PLAAY Connect 09.29.22
Another month has slipped past, and we're headed toward the Holidays! Here's the latest scoop from PLAAY HQ...
We’re LIVE On-Location in Hartford, CT 10.15.22—Hoops and MORE!
We're excited to get back on the road, headed to the east coast for some live, in-person sports game fun! We're reviving two sports traditions in one afternoon: first, we'll close out the baseball season in our traditional (and revived, post-COVID) Fall Classic Pre-PLAAY with History Maker Baseball Express! Then we'll revive a 30-year Hartford sports tradition of hosting a Boston Celtics game (on the tabletop, of course, with the forthcoming full-play version of our basketball game). Read more HERE...
Binge Week Soccer was Big Fun!
Big thanks to the community for so enthusiastically kicking off the global grip of football mania that IS the World Cup! We ran out of PLAAY mats mid-week, but more are on the way. You can sign up HERE to be notified by e-mail when they get here, it shouldn’t be more than a couple of weeks.
Roller Rumble Update, Update!
We've been getting a lot of e-mails about when/if our re-formatted roller derby game (same game, different look!) will be making its return to PLAAY NOW. It's happening--sometime in October! (A couple of things preclude us from naming a specific date, sorry!) After mulling over numerous design ideas, we elected to stick with a more traditional, retro-derby look and feel for the game. We revealed the basic game box design in our 09.29.22 stream, take a look.
NOW AVAILABLE: 2021-22 Pro Season for Highlight Maker Hoops!
Seems like we were just rolling through the NBA playoffs, and now it's time to tip off again! These cards were JUST released (09.29.22), you get all 30 pro teams, almost 400 players and coaches plus nearly 100 referee cards, just $33 postage-paid! Get more information here…
Card Sets COMING SOON...
• 2021-22 Pro Season for Hockey Blast: Once again we've co-opted the high-level hockey knowledge of pro scout and PLAAY gamer Rob Gallamore to out together the ratings for this set, which is presented in vibrant team colors in a hockey-themed look. After spending the last few years tinkering with various ways to incorporate traded players, we're going back to our original approach of presenting the cards in an "end of season" format. That means it's a more streamlined card set and--better yet--allows us also to trim back the price (imagine THAT in these inflationary times, right?) from $49 to $39. Available the week of 10.10.22!
Once the hockey set is out, we'll set up our annual "Commissioner's Surprise" Hockey Blast Tournament, where ANY team can be crowned champion! We'll stay with our tried-and-trie format: we'll draw team logos out of a hat to pair up the first round, kick off the tournament with a live-streamed game using the new cards, and then we'll solicit community members to play out the games, round-by-round. Stay tuned for more information, coming soon.
• 64-team College Hoops PLAAY Down: A big hit at this summer's PLAAY-Dot-CON, the College Hoops PLAAY-Down presents an "alternate universe" for the iconic NCAA "March Madness" tournament. Experience the unpredictability and drama that's the hallmark of "March Madness" in a "blue sky" context that delivers! HMH's fast game time makes this an eminently do-able tabletop project. You get 64 fictional college teams, from Atlantic Shore University to Zacatecas College of California, each tournament-ready in official school colors and logos. (We revealed SOME of the cards during our 09.29.22 stream--take a look!) High replay value: you could hold ten tournaments with this set and have ten different champions! Official release will be the week of 10.24.22.
• 2023 Pro National Golf: We update our fictional golf tour every two years, and--it's almost time! Many thanks to international golf aficianado Christian Reismann who has once again provided the narrative for the next chapter of PNG! Watch the website for a wait-list, and we'll have a get-to-know-the-PNG stream coming up in a few weeks! Our target timeframe for release of this set is the week of 11.14.22.
• History Maker Baseball XL Game Book: We had to hold back production of the HMB "Big Book" while we waited for some upgrades to our print equipment, which were just completed. The XL book measures 8.5" x 11" compared to the standard 8.5" x 7". The baseball season is fast running out, and we'd like to make it available before the Hot Stove League happens, so we're setting an ambitious availability date of the week of 10.20.22.
• What about the new Pro Season cards for History Maker Golf? The arrival of the alternate pro tour(s) has the golf world buzzing, so we’re taking sort of a wait-and-see attitude about what to do next! Stay tuned…
UPCOMING VIDEO ACTIVITY...
• 10.06.22 College Hoops PLAAY-Down Preview: we’ll reveal the schools, colors, mascots, logos and players for our upcoming fictional hoops smorgasbord! Then, we’ll put two of these teams on the game table for some Highlight Maker Hoops fun!
• 10.13.22 Fall Classic Pre-PLAAY Divisional games: We’ll decide the ALCS and NLCS teams for our Hartford event in this History Maker Baseball Express stream,
• 10.20.22 Commissioner's Surprise Hockey Blast Bracket Draw (and opening game): Just like in past year’s, we’ll put all the team logos in a hat and draw match-ups COMPLETELY at random! With the addition of the Seattle franchise, the league now has an even number of teams again—exactly 32! So, no more first-round byes! We’ll Drop-the-Puck on the tournament with the opening-round game for our home-town Colorado squad!
• 10.27.22 All Hallow's Eve/Pro National Golf Preview: Plans are still up in the air on the EXACT format/contents of this stream, but we know it’ll feature the new fictional golf set. Check back soon!
ViDEO ACTiViTY you may have missed...
• Soccer Blast World Cup Quick-PLAAY and Championship Game Live Streams: The quick-PLAAY package is free and lets you conduct the entire World Cup in the space of about a half an hour! The first stream shows you how to do it, and the second stream is the full-play culmination of the quick-play presentation. Fun stuff!
• Course Collection EIGHTEEN Deep Dive: introduction to the newest course collection for History Maker Golf, along with insights and designer notes.
• 2022 Football America Kickoff: two of this year's expected Football America contenders, Orlando and Memphis, kick off the new season (in SS "express").
• Sam's "Expert" Planet Flipper Demo: The latest PLAAY NOW game gets expert play tips from designer Sam Avallone!
FREE STUFF...
• If you haven't yet downloaded the 2022 World Cup Quick-PLAAY package, here it is. You get team cards for each of the 32 qualifying teams and twelve non-qualifiers, along with an easy-to-use scoresheet/schedule and the Soccer Blast "Instant Results" grid.
• Our Soccer Blast World Cup BONUS Content download includes John Bergeron's real-life referee cards for this year's cup along with an expanded penalty kick chart, and more!
• We've updated the 2021-22 Championship Series cards for both Hockey Blast and Highlight Maker Hoops to include the official PLAAY cards. Many thanks to Rob Gallamore (hockey) and Travis Jansen (hoops) for their home-brewed cards.
• Football America 2022 Schedule (oops!): When I put together the 2022 Football America package, I elected not to include a schedule, thinking that most people seemed to like putting together their own. Quickly found out that was NOT the case! Not to worry, I put together the schedule (including Orlando and Memphis as the season opener, of course!), you can download it here...
Photo Finish!
Speaking of John Bergeron, here he is, "the man behind the World Cup cards"--literally! Many thanks to John for his hard work in researching and rating the projected rosters for the upcoming World Cup, as well as his creative genius in coming up with the individual referee cards!
