War on Terror Blog
Thursday 26th March 2009
The Crunch is upon us!
You may be interested to know we've just launched our second game: Crunch - the game for utter bankers. It's a card game, comes in a double box and fitting to the subject matter only costs £8.99. That's like a medium cappuccino from Starbucks. So we expect all of you to buy at least six.
The game itself is a lot less involved than War on Terror, but no less fun. Everyone takes on the role of a CEO of a global bank and while managing that bank you have to award yourself enough bonuses and embezzle enough to safeguard a healthy retirement fund. It's this personal stash at the end of the game that decides who the real winners and losers are. It's kind of like betting against yourself - the more you take out of your bank for your personal fortune, the weaker your bank becomes and the quicker you're out of the game. Read more about the gameplay here.
With any luck, we'll rescue the global economy with this game, just like we ended the War on Terror with our last one.
- posted by TerrorBull Games on 26 March 2009 - 0 comments
Thursday 19th March 2009
Making of the Crunch
The printers started rolling at the Crunch factory today and we went down to London to see the first copies come off the presses.
Having never been in an industrial printers before, it was quite an education: Hot, noisy and an overpowering smell of ink, We met the printer operators who were in charge of making sure Crunch will look as best it can. One of the surprises was how much more manual the process was that we thought. Despite a 1.5 million pound machine, everything ultimately relied on the trained and experienced eyes of the operators.
Colours checked and signed off, the moment of truth came and the printer was switched on. This thing can shift paper! About half an hour later and 5,000 sets of card backs had been printed. Pretty impressive.
Very exciting to see Crunch coming together. It's looking awesome and the wait now is killing us. Still, we have more than enough to occupy our thoughts and time until then ... like build this website.
Thanks to everyone at Carta Mundi who were so welcoming and friendly to us. It's good to know our second baby is in safe hands.
- posted by TerrorBull Games on 19 March 2009 - 0 comments
Monday 2nd February 2009
Berlin Part 3
On our last day in Berlin, we found out that a few errant snow flakes had brought the UK to a juddering halt, our flight had been cancelled and we suddenly had two extra days. Good news, because Berlin is The Awesome. Bad news because we had a lot of work we were meant to be getting on with (hence the reason this is all being posted over a week late).
We spent a good few hours wandering around the rides and fighting the fibreglass dinosaursStill, there's no changing the weather and we soon settled down into a very enjoyable rhythm of playing games at Michael's shop alternated with exploring the area. We have to mention the amazing Italian restaurant, run by Roman anarchists that we ended up visiting twice.
Another incredible highlight of our trip was sneaking into Spree Park, an abandoned amusement park in the former east. Apparently the owner upped and left suddenly for a new life in Peru. The remaining park is incredibly well preserved and full of spooky, calm beauty. Really fascinating - we spent a good few hours wandering around the rides and fighting the fibreglass dinosaurs.
We have to give an extra special huge thanks to Michael and his family for being so welcoming and kind and cool with us and making our stay a very memorable one. Thanks Michael! Everyone who goes to Berlin needs to check out his shop, Spielwiese, and spend some quality time playing great games.
In other news, we finally relented to peer pressure and joined Twitter. Please follow us, it'll give us a sense of purpose. God knows we need one.
- posted by TerrorBull Games on 2 February 2009 - 0 comments
Saturday 31st January 2009
War on Terror at the Berlin Academy of Arts
It was always going to be an interesting day, what with a severe lack of sleep the previous two nights, Andy S on a constant and intense caffeine buzz (he'd given the stuff up for a month and had just started again with a vengeance), seeing War on Terror encased in a glass cabinet in the Berlin Academy of Arts and then playing the game at the same gallery as some kind of weird, vaguely-intentioned performance piece... That the day finally ended in a techno club the following morning in a squatted factory was all-too-predictable.
Only just slightly weirder than seeing WoT in a gallery display case, was playing a game in the galleryBut before all that, we took a tour of Berlin - taking in a nice mix of the usual and not so usual sights like Cafe Zapata. We particularly digged Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain, where Spielwiese is located - very cool districts with an exciting feel about them; lots happening.
At the end of the day at the Akademie der Künste, we were given a friendly welcome by Brigitte, the Akademie PR lady, who seemed genuinely pleased to have us at the gallery. We still had no idea what to expect at this point, but we were imagining an informal library-type room where War on Terror was one of many objects available on the shelves. As it turned out, our game was displayed in a room much like every other in the exhibition, locked inside a low, glass case. Surrounding this case were various videos, art pieces and a small library of books. To say we were intensely freaked out is an understatement.
