Tag: Ta-Te Wu

Raw Thoughts About Macaron by Ta-Te Wu and Sunrise Tornado Games

Posted on by E.R. Burgess
Raw Thoughts About Macaron by Ta-Te Wu and Sunrise Tornado Games

What can I say about Macaron, a delicious new trick-taking game designed by my friend and sometime collaborator Ta-Te Wu, that hasn’t already been said?

I’m not really sure. The game has received really good press so far. My positive review is just adding to a chorus of approval that has been bestowed upon this welcome new addition to the genre.

Macaron
My daughter thought Ta-Te had sent us cookies because the box is so adorable.

How Does the Cookie Crumble?

If you know trick-taking games, you are halfway to knowing Macaron. Like most in the genre, someone leads a card and you need to follow by playing a card of the same suit if you can. If you don’t have one of those cards, you can decide to get rid of a card from another suit or play a “Royal” card – hurray for a new euphemism for what we used to call these dominant card suits that win the trick over the suit that’s led. Yeah, I’m not saying the old word…

Macaron has the same number of cards as a standard deck but they are unevenly split into seven suits. Six have cards numbered one to seven and the chocolate suit has cards one to ten. Macaron has a start player token, a Royal marker and an Allergen token. Players also get tokens for the various tracks.

What’s different about Macaron includes the use of multiple Royal suits for macaron types, which are tracked on special boards and a main board that has a score track, one for bidding and a means of tracking the bonus gift boxes completed by players each round.

What is Served Up Each Turn?

The deck is shuffled and all cards are dealt to the players. Based on player number, some of this varies but check that out when you play. Players then pass two card to one of their opponents.

Royal and Allergen: This is based on player count – with fewer than four players, the player to the left of the start player picks the Royal Group and the player to the left of them picks the Allergen. With four or five players there is a voting round to make this determination, with chips distributed to the player.

Bidding: Then, players bet on how many tricks they will take (shown as cookie boxes) this round. Successful bets will award points for success, losses for failure and it’s all optional.

As before, it’s trick-taking – so lead and follow. Royal cards can win a trick with the highest Royal card. But we have an opposite – the Allergens makes a trick worthless. Those cookies are the worst!

1s and 2s – These cards are special. 1s make a trick worth three tricks instead of one trick, while 2s will cancel Allergens to restore the value of a trick. It’s a nice way to make those low cards worth a little something more.

Once all the cards for the round are played, you check trick totals against bids and award points. Points vary based on the basic versus the advanced game. When someone hits ten points, the player with the highest total wins.

What Do I Think?

I like the game but that’s not a big surprise because I love trick-taking games. I like the Allergens concept, the special cards and the matched-set Royal suits, all of which makes this one a winner for me. Plus, I like games with bidding because you can do well even if the cards aren’t in your favor. This gives trick-taking games more nuance, allowing you to exploit the overconfidence of the player with a stacked hand, or just be super-scrappy and make points with low-trick bids. The control is welcome and, dare I say, delicious…

Macaron also has you covered with a solo mode, which can help in this crazy time of COVID. Add all that to the beautiful artwork on the cookie cards and I think this pleasant, light experience will make it to your table regularly. It has done so with ours.

Importantly, Macaron is approachable and new players can do well in their first game. Some trick-takers and ladder-climbing games can intimidate new players, often more so from their mannered style of play (Hello, Tichu) than from overly complex rules. Not Macaron – this will work with casual gamers and kids. I don’t have children in my house like that to play with anymore (all adults now) but I suspect that even younger children in the middle-school range will be happy to play Macaron.

Macaron is live on Kickstarter right now and it runs through 11/30 . I recommend you go all Cookie Monster and pick it up.

5 Quick Questions About Macaron with Ta-Te Wu

Posted on by E.R. Burgess
5 Quick Questions About Macaron with Ta-Te Wu

Editor’s Note: As an avowed content geek, I try new formats. People seem to love our 5 Quick Questions interviewette for tabletop designers that is a quick read. We promise no TL;DR. Let’s see how Ta-Te Wu, the L.A.-based game designer, Cat-Theme Advocate, and the publisher of Sunrise Tornado Games, does, shall we?

