So I’ve been out of commission for the last few months with working full-time during the weekdays and then being involved with WoodForSheep.ca during the weekends, but I still haven’t forgotten about my blog! A cool thing happened to me about a month ago…I was checking my email as I normally do and I stumbled upon an email from a representative of Gary Games! Now, for those of you who don’t know, Gary Games is a fairly new game company that has produced the popular, Ascension: Chronicles Of The Godslayer card game. They apparently saw a post of mine talking about how great I thought the iOS version was and they asked if I would like to talk to their CEO, Justin Gary.

Now Justin Gary isn’t just the owner and CEO of Gary Games, but he’s also a huge gamer and an accomplished Magic Pro Tour Player as well. I immediately jumped at the opportunity and I have the conversation below:

DLB.com: Do you have any favorite boardgames at the moment?
JG: Other than lots of Ascension, I have been playing a fair amount of Citadels, Race for the Galaxy, Ra, and El Grande.

DLB.com: Are there any other titles that Gary Games is planning to release? If so, could you tell us a little bit about them?
JG: Of course we plan to continue making Ascension expansions (including Storm of Souls coming out this November/December). In addition, we are working on several other titles, but unfortunately can’t reveal any details about them now. Look for some announcements first quarter 2012.

DLB.com: With the iOS release of Ascension, are there plans to release the expansions onto the iOS as well? Are there plans to release on other platforms like Steam, XBox Live Arcade, Playstation Network etc.
JG: Absolutely! Return of the Fallen should be coming to iOS within the next few months, followed by Storm of Souls soon after. We are working on moving to Android first and then other platforms like XBox Live, Steam, etc.

DLB.com: Are there any thoughts of perhaps making Ascension into a full fledged RPG?
JG: While we have a rich world and story that I would love to turn into an RPG, the economics of making an RPG make it very hard to justify. Perhaps down the road we will find the right partners to work with to make a fantastic Ascension RPG, but in the short term, there are no plans for an RPG.

DLB.com: The new Ascension: Storm of Souls expansion will introduce a new card type, Events. Can you tell us more about them? Will future sets also continue to introduce new mechanics to keep the gameplay fresh?
JG: Events are an exciting new addition to the Ascension world. Event cards represent the different factions of the Ascension world rising to dominance. When an event card flips into the center row, it is set aside and creates a new rule for the game that all players must follow. Some cards interact with the Event cards, becoming stronger when their faction’s events are in play.
We have a lot of exciting new ideas for future expansions and I know Ascension fans are going to love what we have in store. Storm of Souls represents a lot of great mechanical changes to the game, not just with the new Event card type, but also with Trophy Reward monsters, and a whole slew of exciting individual cards and interactions.

DLB.com: Are there any plans on running official sanctioned tournaments, release parties etc.?
JG: In addition to our highly successful Game Day program where players can go to their local store and get free promo cards, we recently introduced our Planar Showdown tournament series where players can engage in much more competitive play. We have our next tournament in San Diego in November, where players can win an ipad2 playing Ascension!

DLB.com: Can you tell us about your experiences from being a gamer and a game designer? Any advice for those people who want to venture on their own and publish their own games?
JG: I am very fortunate to have been able to build a career around my passion of gaming. For those out there who want to do the same, I recommend putting in the hours to develop their skills and try to get involved in the industry at any level they can. Playing and doing well in tournaments, writing strategy or community articles, and designing and showing off your own games are all great ways to get noticed and hone your skills. Most importantly, be sure to learn from your mistakes and take criticism well- its the only way you will get better.

DLB.com: For future Gary Games releases, do you plan to do all game designs in house or would you be open to submissions from the general public?
JG: We take submissions from the public, but our slate of games for next year is already full, so any submissions can only be reviewed for a 2013 or later release.

DLB.com: Any future merchandising we can expect for Ascension? Toys, books, T-shirts?
JG: We just created a line of T-Shirts for Ascension that we showed off at Spiel Essen. These will be sold at conventions and on our website soon! We love creating cool accessories for Ascension fans, so tell us what you want to see on our Forums, Facebook Page, and Twitter feed.

I’d like to thank Justin for taking the time to answer our questions and I definitely look forward to future Ascension expansions and Gary Games releases! =)

-Stephen

So it’s been quite some time since I’ve last posted, lately I’ve been busy with WoodForSheep.ca and running our Game On! events. However, while that has been going on, I’ve started a new hobby, collecting playing cards! Now most people might think that the cards in the video are just a deck of cards, however, they has been a growing interest in custom playing cards. One of the most popular decks are the Smoke and Mirrors produced by Dan and Dave Buck.

These new Smoke and Mirrors V6 are the 6th version of the popular playing card design and is supposedly the last in the line of “coloured” S&M decks. The decks were released last Friday at 8 pm PST and they were promptly sold out in a matter of a few hours (3.5 hours to be exact). It seems like a lot of people are recognizing the value in which collectors place on these limited edition decks and so speculators are buying them by the brick (12 decks). Though these cards originally go for about $6 USD per deck, we are seeing auctions on eBay and on reseller sites for $10+ USD….and many of them don’t even have the decks on hand!

