Friday 6 June 2014

The Family Zone at UK Games Expo - Not Just Another Year!

After a very busy and exciting weekend at another massive UK Games Expo, Nigel was interviewed by Chris Bowler of the UK Gaming Media Network to find out how it had all gone. You can watch the video and then see what we thought of this years Family Zone, and what it takes to pull it all together. (Quite a bit!)


That was Sunday, the last day of this year Family Zone... then came the aftermath!

OK, we’ve got back home and started to wade through the paperwork, games and boxes we’ve got back with. We have managed to have a day to simply recover from what is always a very enjoyable, but also very long weekend and a chance to reflect on another year organising and running The Family Zone. So, what worked and what didn’t?

At Imagination Gaming we are always looking for something new or different and we often find that games inspire us with new ideas we can implement in either the classroom or at events, whether played as they are, or as integral part of something we create especially for the occasion.

Preparations for this year's Family Zone started earlier in the year, or in October last year to be precise. We headed out to Essen in Germany, holder of the world's largest hobby games event, with the aim of finding games and companies that might be interested in either submitting games or attending the UK Games Expo.  Although we didn’t find a huge amount this year there were still a number of great finds.

Aigar Alaveer from 2D6 is a prime example of this with his games Roundhouse Kick & Making Money. He came along to the Expo this year and we hope he had a great event.

Things starts picking up pace early in the year where we begin looking at the range of games in the awards and which of our standard range would complement them.  We had over 70 games in this year’s awards, all of which are available to play over the weekend. Combine this with all of the regular games we bring down means a range of well over 150 games available to play, more than enough to keep any family happy.

Then there's the organisation and planning, the immense attention to detail that makes everything run smoothly as possible. The better that is the less you notice it and the easier everything moves on the day. From volunteers to vans, signage to the shirts on our backs, months of preparation goes into the Family Zone but it's all worth it everytime you show someone something new and their response is... 'that's cool'!

As always, we make sure we have something new on offer. We've managed to keep pushing what we do year on year and pride ourselves on coming up with something different or a twist. This year we introduced our Creativity Zone. This focused on two great activities, primarily for younger members of the family but which was eagerly attempted by several parents as well. Rory’s Story Cubes has become a bit of a global phenomenon in games and in this along with the new release from the company, The Extraordinaires Design Studio, we have a couple of terrific activities for those that like to push the imagination.

This meant this year our offer consisted of this new Creative Zone, the children’s RPG run by Richard Law and his team, our B.I.G area with a range of giant games from a number of companies and one so big you could be part of it! Of course our family gaming space where people can play a massive range of family classic games and brand new games. This was all situated in our new room in the Warwick suite.

It's early in the year that we also find out who is available to come along with us and help out the team. We’re very choosy when it comes to staff as I think people often underestimate just how much work is required over the event. It’s a thoroughly enjoyable but really long weekend of constant gaming, and running around with a huge smile on your face! We expect a lot from our volunteers but are never disappointed. We had a larger team on the Saturday this year and it made a big difference. We don’t think that anyone in the zone had to wait to get one of the team’s attentions and resolve their question or problem.
This year’s giant games came in three forms. Coiledspring games kindly gave us a range of wooden games by Gigamic. These include the puzzle Katamino, along with several of their fiendishly clever two and four player games, including Pylos, Quarto and Quoridor. Esdevium games then let us use their giant versions of the favourites Pandemic and Ticket To Ride. All of these proved really popular and helped provide a stepping stone between some of the more educational games we use to the more gamer type of offerings. Last but not least our own version of Retsami, with a carpeted board 5m x 5m, big enough to use really giant counters or to put on colured t-shirts and become the pieces yourself.

As a special treat this year we had a number of games designers pop over and spend a little time demonstrating their games and lend a helping hand. Matthew Tidbury came along with the fantastic City of Zombies game and spent several hours on Sundays training our families to hold off the Zombie hordes using some clever maths! In the creative zone Rory O’Connor popped in to join in and tell a few stories of his own. He even had time to stop and choose a couple of winners from our story and design competitions. The results of these will be released shortly!

One of the biggest differences we found this year was also the most positive thing about the family zone... the room! When we first looked the room over there were concerns. We weren't sure how we were going to fit things in, if there would be enough room and more importantly if anyone would notice us! These fears were quickly allayed however. The room turned out to be ideal, providing enough space to accommodate all of the activities whilst at the same time providing a great atmosphere, never becoming too loud, even during peak times and allowing enough space for our customers to move easily from game to game.

