tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71512300797515359302024-11-01T04:40:10.284-06:00News and insights from the Canadian board and card game industry.Rob Bartelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02926230923749189183noreply@blogger.comBlogger26125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7151230079751535930.post-884084410190643772012-09-30T13:25:00.000-06:002012-09-30T14:03:03.842-06:00

As many of you know, September is the month where the Canadian Heritage Collection typically releases its annual Master Catalog of Canadian Games. While I don't have a 2012 Master Catalog for you, I do have some good news that bodes extremely well for the Catalog's future as well as for the future of the Canadian Heritage Collection itself. Back in July of this year, I entered into discussions

Rob Bartelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09466239057822641217noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7151230079751535930.post-40680216774213484682012-07-17T14:43:00.000-06:002013-09-29T19:27:05.844-06:00

Hi everyone! Rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated. =o) It's been eons since I updated the blog but it certainly hasn't been for lack of news. If anything, it's because so much has been going on at once that I've had to let Canadian Gamer take a back seat for a while. So what's been going on, you say? Well here's a quick rundown: After 14 years of developing HD games at BioWare

Rob Bartelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09466239057822641217noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7151230079751535930.post-53654261117507667582011-11-23T19:49:00.001-07:002011-11-23T20:55:16.051-07:00

According to the designers, Belfort is officially sold out from the publisher's warehouse, with the last copies going to Canadian distributor, Lion Rampant Imports. Meanwhile, feedback on the game has been extremely positive. Fans rated it the best game of BGG.con this past week and BGG power reviewers Ender Wiggins and Jeff Temple have given it a very positive and lavishly

Rob Bartelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09466239057822641217noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7151230079751535930.post-77276975470992158132011-11-11T21:50:00.001-07:002011-11-11T22:43:07.954-07:00

Another solemn Remembrance Day has come and gone. D-Day Dice, the "storm the beaches" Kickstarter war-game mentioned in our previous post, surpassed $50,000 in funding today. Designer Emmanuel Aquin and the publisher, Valley Games, will be giving out some additional content to commemorate the milestone but they're still waiting on information from the manufacturer before they announce it. At

Rob Bartelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09466239057822641217noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7151230079751535930.post-47675543673816661202011-10-30T19:26:00.000-06:002011-10-30T19:26:45.544-06:00

Kickstarter.com is an innovative American crowd-funding site for a wide variety of creative projects. Boardgame projects have proven particularly successful there, however, generating over $1.1 million so far in 2011. Unfortunately, creatives from outside of the U.S. face a number of technical, logistical, and accounting hurdles when attempting to set up projects on the

Rob Bartelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09466239057822641217noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7151230079751535930.post-49367453834336682222011-10-28T23:06:00.000-06:002011-10-28T23:09:23.111-06:00

So how many independent boardgame stores are there across Canada (not including large chains like Chapters, WalMart, or Toys R Us)? When I first launched the Canadian Heritage Collection a little over a year ago, I counted a little over 300 online and brick and mortar retailers. One of the resources I came across at the time was an excellent BoardGameGeek Geeklist by Shawn Woods of Halifax,

Rob Bartelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09466239057822641217noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7151230079751535930.post-84054429044188478512011-10-23T13:19:00.000-06:002011-10-23T13:19:32.257-06:00

The giant boardgame trade show, Internationale Spieltage (aka Essen Spiele), is currently underway in Germany and Canadian games are there in force. We've been keeping an eye out for how various Canadian games are faring in BoardGameGeek's GeekBuzz metrics, which attempt to gauge the popularity of the various games present at the fair. Most popular right now among the games we're tracking are

Rob Bartelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09466239057822641217noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7151230079751535930.post-44270992303703101152011-10-18T22:55:00.000-06:002011-10-28T23:06:32.868-06:00

Essen Spiel, the big German tradeshow for the boardgames industry, is just about to begin. A lot of awards are announced in the weeks leading up to the show as a means of celebrating the year that was before shifting focus on all the brand new games surging onto the market for the holiday season. As a result, now's an excellent time to get a sense of the many Canadian games that have been

