Board games: what is played in IT offices this year

Hello!
It so happened that I’m here all year telling you about the work of the Mosigra from the inside, and then in early December I begin to show the games themselves. I know you are already looking for gifts. So, go inside for games and a couple of stories. About how not to choose gifts to IT-specialists, engineering idea with Tetris, IT-girls and gifts to them, fun submariner and a lot of other things.

Well, for the traditional already habraskidkoy , of course. And then - tell us about your favorite desktop in the comments and see what other haberdashers advise.
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I'll start with the general things about the choice of a gift

It is difficult for an IT specialist to make a good gift. Even very difficult . It is useless to give something according to a hobby - most likely, everything is definitely there, and any piece chosen without a deep knowledge of the topic is a failure. It's like giving a keyboard (you can only choose these things yourself). Ordinary "souvenirs" are evaluated for practical reasons - and often fly to the far corner of the cabinet, because nafig not needed. There are already some useful things, because IT has good earnings (and there is simply no household need), plus we can clearly think out what needs to be and when. In the end, it turns out that you can give only those things that really please. That is, not the object itself as a collection of atoms, but the emotion associated with the gift.

In our market, this understanding only develops (or simply we are slowly reaching it). The most expensive thing we are willing to pay for is, in fact, great memories. Experiences New feelings. For example, you can arrange something crazy or just go somewhere. Last year, one person was greatly helped by an idea with a cart hunt in a supermarket: you need to go to the store with the birthday boy and find the very first abandoned cart near the ticket office. And to buy everything that is in it without exception - and vodka, and women's magazine, and strange moldy cheese. So, such “constructed” gifts-emotions are very difficult to choose and make - but they are completely worth it. A simpler option is communication emotions. We also sell them in boxes with board games.

Nastolki is such a communication protocol. The more social networks develop, the greater the need for communication in real life, the more popular the desktop.

Everything, now enough lyrics. Let's go see what is interesting.

Beehive: new insects to increase combinatorial complexity

A long time ago a great strategy with insects came out - the Hive. The game is very simple in concept: your hive suddenly came into contact with the opponent's hive. Now you need to go to visit and surround the enemy queen. The game resembles what happened once in Dungeon Keeper after accidentally punching a wall against a nearby player. So, the game, I repeat, was excellent. Everyone liked to command the ants, make grasshopper moves, and slowly crawl the bugs. But very quickly a big-big lack of a mat-model came to light - the game was extremely simply calculated by a full brute force method. Obviously win-win strategies appeared (by the way, the only world-wide popular game, which so far has been solved only for particular cases on current computing resources, is Go).

The creator of the Hive thought and decided to increase the calculated complexity of the game. For this there were two additions: "Mosquito" and "Ladybug", which gave new insects. Great, it worked out - and massive online tournaments went, in which live people began to play, not bots. But, apparently (this is my guess), one of the participants nevertheless wrote the correct mechanics using the method of branches and boundaries or annealing simulation, as a result of which another stroke was needed to complicate analytics of the situation on the table without a developed gaming intuition. So there was the last addition - "Mokritsa".

We threw the rules on the localization at the time of their appearance in the beta version, and even managed to find one bug on the test. It was fun. The add-ons themselves, in the form of separate insects for completing the boxes, came from abroad only the other day, and now you can simply get them and strengthen the basic set. Yes! And Hive has one very unusual feature. For some reason, he fascinates IT-girls just on the spot. What, generally speaking, from the strategy of insects do not expect. So if you do not know what to give - take a look .

How to transfer Tetris to the real world

It turned out - the problem is solved elegantly and simply. You need to take Dzhengu (just such a wooden tower) and just replace the bars with the figures from Tetris. But they cut off the edges a little, because the maximum length of the figure is 3 cells. And build a tower already from them. Unstable and many holes? Just add two-cell sticks and small corners of three blocks. Play with the composition - and here you have on the table the finished game.

Here's a thing turned out

Generally, the guys from Hasbro, who are engaged in localization of Djenga, are worthy of respect: they use the mechanics of 1983 and manage to port it so beautifully to various features (including tablet apps) that it takes envy. So, this Genga Tetris now reached Russia. True, because of the price they buy it, mainly in Moscow.

Pro space and curve modular code

By the Day of Astronautics, we rolled out the release of the European megahit - Galaxy Trucker or " Space truckers ". This is an amazingly cool game that pleases even those who have been able to see, straight to the point of madness. Most importantly, you are collecting a spacecraft. From all that you find at hand. You get it crooked, like a code on crutches before an early deadline. And on this trough you fly to overcome difficulties on the outskirts of the galaxy. Then the asteroids will fall into the open gateway, the pirates will fly, and you have no gun batteries - and so on. Pleases without measure. If you love space and are looking for a gift to your son - do not pinch, take the box. Although she is healthy (that is, more expensive than the average game), but it is completely worth it. Well, also look at yourself if there are a couple of enthusiastic friends.