When located in the Kings suite last year we were extremely busy throughout the weekend with families and gamers alike. This year was similar in terms of numbers, suggesting we had well over a thousand people in the zone over the weekend, but this year the majority were families. In fact on Saturday I would suggest that over 90% of attendees to the zone were families. The number of familiar faces that we see year to year keeps increasing and now includes their friends and families too. These familiar faces make working the weekend a real joy and its reassuring to us that they keep coming back each year for more game fun. We had our fair share of the gamer crowd stick their heads in the zone and more than ever they spoke of how they ‘Wish I’d brought my kids along.’ In that case make sure you do next year, was always our reply!

From the moment the Family Zone closed on Sunday we knew it had gone very well in every sense, and with time to reflect and soak in the feedback, it seems we were right! So often there is something that didn't quite go right and we are often self-critical but this year it all seemed to go to plan. Of course we have learned a lot yet again, and yes there will always be tweaks but nothing broke or exploded, everyone seemed really happy and they told us as much repeatedly, and everything we set out to achieve happened. In truth everything exceeded our expectations. We were busier than ever, had more new faces than previous and have had nothing but brilliant feedback from everyone that got in touch. What we can do to improve on this next year might be a bit of an issue but it’s a problem we relish.






It was busy and at times a little frantic but there was a great, relaxed atmosphere this year and it is so rewarding to see so many people returning year on year and having such a good time. We thoroughly enjoy it and are always touched by the generous comments we receive. We are hoping that by doing this we are creating the next generation of gamers and are confident that we are giving many young people and families their first glimpse of wonderful hobby and a pastime that brings people together and pushes creativity and imagination. It’s the tip of the iceberg and we are there to whet the appetite!


We have a few new blogs coming up shortly looking at different areas of the curriculum and how games can really help so keep your eyes open for those shortly and If anyone reading this has any comments or thoughts on the weekend or would like Imagination Gaming to come in to their children’s school to run a games day then please let us know.

We are always happy to hear from anyone... and look forward to talking to you soon.



Wednesday 7 May 2014

What a year's worth of games looks like!

OK, another year has gone and we’ve taken a good look at where we’ve worked, for how long and how many people we have done it all with. After trawling through the numbers we unearthed a few hidden gems...

Let's start with the big numbers...
15,000 attendees and over 2,500 hours of demonstrations!

Yep - that many! Here's how...



In total last year we have worked with and demonstrated for around 15,000 people and have spent well over 2500 hours doing so. That’s an awful lot of time and a huge number of faces! Some of these have become regulars at our events whilst others we hear from only occasionally however one thing we are confident of is that everyone who has come along or joined in has had a great time and has seen games in a different light.   
  • We have worked with more different organisations that ever before and these have included the usual schools, libraries, youth clubs, young offender institutes’s & prisons, and...
  • On top of that - this year we seem to have done yet more festivals and events outside of education than we have ever done previously.
  • The breadth of our appeal has expanded beyond formal education and has included work with the Children’s University, the University of the Third Age, Charities and the BBC.
  • Whilst the popularity of our maths & literacy based Games Club Days has continued to soar, workshop-style activities such as Mad Scientist and Zombie Diary days have been a massive hit.
  • We have used over 250 different games with people from as young as 3 to as old as we dare to ask!

A huge thank you to those that came along and said hi and to all of those companies out there that help us on our journey. These include the many game suppliers and distributors as well as the many head teachers, families and children that make all this possible.

If any of you can make it we are running the rather enormous Family Zone at this year’s UK Games Expo on the 30th May & 1st June and we are already booked in to libraries throughout the summer. We have regular monthly events at the IQ games centre in Huddersfield and this weekend we have some of you coming over there to help judge in our annual Imagination Gaming Family & Education Game Awards.

Last year was great and this year is shaping up to be even better. Hope to see you all soon and thank you all very sincerely.


Nigel & Chris.

Thursday 27 March 2014

Last Letter

Last Letter is a fast-paced twist on a classic game - and we like it!

Players: Multiplayer

Duration: 5 mins +

Recommended Ages: 8+ 

Country of Origin: USA

Created By:
Joe & Dave Herbert

Published By:
ThinkFun 

Distributed By:
Coiledspring



This is another simple Thinkfun game, sent us by Coiledspring to enter in this years Imagination Gaming Family and Education Game Awards.

With 61 convoluted designs, you won't be playing 'Snap'!
In the pack you get 61 clever and intriguing illustrations, printed separately on large cards so you can get a good view of the tons of detail on each. And, along with some other players, that's all you need.

