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The Judging Panel for the Best Australian Game congratulates the designers of the following games, which have been shortlisted for the Best Australian Game Award, 2010.
The winner for 2010 has now been announced... Find out which game it is here!
| Game Name: | Caption If You Can!
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| Designer: |
Phil Harding
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| Publisher: |
Adventureland Games
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| Players: |
4-8
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| Playing time: |
30-60 minutes |
| Suitable for: |
Families (ages 12 and up), Adults
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| We shortlisted it because: |
This is a new party game, where players compete to write 'the best' caption for an image. Each round one player will select an image, and then every player will try and come up with something witty, poignant, or absurd in an effort to win the votes of the other players. The captions are read out (without identifying the author) and then the players all have one vote - every vote for your caption earns you a point! The pictures are beautiful and have a lovely range of images from the crazy or funny through to the intriguing. Our tactical hint?: when in doubt, you can always write "who f*rted!?".
(Best ordered direct from the publisher, click on the Publisher link above) |
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| Game Name: | Heads of State
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| Designer: |
Peter Hawes |
| Publisher: |
Z-Man Games / Eggert Spiele |
| Players: |
2-5 |
| Playing time: |
120 minutes |
| Suitable for: |
Families (Ages 12 and up), Adults |
| We shortlisted it because: |
You represent a noble family in 16th-18th Century Europe, and must scheme to get your family members into positions such as Dukes, Earls or even Kings of England, France, Spain and Germany. To do this you may take a regular "resources" turn collecting cards such as castles, titles and troops to help position one of your people. The alternative is to take a "treachery" turn where you remove the current occupant of a seat that you would like one of your own family to occupy. Careful collecting of resource cards and timely alliances with other players will help you to emerge as the Head of State!
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| Game Name: | Higher or Lower
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| Designer: |
Greg Middleton
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| Publisher: |
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| Players: |
3-8 (more if you play in teams)
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| Playing time: |
45-60 minutes |
| Suitable for: |
Families (Ages 10 and up), Adults |
| We shortlisted it because: |
Higher or Lower is a trivia game with a great twist. The game comes with a box full of diverse trivia questions, to which the answer is always a number: "How many beats per minute does a hedgehog heart beat?" or "In what century did Genghis Khan live?". If you get it right first time you advance three spaces up the scoring track. If you are wrong, you'll be told "higher" or "lower", and then the person to your left has a chance to answer, but for a reduced score. This continues on until someone gets the right answer. This is a clever way to ensure that even non-experts have a chance playing with the trivia sharks, because the chance of getting some of these numbers right first time is quite small, and who eventually gets to hit the answer on the head is quite unpredictable! The game is further enlivened with some Challenge rounds and Group rounds played against the clock.
Click on this link to find some retailers selling this game.
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| Game Name: | Make 'n' Break Compact
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| Designer: |
Andrew Lawson & Jack Lawson
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| Publisher: |
Ravensburger
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| Players: |
2-4 |
| Playing time: |
30 minutes |
| Suitable for: |
Families (Ages 6 and up) |
| We shortlisted it because: |
Make 'n' Break Compact is a fast-paced, exciting game where you race to arrange blocks into the structure shown on a card, and then knock the structure down to start another one. To make it more challenging, each block is a different colour and the card usually requires a specific coloured block in each position of the structure. Sometimes to make the blocks balance, you will be required build them in a precise sequence too! All this must be accomplished under the time presure of another player rolling a die and adding a running total which determines how long your turn lasts. |
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| Game Name: | Word Wrangles Game Pack
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| Designer: |
Matthew Shallvey |
| Publisher: |
Word Wrangles |
| Players: |
1-4 |
| Playing time: |
10 - 30 minutes |
| Suitable for: |
Families (Ages 8 and up), Adults |
| We shortlisted it because: |
This game pack is really 12 word games in one small box! Word Wrangles Game Pack uses letter tiles like in Scrabble, but for most of the games you play these letter tiles on your own personal game board to form words. Different games will see you compete to link two letters on either side of your board, or race to form different cross-word layouts, or to spot a word amongst the jumble in the middle. There are also several games that can be played solitaire, and most of the games feel a bit like Scrabble crossed with a puzzle, but with time pressure introduced by opponents and a sandtimer. A special feature of these games is that they have a built in handicapping system so that people with different abilities can compete, even putting children on a level playing field with adults.
(Best ordered direct from the publisher, click on the Publisher link above) |
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