2005 Holiday Game Festival

This free event will bring friends and families together to have fun playing games, winning great prizes, laughing, and getting some holiday shopping out of the way! Over $2,000 worth of prizes will be given out during the event. Kids under 12 must be accompanied by an adult in the Grand Ballroom but there will be a special YMCA supervised activies room where parents can sign in their children.

Time, Location, & Directions

The event will be held on Sunday, December 4th from 11 AM - 9 PM. The event will take place at the University of Maryland's Stamp Student Union in the Grand Ballroom. Here are detailed directions & parking information.

Playing Board Games

Over 50 volunteers will teach and play the latest award-winning games as well as games that have become international blockbusters in Europe. Local game inventors will be showing their latest games as a sneak preview before they are available in mainstream retail outlets. There will be party games, family games, and some light strategy games. A short description of each featured game will be available at the information desk.

Prizes!

A total of $2,000 of prizes will be given out at the event. $100 in cash will be given each hour at the Wits & Wagers kick-off trivia event and a total of $1,000 worth of door prizes will be raffled away through out the day.

Wits & Wagers Kick-off Trivia Event

Start gathering friends for your team now! There will be a Wits & Wagers contest every hour where the winning team will walk away with $100 in cash. Don't worry if you're not good at trivia. You can win this event without answering any questions correctly simply by betting on the best answer given by another team!

YMCA Activities Room

The YMCA activites room for kids will feature games, snacks, and creative activities including making holiday gingerbread houses! There will be several YMCA supervisors in this room at all times. Kids will get signed in and will not be able to leave until their parents return for them.

Beta Testing

Each year at the Holiday Game Festival, North Star Games beta tests the game they expect will become their next release. Last year, a few lucky people were able to give feedback on Wits & Wagers, helping to shape the destiny of what is now becoming the next national blockbuster craze! This is your opportunity to help with the next great North Star Games release.

Food Court

The Student Union food court is less than a one minute walk from the Grand Ballroom. Starbucks coffee will be availble in the next room across the hall.

Featured Game Designers

Rose Anderson
		Geist GEIST is a family game night classic. It combines imaginative game play with a healthy dose of strategy for players aged 10 and up. Pack a crafty mind and a fistful of chili peppers to chase down and capture Geists (ghosts), each with its own mischievous prank you can play on your opponents and even on yourself. Prank It Up!
		Geist Junior GEIST JuniorTM is the recipient of 3 awards in 2005. Hop around the board to collect Pet Geist puzzle pieces. Be the first to solve your puzzle and win! With beautiful 3-D artwork and adorable animal ghosts, GEIST JuniorTM and its companion book “The 13 Pet Geists” are sure to delight the young gamer and reader in all of us!
Dominic Crapuchettes
		Wits & Wagers Trivia has never been this exciting! This is the first trivia game you can win without answering any questions correctly! How? By betting on the answers of your friends. Part of the game is in knowing trivia, part of the game is in knowing your friends, and part of the game is in playing the odds.
		Cluzzle Cluzzle is the game of comical Clay Puzzles. It is an award-winning deduction game that inspires creativity and heaps of laughter. So grab your friends and family, your ridiculously poor sculptures will not only receive extra points, but the laughter they inspire will be remembered for years to come!
Alan Ernstein
		Just Wait A rummy style card game for 3 to 6 players. Using cards numbered 1 through 7, players must discard to draw cards equal to the value of the discard. They then show three cards of either the same or consecutive numbers, scoring the face value of those cards.
Stephen Glenn
		Balloon Cup Balloon Cup was nominated for the most prestigious game design competition in the world: the Spiel Des Jahres. It is a beautiful two player card game where players race hot air balloons over plains and mountains in an effort to claim the most trophies. Collect three trophies, and you win!
Kory Heath
		Why Did the Chicken...? What makes you laugh? More importantly, what makes your friends laugh? Each round, you'll have two minutes to create funny answers for a randomly generated riddle. But know your audience: One player will be judging answers instead of writing them!
Catherine and Graeme Thomson
		GO mental- Classic GO mental™ - the award winning family game where everyone is involved all the time. You can steal other players' questions; grab bonus points; challenge other players and send them backwards. It's about the most fun your brain can have. Multiple Award Winner!
		GO mental- FUNDAmental With GO mental® FUNDAmental, players as young as 8 (and even younger!) can join the fun! Whether you're a kid or just a kid at heart, no one's left out. Play it on its own or together with the classic GO mental®. And, with the Junior Rules, players even younger than 8 can join in with cards you design especially for them! Just play with your brain!