To set up, one card is placed face up in the middle of the table and 5 are dealt to each player face down. Left over cards won't be needed I this round so can be put to one side.

The dealer looks at the face up card and calls out a word that represents something pictured on that card. This could be an object, an action or an emotion  for example but must be clearly visible on the card. The player could not however attribute a something not clearly depicted, such as giving a person a name or using a specific type of object when the picture is more general (eg saying 'ferrari' when a it could be any kind of car).

If the last word was blo'W', this could be 'W'izard...
Then all players can look at their cards. They must race to find somethin pictured on anyone of their cards that begins with the 'last letter' of the word just called out. For instance, if the last word called out was "dragoN", players race to find a word that begins with "N" - like "Nail" or "Nightmare".

As soon as a player has found an acceptable word, they call it out and at the same time play the corresponding card on top of the last one in the middle of the table. If there is a tie, the player that gets their card on top of the pile first wins, and the other player must keep their card. Of course all players can now race to find a card with something beginning with the last letter of the new word and the game continues until one player has got rid of all their cards and is the winner.

... and from wizar'D', to 'D'anger...!
Last Letter is definitely one of those games that we thought would be easier than it was, it was surprising how difficult it often was to find something to use next, even when it was staring us in the face!

The cards are really beautifully designed with a range of different styles of artwork, and could be used in lots of ways. Straight away we can see lots of opportunities to use these cards to stimulate all kinds of literacy based ideas and games, and we'll be putting Last Letter to good use very soon indeed, and happily recommend you try it too!

Last Letter is already available from our online store here...

As with all the games entered for this years awards, don't forget you can come and try them all for free with us at UK Games Expo 2014 in the Family Zone, and vote for your favourite in the Players Choice Award.


Thursday 20 March 2014

Wild Arena

Wild Arena is a card battling game where the rules change every round!

Never work with children or animals, unless they can wrestle!


Players: 2 to 4 

Duration: 15-30mins

Recommended Ages: 8+

Country of Origin: Italy

Created By: Luca Bellini

Published By: Carta Mundi

Distributed By: Raven

We came across Wild Arena at the Essen Game Fayre in 2013. Post Scriptum had taken it along with another great game by Luca Bellini - Fun Farm. Wild Arena had won the Primo Archimede Award and  as a prize Carta Mundi printed 1000 copies.

Fighting like animals!
In Wild Arena each player starts with a team of Wrestler cards numbered 1 to 12, with 4 equal teams to choose from. This means not only can you go head to head, but also have a three or even four way battle.

There are also 12 Referee cards that contain one of five different rules in the game. These are shuffled and dealt equally among the players.There are also 12 Referee cards that contain one of five different rules in the game. These are shuffled and dealt equally among the players.Each player starts with a team of Wrestler cards numbered 1 to 12, with 4 equal teams to choose from. This means not only can you go head to head, but also have a three or even four way battle.

The gameplay itself is simple with the rules stating that the most muscular player should start... that debate alone could start a fight!

The Wild Arena - so dangerous it has a cavernous crack right down the middle...
The first, or active, player plays one of his Referee cards face down in the centre of the Wild Arena (ok, table!), and then one of his wrestlers face up. Then, in a clockwise order, every other player places one of their Wrestlers face down in the arena. Once everyone has played and all wrestlers for that round are flipped face up and the winner is determined based on the rule card which is now revealed...

Referee keeps changing the rules.
Biggest - The player with the highest numbered wrestler wins

Smallest - The lowest wrestler wins.

Threes - The player with the lowest card, higher than 3 wins the round.

Sevens - The player with the highest card, but lower than 7 wins the round.

Twins - The lead player wins if anyone plays the same value wrestler as they did. Otherwise the highest wrestler wins.

As an extra "David versus Goliath" style twist, in a round where the rule is 'biggest' a '1' Wrestler beats the ' 12 '. Vice versa, when the rue is 'smallest', the ''12' beats the '1'

The winner for the round takes the rule card and places face down in their winning pile. Wrestlers used are discarded face down too. This means that players only use each Wrestler once and no-one can see what has been played.

We've played Wild Arena a few times now and think it's one of those games with more to it than at first glance. It takes a couple of goes to get the hang of and start to spot the strategies, but it is a simple game once you get going... just hard to win!

As with all the games entered in the Imagination Gaming Family and Education Game Awards 2014, you will be able to see it for yourself at this years UK Games Expo and tell us what you think in the Family Zone. We hope to see you there.

Sunday 9 March 2014

Tell Tale

As this was the week we celebrated World Book Day, what better game to have a look at than... Tell Tale 
Never judge a book by its cover , it might not even be a book!