BGB: Attention is money, my friend. What is the elevator pitch for Macaron?

Game Designer, Painter and Beverage Enthusiast Ta-Te Wu

Ta-Te Wu: Macaron is a trick-taking game with novel tastes for 1 to 5 players. It’s easy to learn and play for people who are new to trick-taking game while being exciting and fun for advanced players.

BGB: Making games is hard work, so you best have a great reason for making this thing. What inspired this game?

Ta-Te Wu: I love traditional trick-taking games, but they usually have a limit on the number of players. Plus, if you have a bad hand, you are less likely to enjoy the round. So I set a goal is to design a trick-taking game that’s flexible on the number of players, enjoyable to play even with a bad hand, and without overly-complicated abilities. And here is Macaron ☺

BGB: There are too many games out there. What hole in my game collection does this fill?

Macaron: Delicious to behold. NOTE: This is the prototype so it might look different later.

Ta-Te Wu: Macaron is a rare game that fits in a traditional trick-taking games genre that is friendly enough to be enjoyable to new players. The experienced players won’t run away with the game, as can happen with some trick-takers. It’s also rare for a trick-taking game to have a solo option. Macaron does all this and still has enough depth for experienced players. It’s pretty much a game for any crowd.

BGB: This is Boardgame Babylon, so out with your dirty secrets. What DON’T you want to tell me about this game?

Ta-Te Wu: It doesn’t come with macarons?

BGB: Thanks for telling us a bit about Macaron. Let’s wrap up with the key specifics (play time, number of players, and the link to the game) and also, since I think you can tell a lot about a person by understanding their sense of humor, what’s a good joke to close this interviewette?

Ta-Te Wu: Thanks, Eric. Here it is:

Play Time: 30 to 45 min.
Number of Players: 1 to 5
Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tatewu/macaron-a-card-game-with-novel-tastes

JOKE TIME

Macaron A: Hey, Macaron B! Have you ever had a silly macaron?
Macaron B: No. What is it?
Macaron A: lol
Macaron B: What is it?
Macaron A: lol
Macaron B: I don’t get it.

PRESS RELEASE: Promenade – The Game of Impressionist Art is live on Kickstarter

Posted on by BGB Admin
PRESS RELEASE: Promenade – The Game of Impressionist Art is live on Kickstarter

Become the most prestigious collector of paintings in a 2 to 4 player economic deck-building game filled with impressionist art.

Los Angeles, CA – April 9, 2019 – Sunrise Tornado Game Studio, publisher of the hit game Cat Rescue, has just launched a new strategy game called Promenade that combines gorgeous artwork and a unique take on the deck-building genre.

Promenade brings players into the art world, where they can purchase paintings for their collection to score points. Artwork gains in value based on a simple but intriguing market system, and by placing art in the right museums. The winner will be the one with the most valuable art and prestigious exhibitions in the finest galleries.

“As a painter and great lover of Impressionist works in particular, I wanted to design a game celebrating this style and offering players the chance to collect and speculate in the art world,” says designer Ta-Te Wu.

Promenade features original art and unique deck builder mechanisms in a game that plays in about an hour.

Featuring over 15 gorgeous pieces of original artwork, mostly painted by the designer himself, Promenade is an excellent and approachable game for 2-4 players that plays in under an hour. Early reviewers are already championing Promenade for its innovative and quick play:

“I enjoyed Promenade greatly. The design is clever and engaging. Your turn never comes round quickly enough and there is wonderful suspense as we calculate the game end holdings…Highly recommended.”

Mike Siggins of Ludememike (also know as Sumo)

“If you’re a fan of economic games and deck builders or just love games about paintings, check out Promenade.”