Rob Bartelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09466239057822641217noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7151230079751535930.post-79145725566381201772011-10-06T15:48:00.000-06:002011-10-18T22:58:27.336-06:00

Welcome back, everyone! As you can see, I've been busy restructuring the site and giving it a fresh coat of paint. I encourage you to check out the new Gaming Canadian page for a big list of useful links that really highlight the depth and diversity of the Canadian board game industry. If you know of more links I should be adding, please let me know and I'll be happy to add them. Even more

Rob Bartelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09466239057822641217noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7151230079751535930.post-22948583423724288532011-09-15T22:15:00.000-06:002011-10-18T23:00:18.182-06:00

Happy 1st Birthday, CHC! I launched the Canadian Heritage Collection in September of last year and, as I compile the 2011 Master Catalogue of Canadian Games, I'm excited to see the project taking on a life of its own. The 2011 catalogue contains another 50% more games than last year and lots of new and updated trivia about the designers, publishers, games, companies, organizations, and awards

Rob Bartelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09466239057822641217noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7151230079751535930.post-91947811638876177342011-08-04T23:41:00.006-06:002011-10-23T13:21:21.814-06:00

Another crosspost from the latest "Canadian Made, Canadian Played" newsletter. In it, we cover the acquisition of Z-Man Games, provide overviews of some new and upcoming Canadian-designed games, and keep you informed of some upcoming Great Canadian Board Game Blitz tournaments in your area.... Enjoy! THE GAMES OF SUMMER If there's one thing we cherish in Canada, it's our wonderful

Rob Bartelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09466239057822641217noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7151230079751535930.post-76596229803737958742011-04-24T15:37:00.000-06:002011-10-07T22:44:13.555-06:00

Happy Easter long weekend, everyone. In case anyone's keeping track, March pretty much slipped away from me. This was largely thanks to the fact that, in my new Operations role at BioWare, I've been overseeing the finalization, launch and patching process for our latest video game, Dragon Age II. The game has faced mixed reviews and its share of both fair and unfair criticisms but sales

Rob Bartelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02926230923749189183noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7151230079751535930.post-62220959727392081662011-02-03T23:20:00.000-07:002011-10-07T22:44:00.423-06:00

So What Do the Kids Think? Before I dive into the main subject matter of this post, I thought I'd share a wonderful pair of recent Two by Two video reviews from actual children who've been playing the game. The first is by Brooke of The BoardGame Family while the second is by Hayden of Games with Hayden. A big thanks to both of them and to their families for sharing their insights and

Rob Bartelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02926230923749189183noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7151230079751535930.post-3695794891310174262011-01-08T13:46:00.002-07:002011-10-07T22:43:30.357-06:00

The holidays are always a busy time. Somehow, between all the travel and turkey dinners, I've been able to take on a new Toy Fair kids game contract, assist publishers with some of my upcoming titles slated for later this year, make a final push on some top secret titles I have some interesting self-publishing plans for, and enter a new, busier phase in my day job at BioWare. More on all of

Rob Bartelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02926230923749189183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7151230079751535930.post-3973071491139926572010-11-16T21:00:00.000-07:002011-10-07T22:43:06.549-06:00

A sneak peek from the Canadian Heritage Collection newsletter... New CanadiaN GAMES REVIEWED! With the holiday sales season upon us, most of the new Canadian game releases of 2010 are now available from distributors and making their way into the hands of eager customers. With that in mind, I thought I'd share some of the customer reviews and commentary coming from BoardGameGeek,

Rob Bartelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02926230923749189183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7151230079751535930.post-20386388036442052422010-11-10T23:26:00.001-07:002011-10-07T22:42:43.073-06:00

It's always exciting (and a little nerve-wracking) to see your creations finally out there in the wild. So far, however, I'm grateful to see that Two By Two is being well-received. With its current average rating of 7.03 out of 10, Two by Two is the 6th highest rated game on a religious theme over at BoardGameGeek, nestled right in there between the religious

Rob Bartelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02926230923749189183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7151230079751535930.post-19694986070810669992010-10-20T21:19:00.000-06:002011-10-07T22:42:21.210-06:00

