Page 32 - Spielbox Special 2023 – EN

Current. Fall Preview 2023
next island landscape—with new scoring opportunities and hazards. Pirates aged ten and up can take part, from October onwards. (sd/cs)
STchmidt Spiele (6 F200)
here’s still hope, at least in a game: In their cooperative game Daybreak, designers Matt Leacock and Matteo Menapace have players save the world from climate collapse. “It was a particu- lar delight for all to create a game in this genre that positively addresses the fact that we, as humanity, must stop climate change in order to not only survive, but to thrive,” says the rulebook.
What’s uncanny is that this is not about abstract threats, but realistically demon- strates how CO output and pollution 2
will cause so-called tipping points to be
reached pretty soon. In Daybreak, these immediately affect our options—which is a significantly faster impact than the climate phenomena with which we are currently struggling in real life.
All players have a tableau of a world power in front of them. This tableau shows our increasing energy consumption, but polluters such as industry and traffic also have their place. Each round, we draw hand cards to bundle into projects like solar ther- mal power plants or community meetings. They are used to strengthen or activate existing projects. In addition, we have to manage new crises and implement global projects in order to eventually emit less CO2 than can be captured. It is neat that everyone plays at the same time, which is why at the beginning of each of the up to six rounds we should agree exactly who puts which cards into global projects, be- fore everyone ends up fiddling around with their own world power tableau.
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Rather Coffee than Country Beer
Thomas Spitzer (54) lives in Dortmund. He works for the Caritas home emer- gency call
service and uses his free time and on-call hours to invent games, among other things. After his coal trilogy, Spiele- faible published another coal game, Schichtwechsel (Shift Change). And with the same publishing house, the focus is now on beer brewing.
With Bier Pioniere (Beer Pioneers) you are starting a new theme for yourself.
Thomas Spitzer: I have found my niche: games with strategic ambitions that re- flect our history. The topic of beer was almost a given for someone from Dort- mund. I got my first inspiration during a visit to the local beer museum.
But despite the mining tower in the background of the board, it didn’t wind up being a game set in Dort- mund.
After each round, stock is taken: Things deteriorate quickly and only slowly get better. Which promises to be a challeng-
Bist du der erfolgreichste Gangsterboss?
Auf der SPIEL ’23 • Halle 2, 2B100
Initially, I wanted to localize the whole thing to this city, but then the micro- breweries around 1850 would have be- come a few large ones. We already dealt with that in Kohle & Kolonie (Coal & Colony). Besides, the names of the beer producers are almost all trademarks, so they couldn’t be used in the game. But I felt that the beer theme appealed to more people than the coal theme, and I learned to think more globally. That’s why I have also included developments from other, international beer markets. A lot of work went into your almanac, which allows an insight into both per- sonalities and brewing techniques.
In the development of Bier Pioniere, the publisher’s North German equanimi- ty and the honest, hard labor of the Ruhr region came together. It was a good fit. It allowed me to explain beyond the game how industrial beer production evolved into creating ever more new varieties. At the outset, you can only brew “Alt” beer, and only later in the game oth- er varieties are added. Which beer do you prefer yourself?
I really enjoy a cloudy country beer. Other than that, I drink more coffee than beer. And before anyone asks: I realize that many are going to miss “Kölsch” beer (from Cologne) in the game. But that was made later, in to- day’s terms. (sd/cs)
ing task in terms of gameplay as well. Daybreak is expected to be in the shops in October. (sd/cs)
PSkellig Games (3 C120)
irate Tales is a family-friendly dice game for up to four pirates aged eight and over. The first game by designer Benno Thönelt contains no less than 60 dice and a large game mat on which we
set sail. If we are successful, our voyage becomes longer each round. For this we have to deploy our dice cleverly. Initially we have five of these, they are the weak, white dice showing only few skulls. How- ever, through successes at sea, we can ex- change them for the more valuable red or
Photos: Skellig Games, Spitzer
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