A lot of magicians are cashing in on the custom playing card market and we are seeing new releases at an unprecedented rate….though things are nice now, I’m hoping it doesn’t all come crashing down like it did with sports cards. For those of you who are thinking about collecting playing cards, my advice is to buy them early, or else you’ll be paying an arm and a leg to get them later on.

-Stephen

It’s been a little while since I’ve last posted, but I guess since it’s the summertime and stuff, I’d much rather go out and enjoy the weather (rather than sitting at my computer all day). Anyhow, Nate and I have been busy with our current business venture, our new online boardgaming site: WoodForSheep.ca

Since the beginning of this year, we’ve been busy working on W4S during our sparetime and hoping that it’ll grow to become something we can both work on a regular basis. So if any of you are looking for boardgames at reasonable prices, come check us out! =)

-Stephen

Hmm…it’s definitely been awhile since my last posting on the blog. I’ve just been preoccupied with work and other summer activities (I guess I just want to take advantage of the nice weather these days). Anyhow, in terms of card games, I remember playing Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer when it came out last year and I just felt it was a simplified version of other popular CCGs.

But just recently, I saw that there was an iOS release of Ascension in the App Store and I thought I’d take the chance and try it out. What’s funny is that now that I’m playing this on my iPhone, I’m hooked! Especially since you can play online against other players so you can play different levels of competition. I definitely recommend this game for all CCG players and I’m hoping that we’ll see some of the expansions being added to the base set to keep in fresh. Definitely check it out!

-Stephen

So it looks like developers these days are recognizing the popularity of sandbox-type building games like the Indie hit, Minecraft. Terraria looks like your run-of-mill platformer but with difference of being able to collect materials and build your own structures, equipment and weapons. Though there is not much to boast about in regards to it’s 8-bit-like graphics, the customizability and the freedom to do what you want makes this game fun and addicting. If you don’t want to go at it alone, you can always play with your friends! Terraria is definitely a game people should check out!

-Stephen

Last Story:

Pandora’s Tower:

Xenoblade:

Perhaps Wii gamers should band together and let Nintendo know that people WANT these games for their system and that quality titles are becoming scarce as the console ages. I’m hoping that the upcoming Wii U will have better quality games than this generation. There are only so many Mario games people can play!

-Stephen

I remember back when I graduated from highschool that we had a valedictory speech and also a speech from the principal. However, in Ming-Dao High in Taiwan, the principal, Albert T. Wang enters the stage dressed up as Iron Man! I’m guessing since Ming-Dao is a private school, they would have the budget to have such an extravagant ceremony. Definitely a graduation to remember!

-Stephen

So this past Sunday was the season finale for the first season of Game of Thrones, the first title in the Song of Ice and Fire series by author George RR Martin. I gotta say that after watching the first season, I’m am seriously HOOKED! Since the the second season won’t be aired until Spring 2012, I’ve already went and bought the four book boxed set and have preordered the fifth book (which is due out next month!). Not since Lord of the Rings have I been drawn into a fantasy themed show. Since HBO has seen how popular this show has become, I’m hoping that the next season will have a bigger budget to showoff some of the epic battles and the dragons! =)

-Stephen

I wasn’t really looking out for Record of Agarest War since the first title was only released on PSN for the Sony PS3 and I don’t really like paying for just a digital copy. But, it looks like Aksys created a neat Limited Edition box set for Record of Agarest War Zero. Thankfully, companies are recognizing the fact that people outside of Japan will pay extra bucks for extra content and goodies. For the RoAZ:LE, you not only get the game, but you receive the soundtrack, character book, deck of cards and character cards. It’s interesting, but not as risque as the first LE with the character pillowcase and mousepad. I’m wondering if people are actually buying this for the ACTUAL game? lol…

-Stephen

Lately, I’ve been hearing a lot about this virtual currency called “Bitcoins” and I was wondering what the heck it was all about. Apparently, it’s a form of electronic currency that is decentralized and can be used in exchange for goods or services. Also, you can also convert Bitcoins to actual currencies like Dollars, Euros, Pounds etc. What I don’t really get is this whole farming concept. Apparently, you can install the Bitcoin mining client and gain currency like in a video game. In order to keep the integrity of the currency, it’s supposedly limited and the rate in which you mine fluctuates depending on the amount of other users who are mining as well.

What’s crazy is that some people are building crazy computer rigs in order to mine as many Bitcoins as possible 24/7. I’m a little skeptical since I don’t really see many notable businesses/companies getting on board with the Bitcoin infrastructure. Also, with possible hacking risks, people can probably manipulate the value of the currency or even crash it. Anyhow, I’m curious to see how Bitcoins will be used in the future.

-Stephen