MAGE WARS®: THE CUSTOMIZABLE, CARD-DRIVEN TACTICAL BOARD GAME OF DUELING MAGES!
April 2012
ACD Gamesday
Mage Wars was a huge success at the 2012 ACD Games Day. We introduced retailers to the game from 1 PM to 6 PM. Many retailers had heard of Mage Wars and wanted more information to take back to their customers. After clean up and a short dinner break, of great food I might add, we ran Mage Wars demos from 8 PM until Midnight. At no point during the day was the Mage Wars booth empty. We had a steady stream of people looking to demo the game and no one left disappointed. Thank you for all of your support and we look forward to bringing Mage Wars to the ACD masses in July 2012!
PAXEast - Day 3
It was sad to end our trip to Boston after only three days! We made many new friends and found tons more loyal Mage Warriors! Several people came back to play the demo a third and even fourth time today! Even while we shut down the booth around them, they continued to play. It was so amazing to see the players having such a blast playing. A few guys even stopped by and played the full game. Yesterday, these guys were apprentices, but after a day of demoing, and a tournament, they're almost archmages.
We took tons of video, so be sure to look for some interviews with our fans and for some of the crazy things that happened on our trip. Our batteries are recharged from the beautiful weather in Boston, and we're ready to get back to work on Mage Wars!
Retailers: be sure to look for us at ACD Gamesday later this week. From Boston to Dallas to Madison, we're flying all over the US trying to get our game into the hands of as many people as possible!
PAXEast - Day 2
Phew! What a day! Saturday was even busier than Friday. The Mage Wars team ran demos from ten in the morning until eleven thirty at night, almost entirely non-stop. And the players just couldn't get enough! More than just a few players came through saying "I wandered by this booth randomly, but once I saw the game I knew I loved it! I haven't played anything else since I played the demo!" In fact, today we had more than just a few return players for the demo. Players kept coming back to try new spellbooks and strategies.
We even had enough players to run an incredible tournament! We gave away two awesome pieces of art to the winners, and many players stuck around just to see the results. One couple came back to the booth three times! By the end of the day, several players had come up to the booth saying "Everyone on the other side of the show can't stop talking about this game! I had to come by to see what all the fuss was about!"
Needless to say, this was our longest day on the floor yet, and the Mage Wars team relaxed with a few beers by the harbor once our day game to an end at midnight. Only one more day of this awesome convention! We've already heard a few players saying they couldn't wait to come back tomorrow and play the game again!
PAXEast - Day 1
The Mage Wars team arrived in Boston on Thursday afternoon, ready to take on a new convention for us, PAXEast! We did not anticipate such a huge event! Over 70,000 people were expected on the first day alone. Mage Wars had the fortune to have a booth right where the line to get into the Expo center queues up every morning, so we always had plenty of visibility. In fact, one of our awesome playtester/volunteers, Josh Hughes, had a lot of fun tossing t-shirts and flyers into the crowd.
And boy did the crowd love the free swag! It was this kind of enthusiasm that kept us going all day. We ran plenty of demos in the morning, gave out a ton more free t-shirts, and even had players coming and asking for demos until ten o'clock at night! After a long day of hard work, the Mage Wars team bonded over some clam chowdah and some laughs. We can't wait to get started bright and early tomorrow! See you then!
March 2012
Mage Wars a big hit at GTS!
The Mage Wars team traveled to Las Vegas this year from March 12-16 to participate in the 2012 GAMA tradeshow! We had a wonderful time, demoing Mage Wars for hundreds of amazing retailers from across the country.
We had the honor of giving a short presentation on Mage Wars to over 500 different retailers at the GAMA opening night dinner! We were up on stage with some of the biggest game companies in the industry, getting a chance to talk about our vision for the future of Mage Wars. We shared some of our beautiful artwork, a brief summary of gameplay, and our plans for the exciting story we're building in the World of Taern!
We gave out plenty of posters at our booth, and spent plenty of time talking to retailers about how Mage Wars would best sell in their stores. Some retailers even stopped by to tell us that since Gencon and Origins in 2011, they've had plenty of fans coming in their store regularly to ask if Mage Wars had come out yet! They wanted to know what all the buzz was about.
