April 29, 2001

Celebrate!
Oh, we people from Don & Co have plenty of reasons to celebrate! As you may have noticed, the new GIPF-site has been put on line! A good reason to celebrate. The reason why we have restyled the site, is a second reason to celebrate: we did it to celebrate that GIPF was initially released on April 21, 1997. This mean that GIPF celebrates it's 5th birthday. And to celebrate that, we have yet another reason to celebrate: Project GIPF goes on! Feel free to join our euphoric mood!

The name is DVONN…
The Fourth game of Project GIPF is called DVONN. I assume that quite a few will ask themselves again: why such a name? The answer is simple: because the previous 3 already had such names. Don't look for any other explanation. DVONN means absolutely nothing; it is just the sound you hear when you say it aloud. You don't succeed in saying it aloud? Come on! Just try a bit harder! Shout: DVONN!

… and it is on its way…
Don & Co, who initially published GIPF as an independent, is now independent again and shall release DVONN later this year, most likely in the beginning of September. In North America Jay Tummelson will publish the game under his own Rio Grande Games brand, just like he already did with ZČRTZ. There's an agreement with Harald Bilz that Heidelberg will carry the game as a wholesaler in Germany, and GIPF and TAMSK, too. Normally Piatnik will do the same in Austria, Swiss Games in Switzerland, 999 Games in The Netherlands, and Tradition in Sweden. Concerning ZČRTZ in Germany, a decision will be made in consultation with Schmidt Spiele later this year.
DVONN is, of course, an abstract strategy game for 2 players. Just as GIPF did, it picks up the tradition again of just a board and pieces - no more, no less. So, it must be clear to everybody by now: yet again a fashionable game that fits perfectly well in the current marketing and promotion trends! (And there's no room for discussion about this!)
In Europe the advised retail price will probably be around 25 Euro.


… and the DVONN potentials, too!
There's will be no free DVONN-potentials enclosed in the box. Nonetheless, the potentials will become available as soon as possible. In spite of the doubts that many have expressed in articles about the games of the Project, we remain convinced that the potentials add a lot of value to GIPF, in particular when they are used as pieces in their own right (i.e. without using them to combine games, since combining games is only meant for the fanatics). Our first concern is, of course, the release of DVONN, but meanwhile we're also working on GIPF Set 2, that will contain 6 white and 6 black ZČRTZ-potentials, and 6 white and 6 black DVONN-potentials. (And there also might be a special surprise in it, but it is too soon to say something about that yet…) We will try to have Set 2 ready by the games fair in Essen, Germany (that is: the end of October), unfortunately this is not a firm promise yet. You'll be informed about the definite date of release in due time.

 


GIPF, TAMSK, ZÈRTZ, DVONN and YINSH ® & © Don & Co NV. Content © Kris Burm. All rights reserved.