Ship with bugs

By the way, after this topic with a review on our game stores, it became clearly clear who reads Habr.

Manhattan Project

It was our unfinished last year. As a result, we were so happy about the release of this game about nuclear research on the shelves, that we almost squeezed a newsletter with the intriguing theme of “57 nuclear explosions in Russia and 11 in Moscow”. With the test, which began with the plot part, as in "War of the Worlds". Fortunately, we had time to slow down the process and change it to a more relaxed one, considering the size of the base, I think we would definitely raise a local panic in this way. As for the game, the Project is probably one of the most difficult chances to understand the rules from the first time without prompts. We need to play for the nuclear weapons development team and compete with similar colleagues from other countries. Training of engineers, construction of mines, ore dressing, first reactors, tests, loading into bombers, espionage, air raids on universities and enemy factories are all inside.

Box

Steam torpedo

Two more localization with history. The first game - “ Raise the periscope! ” - about submarines and steampunk. Just a tactical duel between two boats, deep in the ocean, is quite complicated. You control the team, which is located in the compartments and uses all the equipment of the submarines. The translation of the rules was checked by a submariner who advised to remove the card about the Gatling cannon, explaining in detail that the structure under water would not shoot in the figure. That is, the plot about the death of 90% of the Earth’s population due to Thelina’s gas, moving the focus of military operations to the seas and other joys in this “documentary game” did not bother him, but specifically the gun ñ yes. By the way, it evokes respect: what I understood - I corrected it clearly, without questions and with justification.

In the same game, I tested the tightness of the heat shrinkage: the production guys made versions with different numbers of layers, and I consistently threw the game into the aquarium to photograph a beautiful splash. It turned out that a good heat shrinkage in one layer withstands about 20 impacts on the water from a meter. Then I do not know - I trained to throw, and took off without polyethylene already.

Simple games

This year, our audience has captured older people. Just when you already know how to write an SMS on a phone or register with Vkontakte, but you still don’t understand why you need half the buttons on the remote from a TV or air conditioner. The ideal game in the gift segment for parents was always Jenga, Bum was selling less often. Now we have found a perfectly perfect option - this is a “ spoiled phone ”. The game is extremely popular among all ages. And here its utmost simplicity and notorious readiness of all components determined the success of those who find it difficult to understand the new.

The essence is this: you write the word in a notebook (for example, “Sombrero”), transfer it to your neighbor, he draws the word (you get a hat), the next player writes a guess to the picture (hat), the next one draws (this time - a hat on the head), the next one guesses again - for example, he writes "cowboy." The task is to bring the word without distortion. So, first of all, the principle is very clear. Secondly, everything is included, including notebooks with a special surface for washable markers. Thirdly, literally every component is provided with a contextual “tooltip”. For example: “Look at the picture on the previous page and draw it here.” Everything is perfectly visually zoned. In general, for me this is one of the examples of the interface in reality, which is very well understood.

Here is this game

More tips in bulk

The Jackal is traditionally popular - a strategy originally from Moscow State University-70. This year a new edition was released immediately with the addition in the box.
Very, very much I advise “ Resistance ” - a psychologically deductive game on the Mafia engine. But without emotion, only with cold logic.
Imaginarium . Famous Russian crowd project. Now there is a version with 3D-pictures, the other day will go on sale.
I remind you about Startup - in general an IT game with its own atmosphere.
Well, I can not help but advise your favorite classic " Kukhandel " with pencil drawings.
Children recommend the “ Call of the Jungle ” about completely stubborn painted animals, logic and bluff. Just look at the elephant, here, put:

That you have not seen a wild boar

Yes! We also prepared a great New Year's surprise - a bomb game. But more about that later.

A discount

Speak the password " Habrahabr " in the store or write in a note when ordering online. There will be a small nice discount. Valid until December 20 in Mosigre in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kiev, Minsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg, Ufa, Chita, Izhevsk, Krasnodar, Kaluga, Zelenograd, Novokuznetsk, Novosibirsk, Stavropol, Yaroslavl, Astrakhan, Yakutsk, Donetsk, Kazan, Orel Omsk, Ulan-Ude, Ivanovo, Stupino, Kursk, Sochi, Vladivostok, Surgut and even in far-away Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.