This one has all the stuff in it that kids love- poos, wees and vomit! Seriously, it’s a fabulous romp through digestion and food, and another great collaboration with Romina Marinkovich of Moa Hunt fame.

More info at the IQ Ideas site.

It appears very simple: lay out the lovely wooden tiles in a grid, start peeking at them and moving them around, and yell “Happy Sheep” when you think you know where four tiles in a group that are all black or all white.

Except it’s astonishing how you can be wrong and there’s lots of laughter and good-natured ribbing!

Simple to learn but hard to master, surprising amount of strategy, and it plays so quickly that you tend to have quite a few games in a row.

For 2-4 players and aimed at 6 to adult, it also comes with rules for a very basic game for 3 and ups. More info at www.happysheepgame.co.nz.

You’re poised on the emerald pitch at Eden Park for the Final of Rugby World Cup 2011. It’s the dying moments of the game. The score is deadlocked and the crowd is screaming. The ball is passed out to the back line: the outcome hinges on what you do next!

Five Men Standing is the official game of Rugby World Cup 2011. It’s for both lovers of the glorious Game, and those who have never held a Rugby ball in their hands. Fast paced, competitive, and with no sissy turn taking, this is a game of frantic action and fun!

The Five Men Standing game comes complete with two Country Team packs (which can also be purchased separately), rules, scoring tokens, a combo ranking chart, a draw sheet and felt bag.

You can find out more at the official Five Men Standing website,

And note that they’ve a prototype playtesting session on Saturday at 3pm, so if you’ve got a game in development it’s a great opportunity to put it in front people who will give you incisive feedback.

Here’s the spiel, directly from the Wellcon folk themselves:

This year we are located at:
Student Common room, Level 1,
Student Service Trust Building1,
Massey University, Entrance E,
Tasman Street, Wellington

There is plenty of parking right out front of the Tussock bar and cafe which is the ground floor of the Student Service Trust Building, so we strongly advice that you enter from the Tasman Street side unless you are taking public transport.

If you are taking public transport the number 10 bus is the best. It does not run directly down Tasman street, so you can attempt to walk through Massey from the other side or get off near the top of Tasman street and walk to Entrance E or simply walk from Adelaide Road where a bunch of buses such as the number 1 bus travel.
http://www.metlink.org.nz/timetables/bus/010

Food will be available on site over lunch each day (12 – 2 approx). Drink and snacks will be available for the duration of the convention from us or from a bank of vending machines. We will also take prepaid orders (approx $10) for dinner each night. You are welcome to bring your own food to the venue. Food and drink don’t mix with board games, so please don’t eat or drink at the game tables. We have a special breakoutroom for eating.

There will be a number of features:
Trading session (Sunday 12pm): Bring along those unwanted games
Prototype play-test (Saturday 3pm): Open to anyone keen to play or demo prototype games, be sure to bring your latest creation.
Pub quiz (Saturday 7.30pm): Test your gaming and general knowledge in a 30 minute quick fire quiz.
Family session (Sunday 2.30pm): Especially for families with kids ages 5 -10 (discounted admission)

Published designers will be on site during the weekend, as will some of your favourite vendors. We will have more volunteers this year to organise and teach games. This is all in addition to our excellent game library crammed full of gaming goodness.

While stocks last we will be giving away our commemorative dice for free to any first time attendees and anyone that travels from outside of the lower north island. Bring a friend that hasn’t been before and you also receive a free dice. Otherwise you can pick up your dice for $3 each (limit 5).

The Admission fee is $5 a day flat rate with discounts for families. This is effectively nothing. You can’t go to a movie for $5, a 12 year can’t satisfy their hunger at McDonalds for $5, you can’t hire rollerblades or bikes for $5. Nether can you rent a new release video, buy a magazine, or even drive up the coast for $5. It’s scandelous, it’s outrageous, it’s incredibly cheap.

Of course some might say you can sit at home playing games with your mates all day for nothing. But the fact is most of us won’t and can’t and most of us want to play something we don’t already have. You get to immerse yourself in games … if you want.

And really importantly there are prizes galore. Your expected value of prizes is likely to exceed your entry fee, meaning that statistically WE ARE PAYING YOU TO COME AND PLAY GAMES. We have Pixelpark and Seriouslyboard both on board (drum roll please), and we hope to have a presence from our Friendly Local Game Stores too.