Meeple Lady

“It must be asked. Another deck builder? Does Promenade offer anything new or exciting? Is it worth playing? Yes. Yes and HELL YES!”

Jay Bernardo of Cardboard East

The Kickstarter for Promenade offers a unique $1 pledge level where players get something for their buck. To show appreciation for the support, Sunrise Tornado is including print and play games to all people who agreed to spread the word about Promenade. Cat Sudoku and Kiti-o-Tiki are both fun, quick games that will be made available to all supports at the $1 level.

The game is now live on Kickstarter:  bit.ly/2Ut8bKrand runs until May 12th.

About Sunrise Tornado Game Studio

Sunrise Tornado Game Studio is designer  Ta-Te Wu and his collaborators. STGS is responsible for over a dozen board and card games. Working with publishers like Z-Man Games and Cross Circle Games in the early days, Sunrise Tornado Game Studio now primarily publishes games through crowdfunding, having launched several successful titles on Kickstarter like Cat Rescue, Kung Pao Chicken, Di Renjie, The Battle of Red Cliffs, and Glory of the Three Kingdoms. Learn more at:  sunrisetornado.com/

Connect with us on Social

Facebook: www.facebook.com/PromenadeGame/

Instagram: Ta-Te Wu (@tatewu) • Instagram photos and videos

Twitter: @tatewu1

Press Contact

BGB Tabletop Media – bgbtabletopmedia@gmail.com

PRESS RELEASE: A Plus – A Game for Children with Autism Launches on Kickstarter

Posted on by BGB Admin
PRESS RELEASE: A Plus – A Game for Children with Autism Launches on Kickstarter

Alhambra, California – November 6, 2018 – Sunrise Tornado, the creative team behind the recently published Cat Rescue, presents A Plus, a project from the bottom of our hearts that will be ready to ship in time for Christmas. The campaign is just two weeks long so your early support is vital to help us reach our goal and get this game to families in time for the holidays.

A Plus is a 2 to 4 player cooperative card game designed to be a fun way to reinforce the value of social skills for children on the autism scale. With the help of an adult, players work together to complete a series of activities. At end of the game, players receive an A+ if they completed all six activities.

Designed by game designer Ta-Te Wu, a former teacher and psychology major, A Plus is a labor of love constructed with the ideas of helping children with autism through play. Ta-Te’s passion for education is strong, as he continues to teach painting and game design at various venues.

A Plus is available exclusively through this campaign. There is no plan for a retail release at this time. As a bonus, Sunrise Tornado is also offering some exclusives with the campaign. Fans of Cat Rescue, which sold out in one day at Essen Spiel 2018, can get a small expansion called The Carrier, with the basic A Plus pledge. More exclusively, a couple of copies of Ta-Te Wu’s upcoming game Promenade, are up for grabs for the first couple of people willing to pledge for this 2019 release.

A Plus

The modest goal of $1,000 and a quick two-week run to raise funds hopefully increases the chance the project will reach its goal so as to ensure that families that would enjoy and gain value from A Plus will surely get their copy in time for the winter holidays.

You can even see an early review from Team Nerd Church just below.

For more information, check out the campaign here and please consider sharing the campaign through social media to support this modest project with the hashtag #gamesforgood. Thank you for your support!

PRESS RELEASE – Cat Rescue: The Game of Saving Cats by Ta-Te Wu and Sunrise Tornado Games

Posted on by BGB Admin
PRESS RELEASE – Cat Rescue: The Game of Saving Cats by Ta-Te Wu and Sunrise Tornado Games

Cat Rescue – The Game of Saving Cats is a cooperative puzzle game for families and board gamers alike.

Los Angeles, CA, March 20, 2018 – Sunrise Tornado Game Studio, fresh off shipping their last funded Kickstarter game Kung Pao Chicken, has just launched a new cooperative family game inspired by the plight of our feline friends everywhere, Cat Rescue.

In the game, players work together to save as many cats from the street and their individual foster homes as possible, in order to score the most points and do the most good for these furry friends.

