community, culture, and conversation with Jason Kotarski

There’s some big news at The Green Couch today!

If you have been following me for long, you’ve probably heard about a little tabletop game I designed called Over the Road. About a year ago, I announced that I had signed on with a company called Cambridge Games Factory who wanted to release the game. After a year of waiting for the project to make it’s way up the long list of releases scheduled with CGF, I decided I was ready to move on. I requested that CGF terminate the contract we had entered into so I could explore other options for bringing my game to life. Ed Carter, owner of CGF, graciously released me immediately and wished me luck in finding a new publishing home.

Today, I am extremely excited to announce that it didn’t take long for the game to find a new home! On the very day I was released from my contract with CGF, I received a call from Chris and Cherilyn Kirkman who offered to pick up the game for publication with their company Dice Hate Me Games!

Chris and Cherilyn’s vision for the game is really exciting and I knew right away that Dice Hate Me Games would be a great for me and my game. With new art and a new name, the  game is headed to Kickstarter later this Summer and is expected to be released in the first quarter of 2013.

Here’s a sneak peak at the art and the official press release that went out today:

Dice Hate Me Games Keeps on Trucking

(Durham, NC) – Dice Hate Me Games is loaded up and ready to put the hammer down with its newest release – The Great Heartland Hauling Co.

In The Great Heartland Hauling Co. players take on the role of medium haul Midwest truck drivers doing their best to make a living by hauling goods for big suppliers. Players truck to various locations around America’s Heartland, picking up and dropping off goods using matching cards from their hands. Most locations have native goods that require fewer cards to load; other locations may pay a premium for those goods but may also require more fuel – and time – to get there with the cargo. With limited space in each trailer and only five cards in hand at a time, players will have to expertly manage their resources, as well as play the odds and press their luck to be the best trucker on the road.

The Great Heartland Hauling Co. will offer a lot of replay value through the use of cards to create a variable board set-up each game. The game will include 60 goods cubes, 4 thick cardboard trucks, and 46 resource cards – required for pick-up and delivery – that are drawn from a shared draft board, as well as 20 fuel cards, which are used to move about the Heartland.

The Great Heartland Hauling Co. is a game for 2 to 4 players, ages 10 and up, and designed by Jason Kotarski. It is set for a late-summer Kickstarter campaign with a Q1 2013 release from Dice Hate Me Games.

For more information on The Great Heartland Hauling Co., Carnival, VivaJava and future Dice Hate Me Games releases, please visit www.dicehatemegames.com and sign up for our newsletter.

Keep watching here for more updates coming down the pike!