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Thursday, September 6th, 2007

New Treehouse game: Twin Win Don't forget to vote for your favorite in the Icehouse Game Design Contest #5!

Now Accepting Pre-Orders for Zombie Fluxx Looney Labs In the News: Off the Grid Plays with Icehouse

How to play Twin Win

This week we've started accepting Pre-Orders for Zombie Fluxx! We submitted the card artwork just before GenCon and last week we completed the rulesheet so now we're just waiting for our card printers in Texas to make the decks and deliver them to our warehouse. As soon as they do, we'll be shipping them out to everyone who pre-ordered a copy, so if you want to be the first on your block to have Zombie Fluxx, place your pre-order now! It's on schedule to ship in early October!

Last Friday I spent the day riding roller coasters at HersheyPark with Robin. I love thrill rides -- I've yet to find a ride at any amusement park that I'd be afraid to go on -- but I haven't been indulging in this as much as I used to. Over the years, as Kristin's perfume allergy has gotten worse, it's been less fun for her... much as Kristin loves roller coasters too, they aren't so great when you've got a throbbing migraine. Meanwhile, just as Kristin found herself getting a headache from the other park attendees, Alison found herself getting headaches from being jostled around by the rides. Consequently, I haven't been doing much coastering in recent years.

But then this year at Origins, I was given a pair of complimentary passes to HersheyPark, by a fan who works for the company. (He said that every year they give him more employee passes than he can use, and offered his extras to me -- thanks again, dude!)

Since neither of my two closest friends really wanted to go coastering with me, I asked my third closest friend if she wanted to be my new Coaster Buddy. Since Robin also loves thrill rides and has a husband who refuses to go on them, she loved the idea, and on Friday we had a grand time together at the park.

It was fascinating to see how much the park had changed since my last visit. Of course there were the newest coasters, which are quite excellent; I was very impressed by their latest addition, Storm Runner, although I had to give top marks to the slightly older Great Bear. But some changes didn't impress me as much... I could have done without the singing cows that were added in the most recent update to the Hershey's Chocolate World ride, and I was shocked and disappointed by the disappearance of their really cool giant double ferris wheel. It also really bothered us that Hershey's Ice Cream isn't available in the park anymore, having been replaced by Turkey Hill and Cold Stone Creamery. But most of my favorite stuff was still there, and I had a great time as always visiting one of my very favorite amusement parks.

We went on the last weekday of the season, and since most of the schools around here are already back in session, this proved to be an excellent day from a crowdedness standpoint. The lines were wonderfully short! This is ironic however, since it derailed a playtesting agenda I'd brought along.

You see, I've just invented a new Treehouse game, which I'm calling Twin Win, and this game was conceived as an Icehouse game you could play while standing in line. Moreover, it was inspired by the planning for this trip! And yet, since we never had to wait very long in a line, it never seemed like it was worth trying to set up the experiment. (We did play it once, but that was while we were sitting at a table having ice cream.)

Anyway, even though I haven't actually tried this game while standing in a line, I'm confident enough in the way it plays to be ready to release the rules. So check it out, I hope you like it. However, don't play this yet if you haven't finished testing out and voting on the new games in the current Icehouse Game Design Contest. The deadline for voting is September 17th, so whatever energy you have for trying out new Icehouse games should be devoted to that before you try out Twin Win.