Gen Con success and the new year

posted on 08/28/10

Gen Con was a financial success and brought a lot of good pod cast attention. The Demo team did a great job while dealing with tragedy. Sarah lost a grand parent during the con, very sad. Our hearts go out to her.

I brought out a new line of games this year like no other. This time it was Dungeon Matrix games. Each game is a binder folio that opens up to a small dungeon map with all the toys of play hanging inside in a bag. These games featured a new artist for Hamster Press - Joshua Burnnett from Toledo Ohio. He also did the art for the new Mongolian Goat Rodeo game to make it more fun loving.

My personal favorit of the new stuff is the Mystery Matrix game - Guilty Moneybags. There are five bad guys and one good guy so the bad guys solve the crime by pinning it on one another! I plan on expanding that line next year. Also next year I'll put out new Cthulhu games - this time as binder folios.

All in all a good year. My challenge for the coming year is to get the games out in more stores. This will require a lot of phone calls. Ah... so much for the glamorous side of game making...

Chris Engle

Seasons Greetings!

posted on 11/30/09

I've put up some new stuffies and puppets in the store for the up coming holidays. The Pirate Squirrels are back in force with a strong contingent of Hamsters on their tails.

On the game front we have all the games out for Gen Con. I'm working on next year's offerings. I know there will be a new Sherlock Holmes game (possibly set at Eton), and Voodoo Beach Party will be my horror offering. I'm experimenting now with a Tile Placement game and a ten turn beginner story game. I'm not certain what games they will be used for but I'm itching to do some Sci Fi games. More on this later.

Until then Happy (fill in the blank) Holiday to you all!

Success at Gen Con

posted on 08/18/09

Gen Con was a little slow this year. We still made a profit but we noticed that people bought lower cost items and thought harder about game purchases. Still we had a good year and will be back next year.

Thunder Hamsters and the Temple of Cheese, Sherlock Holmes: The Return of Col. Moran, and The Graveyard Shift (a Cthulhu Adventure) were run out in the convention. I ran one session of Col. Moran and ended up getting convicted! I'm still certain I was innocent but a jury and one bad dice roll convicted me. Oh well...

 As always I come back from conventions full of ideas on what to do next. I have two Thunder Hamster follow up games in the planning stage and next years Cthulhu game already finished. I've also started play testing tile placement Matrix Games. Ramadan starts at the end of the week so I expect to slow down for a month but I'll hopefully be running a play by email game on the MatrixGame2 yahoo group http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/MatrixGame2/  I invite you all to drop by and join in the fun.

Thunder Hamsters march forward!

posted on 07/28/09

I got the last of the Thunder Hamsters art yesterday and production is progressing apace. I should have a nice stack of games for Gen Con. I'll be working right up to show time no doubt but they will be there! We will also have the characters up online as tee shirts because the art work is kick ass. Bright colorful and friendly, the way I like it.

New for Gen Con

posted on 07/13/09

Thunder Hamsters and the Temple of Cheese
The Graveyard Shift (Cthulhu adventure in a graveyard)
The Return of Colonel Moran (Sherlock Holmes in Dover on the trail of Moriarty)
Oswald's Genie (A kid (who looks remarkably like me in 5th grade) finds a genie... )
Punch and Judy (A game about a Punch and Judy puppet play - you write it as it happens)
Blood and Puppets (Punch versus the Pirates - Poor Pirates!)

I got the first of the Thunder Hamsters illustrations yesterday and they look fantastic. Joel Washington is a master of color and Brunhilda and Morgan the Pirate Hamster jump off the canvas. I doubt there will be any other art like it at the show. I hope I'm not alone in likeing bright family friendly game art! Joel will be at the booth to sign pictures and we'll likely have some tee shirts. I certainly want to wear a "Hamster with Attitude" shirt.

Thunder Hamsters - getting some buz

posted on 07/09/09

I'm beginning to get some inquiries about Thunder Hamsters from around the country. Excellent! I'm now busy at work making games for Gen Con and most of those games are copies of "Thunder Hamsters and the Temple of Cheese."

Production is going well. This is the first year I've made a game that I feel safe in saying is fully store worthy. They are hand crafted games so they look artsy but they are solid and robust and will last. Meanwhile Terri is busy at work making hand made mouth puppets which we'll have in the booth at Gen Con. Some of them look real cool. We're thinking of doing you tube puppet shows with them.

Origins Report

posted on 06/29/09

I'm back from Origins which was a great success. 35 people played "Thunder Hamsters and the Temple of Cheese" and everyone had a good time. As usually the players were a mix of men and women, young and old. In the last game a mother and a daughter were playing. In gaming that is a hard demographic to hit and we hit it. The play was hillarious. People were highly inventive in making up what the items in the temple did and messed with one another in good humor. One thing Hamsters are allowed to do is pee on things. Needless to say that led to a lot of laughter...

Thunder Hamsters is off to Origins!

posted on 06/22/09

In a couple of days I'll be off to Origins Game Fair. I'll be running a bunch of sessions of "Thunder Hamsters and the Temple of Cheese", doing a War College seminar on "The English War against the British 1790-1819" which chronicles the social revolution that happened in England during the Napoleonic Wars, and spending a lot of time in the retail lounge meeting store owners face to face to build up retail sales.

I've been busy lately out in the workshop making games for Gen Con and for getting stores interested in carrying Engle Matrix Games. I've decided to focus on approaching the game business as an art business rather than as a mass media business. I can make art but can't produce the volume needed for a mass audience. This will mean that Matrix Games will only appear in select stores that I deal with directly. It's a different model but one I know I can sustain for the long run.

