January this year my mind subsided away from developing Alaska for a week , yes I actually had a break, but instead of relaxing and stopping my mind from flowing for a moment… I created a board game.
N.E.W.S - NORTH EAST WEST SOUTH
As my brain was so deep in the Alaskan mindset, this board game I dreamt up was snow themed and set atop a mountain (I just can’t help myself).
The idea of the game is you play as Mounties in the Canadian Alps. You start at the bottom of the mountain, at base, and the aim is to reach your watchtower at the top of the mountain before the other player gets to the top of theirs, BUT, the player must arrive at their watchtower with 3 survivors!
The survivors are scattered over the mountain, you can land on them, which will throw a survivor over your shoulder, or you can acquire one from one of the playing cards over the map, BUT, you can only arrive at the watchtower with ONE survivor at a time. If you arrive with two, one will slide back down the mountain to his original position. (Unless you arrive with two and there is one already inside, then you have won!)
Things aren’t that cruel! The idea it to put you into a scenario where you have to decide whether you carry on scaling the mountain, or take one survivor at a time to the tower. You see, when you pickup a survivor, you get the choice of what direction to carry on. Do you go straight to the tower, or do you turn around and try to pick up the rest of the survivors. All this, while racing the other player!
NOT ONLY THIS! As you go around the map there are orange and black pins! The orange pins allow you to pick up Good News cards, they feature heart warming successes such as, Gain A Survivor, move forward x number of spaces, or possibly even move your Watch Tower closer to you! Black pins are Bad News! Pick up a Bad News card and you will be treated to such atrocities such as, Lose A Survivor or being chased by bears down the mountain.
Design
The map is designed to look like a map of the area, with pins in it. The cards are designed with related pictures reflecting the good or bad news, the dice is actually a compass spinner and the game pieces are Mounties with little Mountie hats.
Why mention this now?
I’ve wandered for a while what to do with this idea. I got it printed up on professional boards and cards, played it to death, then put it in my overflowing creative cupboard with the rest of my ideas.. Until Now!
I have decided that the board game fits quite well with ‘ALASKA’ and have decided to release the board game as a Print ‘n’ Play KickStarter Exclusive!! Anyone who backs ‘ALASKA’, to any degree, will receive the download of the PnP version of ‘N.E.W.S’. If we reach our goal you will all be sent a download link!
We’re half way, so let’s make the second half even better!
Just another way I want to give back!
Thank you all so much for backing Alaska so far, whether it be through funding or getting the message out there, thank you!
Please, keep letting the world know people!
Adam
For more info and pictures head over to the KickStarter Update @
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