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    • CommentAuthorRahakasvi
    • CommentTimeNov 27th 2008 edited
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    Hello all!

    My name is Pauli Suuraho and I am mathematics undergraduate in the University of Helsinki, Finland. I could say that I'm part time game designer.
    Finnish people doesn't have much history with board games, and especially not abstract strategy games. So I have taken a mission to fill that empty hole in our history.
    My goal was to make a abstract game that have elegantly simple set of rules, is mathematical sense interesting and fun to play.

    That is Hinguere.

    I recommend you to visit our website, www.hinguere.fi

    There you can find brief introduction to the game, and learn rules following a little tutorial, and then challenge yourself and friends with a Java-based online game. There might not be anyone there playing, but I'm hoping that we could get active base players for this game as when new people comes to the server, they would instantly find someone to play.

    If you like, you could go to Boardgamegeek, and give a little review or rating for this game. I would appreciate this little effort very much :)

    And thanks for keeping this website up. There are many good abstract games in the world, which most people doesn't know. It is good to have sites like this so people can more easily find what they are looking for.

    Pauli Suuraho
    Designer of Hinguere

    • CommentAuthorRahakasvi
    • CommentTimeNov 27th 2008
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    I was meant to post this to game announcements instead of game news.. I don't know why it came here. Can someone move this if it is too trouble :P

    Sorry for inconveniences..

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    Ok, I fixed it Paul. By the way, I noticed this on your site: So that means there are no white little bunnies flying around.

    So, what do you have against white little bunnies flying around? :-P You know we haven't decided yet whether or not a game with white little bunnies flying around would disqualify it from IAGO. We do have penguins who play soccer.

    Anyhow, welcome aboard. I will need to check out your rules again sometime. I see bits of Ploy in there. By the way, what is the logic for the configuration of the pieces?

    • CommentAuthorRahakasvi
    • CommentTimeNov 30th 2008
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    Thanks richarhutnik...

    I have nothing against white bunnies flying around :D It's merely a reference to wonderful french cartoon series called Dragon Hunters.

    I jump everytime somebody says Hinguere is similar to X. But i checked Ploy, and i think it is much closer to Chess than Hinguere.

  2.  Report Postpermalink

    Well, the nature of games is to compare them to games that already exist.

    • CommentAuthorRahakasvi
    • CommentTimeDec 1st 2008
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    So true :)

  3.  Report Postpermalink

    After all, how do you think Blokus has sold millions of copies? I am sure those pitching Blokus went, "LOOK! It s Tetris the boardgame!" When you see Blokus, that definitely comes to mind (Tetris). Since marketing folk will look for things have sold in the past, they look for things like that.

  4.  Report Postpermalink

    While we're on the subject, Blokus has yet another variant: Blokus 3D which trades on Blokus' own reputation. People compare the one Blokus to the other, and buy the new variant on the strength of the original. That is also why chains rarely introduce a new game to their shelves, because if people aren't familiar with it they are less likely to buy it.

    But popular games such as Scrabble and Trivial pursuit were once original and they got a start, seemingly ex nihilo. How, advertising blitz?

  5.  Report Postpermalink

    Blokus 3D is actually a renaming of another game called Rumis, that the maker also put out (same publisher for both games):
    http://www.boardgamegeeks.com/game/6411

    The name change was done to captialize on the Blokus name.

    Name and branding is what ends up selling. You see a company like Electronic Arts complaining now that their new franchises aren't selling well. It is all branding, and filling a niche. Scrabble fills the crossword/word game boardgame niche. And Trivial Pursuit fills the trivia niche. Pictionary fits into charades (on paper).

    In this, this is where the abstract strategy community getting behind IAGO can benefit everyone. By making IAGO a viable brand, it can create coattails that can benefit everyone. It would also enable the decommoditizing of abstract strategy games. The reason why branding works, is that it is a shortcut in people's decision-making process, to help them cut out noise.