Other Great Feature Games

	Taboo How do you get your team to say APPLE if you can't say the word RED, FRUIT, PIE, CIDER,or CORE? Those are words that are TABOO, which means they are unmentionable! This is a fun party game where you'll have to think fast, talk fast, and keep away from mentioning things that are strictly Taboo. Ages: Teens and Adults
	Cranium This game is a mix of all the best party games you grew up playing; Trivia Pursuit, Charades, Pictionary, and more! Ages: Teens and Adults
	Quinto Quinto® is an exciting board and card game for ages 10 years to adult. The game is easy to understand and play because it contains familiar elements found in classic games. Using playing cards, players compete to capture strategic positions on the game board. It takes sharp observation, strategy, and teamwork to win. Quinto® is never boring or predictable as no two games are ever alike. More than just a card or board game, Quinto® is a unique playing experience guaranteed to provide hours of challenge and fun!
	Sentence Says The award-winning Sentence Says game challenges players to create correct-sentences from letter cards while playing against time, action cards and the opinions of the other players...all while protecting sentences and points from being stolen! For ages 7+. Visit SentenceSays.com to learn more.
	You're Pulling My Leg You'll laugh out loud as you and your friends try to fool each other with outrageous stories about your lives. When a card is drawn and a question is asked, the secret roll of the die tells you if your answer should be true or made up. For ages 13 - adult.
	Ticket To Ride In 2004, Ticket to Ride won the most prestigious game design competition in the world: the Spiel Des Jahres. It is a cross-country train adventure game where players collect card sets to lay track. So climb aboard for some railroading fun and adventure. You've got a Ticket to Ride! Ages 10+
	Carcassonne In 2001, Carcassonne won the most prestigious game design competition in the world: the Spiel Des Jahres. It has outsold Monopoly worldwide every year since then. A different beautiful map of French castles, intricate roads, and farm land is created each time you play this fascinating game of strategy and cooperation. Ages 10+
	Cartagena This is a very simple strategy game where your pirates pieces must work together to escape from the dreaded fortress of Cartagena! You must play a card to move your pirates forward, but you must move your pirates backwards to draw more cards! This game can be learned in about 3 minutes. Ages 8+
	TransAmerica Railroads are booming in the 19th century! Players are racing to be the first to connect their network to 5 cities across the country. Once your track gets connected to another player's track, you can biuld off of what they have built! This is a very light family game that can be enjoyed by everyone. Ages 6+
	Lost Cities This two-player card game from one of the most popular game designers in the world has won many international awards. The theme of Lost Cities is of going on various expiditions. Choose too few expiditions, and you will not earn enough points to win. But spread yourself too thin by choosing too many expiditions and you will lose points on all of your exploration attempts. Ages 8+

After School Programs

We will be giving 100 copies of Cluzzle to local after school activities programs at the 2005 Holiday Game Festival. If you would like to receive one of these copies, please contact us at gamefestival@northstargames.com. All we ask is that you show up at the event and learn how to play the game with one of our volunteers! You'll walk away with an award-winning game for your program's activity closet.

Volunteers

If you are interested in helping out with this year's event by teaching games, please email us at gamefestival@northstargames.com.

More Information

If you would like more information or have questions about the event, please email us at gamefestival@northstargames.com or call us at 301-313-0448.