So far the fine folks at Help And Manual and Beyond Compare, and  Helpinator, have agreed to donate some copies to give away to participants in this year's NANY event.

Help us spread the word, it's not to late for coders to participate!

I thought I would make some recommendations for board games for family gatherings over the holidays.

Note: You can read some of my general board game mini-reviews in this thread: https://www.donation...ndex.php?topic=23854.

These recommendations will specifically be games that I think are well suited for families with kids and adults of mixed ages.

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Codenames or Codenames Pictures
A really wonderful game that can be played in teams with any number of players (best with 4-6), where a team leader tries to get their team to guess cards based on ambiguous clues.
This is a crowd favorite which is easy to learn and can be enjoyed by people of varying skill levels, and it appeals to women as well as men.  Great fun.
Note: While super easy to learn, this is a *thinky* game, and young kids may not appreciate it.

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Concept and Imagine
These are two games that are similar -- they involve one player trying to give clues to the other players to guess a concept or phrase or thing.  They differ in how the player gives clues, but in both cases the player is forced to be creative in order to convey the meaning.  It has a similar vibe as codenames, and like codenames, it may not be suitable for young children who don't like to stress their brains.

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Next up is Kaleidos, which is a game for all ages.  Players each look at a picture showing a scene with hundreds of objects.  A random letter is chosen and players hunt for examples of objects in the picture that begin with that letter.
It's frantic fun for all ages, and it's fun to debate with each other about whether an object is a valid example for the given letter.

Factorio is a game that has been in development for a few years now and as far as I can tell came to Early Access earlier this year. I feel that the trailer video doesn't give a good sense as to what gameplay is like:



So, based on that video, I've looked at the game from time to time, but I've never been intrigued enough to actually give it a try... until recently, when I saw this gameplay video:

The January 1 deadline for NANY 2017 participation is fast approaching!

We need help spreading the word about the event.  If you know a coder who might be interested in releasing a new freeware/donationware application by January 1st, or a forum or website where the announcement might reach coders, please help us spread the word!

The forum section for participants is here:

• https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?board=325.0

There are even a few beta entries up for those who like to test things early (including 4 or 5 android apps by me), with more on the way.

Fascinating South Korean reality show where the same players compete in a sequence of long "games" that gradually win them down to a single winner.
What's notable is that the games are fascinating social negotiation and deduction games -- games that would feel familiar to modern board gamers and game theoretic researchers.

https://en.wikipedia...he_Genius_(TV_series)

Very cool stuff.  You can watch the first season on youtube with english subtitles:
https://www.youtube....w06g9_cOi_cnzpeXeUCc