The Year Ahead...

What's in store for 2024

Here is what we are looking forward to in 2024….

Spring Releases

We have four releases scheduled for Spring 2024 - two reprints and two new releases. The two reprints are Votes for Women and The Shores of Tripoli. We have a Kickstarter running for the second printing of Votes for Women - www.votesforwomen.com will take you directly to the Kickstarter page. The production is already underway for Votes for Women. The second printing of The Shores of Tripoli will probably not have a Kickstarter campaign because of the very packed calendar we have for 2024 - and its second printing could slide into later in the year or even 2025.

Of the two new releases, the first should be familiar to most of you - The Halls of Montezuma. After a quite successful Kickstarter earlier this year, we are in pre-production now. Gilberto and I are quite pleased with the final design. It is a more wide-open game than The Shores of Tripoli and plays about 20-30 minutes longer, but the two games make a very nice complement to each other.

The second may not be as familiar - Shakespeare’s First Folio. Shakespeare’s First Folio is a co-design by me and my lovely wife, Kate Bertram, in partnership with the Folger Shakespeare Library here in Washington, DC. The game is part trick-taker and part worker placement. The game includes a 36-card deck of Shakespeare’s plays (in three suits - Comedies, Tragedies and Histories), a 24-card deck of historical personages, a bag of fortune, resource dice, and wooden pieces representing coins, paper, type and ink. And, of course, a game board. Shakespeare’s First Folio was a real hit at SD Hist Con and I look forward to releasing it in coordination with the reopening of the Folger Shakespeare Library in May 2024. We are not planning to do a Kickstarter for this design.

Fall Releases

We have four games scheduled to go to Kickstarter and deliver in 2024. This is a huge task, from both a labor and a cash flow perspective. But the games are simply amazing. In no particular order:

First Monday in October. Designed by Talia Rosen and developed by Jason Matthews, First Monday covers the history of the Supreme Court. I am very pleased that we are partnering with the Supreme Court Historical Society to develop the historical content. The artwork is taking a little longer on this one, but I really want to get it right.

Hunt for Blackbeard. This is Volko Ruhnke’s game of hidden movement on the hunt for Blackbeard. I was able to play a prototype against Jason Matthews and we were both blown away by the design. GMT had passed on this design because of no solo mode, so we were thrilled to be able to publish this gem. Marc Rodridgue is working on the graphic design as I type this and I think this is going to be a real solid entry in the pirate game genre.

Peace 1905. The winner of the ConSim GameJam, designed by a four-person team headed up by Maurice Suckling, Peace 1905 is about the peace negotiations that ended the Russo-Japanese War. I played the two-player version at Circle DC 2023 and knew it would be the perfect title for Fort Circle. The design team is now working on both a solo mode (where you play as Teddy Roosevelt) and a three-player mode (with Teddy, Russia and Japan).

Night Witches. Co-designed by prolific designer David Thompson and rock star Liz Davidson, with art and graphic design from Ian O’Toole, Night Witches has an amazing pedigree. As a bonus, the game is outstanding. David and Liz have been demoing the prototype at a number of conventions and the reception is always the same - FANTASTIC!

Other Stuff

The future is quite bright - with Guano! Guano! Guano! by me and Kate, United States v. Aaron Burr, by Jason Matthews, as well as designs from Dan Bullock, Alex Knight and Jan Day. What I need to do is clone myself!

We hope to continue our partnership with Rally-the-Troops.com - both The Shores of Tripoli and Votes for Women are available to play free online and my hope is that as new games are published they all make it up on the site.

And, of course, I look forward to seeing everyone at Circle DC 2024. The official dates are April 4-7 and we will open up registration in the new year.

I want to wish everyone a wonderful holiday season and a fantastic 2024.

Kevin