Game Review: Forbidden Island

Forbidden Island
Forbidden Island
Title: Forbidden Island
Players: 1-4
Play Time: 30 Minutes
Designer: Matt Leacock
Publisher: Gamewright (et al)
Year: 2010

Overview
Forbidden Island was one of many games that I learned about by watching the TableTop channel on YouTube. It is a cooperative game where 1-4 players try to move around an island attempting to retrieve four special relics, each representing one of the four elements of Earth, Air, Fire and Water. Technically it’s sold as a 2-4 player game, but you could easily play this by yourself. There are six roles that are randomly assigned to start the game. Each role has one special ability that I’ll cover a bit later.

If you don’t read any further, here’s the important part: I definitely enjoy this game, and find that it’s a fantastic way to introduce the idea of cooperative gaming to those who haven’t played that style before. (It’s much easier to explain and faster to play than Pandemic, for example, another cooperative game from the same designer.) Adding in the alternate island layouts (details later) has kept this game in my rotation for quite some time.

I don’t like the metal tin. But I can get over that. 😉 Continue reading “Game Review: Forbidden Island”

Game Day Lunch! Forbidden Island

Forbidden Island
Forbidden Island
Today was another Game Day Lunch session at work. We’ve been gradually picking shorter games (and by we I mean me) in order to be sure to finish during our longer lunch period. Or in some cases maybe play the same game twice. Last time we played Carcassonne and Azul, two games that were both influenced by actual history. Today we played Forbidden Island, which might have been inspired by the Indiana Jones movies. Continue reading “Game Day Lunch! Forbidden Island”

Forbidden Island 3D Printed Tile Holders

Forbidden Island
Forbidden Island
Forbidden Island is a fantastic and fun game. It’s easy to teach and is great for kids and adults alike. The basic premise is that the players are all treasure hunters, looking for the four elemental temples in order to retrieve the magical idols. What makes the game exciting is that the island was built to protect those idols and it starts to sink under your feet as soon as you land. It’s a race against time and flood waters to make it to the end!

I’ll have a more detailed review at some point, but this post is going to be more about game “bling” than game play.

As mentioned previously, I picked up a MakerBot 3D printer a while back. It sat idle on my desk until recently. (Or in the case of Forbidden Island it sat “idol” 😆 ) Today I want to show you a really cool accessory that I was able to print for this game. Continue reading “Forbidden Island 3D Printed Tile Holders”

3D Printer Iris Box

Last year I picked up a used MakerBot 2 from my company charity auction. One of our departments bought it, used it for a while, but had finished their project and no longer had plans for it. I was able to pick it up for less than $600! I had big plans for printing Heroes of the Aturi Cluster terrain bits, but got sidetracked a bit. For a few months.

Okay, for over a year. Continue reading “3D Printer Iris Box”