We also go to demo the game on Wednesday during the GTS opening gaming night. A couple of guys were so excited to play that they wouldn't even sit down during the entire game! We had a wonderful time swapping stories with the retailers about the history and development of Mage Wars, along with our plans for the future.
Whether it was meeting our amazing playtesters for breakfast, or sharing dinner with some new retailer friends, GTS was a lot of fun and a huge success! We at the Mage Wars team can't wait to go back next year!
August 2011
GEN CON a Huge Success!
From planning and travel - to setup and execution, trade shows are a lot of work! With two shows scheduled nearly back-to-back, this summer was a whirlwind of chaos; but the staff at Mage Wars couldn't be more pleased with the results.
GEN CON Indy 2011 was "the big one" for Arcane Wonders' Mage Wars debut. A retail release is planned for early 2012, so this show naturally seemed like a great opportunity to showcase Mage Wars and gather valuable feedback from its growing fanbase.
FROM DAY ONE - The booth opened with a huge crowd out front, all of them having heard about the game ahead of time from either friends or Origins and each of them dying to play! Within the first hour there was a 3 hour wait to play the game. Later that afternoon, there was an 11 page signup list and gamers were having to be told to come back in a day or two.
The Board Game Room - Hall E:
Each day of the show, Mage Wars demos were being played in a secondary location. Just like the main exhibition booth, the tables were full the entire time of the show! The board game room had a little more space for players and staff and MW plans to expand on that option for next year's show.
Whether in the Exhibit Hall or the Board Game Room, in order to play a demo gamers had to go through "The Spiel". This consists of a 5-10 minute rundown of what the game is about, highlights and key advantages over other tactical fantasy games. Afterwards, they are escorted to a table where one of the staff runs them through their first Mage Wars battle.
TOURNAMENTS! That's right, each night in the Board Game Room, Arcane Wonders held a single-elimination Mage Wars Tournament! The players had to have already played the game before and as always every seat was filled... Up for grabs were some gorgeous hand-signed giclee prints by artist Craig J. Spearing. You'd better believe that the competition was FIERCE!
This year's tournament champions:
1st night winners:
Andrew Zambrzycki and Jason Van Haecke
2nd and 3rd night winners:
Harry Gloss and Russell Blakeman
July 2011
Mage WarsŪ will be at GEN CON!
Mage Wars is being played in 2 locations at Gen Con 2011!
Look for us at booth #1157 and in Hall E - The Board Game Room.
Play our full demo and get an awesome Mage WarsŪ Warlock t-shirt!
Tournaments! Step into the arena as a Beastmaster, Wizard, Warlock, or Priestess and battle to the death in one of our nightly tournaments!
First and second place winners of each tournament will receive an autographed fine art giclee print of Craig Spearing's amazing Mage Wars artwork!
We will be hosting a Mage Wars tournament each evening from 8 PM to Midnight. Knowledge of the game is a pre- requisite, so make sure to stop by our booth for a demo! Tickets are only $2!
NOTE: This is a 16 player single-elimination tournament, with 4 rounds, 1 hour per round. Games must end after 60 minutes, with victory going to the Mage with the least damage.
June 2011
Mage Wars is back from exhibiting at Origins Game Fair 2011
This past week was truly epic! The sold-out Origins Exhibition Hall was filled to the brim with enthusiastic gamers and some pretty sweet new games. 2011 is our first year as an exhibitor and we were not disappointed. We would like to say a huge thank you to all who stopped by the booth. Whether you demoed the game or just popped in to see what Mage Wars is all about, your participation was greatly appreciated.
As with any trade show getting to meet the players is the best part, hands down... and as a game designer, it is completely amazing to see folks lining up to check out your latest product; it's even more exciting when you can see that they are really enjoying it!
To sum it all up, we got to meet tons of great people (a few were adorned in some pretty interesting costumes!), played a lot of games and even managed to get a little work done along the way. A big thanks to Origins, and thanks again to all of the attendees!
Come see us at Origins!
Booth #116
Play the full demo and get a free Mage Wars t-shirt!
Arcane Wonders, the publisher of Mage Wars, will be exhibiting at the Origins Game Fair in Columbus, Ohio, June 23 - 26. Make sure you drop by booth #116 and get yourself into a demo of this awesome new game!