Icecool

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ICECOOL
Game data
author Brian Gomez
graphic Reinis Pētersons
publishing company Brain Games ,
amigo
Publishing year 2016
Art Skill game
Teammates 2 to 4
Duration 20 minutes
Age from age 6

Awards

Icecool or ICECOOL is a children's and skill game by the Latvian game designer group Brian Gomez . The game for two to four players, ages six and up, lasts around 20 minutes per round. It was published in 2016 in an English version by Brain Games and in German by Amigo . In 2017 it was nominated together with the games The mysterious forest and Captain Silver for the children's game of the year critics award and was able to prevail against them. In addition, it won the German Children's Games Prize 2017 and was recognized as one of three game hits for children in 2017 at the Austrian Game of Games .

Theme and equipment

The Icecool game is about a race between some student penguins and the caretaker of the penguin school. The little penguins prefer to catch fish in the hallways instead of sitting in the classroom. The caretaker (the "catcher") wants to catch the truants (the "runners"). The players move the penguins forward by snipping and try to complete the respective tasks. The runners get victory points for collecting the fish and the catcher for catching the other penguins.

In addition to the instructions, the contents of the game box consist of:

  • five boxes that are assembled to form a game board,
  • four colored penguin figures in the player colors red, blue, yellow and green,
  • 16 wooden fish in five colors (three each in the player colors and four gray)
  • 45 fish cards with values ​​from 1 to 3,
  • four penguin cards
  • and four penguin badges.

Style of play

Phases during each round
  • Set up the game and place the fish
  • Game of runner and catcher
  • Lap scoring

At the beginning of the game, the boxes are put together according to the instructions for the three-dimensional game plan and fixed with the neutral fish. The players each choose a player color and receive the corresponding penguin figures, the wooden fish, the penguin card and the penguin ID. The fish cards are shuffled and laid out as a face-down draw pile. One player takes on the role of the catcher, the others are the runners and fix their wooden fish above the marked doors.

The catcher places his penguin figure in any position within the red lines in the kitchen. The runner to the left of the catcher starts the game and places his penguin figure on the starting field in the classroom and flicks it in any direction, then it's the next player's turn. A move always consists of snipping your own penguin. The catcher starts with his penguin from the point where he placed it after it was the last runner's turn.

The runners try to catch their fish by snapping their penguins. They achieve this if they manage to flip their figure through the corresponding door. In that case you can eat the fish above the door and draw a fish card. If the fish jump over the door while snapping or if they get stuck in the door, the player does not get the fish and must try to get it again in the next round. The fish cards indicate the number of points the player received for the fish. If a runner has two fish cards with the value “1” (“ice skates”) and reveals them, he may reveal them at the end of the turn and immediately make another move.

The catcher tries to catch the runners. This succeeds if he touches a runner on his move or if the runner accidentally touches him on his own move. In both cases, the runner must give his penguin ID to the catcher, but can then continue to catch fish.

The round ends when a runner has caught his three fish or when the catcher has caught all of the runners. At the end of the round, each player receives a fish card and the corresponding points for each penguin badge in his possession. Then all players get their fish and their ID cards and the next player in clockwise order after the current catcher becomes the new catcher.

The game ends when each player has been a catcher once; as many rounds are played as there are other players. The player with the most victory points wins the game; in the event of a tie, the player with the greater number of cards wins.

Icecool2

In 2018, Icecool2 was a successor to Icecool . This is almost the same game, but the elements of the school are mirror images of the original version. Like Icecool , it contains four colored figures and 16 plastic fish in five colors, four penguin cards and four penguin ID cards, whereby the colors differ from Icecool (the player colors are orange, purple, turquoise and brown).

The rules of the game of Icecool2 correspond to those of Icecool . As there, the 1-fish cards can also be used as ice skates for an additional move with Icecool2 . In addition, each 1 card has a special task, of which the player can perform one per round. There are three different tasks:

  • flick across a wall
  • flick through at least two doors, and
  • first snap against a wall before the penguin then moves through a door.

Before taking his turn, the player must announce which task he would like to complete, and if he succeeds, he may draw another fish card as a reward. A card that was used for a task may not also be used for an extra move. In Icecool2 you can also use two 2-fish cards to stick a fish of any color from one door to any other door, except for one of the doors of the room in which the corresponding penguin is currently located.

Icecool and Icecool2

Icecool and Icecool2 can also be played in combination, whereby several set-ups are possible. In this case, the game with up to 8 players is possible. When playing with six or more players, two players are used as catchers, but they each play for themselves. The game ends like the single games when either one player has collected all fish of his color or when the catchers have caught all players. In the latter case, each catcher only receives cards for the ID cards he has collected himself.

As a new variant for the combined game, “The Great Race” is also made possible, which is played in teams of two players each. The rules for the game are the same as for the basic game, but there are no catchers in this variant. The game is won by the team in which both players have collected all of their fish and reached the finish room first.

Expenses and reception

The Icecool game was developed by the game author group Brian Gomez in Latvia and published in a multilingual version by the game publisher Brain Games in 2016 and in a German version by Amigo; a Polish, a Romanian and a Spanish version have also been published. The graphic design of the game and also the character come from Reinis Pētersons .

In 2017 Icecool was nominated together with the games The Mysterious Forest and Captain Silver for the children's game of the year critics award and was able to prevail against them. The jury of the Children's Game of the Year recognized the game in the reason for the nomination as follows:

“Another one said that school is not cool. School is cool, icecool. Once the arena is set up, playful children of all ages can't help but let the penguins slide over the ice immediately. The learning curve is big - amazing tricks are possible with practice. Everything is right here: Brian Gomez combines an original game story, impressive equipment, detailed illustration and a challenging process to create an ideal game of skill. "

In the same year, the game won the German Children's Games Prize 2017, was included on the list of nominations for Graf Ludo , a prize for the best game graphics of the year, and was named one of three game hits for children in 2017 at the Austrian Game of Games .

In 2018, the successor to Icecool was the game Icecool2, which was published by Brain Games in English and French and by Amigo in German.

supporting documents

  1. ↑ Frankfurter Neue Presse: "Icecool" is the "Children's Game of the Year" 2017 | Frankfurter Neue Presse . ( fnp.de [accessed on July 21, 2017]).
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Icecool game instructions , download from the Icecool page at Amigo Spieleverlag; accessed on June 18, 2017.
  3. ↑ a b c d Icecool2 game instructions , download from the Icecool2 page at Amigo Spieleverlag; accessed on June 18, 2017.
  4. ↑ versions of Icecool in the board game database BoardGameGeek (English); accessed on June 18, 2017.
  5. ↑ a b Icecool on the website of the Spiel des Jahres eV; accessed on June 18, 2017.
  6. ↑ Graf Ludo 2017 - The selection list ( memento of the original from October 1, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.modell-hobby-spiel.de archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; Retrieved June 26, 2017.
  7. ^ The winning games 2017 at the Austrian Games Prize, June 25, 2017; Retrieved June 29, 2017.
  8. ↑ versions of Icecool2 in the game database BoardGameGeek (English); accessed on September 12, 2018.

Web links