Players: 3 to 5,  

Duration: 30-45mins,

Recommended Ages: 8+

Country of Origin: 
United Kingdom, 

Created By: 
Jack Hanauer

Published By:  
Porcupine Press,  

Distributed By: 
Porcupine Press






The gameboard shows the current round of cards available...

 Tell Tale came to us as part of this years Imagination Gaming Awards, and we loved the look of it straight away.
As you can see the box looks like a book, and it opens like one too... so if you are going to stand it like one, just be careful!

Inside you'll find an equally themed gameboard, 100 gold coins (cardboard), and a bidding board, screen and counters in matching colours for up to 5 players... and a huge stack of cards!

The idea of the game is to spend a limited amount of money in 3 rounds of secret bidding to collect the best cards to help you tell a story worth as many points as possible.

Secretly bid on which cards to add to your collection!
To start, all players take a matching screen and bidding board and 20 gold coins. Each player is also dealt 4 story cards only they can see to start their collection with. The game board is placed in the centre of the table and 8 more story cards are randomly dealt and placed into the 8 spaces on the board. The story cards are a mixture of names, places, objects, times and events from one of 5 differently coloured themes in the game - sci-fi / adventure, soap opera, crime, horror / fantasy, history and fairytale.

 Then all players use their concealed bidding areas to try and buy any or all (or none at all!) of the cards in the middle. When everyone has placed their money, the Tell Tale screens are lifted to reveal who has been successful. The player with the most money on each card takes it for their collection and pays the amount bid into the 'bank', money bid that didn't win a card  and money not used in that round is carried over to the next round of bidding. There are 3 rounds of bidding per story, so spend your wealth wisely!


Mixture of cards =  just 1pt each
Once 3 rounds of bidding have been completed it's time to tell your story and score some points. Players can use as many of their cards as they wish to tell their story, but must do strategically to try and gain the following points:
  • Stories with cards all the same colour score 3 pts per card used.
  • Stories with no more than one card of as many colours as they wish score 2 pts per card.
  • Stories of mixed quantities of different colour cards score 1 pt per card.
But whose is the best story?! Each player then secretly votes using coloured counters for the story they enjoyed the most, with the winner scoring a whopping 15 points! Everyone who voted for the best story also earns 5 points.

There is a score board around the edge of the board to keep track throughout the game, and you could play towards any points total you wish.

We've only had Tell Tale a couple of weeks now but have been able to take it to numerous events and it's gone into a couple of our games packs for schools already. We think it's a great game of strategy and imagination that supports literacy and numeracy skills, but most importantly just plain fun!

Tell Tale is now available from our website here and definitely gets our stamp of approval as a fun and innovative family game that we will be using for a long time to come. We think the IG Award judges will love it too.


One of our very first test groups at the Sheffield Day Of Games... and they couldn't leave it alone!

Monday 24 February 2014

The Imagination Gaming Family and Education Awards... 2014 !

Yes - They're back....
 And this time they will be on the blog too!

After the fantastic success of last years inaugural Imagination Gaming Family and Education Game Awards, it's time to find some new games... Exciting eh?

Even better, it's a great excuse to put this blog to good use. Yes we have the website and are on Facebook and Twitter, but we can use this blog (long left untouched!) to better tell you about the games we get sent, especially the ones that are as yet unavailable... yep - that new!

For now we'll just say that we have already had loads of games submitted throughout the last year for us to use in our work with schools and families across the UK, and we'll be telling you all about them in the coming weeks. The earlier we get submissions the more we can do with them, but ultimately all will be judged equally before ALL of them taken to UKGamesExpo in Birmingham at the end of May where everyone can try them out for free in our Imagination Gaming Family Zone.

To learn more about the IG Awards for 2014, how to submit a game and see last years winners and contenders simply visit our website.

We hope you enjoy seeing these new games and let us know what you think, and good luck to all this years entries :)

Sunday 30 October 2011

The Pantiles Games Day, Tunbridge Wells

Following discussions with The Pantiles Books Crafts & Games store in Tunbridge Wells Imagination Gaming yesterday ran a Games Day in the Corn Exchange where members of the public could come along and play a wide variety of games for free. In addition there was a bouncy castle, jugglers and a slide show.


This first games event run on the Pantiles was a great success attracting nearly a 100 people. The feedback could be summed up by one of the attendees “Really friendly it was good fun” . With nearly 30 games to play, the most popular games of the day were the award winning Villa Paletti from Zoch and Hey! That’s My Fish from Fantasy Flight.

More photo's from the day can be seen here