It's very difficult to describe the various 'do not compute' thought processes that go through your mind when you see people examining your board game in a modern art gallery, but it's something along the lines of 'what-the-fuck-it's-just-a-game-and-you-can-buy-it-in-the-shops-just-10-minutes-away-and-you're-stood-there-peering-at-it-with-a-serious-look-on-your-face-like-it's-going-to-offer-up-some-kind-of-answer-but-it's-just-a-game-but-then-again-it-is-a-pretty-awesome-game-I-mean-what-other-game-is-in-a-modern-art-gallery-but-it-IS-just-a-game-this-is-too-mental-I-think-a-piece-of-brain-just-leaked-out-my-ear'.
The exhibition itself is truly great. The proper art is genuinely thought-provoking but - and all credit to the curators here - it's the presentation and lay out of the exhibition that is extremely well executed and really makes it what it is. All the art was located in the basement, with projections of the pieces being shown in the gallery space upstairs. Various cameras tracked visitors to the gallery and showed upstairs pictures downstairs and vice-versa. The effect was to immerse the visitor in a state of being constantly, inescapably scrutinised. If you get the chance, we urge you to see it - it runs until March 31st.
Only just slightly weirder than seeing WoT in a gallery display case, was playing a game in the gallery that evening as part of the "Long Night of the Museums" - an annual event that sees museums right across Berlin opening their doors late and laying on extra (often free) attractions for the public.
We were installed in the top floor of the gallery, with a bar, a DJ and a large balcony overlooking Pariser Platz and the Brandenburg Gate. 10/10 for location. Then we learnt the range of war on terror themed cocktails were free. 10/10 for hospitality. This town just keeps getting better and better.
We did a final bit of filming before the free cocktails took effect. It was still probably the silliest interview we've done, which came to a crashing end when Andy S tried his hand at explaining the game in German. They never prepare you for this stuff at school.
So a very strange game of War on Terror ensued as the room gradually filled up. Some people stood back and took pictures, others sat down with us and got involved. Lots of laughter, lots of confused faces - we think, overall, from what we can remember, it was a great success. The curators seemed happy anyway. They had over 2000 people through the gallery that evening.
Towards the end of the night, Sebastian from yesterday's game evening arrived with news of a one-off techno party at a disused factory building in East Berlin. It sounded too cool for us, but you can't go to Berlin and not go to a techno night. First, though, we got in a quick round of "the new game" before we had to ditch our comfy, privileged position as artists and face the real world again.
Several hours of 120bpm electronica and Andy S welched out at a shameful 9.00am. Andy T and Tom carried on going for another 2 hours. People were still arriving at this time. Berliners are mental.
- posted by TerrorBull Games on 31 January 2009 - 0 comments
Friday 30th January 2009
Game Evening at Spielwiese, Berlin
Getting up at 3.30am is always a challenge for us TBG chaps. Tom and Andy S solved the problem with the help of 10 different alarms. Andy T simply never went to bed and decided to drink through the night. We had to deal with a spot of 'wheel rage' at the airport when Andy T inexplicably developed a hatred of mobile luggage, but apart from that it seemed as if Andy T had the best tactic, all things considered.
After arriving in Berlin, we checked in with our gracious host, Michael, who runs the Spielwiese games shop - a cosy little cafe with over 600 games available to rent and play. Apparently War on Terror is the best seller there and the box shows it. We've never seen a WoT box so worn and well loved, it was quite touching.
After that, we set off to explore the area and hand out some flyers for that evening's game event, which we hoped would draw a decent crowd, since we were planning to officially demo our new game for the first time. Well before evening fell, we'd all fallen in love with Berlin. Friendly people, a generally laid-back air, incredible street art and an unnecessary amount of bars and cafes - oh and flippin' amazing falafel - makes for a great mix.
Back at Spielwiese and the shop was overflowing with people. We soon had two 6-player games of WoT on the go, with more looking on. Andy T played two games of "the new game" (for those waiting to know, we'll be releasing some information and pictures in the next couple of weeks) and the results were good: noisy, funny and nasty. Any game where 'Nazi Gold' can be stolen from your personal fortune is always very promising.
Andy S's game of WoT was livened up by some very German approaches to playing the game. One fellow was particularly disturbed by the lack of solid rules and suggested that Go or Chess was an infinitely better game. While it's pretty difficult to argue against this claim on any rational level, Andy S managed to stump the young gentleman by asking him when he last laughed while playing Go.
The whole evening (and the gallery event the next day) was filmed by a very nice man by the name of Sebastian - hopefully going to get it on some German culture programme. We've turned into quite the sophistocrats, don't you know.
- posted by TerrorBull Games on 30 January 2009 - 1 comments
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