Indie Squid Kid

1967 Aquaman board game by Hasbro.

Sighted by Ryn (via The Idol-Head of Diablou)

We had a marvelous Christmas here at ISK headquarters, and if you celebrate I hope you did too! This year was Kid Indie Squid Kid’s first Christmas, and even though he is a little too young to know what was going on, it was still very exciting. Family came to us, so we didn’t have to worry about traveling with the baby, and that turned out to be ideal, because I seem to have the virus and/or secondary bacterial infection that WILL NOT DIE.

It will come as little surprise that there were a number of cephalopods underneath our Christmas tree. Here’s a rundown of all the loot…

• Imaginext 3-Headed Sea Dragon Gift Set
• Imaginext Ocean Squid
• Arkham Horror: Innsmouth Horror Expansion (by Fantasy Flight Games)
• orange googly-eyed plush octopus
• Young Mad Scientist Alphabet Blocks (by Xylocopa from ThinkGeek)
• polymer clay tentacle pendent/ornament (by bunny X productions)

Well, I think that’s it for now. I’ve been unplugged for a week so I got to ease back into things, you know?

photo by Chrysophylax

Cthulhu action figure by SOTA Toys.

Carcassonne board game by Rio Grande Games.

R’lyeh is for lovers!, originally uploaded by jvsquare.

Here’s a close up of the R’lyeh “Other World” space on the core Arkham Horror game board. The heart is an Arkham stamina token. The Cthulhu figurine is from a different game—Unspeakable Words by Playroom Entertainment.

Remember board games like Monopoly, Clue, and Candy Land? Arkham Horror is nothing like those games. In fact, Arkham Horror leaves those games quivering in the corner, gibbering incoherently at mind-shredding visions of extra-dimensional terror. Also there are tentacles.

Published by Fantasy Flight Games, the epic board game specialists, Arkham Horror is based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft and the extended Mythos he created. It’s the 1920’s, and the university town of Arkham, Massachusetts (as wall as the neighboring communities of Dunwich, Innsmouth, and Kingsport) is beset by cosmic forces that are determined to rip through the thin boundary between our world and any number of strange and terrible outer realms. The goal of these Ancient Ones, as you might imagine, is to devour all of humanity. In this cooperative game, the players are all investigators working together to find clues, fight monsters, and arm themselves against the teeming servants of these ancient gods. With a little skill and no small amount of luck, they just might succeed in preventing the awakening of such horrific beings as Nyarlathotep, Azathoth, Yog-Sothoth, and even Cthulhu himself.

Arkham is a sprawling game with hundreds of bits, and rather complicated rules. It blurs the line between board game and role playing game (in fact, it is based on the Call of Cthulhu RPG). You select a character representing one of many period archetypes—the reporter, the professor, the private eye, etc.—, and each has a special ability, a range of skill points, and stamina and sanity points that represent their physical and mental well being. You can obtain weapons both mundane and magical, spells, artifacts, and allies to help you the other investigators survive the dangers that lurk around every corner.

All you need to play is the core game (recently back in print!), but there are, at present, six expansions (the two most recent, Black Goat of the Woods, and Innsmouth Horror, are not pictured above) which add new cards, characters, monsters, board segments, and rules variations.

You can pick up Arkham Horror at your Friendly Local Game Store, or, barring that, the game and all expansions are currently available for purchase at www.fantasyflightgames.com.

I’ll admit that, for a geek, I know very little about video and computer games, and I know even less about the world of independent game design. However, what kind of Indie Squid Kid would I be if I didn’t acknowledge indie game designer Miguel Sternberg of Spooky Squid Games Inc.? Miguel is the creator of two cephalopod themed games—both were made in conjunction with Artsy Game Incubator, an event that encourages the Canadian indie game community (of Toronto and Montreal, at least) to develop and hone their gamemaking chops.

Night of the Cephalopods! is a “survival horror game with old school pixel art graphics and an innovative fully voiced dynamic narrative system.” Having mistranslated the sinister Octinomicon, you must survive until dawn, fighting tentacled horrors armed with only a shotgun. (Um, you are armed with a shot gun, the cephalopods are armed with, well, their arms.) All the while, your every move is narrated in grand Lovcraftian fashion. Here’s some sample game play…

Cephalopods Co-Op Cottage Defence is Miguel’s follow-up-in-progress to Night of the Cephalopods! It is a two-player, cooperative game “featuring a lady scientist, her clockwork valet and hundreds of squidy things.” Surviving the night is again the goal, but this time it seems you must also defend your laboratory form eldrich invasion.

Both games can be downloaded at AGI.

All this came to my attention by way of Rock, Paper, Shotgun.