Category: GARPA

07/5/13

GARPA 22 – GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory

Authors: Dan Pinkham and Jim Zabek

The boys here at GARPA took some time this week to celebrate 4th of July here in the US. Even with all the remembrances, parades, cookouts, and fireworks we are able to bring you an abbreviated version of GARPA (though LongBlade has managed to sneak in a couple of contributions of his own). Join us in two weeks when we are back with the full column.

Boardgames

Battle Merchants by Minion Games

$5,250 of a $30,000 goal funding ending August 5th

GARPA 22 Battle MerchantsWe all love a good game set in a fantasy world, the good races of dwarves, elves etc. fighting the orcs, goblins, and other evil creatures.  While this theme has been presented in many different ways it is usually entertaining and we can’t seem to get enough of it.  However, when a game comes along that takes these fantasy themes and incorporates them in a unique way we tend to take notice.  Enter Battle Merchants, set in a fantasy world that is embroiled in the good vs. evil conflict.  Instead of controlling one of the sides you are in charge making and selling weapons to the warring factions.  A kind of fantasy arms dealer or “merchant of death” if you will.

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06/21/13

GARPA 21 – GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory

GARPA #21 – Dan Pinkham and Lloyd Sabin

GARPA is now 21 … old enough to drink here in the US. These online tech articles grow up so fast. Make sure before you take GARPA out to hoist a few that there is a designated driver. And here take this … no no, shut up and just take it, you never know when you’re going to need it. Better safe than sorry I say, and I’ve seen GARPA’s taste in women. Just hang on to it and if needed GARPA will let you know, trust me.

And now … the best in crowd-sourced PC, board, miniature, and card games. You know, to pass the time until you go out drinking and carousing with a more mature (and on the hunt) GARPA.

PC Games

Data Dealer by Cuteacute

$560.00 pledged of $50,000.00 goal, funding ends Thursday, July 11.

Yes Cuteacute is a terrible name for a studio, I agree. But the developers are Austrian so that explains it and gives us a good reason not to mess with them further.

GARPA21-DataDealerOn any ordinary day, the idea of Data Dealer would be a great one: run your own social network and collect millions of online profiles and other bits of potentially secret information. Note that Data Dealer does not place the player in any sort of governmental role…you’re in this just for the thrill of learning millions of tiny little secrets and finding millions of virtually closeted-skeletons. And of course monetary profit! Millions of dollars of monetary profit!

Data Dealer is browser-based and there is a beta version available right now at the appropriately named www.datadealer.com. The developers have been working feverishly to get the game in the state it’s currently in…the Kickstarter campaign was started to get the game in a final state and make it available to as many people as possible.

Take the role of a positively shady information age tycoon and run every kind of online company you can think of: mobile apps, dating sites, search engines and social media are all available to you. But those components are just the beginning.
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06/7/13

GARPA 20 – GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory

Authors: Dan Pinkham and Lloyd Sabin

Ladies and gentlemen, and boys and girls of all ages…welcome to the 20th edition of GARPA!  Who would have thunk we would have stuck around for so long?  In celebration of this milestone we bring you … more of the same. Honestly what else could we bring you? As always, comments and suggestions are always welcomed and we hope you enjoy this week’s great gaggle of gaming goodness. And if you’re a developer or publisher working on a crowd-funded project, please feel free to contact us and let us know about it.

 Tabletop Games

Frontline General: Spearpoint 1943 Eastern Front by Collins Epic Wargames

$3,778 of a $16,000 goal funding ending July 1st

GARPA 20 1 frontline general

Our informants here at GARPA tipped us off to this game which is the latest in the Spearpoint 1943 series from Collins Epic Wargames.  We even landed an exclusive intro to the game straight from Byron Collins himself.

“Heavy Tiger and Panther tanks thunder their way east to face T-34s, KV-1s, and the aircraft, artillery, and infantry that comprise the Red Army. Messerschmitt Bf-109s scream overhead and lock sights with Yak-9Bs, La-5FNs, and the infamous IL-2M3 “flying tanks”. Self-Propelled guns and fixed artillery fire countless shells miles away into the chaos of frontline battle. Waves of Soviet infantry charge forward to push back the Germans, many to their deaths.
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05/27/13

GARPA 19 – GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory

Back by popular demand, the boys from GARPA are hard at it again bringing you all the crowd funding projects to empty your wallets. While the working conditions might not be the best and we are still waiting on that that funding grant from management, we still think we have a pretty cool job finding all sorts of great games and projects for you, our cherished readers. And now while we wipe the brown off our noses, enjoy the column!

Board Games and Miniatures

CCNormandy-1(RBM)

Enemy Coast Ahead: The Dambuster Raid by GMT Games

P500 – Not yet – Orders to Date: 240

In honor of Mayviation we bring you another aviation-themed boardgame in the throes of development. Enemy Coast Ahead covers the British 617 Squadron and their WWII mission, Operation Chastise. Operation Chastise was aimed at destroying three German dams that contained important reservoirs used by German industry to produce much of its war material. The task was never an easy one and even forced the creation of a special “bouncing bomb” to help the munitions reach their intended targets. Now GMT brings us a game that puts you in the shoes of the “Dambusters.”
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05/10/13

GARPA 18 – GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory

GARPA #18

Authors: Dan Pinkham and Lloyd Sabin

May 10, 2013

Spring is well under way even though we are still freezing are butts off here in the northeast at night. Which makes for a good excuse for gaming instead of being outside. Also there’s a plague of locusts coming to the region as well. You definitely don’t want to be outside then. See, we here at GARPA not only alert you to the best new crowd funded games coming to your desktop and PC…we also give you plenty of excuses for not going outside and reserving more time for gaming. Who loves you?

PC Games

Son of Nor by StillAlive Studios

$34,121 pledged of $150,000, funding ends at 5:17am on Thursday, May 30

Kickstarter18SonOfNor

Son of Nor is planned as a 3rd-person, fantasy-themed ARPG that will be playable in either single- or multiplayer coop mod, with up to four players cooperating online or through a split screen. The game takes place in the desert-world of Noshrac (not Horshack) where the player is thrown into conflict against desert-dwelling beasts and an army of warriors called Sarahul. To be the best fighter possible, the player will need to explore the game world and take advantage of strategically placed temples and avoid traps in order to advance…in other words, solve puzzles to improve magical combat abilities.
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