This Spring, Dice Hate Me Games will be launching a Kickstarter featuring six 54-card games as part of the Rabbit line of titles. Of these six games, four were chosen as winners of the Dice Hate Me 54-Card Challenge that was put forth in November.

Today on Dice Hate Me, we’re taking a closer look at the design inspirations behind the games in the first three-pack of “Dinner, Drinks & Dessert”: Matthew O’Malley’s Diner (the 54-Card Challenge Grand Prize winner), Ben Rosset’s Brew Crafters Travel Card Game, and Bryan Fischer’s Pie Factory. Next week, look for a feature on the second tier of games in the Rabbit line!

Diner by Matthew O’Malley

DinerWebPromoAs a quick summary, in your own words, what is your game all about?

Matthew: Diner is a fast-paced game about waiters in a friendly competition to make the most money in tips. Take orders for the tables in your section, gather the plates to fill those orders, and serve your tables, and do it as quickly as possible while showing up the other players.

What inspired you to come up with this design?

I started working on 54-card games specifically for this Challenge. I wanted to start with a theme that would fit in with the Dice Hate Me Games line, and I had two ideas that I thought might be successful (after listening to the State of Games over the past year): Cards of Cthulhu, and Diner. Cards of Cthulhu didn’t meet the Challenge requirements for a family-friendly theme, and it also didn’t feel like it would fit well with other games by Dice Hate Me. That left me with Diner, which I thought would fit both thematically and aesthetically.

The almost real-time nature of the game was inspired by Josh Tempkin, Cardboard Edison’s game Tessen, and a real-time multi-player solitaire game my wife’s family plays called Pounce. During early playtesting, I had table cards that would “age,” reducing the value of tips over time. While it worked, it didn’t really get across the feeling of working in a Diner. Josh suggested the action tokens, which does a much better job of giving the game that rushed feeling, of trying to get things done quickly to get good tips.

Both Cards of Cthulhu and Diner had double-sided cards from the very beginning. I think the first time I saw that used was in Bohnanza: when you create sets of beans, you set aside the scored cards as coins using the card backs. That was also the original scoring mechanism in Diner – after you served an “aged” table, you would set aside a number of cards equal to the current tip value to keep your score–now you just remove the scored table. One advantage of the double-sided cards in Diner (and the removal of scored tables) is to add some sense of unpredictability to the game; you can never be sure if all six of those steak plates are going to come out, so counting cards won’t assure you a win.

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stateofgameslogonewWe love reserved hyperbole (is that really a thing?) here at Dice Hate Me, so let me just say that, like all the years before, this coming year may just be the Greatest Year For Games Ever. With big titles sporting unique mechanics like Dead of Winter and SeaFall coming from Plaid Hat Games, a whole slew of indie upstarts shaking the establishment, and no fewer than 10 Dice Hate Me Games titles hitting the market, you can see that my hyperbole is warranted.

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stateofgameslogonewIt seems like just yesterday that I was heading up to Delaware for the second annual Unpublished Games Festival. That was way back when VivaJava was launching on Kickstarter, I didn’t even know that The Great Heartland Hauling Co. or Jason Kotarski existed just yet, and Compounded was still unofficially signed – but still kicking total butt in play testing. Dice Hate Me Games and Unpub has come a long way in these last couple of years. But as Darrell, TC and I settled in for Unpub 4 this past weekend, one thing remained unchanged: The event is still a big pile of awesome.

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The call for card games from Dice Hate Me was heeded – in a very big way! We received over 100 entries into the Dice Hate Me 54-Card Challenge, which was far above and beyond expectations. The massive amount of entries meant that the design community was energized and inspired to create something special, but it also meant that the competition was fierce, and judging took a very long time. Originally, the plan was to have six finalists to be judged at Unpub; since there were so many great entries, we’ve decided to narrow the finalists to 15! These 15 games are to be played by independent play testers, designers and various judges during the Unpub 4 festivities this weekend.

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stateofgameslogonewIt’s that time again – a time for looking back on the best memories of the year that was while we prepare for the year that will be! And what a fantastic year of gaming 2013 turned out to be. Whether you’re a casual gamer or a hardcore grognard, this year’s titles had something awesome for everyone, and with three of us on the podcast, you get to hear about a LOT of them! Yes, dear listeners, this is another long one, but hey – we managed to condense a whole year into two hours, so that’s something!

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gotylogo2013Happy New Year, dear readers! 2014 is now upon us – and it’s almost hard to believe, as 2013 went by like a flash! It was a great year both for the board game community and Dice Hate Me Games, as we added four more titles to the library with successful Kickstarter campaigns for Compounded, VivaJava: The Coffee Game: The Dice Game, Belle of the Ball, and Brew Crafters. With Unpub 4 just around the corner, the Dice Hate Me 54 Card Challenge in full swing, and a few secret projects in the works, this year has the potential to be even greater for games!

But first, as is the custom each year around this time on Dice Hate Me, it’s time to look back at some of the best and brightest board games from 2013. The competition was fierce – so much so, in fact, that I’m breaking a little from the norm and listing not only my first, second and third choices, but also an honorable mentions category! Just as a clarification to the process, the Game of the Year Award is open only to those games that were published and distributed openly in the United States in 2013. But, just like last year, in order to honor those games that graced the gaming table for the first time this year but were published before 2013, I am continuing to announce the Dice Hate Me Discovery of the Year Award – and that choice was almost as tough as for Game of the Year! So let’s get on with the choices, and happy gaming in 2014!

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Whether you’re about to head out on the open road or find yourself about to be crammed into a crowded airplane, many of us think not only about what to take to wear – we also want to know how many games we can fit in that backpack. And that’s what this podcast is all about, Charlie Brown.

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