fox was trying a version of Viewpoint where players didn't draw each turn, only if a card said to. The game ended once all players’ hands were empty, with the player on the highest score at that time winning. He was teaching his sister how to play and she played an Eye Spy (0) on him. In his hand were: 1x Skewed View (5) 2x Cross-eyed (-5) His sister considered her decision and took one Skewed View and one Cross-eyed. She then passed her turn. Fox played his remaining Cross-eyed on his sister, exchanged his now-empty hand and counted up 60 versus 35, WIN! Week 2 – The Golden Hand (William Yung) William sent us a play that, if the player is lucky enough, will win them the game without the opponent ever taking a turn. The cards required are: 4x Hindsight (20) 1x Shadow (-15) 1x See Into the Future (5) 2x Wink (15) (or two other cards that total to 30 or more points) On the player’s turn, play Shadow and then See Into the Future. Next turn, the player plays Hindsight, targets See Into the Future and plays See Into the Future again. The player repeats this play for the following four turns and by now the following cards are in his Field of View – 1x Shadow, 4x Hindsight and 1x See Into the Future = 70 points. The player then plays Wink twice to reach a score of 100 points to win the game. Week 3 – Coming from Behind (Steve Mayer) Steve told us of a game that he played on Christmas day with his family where he was completely down and out and only had one left in his hand – Insight (10). All other players had fairly healthy hand sizes and there were no cards left in the Draw Pile. He played his Insight on his Dad, who had a full hand of cards, and stole All-Seeing Eye (10) to give him a chance to take any card back from the Discard Pile. On his next turn he returned a Cross-eyed (-5) from the Discard Pile and played it on the following turn to steal his brother’s entire hand. From there he was able to win the game. Week 4 – The Ol’ Switcheroo (Rob Williamson) Rob came up with an almost impossible but very funny combination that could take your score from -35 points to +120 points in one turn. You must have the following cards in play: 1x Shadow (-15) 1x Visionary (-10) 2x Cross-eyed (-5) 2x Mirror Image (0) – copying Shadow Your opponents must have 4x Hindsight (20) in play and you must have 4x Peripheral Vision (10) in your Hand. On your turn, play each of the Peripheral Visions to swap the following cards in order with your opponents’ Hindsights – Cross-eyed, Cross-eyed, Visionary and Shadow. Overall Winner – Coming from Behind (Steve Mayer) We liked Steve’s underdog story so much that we couldn’t go past it to give him the grand prize of $150. Well done Steve! Viewpoint is a fun-packed and easy to learn card game for 2 or more players aged 7 and up. Be the first player to reach 100 points by looking into the future, spying on other players and blindsiding your buddies!
The League of Extraordinary Gamers (LXG) will be holding a special promotional Viewpoint Tournament as part of its annual Legends of Summer two-day table-top tournament events. When: 20 February 2010 - 3pm to 5pm Where: Cavendish Road State High School Assembly Hall, Cnr Holland Road and Cavendish Road, Holland Park QLD 4121 Entry Fee: Free Entry Contact: Keith Done (07) 3398 8745 LXG will be providing trophies for the winners of the tournament and 93 Made Games will be supplying additional prizes such as autographed decks of Viewpoint, Viewpoint T-shirts and Viewpoint card sleeves. As well as the prize pool, the tournament winners will also receive automatic entry into the Viewpoint World Championships scheduled for July 2010. The tournament results will be posted on the LXG and 93 Made Games websites. The Queensland League of Extraordinary Gamers (LXG) is a games club that meets on the third Sunday of every month at the Cavendish Road School Hall. At LXG you can play boardgames, roleplaying games, miniatures games, collectable card games and anything else that looks interesting. The club library has too many games to count. LXG meetings have a relaxed and social atmosphere in which you can learn the rules of a new game or practice for a tournament. For more information on LXG go to http://lxgbrisbane.com/.
The first sanctioned Viewpoint tournament was held at Good Games Sydney on 11 November 2009. The first tournament launches the qualification season for the Viewpoint World Championships scheduled for the second half of 2010. After a Viewpoint orientation session, play commenced with four 4-player games in the first round. The winners in the first round (Fahim, Jason, Xavier and James) advanced to the final table match. In a tense final round, we congratulate the winner of the first tournament, Fahim. As well as the prize pool, Fahim received automatic entry into the Viewpoint World Championships scheduled for next year. 93 Made Games will be hosting players from all around the globe including our Chinese comrades who will start their qualification season in January 2010. More Australian Viewpoint tournaments are scheduled for Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra and right across the country. The next tournament night at Good Games Sydney is scheduled for Wednesday, 9 December 2009. Good Games Sydney will host a junior tournament at 5:00pm and a senior tournament at 7:00pm. All participants in sanctioned Viewpoint tournaments receive a ranking that is posted on the 2010 World Championships qualification leaderboard. If you are interested in hosting your own sanctioned Viewpoint tournament then browse through the official tournament rules or contact us.
The first official Viewpoint Launch Party will be held at Good Games Sydney on 11 November 2009. For a great night out, join 93 Made Games at Good Games Sydney between 6:00pm and 9:00pm on Wednesday, 11 November 2009 for the Sydney launch of the Viewpoint card game. Viewpoint is an easy to learn game for people of all ages and will keep you entertained for hours on end. Everyone who attends will receive demonstrations of the game with insider tips, be able to play in our mini tournaments and get the chance to win prizes. You will also be able to get your very own deck of Viewpoint and have it signed by the game's designer and artist. Good Games Sydney is located close to central station (Level 1, 857 George St) and there are plenty of places nearby to eat if you want to duck away for a quick snack or substantial dinner. For more information, contact 93 Made Games on info@93madegames.com.au or Good Games Sydney on contact@goodgames.com.au. Good Games are Australia’s largest group of dedicated gaming environments with all the latest game products. They have stores located in Sydney, Gosford, Morisett, Wollongong and Burwood in NSW and Melbourne in Victoria. They host all the latest tournaments and events and have the room to suit whatever game you want to play. Their extended opening hours and central locations means that they'll be around, day or night. Drop by any time!
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