1/16/10

What better way to start off the year - than with our first Tacticum Tournament! 

Not only will we be there with the whole show setup, we will also be the chess sponsor for the convention. 

Convention details are at http://www.siegeofaugusta.com/

6/10/09

6/22 - it was still unseasonably hot Saturday, but there was a good turn out.  The biggest win for the weekend was a full field test of all of the current GI booth and exhibit materials.  We will definitely need a better way to anchor the booth when it is windy (it didn't blow over, but the potential was there!).

One lucky young man's parent bought a set of ALL3 GAMES for his birthday this week!

The GI is going to a local event at Veterans Park- our first Outdoor Event!  I'll be able to put up everything; the Booth, the Crate, Giant Chess and Usurper.  The event is June 20th at Veterans Park off Valleydale road from 10:00 - 2:00. 

 If you are in the area please stop by and visit.  This is a FREE event.

6/16/09
The Hoover Public Library today received the gift of games from the Gamealogical institute.  Dodger Collingwood, the institute's man-at-large, was on hand to present the games to some of the Circulation staff in the the Children and Teens departments.  Pictured here are Laura and Wendy, while Shawna stepped in to use the camera.

 (Laura, "Dodger", Wendy)

The games(r to l); Scarabs & Scorpions (a family dice game) and Tacticum (a strategy game of roman centurions) will be available for use in a few days.  Also shown are some instruction cards for "Hourglass", a quick paced card game that can be played with a standard deck of cards.

4/28 (edited 5/25)
We met the good folks from PlayOnCon (POC) while attending ImagiCon this year.  They were impressed with our games and the whole feel of our exhibit.

What are we doing at POC2?

• Giant Chess on the patio <- to much rain this weekend so it was not set up.
  
• The GI Triathlon <- great success, see below.
  
• Demos of all our Games <- had sales for all 3 games!
  

Also, for this Con the Institute will be hosting 2 Round Table discussion/workshops.

• Games and Elementary School learning objectives
• Games: a sense of wonder and discovery 

Overall, attendance was not too high for this Con.  I'm not sure what the expected target was.  However, I'm not sure that there was much more room available for gaming.  But there was plenty of game playing! 

We successfully field tested our portable-exhibit/store-crate-thing.  This was a crate modified so that I could keep everything with me and move from event room to event room.  (in this pic I have just set up for the Saturday gaming session).  More mods needed.

 I was able to make some new friends and contacts to help further GI opportunities. 

During the workshops I meet Kathryn from Nexuscon and Paula who provided some great experiences with teaching through games with their own children. 

GI TRIATHLON: PlayOn Con 2009 winner - Team Sparr and Michelle!  They each recieved a Virulant! game and the right to say "nany-nany-bo-ho" to the winners from the Sunday round Team Frank-n-Kat.

3/30
John Crimi and Andrew Hill combined forces to successfully complete the Great Imagicon Gamealogical Institute Treasure Hunt.  Their entry was the winning submission. Well done!

Here they are with the prize, the #001 issue of Tacticum, and one of the clues from the puzzle. (click on picture to enlarge)

3/24 - Department of Science

While some of the faculty have been involved in the extraction of ancient amusements from distant civilizations our Science department has been sequestered in the Biology lab; carefully working with the very small world of spores and molds!  Why is this good for you?  In a word – Virulant!

Just as any other member of the Institute’s faulty, our scientist are well versed in Gamealogical principles and captured a wonderful little game of light strategy and territory acquisition called Virulant!

Virulant! Will first be revealed at the ImagiCon convention and then added to our on-line offerings.  So if you won’t be in Birmingham, Alabama the weekend of March 27th, check back here next week.

3/5/09
From the workshops. 

Some of the Institute's carpenters are helpingin the Convention effort by building the giant chess set.  Here are some pictures of work in progress...

 Black King without base...

8/28
While we have been busy following the exploits of the Restoration work for Scarabs & Scorpions, the history department has been quietly working through the small but eclectic library of tomes supplied to them from the estate of the Institutes benefactor, Mr. Jouer.

A picture with a note attached stating simply "appears to be some type of roman officer candidate training tool" was place on my desk this morning.  I just had to share the news!  Obviously I am expecting a more detailed report very soon. 

7/15 
Professor Binder has shared some of her successes in her latest departmental memorandum.  The Al Uqsar scrolls are a group of 4 scrolls that were delivered with some artifacts by Mister Collingwood a few weeks ago.  Scroll #3 was immediately accessible and translated providing us with the Scarabs and Scorpions game.  

Just this week Scroll #2 was had been treated long enough to be opened.  Initial research indicates it has a representation of a newly discovered game board!