Thunder Hamsters and the Temple of Cheese

posted on 03/18/09

Last weekend I gave my Gen Con release it's first public outing. "Thunder Hamsters and the Temple of Cheese" is a board game in which a band of Hamster Heroes race into the Temple of Cheese to relieve the Uber Rat guards of... Cheese! Along the way they may rescue a princess, retreive the "Book of Cheesy Wisdom", find magic wands and flying carpets and of course duel one another. My artist, Joel Washington, is busy working on the art so the game was in a blank box with word counters - not so come summer. Thunder Hamsters is for two to twelve players (best four to eight) and takes at least two hours to play. It's a Matrix Game along the lines of "Mongolian Goat Rodeo" so expect wild and unexpected things to happen!

Advances in Matrix Game packaging

posted on 10/24/08

Those who know me know my obsession with game making and production. Hamster Press games are all produced in house so their qualities or flaws are all my fault. My goal has always been to make games of the same quality as Avalon Hilll Game Company games of the 1970's. As of this week I believe I'm there. The Intermediate and Encounters games come in full color boxes and include wooden counters and hard color boards. I know they are good because my wife (who is one critical observer) said they looked "real".

Chris Engle

French Army start using Engle Matrix Games

posted on 10/24/08

Wonderful news! As of this month the French armyu have started using Matrix Games to teach English Language skills to their officers. I'm always glad to help France in recognition to their help in the American Revolution and in helping free my other ancestors from serfdom during the Napoleonic wars.

At this point Great Britain, Australia and France use Matrix Games in their armies. I hope my own country will follow suit someday.

Gen Con was a great success!

posted on 08/21/08

The Hamster Press team was in full scamper last week in Indianapolis. Chris, Terri and Gwyn Singer were in the booth and Malcolm Smith, Sionnain Conway and Sarah Kornblith were out in the game halls running games. Arkham Terror: Experiemental Therapy, Sherlock Holmes: The Hand of Moriarty, Dracula, Frankenstein, Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Jack the Ripper and The Defence of Duffer's Drift all go run. I also did demos of Sherlock Holme: The Fenian Murders and Arkham Terror at the booth. I estimate that a hundred people played. Sales were good (as always lead by plush toys and puppets) with games sales growing. I got to get away from the booth a while and start talking to retailers. They were very positive about the new boxed games. I have a few smal tweaks to do on them but I think the are store ready. I also sold games to one Home Schooling family and some teachers so Matrix Games might be making it into class rooms this year. This is cool since they won a "Teacher of the Year" award for a past Matrix Gamer in the 90's. All in all I great year. I'm already bubbling with ideas for next years games. I'm thinking a Regency Steam Punk game and some more racing games (something about hamsters racing throug the temple of cheese...)

Origins is coming! Origins is coming!

posted on 06/20/08

I'm happy to say I'll be off to Columbus Ohio next week to run Engle Matrix Games at Origins Game Fair. I'm looking forward to hanging out with the Rogue Judges folks.

I will be running "The Hand of Moriarty", "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde", "Frankenstein", "Arkham Terror: Experimental Therapy" and "The Defence of Duffer's Drift: Encounters Matrix Game". The first three are beginners games and will be run in the morning. Akham Terror is an intermediate game and Duffer's Drift is an advanced game. They will be run in the afternoons. I'm certain it will be a fun time. If the gas prices are not too high and you are there, I hope you'll come by.

The Great Floods of 2008

posted on 06/20/08

A couple of weeks ago it rained, and then rained some more and then did it again, and again... And then the fash floods came. The Hamster Press workshop was flooded three times. Fortunately it didn't get too high and very little was lost. I was busy with a mop and bleach after each flood so nothing go ruined by mold. They say it was the worst flooding we've had here since 1913 (the year my grandmother was born). That may be so but I'm not taking my sandbags down any time soon!

Back from Marcon

posted on 05/27/08

Fun show. Got some good feedback on the new boxed games. It is amazing to me how much production qualities really do make games more fun to play. We did a game of "The Hand of Moriarty" in which I was able to confict my wife of murder. That's something you don't get to do every day. We married men may make our wives want to commit murder but we usually aren't around for the trial!

Now it's time to get on to Gen Con production. I'm excited!

We're off to Marcon in Columbus Ohio

posted on 05/22/08

I'll be at Marcon science fiction convention this weekend running games. I'm taking over Sherlock Holmes" The Fenian Murders, The Hand of Moriarty, and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. I'm looking forward to playing in my brother Ian's Torchwood game. I've been practicing a very bad Welsh accent. My Welsh ancestors would be justly appaulled...

Chris Engle

The puppets are coming!

posted on 05/22/08

Those who have been by our booth at Gen Con know we sell a good selection of puppets and stuffies. This means a whole lot of cute stuff. How does this connect to Matrix Games? Not at all... Terri likes puppets and hamsters so we sell them. ( They make great gifts for kids, spouses, friends, pet sitters, etc.) I like HP Lovecraft, Sherlock Holmes murder mysteries, and classic horror so we sell those as board games. It's a contest between to two of us over which will sell better. Help me out - buy a game!!!

Welcome to the new page!

posted on 02/14/08

Hamster Press/Klingel-Engle Puppets are proud to unveil our new web page. We will be appearing at Gen Con selling games, puppets and plush toys. We will also run games at Marcon, Origins and Gen Con.

Chris Engle Feb 2008