Tiki Mountain Board Game (1-11-06 game details added)

I was thumbing through Gaming Quarterly and found a blurb for a new game. I have contacted Slugfest Games and have received the below press release. I will post new info to this thread when it becomes available.

"SlugFest's other new release, Tiki Mountain, is a game of competitive self-sacrifice and civic duty.

Tiki Island is a nice little island, with lush green jungles and calm blue oceans. You live in Tiki Village, at the foot of Tiki Mountain, which is the home of the Volcano God. One day, the Volcano God gets angry. He demands a sacrifice, otherwise he will cover Tiki Island with burning lava. The village elders cast much Tiki Magic, and learn that you and your friends would make an ideal sacrifice to the angry god.

Now, as the Angry Volcano God rattles the mountain, you and your friends must race to the volcano mouth. The first person who jumps into the volcano (and who is accepted as a sacrifice by the Angry Volcano God) will still the volcano and save the island. Their memory will live on in song and story for all time!

Tiki Mountain is expected to be released in the second quarter of 2006."

[ Edited by: sporkboyofjustice 2006-01-10 12:53 ]

[ Edited by: sporkboyofjustice 2006-01-11 12:53 ]

I have just received contact from Geoff Bottone of Slugfest Games. Below is the response that I have received from Slugfest Games which has been converted to a slightly more entertaining interview format. Some of the questions and answers have been modified to make this easier to read in this new format.

For completeness sake I have also included the slightly less entertaining actual e-mail exchange. The press release mentioned has been used to verify the original post

SB=Sporkboy, SFG=Slug Fest Games.

SFG:
First off let me thank you for your interest in Tiki Mountain!

SB:
Not at all, I think that you'll find with anything tiki related now a days people will come out of the woodwork to see what you have cooking. I should be the one thanking you.

This all started (my contacting you) with an ad in Games Quarterly that I spotted. In that ad you mentioned the word tiki a lot, would it be correct to assume that there is going to be a lot of tiki art in this game?

SFG:
Yes indeed! There's tiki art all over the place. The heroes of the game wear tiki masks and collect magical tiki totems.

SB:
That is good to hear that there will be tiki art a plenty.

Has the artist been chosen for this game yet? If the artist has been chosen is there a sample of the artwork that you might be willing to share as a teaser for the Tiki Central members?

SFG:
We do have an artist, but the art is in a very rough state at the moment (although I can tell you that it'll look great when it's done). I could pass along some finished images later, when they become available, if you like.

SB:
That would be great; I can't wait to see how this game handles the art as well as game play. Speaking of which, will game play be enhanced somehow by the
consumption of rum? Will there be optional "rum based" rules?

SFG:
We have no provisions for rum-based play. However, we have no problem with players making up their own rum-based house rules.

SB:
I do have one comment. When I read the ad it referred to the volcano god. In Hawaiian lore the volcano god was actually the goddess Pele. Was this change a conscious one?

SFG:
In the original design concept, we had wanted to refer to the Volcano God as Pele (we also wanted to call the game "Boys for Pele", but we didn't want to get sued
by Tori Amos). We were concerned that using an actual Hawaiian deity in our game might offend some folks, so we opted for a more generic volcano god instead.

SB:
Fair enough. I'm very much looking forward to the release of this game. Thank you for turning your attention to a tiki themed game.

SFG:
Thanks for your interest!

I'm sending along a copy of our press release. If
you'd like any further info, just let me know.

'o au no me ka 'oia'i'o !

SB:
Many thanks.

What actually happened:
Hi Graham,

Thanks for your interest in Tiki Mountain!

1. In the ad you mentioned the word tiki a lot,
   would it be correct to assume that there is going to
   be a lot
   of tiki art in this game?

Yes indeed! There's tiki art all over the place. The
heroes of the game wear tiki masks and collect magical
tiki totems.

2. Has the artist been chosen for this game yet? If
   the artist has been chosen is there a sample of the
   artwork
   that you might be willing to share as a teaser for
   the Tiki
   Central members?

We do have an artist, but the art is in a very rough
state at the moment (although I can tell you that
it'll look great when it's done). I could pass along
some finished images later, when they become
available, if you like.

3. Will game play be enhanced somehow by the
   consumption of
   rum? Will there be optional "rum based" rules?

We have no provisions for rum-based play. However, we
have no problem with players making up their own
rum-based house rules.

I do have one comment. When I read the ad it
referred to the > volcano god. In Hawaiian lore the
volcano god was actually
the goddess Pele, just something to keep in mind.

In the original design concept, we had wanted to refer
to the Volcano God as Pele (we also wanted to call the
game "Boys for Pele," but we didn't want to get sued
by Tori Amos). We were concerned that using an actual
Hawaiian deity in our game might offend some folks, so
we opted for a more generic volcano god instead.

I'm very much looking forward to the release of this
game.
Thank you for turning your attention to a tiki
themed game.

Thanks for your email!

I'm sending along a copy of our press release. If
you'd like any further info, just let me know.

'o au no me ka 'oia'i'o !

Geoff Bottone
Director of Creativity
Director of Advertising

I have some game details to pass on.

Tiki Mountain is a board game. It'll come in a Trival Pursuit-sized box. It comes with:

The Board: Showing the trail from Tiki Village up to the Volcano Mouth.

Player Mats: Keeps track of your items (you can have 3 items, two for the hands and one for the feets). Also keeps track of your Tiki Totems (which you need
to use Tiki Magic).

The Mighty Tiki Deck: Cards that will aid you in climbing the mountain. Includes items and Tiki Magic cards.

The Angry Volcano God Deck: You periodically flip over cards on this deck to see what the Volcano God is doing. Sometimes he just sits there puffing smoke.
Other times he causes earthquakes and lava flows.

Tiki Spinner: Spin this at the end of your turn to see what Tiki Totems you find.

There's enough components in the game for up to 6 players.

A 3-4 player game take 30 minutes to an hour to play.

Good investigative work there SPoJ! I would be very, very surprised to see if this game ends up being 100% infringement free, as far as any 'artwork' goes. If the makers and/or "artists" at the gaming company are not familiar with Tiki/Hawaiian designs, then I would bet that The BoT will be one of the first places they go to, followed by some of our own TC artists websites for reference (and hopefully not copyright infringement).

Let's hope for the best.

While infringement will always be an issue game companies do take the issue seriously. I haven’t actually seen any of the games by Slugfest but they seem to be doing a good amount of research on the topic. You can of course never tell so I will eagerly look forward to seeing any advance art for the game and I will be sure to post those images here.