Dixit by Asmodée Editions is another game I discovered in my browsing this week. It is a storytelling game of sorts developed in France where it won best game of the year in Cannes as well as Games Magazine Awards Best Party Game 2010 Award.
The game is French, obviously, but has descriptions and instructions printed in multiple languages, conveniently one is English. What stands out about this game is how pretty it is. The art by Marie Cardouat is beautiful and features fairy tale imagery in general, not the specific. You can see more images on Board Game Geek. There will also soon be a Dixit 2 available as an expansion pack or stand alone game all its own. It is due out in 2010 from what I understand. When there is an expansion pack, one can assume the game is a bestseller. Just look at Carcassonne or Settlers of Catan games.
Here's a description of the game:
Each player at his turn plays the storyteller. He is given a single picture, while the other players get a hand of six pictures. The storyteller says a sentence or a word connected to his picture, then each player chooses one of his pictures to bet upon. All pictures are showed face up, and every player has to bet upon what picture was the storyteller's.
If nobody or everybody finds the correct picture, the storyteller scores 0, and each of the other players scores 2. Otherwise the storyteller and whoever found the correct answer scores 3. Players score 1 point for every vote gotten by their own pic.
The game ends when the deck is empty. The greatest total wins the game.
Now I have an Amazon link for this game above which allows me to use the game image without specific permissions--another reason I am an Amazon associate--but the game is currently way overpriced on Amazon US and can be found elsewhere on the web for under $50 USD. In fact, you could buy Dixit from Amazon.fr or even Amazon.co.uk and have it shipped internationally for less than $50 USD. The bargain hunter in me has to point that out.
Don't forget the wooden bunnies that are used to keep score! And the cards are oversized, 79 by 120 mm – which allows for a better view of that wonderful art, though also makes it difficult to find sleeves to protect that same art.
ReplyDeleteI suspect that the inflated price at Amazon.com is due to the current rarity of the game: it's sold out at all the other American retailers that I use, which indicates that Asmodée US have underestimated how popular a game about looking at pretty pictures would be in a country (i.e. everywhere other than Germany) that typically prefers games about spaceships and/or killing things (such as their own Claustrophobia, the marketing of which seems to be their main interest as of late). Well, that and it's just how the designer game industry works that a game is printed and then only reprinted if it sells out, leaving a time in between when it's practically impossible to find online. They should be getting more in by January (as that's in my experience what the "December" that some retailers have as the restock date is tabletop game language for) and you'll be able to order it quite affordably from such shops as Boards & Bits and Superhero gameland when they do. But whether one waits for that or imports it from Europe you're going to be unlikely to see it before the end of year unless one buys it from a local specialist shop that happens to still have some in stock, as I coincidentally did just earlier today.