Featuring the charming artwork of Kaiami and designer Ta-Te Wu’s knack for creating fun micro-games that are perfect for opening or closing your game night, Cat Rescue is also ideal for families to play with their kids since everyone plays together to help re-home the lovable cats featured on the cards. The game is now live on Kickstarter: http://bit.ly/catrescuegame

Designed for 1-4 players working as a team, Cat Rescue plays in 15-20 minutes and its positive message of helping save animals has been championed by many early reviewers. 

“Cat Rescue is a great 10-15 minute cooperative game. Behind the cute design is a surprisingly challenging puzzle game.” – The Game Shelf

“It’s quick, it’s simple, it’s fun….. It’s a great game, great concept, and it promotes helping animals.” – Joshua Burall of Logan Chops Reviews.

“Overall, Cat Rescue is pretty solid! It’s a super-cute microgame that a few friends and I have been playing over lunch all week, and it’s definitely suited to a lunch game.” – Eric Yurko, What’s Eric Playing?

About Sunrise Tornado Game Studio: Sunrise Tornado Game Studio is designer Ta-Te Wu and his collaborators. STGS is responsible for over a dozen board and card games. Working with publishers like Z-Man Games and Cross Circle Games in the early days, Sunrise Tornado Game Studio now primarily publishes games through crowdfunding, having launched several successful titles on Kickstarter like Kung Pao Chicken, Di Renjie, The Battle of Red Cliffs, and Glory of the Three Kingdoms. Learn more at: http://sunrisetornado.com/

Contact:
To learn more about Cat Rescue, please contact:
BGB Tabletop Media
bgbtabletopmedia@gmail.com

Review: Kung Pao Chicken by Ta-Te Wu and Sunrise Tornado Games

Posted on by E.R. Burgess
Review: Kung Pao Chicken by Ta-Te Wu and Sunrise Tornado Games

The point at which the micro game meets the party game is a wonder. While both types of game package a lot of fun in often simple ideas, they do so in somewhat different ways. This makes it delightful to see them fuse into a compelling filler. Ta-Te Wu’s new Kung Pao Chicken inhabits that rare space where these two game types build on each other’s strengths, taking the clever elegance of the microgame’s card locationing with funny party elements like Werewolf and Bunny Bunny Moose Moose.

Kung Pao Chicken is an ideal opener to get people laughing before the longer, heavier games begin. Players are chickens or foxes based on an initial deal, but that information is only visible to the other players (kind of like Powwow). Players then spend the game playing cards to maximize the number of chickens saved or eaten, based on which team they believe they are on. The cards are chickens, foxes and dogs – which form a kind of chain. Chickens get eaten by foxes, foxes are chased away by dogs, and dogs are awfully handy to protect chickens. However, each dog only chases away one fox – whereas foxes can each as many chickens as they find in the barn where they find themselves. So, some dog vs. fox management is needed.

How do you determine which team you are on so you play well? With a combination of viewing the other player’s roles and how they play cards, players need to discern which team they are on. On a player’s turn, they play one of their cards onto a player’s barn or in the one in the middle of the the table that starts with a certain number of foxes based the player count.

When the round ends from card play, player roles are revealed and each barn is resolved. Before the reveal, however, players close heir eyes and pantomime wings if they think they are a chicken and claws for a guess that they are a fox. A point is awarded to each player that correctly surmised their role.

If any foxes are there, they eat any present chickens…but they are chased away by dog cards. Fox players score a point for each chicken eaten and the chicken players get one for each chicken saved. Simple scoring and resolution is part of the appeal of the game. Players tabulate points and the winner is the one with the most points after three rounds. So, cooperative play, but competitive outcome. Yes – this is the sweet spot for a long of gamers and my love of ‘coopetition’ is definitely satisfied by KPC.

