Category: Visual Arts

Manchester tabletop game developers working on third game

Bobby Fowler and Brenda Noiseux, best friends and founders of the Manchester-based tabletop game company Almost a Game, say they’re looking forward to reuniting and continuing their work on their third game, which has been put on hold because of Covid-19.

The duo released their first game, Wicked Apples, in 2016. It won the Tabletop Audience Choice Award at that year’s Boston Festival of Indie Games.

Wicked Apples is designed for two to five players ages 12 and up, and takes about 15 to 20 minutes to play. The gameplay is player-versus-player and involves memory, bluffing and luck.

“It’s a very cutthroat, ‘Take that!’ kind of game, where you’re actively trying to knock out your opponents,” Fowler said. “There’s a lot of player interaction.”

Each player starts with a set of four cards representing apples — three good, and one wicked — which they can look at only once. Then, the cards are placed face-down, and the players take turns sliding their cards around to their opponents. At the end of a round, each player must choose one of the “apples” in front of them to eat. Any player who eats a wicked apple is out of the game. Additionally, the good apple cards all have special actions the players must do, which result in the cards being randomly shuffled around.

“As the game goes on, the apples get more and more mixed up, and you have to really try to keep track of where everyone is pushing the different apples in each round,” Fowler said.

The game may end with one winner — the last player standing after all other players have eaten wicked apples and been eliminated — or it may end with no winner, should the last two players both eat a wicked apple in the same round.

“It’s fun that way because then, if you get the sense that you aren’t going to win, you can still say, ‘OK, so how can I take my opponent down with me so that no one will win?’” Noiseux said.

Last December, Almost a Game released its second game, Space Chase. It’s designed for one to six players ages 12 and up, and takes about 30 to 45 minutes to play. Unlike Wicked Apples, Space Chase is a cooperative game, meaning all players work together as one alliance and will collectively win or lose. The gameplay is tile-based and involves using strategy and teamwork.

The players act as a crew aboard a spaceship. Their objective is to outrun an enemy hunter who is tracking their ship. To do that, the players must lay down tiles to create a path to the escape gate. If they reach the escape gate before the hunter reaches them, they win.

“We thought space as a theme would be a good fit for the mechanics of the game,” Fowler said. “There are tiles that are wormholes, which allow you to go from one side of the board to the other; and there are suns on the board, which you have to fly by really fast; so being in space allows players to interact with the tiles and use them in many different ways.”

Fowler and Noiseux met through work and developed a friendship, bonding especially over their mutual interest in tabletop games.

“Neither of our significant others liked to play games and we did, so it became this fun thing that we could do together,” Noiseux said.

Fowler has a passion for art and studied graphic design in college. He does both the design and the artwork for his games, which he said is unusual among game developers.

“Pretty much all game designers design the game, then hire an artist to do the art,” he said. “I get a fun, unique perspective, because as I’m designing a game I’m also thinking about the art. I can make sure that the artwork is reinforcing the design, and that the design is reinforcing the artwork, and that they really come together.”

Noiseux handles the marketing, play-testing and project management, but has been taking a more active role in the creative process for the company’s third game, False Queen, which is still in the early stages of development.

“I’m excited for us to start working together more closely and collaboratively on the designs,” she said.

Almost a Game
Order Wicked Apples ($15) or Space Chase ($45) at almostagame.com.

Young artist awarded for virtual replica of Kimball Jenkins Estate

Eighteen-year-old Clark Todd was recently named the winner of the very first Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health Artrepeneur Award, given by the New Hampshire Business Committee for the Arts. The award was created to recognize artists who use technology to expand their creative practice and collaborate with other artists and organizations. Todd built a replica of the Kimball Jenkins Estate, a historic building in Concord featuring high Victorian gothic architecture from 1882, on the popular building video game Minecraft. The replica has been used as a promotional piece to raise awareness of the Estate’s fundraising campaign for a $400,000 restoration of the original slate roof of the building. See a video of the replica at vimeo.com/417753858.

What is your connection to Kimball Jenkins?

My mother has been working there for a few years. During that time I took some art classes and went to the summer camp for a year. I’ve also done volunteer work there, including role-playing Amos P. Cutting, the original architect of the house, during historic tours.

Why did you decide to do this project?

I’d said to my mother that the house might be good to build in Minecraft, and she suggested that it might be an interesting showpiece. We never thought in the beginning that it would be as useful as it is now. So, I built it for my own entertainment and as a sort of tribute to the house itself.

What inspires you about Kimball Jenkins’ architecture?

The craftsmanship, the attention to detail in the design, the floorplan, and the build quality are all incredibly good. It feels wonderful just to be in there.

Describe the process of building the replica.

My brother Glen set up the ‘realm’ that the replica is built in, and our friend Nathan got it all ready for exhibition. I did most of the actual building and all the design work. I had copies of the original floor plans, so I recreated them on the ground in-game by placing blocks. Then I dug out the foundation, copied the basement floor plan into it and built up the walls. Next I did the same thing for the first, second and attic floors. At this point I had all the interior walls, window holes and doorways, so I sort of wrapped the whole thing in brick blocks and did some detailing. Then I built the roof, which was at least as hard as working out the floor plans. I built the porches, detailed the interior and exterior and, with a bunch of small alterations, it was done. I don’t know how many hours I put into it, but I ended up working on and off for about four months.

How can people interact with the replica?

You can watch a video of a walkthrough of the build. The realm is currently private, but we’re working on making it possible for people to log in and tour it. Minecraft is three-dimensional, and you can control your in-game character from a first- or third-person perspective. You can move freely, either on the ground or through the air, and can view the exterior of the house or go through the rooms inside.

What would you like people to understand about video games and architecture?

This is difficult to answer. It is true that adults, including people connected to Kimball Jenkins who have seen the video of the replica, showed great interest and maybe gained appreciation for the game. It’s also true that kids who toured the replica during events may have had something familiar to compare the real house to when they went through it. But at the end of the day, Minecraft is just a game. The real structure is infinitely more important. I feel like that’s true with many things. It’s my opinion that the world needs less games and entertainment and more good work and tangible things.

How did it feel to be the recipient of the first Artrepeneur Award?

I was surprised and felt honored. I’ve never been given an award like this before. I’m pleased that my creation was so appreciated.

How long have you been playing Minecraft? What do you enjoy about it?

I’ve been playing about six to eight years, on and off. I mostly enjoy building houses of my own design in the game.

What other kinds of video games do you enjoy?

I’m not into many other video games. I play Minecraft mostly because I’m interested in houses. My real-life interests are greater than my interests in any game. I’m interested in vehicles, tools and machines. I like creating things. Lately I’ve been making masks to donate.

What are you doing now? What are your future plans?

I home-school, and since kindergarten I’ve been pretty much self-taught. I have many interests, and I’m not sure yet what work I’m going to do in the future.