Meet Rob Willson - a Kickstarter Superbacker #425. In his YouTube channel, he uploaded a review of GEMJI Original Box. And what's more - shared two new game ideas with the community. The whole team loved both the games! Did we mention they are both solo games? Yes! We've just added some new games you can enjoy on your own to the list thanks to Rob! The first game can be enjoyed while traveling in a train, bus. So, if you also like to wake up your brain in the morning, or relieve the stress on your way home - this game is for you! Watch the full video to learn the rules.
For your convenience - here's Rob and some quotations from the video:
"GEMJI is a modular gaming system. Imagine it as being like a cross between Lego and checkers, and a pack of cards... Basically, GEMJI allows you to play all sorts of different games. It sounds a bit confusing. Let me just explain. So, this is the GEMJI box that arrived today. Inside the box, you get this magnetic backing (playboard), and then these, which are the GEMJI tiles..."
"There are 70 in a total of these plastic magnetic tiles in the box. You also get an amazingly reflective travel pouch. You get a book explaining how to build models with GEMJI. Things like cars and others. And you get a rulebook that explains how to play. You can also go on the internet onto the website. The instructions for all the different games are published. There are around 30 games that come with the set..."
"Well, the first thing I would say is GEMJI is incredibly tactile. So, one of the really interesting things about the design is you have all these black and white tiles. There are loads of them coming in the pack, and they're all magnetic..."
"...There's a black side and a white side to every single tile. And there are these numbers on them. So, there's a four and a one and another three and a two. You can have like a white blank, one, two, three, four, and a black blank one, two, three, and four. That's where you kind of get the element of cards and various things is that you've got all these different symbols. The symbols are raised as well, so you can feel them. There's a really nice tactile nature to the tiles. There are magnets inside the tiles that are really, really strong and you can hear them kind of clicking. It's quite a nice sound design that clicks if you listen..."
"I'm not even touching them, but the magnets in them kind of make this sound, which indicated that they come together. This is really satisfying kind of click, and they're some really strong magnets so that they will stay together. You can join them. That's where you get into the kind of modeling with GEMJI. You can make all sorts
of different shapes, and you can see they're sticking together even though I'm only holding the one tile. So, yes, those are some really strong magnets. You can create some quite interesting structures..."
"Let's have a look at how satisfying they are just to play around with... You really start just playing around because they're just very very satisfying to mess around with and, you know, quite creative. You can create all sorts of things with them."
"They stand together quite well so you can bring them all around and make little tunnels and cubes and all sorts of things. You can make dice with them that you can roll and towers and stuff like that. So, even just as kids kind of building toys, they're quite exciting..."
"What I found interesting is that the numbers and the colors on the pack are so intuitive that it took me about two minutes to make my own game. Let me just give you a little example of a game that you can make with GEMJI."
"... I'll just end up playing the game rather than talking, which is really interesting because I kind of invented this game. Um, started playing it and found myself, sat here for like nearly an hour just playing solitaire which was really weird. Like I'd created my own game within GEMJI in a matter of seconds and I was actually really engaged with. (....) You can see how I've just started messing around and managed to make something. So that's one of the things that makes GEMJI I think really interesting."
Here's a little sneak a peak from the second game!
"The idea of the game is to match the color tiles to the color tiles on the board. I've got to match the color tiles, but now what I can't do is touch it. I have to stay behind this imaginary line and I have to flick it. So, I'm trying to flick this three to touch that white three there didn't make it..." See the full explanation at 9:05 min on Youtube.
"...They're magnetic, they slide they flick around on surfaces. When they slide, they attach. You can imagine some really interesting games with two players where you're kind of doing something a little bit more physical..."
" One of the interesting things about this piece of silver paper here is it's actually magnetic. If I place these on the board, they're now placed on a piece of magnet. (...) I could turn my tiles and move them around the board. So you know, you've always got this kind of a role-playing element in the game where you're walking around the board and you can imagine two or three players moving around."
"I'm really excited about what kind of the games might come about with GEMJI. What might happen, and that's a really important part of the experience. On the website, you can submit your own games. At the moment, you're just playing games that have been created by the GEMJI team. Whereas actually, it's going to be really interesting once you start having a bunch of user-generated games on there. So, I welcome all of you to play my solitaire game. It might be one of the games that get featured who knows."
Thank you Rob for the review, for the two great game suggestions! Keep on playing and exploring and we'd love to hear from you soon.
If you also have some reviews, feedback, game suggestion, or others, we'd love to hear those. You can find us on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.
