In 2015, Calliope Games announced a bold and ambitious project: publish a series of fun, affordable, easy to learn games designed by titans in the game industry. These games, released three per year over the course of four years, introduce a multitude of game mechanics to new players and provide veteran players with new titles by their favorite designers. Each game tells a compelling and engaging story and invites players to step into a whole new world. In 2016, the first three games in the Titans Series were released: Hive Mind — This bee-witching party game for three to twelve players is the brainchild of Richard Garfield, best known for Magic: The Gathering and King of Tokyo. Players ask and answer questions (“What are three amusement park rides?”), trying to match answers and avoid being kicked out of the hive by the Queen Bee! Hive Mind works perfectly for large groups, and with the answers all based on opinions and experience, even non-trivia fans can enjoy this hilarious party game. Menu Masters — Gamers hungry for a clever resource management game gobbled up this entree by Zach & Jordan Weisman, designers of Mage Knight, BattleTech, and Got 'Em! As chefs, players are gathering the best ingredients to create amazing menus for their customers. By managing money and ingredients, each chef races to create the most masterful menus and win! Menu Masters is an ideal gateway game, teaching the worker placement mechanic to those new to gaming. Running With The Bulls — Vacations have never been so full of dice-dropping, bull-avoiding fun as in this game by Paul Peterson, designer of Guillotine and Smash Up! Roll the Runner dice to race through the streets of El Toro, staying one step ahead of the giant bull dice, and use clever cards to manipulate the board in your favor! This is one time you WON’T want to “get the point.” Running With The Bulls offers a fresh way to use dice, and the fun use of cards ensures that no two games are ever alike. After the incredible success of the first wave of Titan games, fans have been clamoring to get their hands on the next wave, and in Fall 2017, Calliope Games will be releasing these three new titles: Ancestree is a tile-drafting game by Eric Lang of Rising Sun fame that challenges players to grow the best family tree. You’re convinced that you have the richest, most interesting family tree of all. Over three rounds, you’ll choose and build your lineage, looking to score riches, generations, and marriages. Time to show your neighbors which family rules and which one drools! With simple-to-learn rules, but hidden strategies, Ancestree will be a hit with players young and old. Capital City is the Titan Series offering by James Ernest – author of Kill Doctor Lucky and many other games – and represents the biddin’-est, draftin’-est, buyin’-est, resource managin’-est game in the Old West! As players build a new town in the wild west, they’ll bid for turn order, choose new settlers off the train, buy businesses in the town, and assign jobs to new citizens. Playing Capital City is like a crash course in game mechanics, and all the elements work together to create a wonderful game for newcomers and hardcore gamers, alike. Shutterbug, by Mike Elliott of Thunderstone fame, is a unique set collection game of cryptozoological and mythological proportions. As a plucky photographer in an alternate 1932, you have been hired by some of the nation’s “best” tabloid newspapers to catch pictures of various hidden creatures. Travel across the country, picking up tips and snapping the best photos, remembering all the while that only the luckiest Shutterbug will get the byline. From the art to the gameplay, ShutterBug will be a game that players will want to use to gather family and friends around the table. With a smash hit Titan Series year in the books for 2016, and a new wave of incredible games about to release by the likes of Eric Lang, James Ernest, and Mike Elliott, Calliope Games is excited to bring new adventures and memorable stories to players everywhere, no matter what kind of gamers they are. Hive Mind, Menu Masters, and Running With The Bulls are available now, and look for Ancestree, Capital City, and Shutterbug this fall at your FLGS to add to your friends and family Game Night! |