It's Essen season in the board game industry and all eyes are turned to Germany. The big scandal this year is that one of the major European component suppliers has fallen behind on their orders and, as a result, a lot of highly anticipated games are delayed and won't be available at the industry's biggest trade show. This is devastating for some small publishers for whom that may be their

Rob Bartelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02926230923749189183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7151230079751535930.post-69467005597907818402010-10-07T23:46:00.001-06:002011-10-07T22:42:10.658-06:00

Just a quick note to say that Two By Two is now available at the distributor level and should start appearing on store shelves sometime next week. Yay! I've waited a long time to see this game become a reality and I'm looking forward to reading the first reviews and session reports as they crop up online. I've been through this process a number of times before with my video games&nbsp

Rob Bartelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02926230923749189183noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7151230079751535930.post-46462833156664467242010-09-16T19:24:00.002-06:002011-10-07T22:41:54.720-06:00

Two By Two is expected to make landfall somewhere along the Pacific coast this Sunday. From there it will go to the warehouse of central wholesaler Publisher Services and then out to various distributors such as Lion Rampant here in Canada, ACD in the US, and Alliance for the US and worldwide. Online and brick & mortar retailers will include Two by Two in their regular orders

Rob Bartelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02926230923749189183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7151230079751535930.post-12431685350490468022010-09-02T22:12:00.005-06:002011-10-07T22:41:41.854-06:00

As I alluded to in my previous post, I've been doing a lot of thinking about the Canadian board game industry, its long history of innovation, and the robust and very active state in which it currently finds itself. Despite that long tradition and current health, however, there appears to be a bit of a disconnect at the retailer level. In speaking to retailers, I've found that many are unaware

Rob Bartelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02926230923749189183noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7151230079751535930.post-34677397587902977242010-08-08T13:36:00.002-06:002011-10-07T22:41:23.955-06:00

I've spent my last couple of weeks of evenings and lunch hours dropping in on the various boardgame retailers here in Edmonton. It's been a great opportunity to talk shop with the owners, and leave them with copies of a Two by Two Retailer Flyer that gives them some information about the game and where they can order copies. For those reading, go ahead and forward copies of that

Rob Bartelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02926230923749189183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7151230079751535930.post-88103196742558142522010-07-12T12:02:00.001-06:002011-10-07T22:41:06.332-06:00

The fine folks over at BoardGameNews have been posting a series of Two by Two design diaries that I wrote for them. A wide-eyed unicorn peered out of the dense underbrush of the inland jungle. The sandy beach spread out before her and, beyond that, a grey and choppy sea that swelled to fill the bay. And there amidst the wind-tossed waves, the strangest sort of boat approached – short and

Rob Bartelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02926230923749189183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7151230079751535930.post-56521146816782064312010-06-14T16:55:00.000-06:002011-10-07T22:40:50.029-06:00

Two by Two has experienced  minor delays and the publisher, Valley Games, has chosen to push out the release date to August. Delays are quite common in the industry and I'm not particularly concerned by this one, although it does mean that the game likely won't be on hand at the Origins Game Fair in Ohio. The good news is that the publisher has received the print proof of the game from

Rob Bartelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02926230923749189183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7151230079751535930.post-75255427980516160792010-03-26T17:21:00.001-06:002011-10-07T22:40:33.246-06:00

Blogger just released a brand new template editor which provides me with a lot more control over the look and feel of this blog. I know, I know - with great power comes great responsibility! While I'm not convinced I love this new wave background, it nevertheless felt like an appropriate way to celebrate two important milestones for Two by Two - the game's Board Game Geek entry has crested

Rob Bartelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02926230923749189183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7151230079751535930.post-69003913417884308332010-02-11T23:31:00.001-07:002011-10-07T22:40:21.615-06:00

Well, it's official. =o) Publisher Valley Games has announced the upcoming release of my first published board game, Two by Two. The cover art is by Calgary-based illustrator, Patrick LaMontagne, who quietly let the news slip last September. The origins of the game go back to November of 2006 when I first started sketching out the rules and putting together my initial prototypes.&nbsp

Rob Bartelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02926230923749189183noreply@blogger.com2