Gaming in 2021 – Week 11: Trick Shot

This week covers a game with an emoji in the name as well as a solo trick-taking game. Some weirdness this week, but it’s worth taking a look.

This article references the time between March 8th and March 14th, 2021.

Plays

Sam and I did some more Gin Rummy, Qwixx, and Qwixx Bonus this week. All solid games, even if she did completely destroy me in Gin Rummy 104 to 0.

We learned and played Patchwork Doodle. I can see a lot of parallels between this and Second Chance. It’s a good game, and I enjoyed the play, but I think that I prefer Second Chance. The abilities in Patchwork Doodle are nice though and offer up more flexibility for the players.

I also did a play of For Northwood, a solo trick-taking game that has an online implementation. It’s quite clever and has some really solid play. I enjoyed it and look forward to the game being developed more. If you want to learn more about it, you can see more here.

Acquisitions

I got my copy of Bullet♥︎ in the mail. I’m super excited to play it and I look forward to trying the solo modes in the game. I went for the deluxe edition, and the wooden bullet tokens are chunky and nice. I’m going to be working on some deluxe bags to make available to folks that are a little nicer than the ones that come in the game.

There have been a lot of social media posts about one aspect of this game, and I’d like to weigh in a little. One of the playtesters is a known abuser and has harmed a number of people, and they were included in the playtest credits. Level 99 has made a statement, but I wanted to cover some of the good aspects of the game. The game features an all-female cast without any salacious art. The characters are all different and fun to play. The game offers cooperative, competitive, and solo modes of play and works well for a variety of playgroups. I do not want to diminish the bad that one person has done, but they had a very limited role in this game and were only involved before the abuse was exposed. I want to recognize the bad, but also celebrate the good that is done in this game.

Other

We have reopened the Etsy store. I want to get a few things added to the store, including my Santa Monica insert and my accessories for The Crew. I also want to know if there are other games out there that people want inserts or accessories designed for. Maybe better pieces for a game. If you have something you’d like to chat about, please reach out.