Yes, I really like Kung Pao Chicken. Let’s be clear though: Designer Ta-Te Wu is my co-designer sometimes, frequent developer, playtester, and one of my good friends. However, I do not like all of his games. The ones I like, I get involved with. I liked Red Cliffs (obviously), as I did Tien Zi Che before it. Di Renjie – yes. And I quite enjoy Kung Pao Chicken. I liked it enough to give him some ideas for it that became a stretch goal expansion. So, is this review legitimate? That’s for you to decide but all I can offer in reassurance is that I’m making this a formal statement, not just a boilerplate disclosure, and that Kung Pao Chicken is in our game bag for all days out to play. So, Super-Disclosure: I played this with a playtest copy, after playtesting it and even offering suggestions, some of which MAY have gotten in. That said, I really love this game and think it’s among the strongest Ta-Te has done.

Kung Pao Chicken is now LIVE on Kickstarter at a great price and I encourage you to get a copy and cluck up the opener for your game nights!

Boardgame Babylon Rating for Kung Pao Chicken

BIN (Buy It Now) PIN (P)lay It Now TIF (Try It First) NMT (Not My Thing)

Disclosure: Read above for Disclosure City.

5 Quick Questions About Kung Pao Chicken from Sunrise Tornado

Posted on by E.R. Burgess
5 Quick Questions About Kung Pao Chicken from Sunrise Tornado

Editor’s Note: As a kind of content geek, I try new formats. So, here’s a new interviewette for tabletop designers. We promise no TL;DR. Let’s see how Ta-Te Wu, designer of Kung Pao Chicken (a game from Sunrise Tornado Game Studio that comes to Kickstarter on Jan. 2) does, shall we?

BGB: Attention is money, my friend. What is the elevator pitch for Kung Pao Chicken?

Ta-Te Wu: Kung Pao Chicken is secret identity party game of chickens vs. foxes. If you’re a chicken, your team scores points for each chicken that is saved. If you are a fox, your team scores points for each chicken captured. The only thing is: You don’t know if you’re a chicken or a fox. Ready to Kung Pao?!?

BGB: Making games is hard work, so you best have a great reason for making this thing. What inspired this game?

Ta-Te Wu: I love making games. Can’t stop and never will. If I recall correctly, I made Kung Pao Chicken because I wanted to make a game with chicken before the Year of the Chicken, based on the Chinese Zodiac. Just days after I made the first prototype, I went to Las Vegas and playtested with Aki, my college roommate, and his friends. We played it over and over and had a lot of fun. Yet, I spent a whole year to finish the game, making sure it is as good as it should be.

BGB: There are too many games out there. What hole in my game collection does this fill?

Ta-Te Wu: Kung Pao Chicken is a quick filler and there is always a demand for this type of game. The game is easy to teach and fun to play. KPC has a few fun deduction mechanics and every game feels different based on the card distribution. I think the best part of the game is probably the phase where you need to guess who you are. It makes most people laugh. You will know what I mean when you play the game 🙂

Kung Pao Chicken Game
Designers John Clair (Downfall, Mystic Vale), Brad Brooks (Rise of Tribes, Letter Tycoon) and a friend Kung Paoing it up. Photo courtesy Ta-Te Wu.

BGB: This is Boardgame Babylon, so out with your dirty secrets. What DON’T you want to tell me about this game?

Ta-Te Wu: Hmmm…that I am working on a two-player expansion and an edition that can be played with 20 people?

BGB: Thanks for telling us a bit about Kung Pao Chicken. Let’s wrap up with the key specifics (play time, number of players, and the link to the game) and also, since I think you can tell a lot about a person by understanding their sense of humor, what’s a good joke to close this interviewette?

Ta-Te Wu: Kung Pao Chicken is a 3 to 5 player game and plays in 15 minutes. It will be on Kickstarter on Jan 2nd, 2018. Finally, no animals were harmed in the making of Kung Pao Chicken.Kung Pao Chicken Game

 

DISCLOSURE: Boardgame Babylon is not liable for damage to your sensibilities from the jokes these game designers submit.