To fast track your registration you will want to register by sending an email to our special registration address wellycon2011@gmail.com , with your home town, names of the people attending, which previous Wellycons you have attended and your Boardgamegeek user id if are a member. This will ensure you avoid the queues and can get into gaming as quickly as possible.

We are ready and rearing to go for a fantastic weekend of gaming. Check out the schedule above and be ready for prizes, personalities and plenty of Pandemic. Bring some friends and some games and we’ll see you there.

Full program
Saturday
9am Setup
10am Registration
2pm Tournament
3pm Prototype demo and play test session
5pm Prize giving
6.30pm Pizza dinner (orders confirmed by 5.15pm)
7.30pm Pub quiz

Sunday
10am Registration
12pm Trading
2.30pm Family session
5pm Prize giving

There are 3 categories
- New Game of the Year 2011 (for games released between 1 Jan 2010 & 31 May 2011)
- Teachers Choice 2011 (open to all games)
- Children’s Choice 2011 (open to all games)

Entries close 8th July 2011. Contact david@edugames.co.nz for entry forms.

Edugames are the creators of Kiwi Quiz, Time Zone, Brit Quiz, and Discover NZ. The new Māori language game is a translation of Discover NZ. It is designed to be used as a tool to promote Te Reo Māori in our schools and homes.  It can be used alone or in parallel with the English version.  The translation has been completed and checked by professional translators at the Department of Internal Affairs.

Kiwi Quiz and Discover NZ are already popular games in schools and with families – so Discover NZ – Mōkihi Haere is a welcome addition.

Discover NZ is a unique New Zealand game with
- 100 cards and 400 questions – ALL about New Zealand
- Beautiful photos of New Zealand
- Good general knowledge questions
- Questions about history, geography, famous people, politics, places, animals, fauna, Māori, literature, music etc
- Questions set at 4 different levels so that all ages can play together, or a specific question can be chosen to suit the age and ability of specific classes
- Question 1 on each card is aimed at an 8 yr old getting about 50% correct, Q2 is aimed at a 12 yr old getting 50% right, Q3 is aimed at teenagers/adults, Q4 is a more challenging adult question
- Questions and answers often include extra information to stimulate interest and enhance general knowledge

Discover NZ – Mōkihi Haere is available directly from Edugames

Andrew Baker spoke to Murray Deaker on Newstalk ZB last night about the game, there’s an upcoming Otago Daily Times article and Minty Hunter and Bek Farr chatted to Kerri Bowling of the Wairarapa Midweek in front-page coverage:

As the world counts down to the 2011 Rugby World Cup, a Carterton couple is hoping to bring some of the action into homes. Kerri Bowling reports.

Minty Hunter and Bek Farr have teamed up with Andrew Baker, from Hawke’s Bay company IQ Ideas, to co-produce and co-invent a board game called Five Men Standing – the official game of the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

Both have worked on about 15 different board games during the last few years, but this is their first 50/50 production.

A self-confessed board game geek, Minty grew up playing games such as Dungeons and Dragon, while Bek has preferred card games and has fond memories of playing canasta or 500 during school breaks.

The pair came up with the concept for the game – which Minty describes as a combination of Yahtzee and Pass the Pigs “but a lot faster” – about six months ago, and he says they have been working “like the clappers” to be ready for Christmas.

So how do you play? Each player has a five-man rugby team which they must throw on a table. The figures bounce around and will land in one of four stances – standing (best), on their side, on their back or face down (out of play – worst). Players can re-roll any which are not on their back, always trying for the best combination. At any stage a player can yell out “stop”, and combos are compared.

Among the challenges Bek faced was designing the miniature figurines.

“I spent many nights in front of the TV trying to make male figures, and getting the balance right. I had to make sure that they landed on the feet a certain percentage of the time, while still making it the hardest stance to achieve,” she says.

Each game set includes figurines representing the teams that will compete at the World Cup tournament, with information on each.

There is also a wall chart of the draws to enable people to follow their teams’ progress during the tournament.

Extra team packs can be bought separately.

What makes a good game? According to Minty, it is one that is simple to learn, involves strategy and some luck, and is fun for both children and adults- and the pair are hoping their new game sails straight between the uprights.

Wairarapa Midweek, December 7, 2010

See http://nzgames.org/nzga-awards/

Happy Sheep’s a fast, fun game of memory, deduction and bluffing. You can find out more about it here and grab a sneak peak at the graphics and rules.