After quite a bit of fine-tuning, we are excited to announce the Castle Panic Deluxe Collection pledge manager is live! We have teamed up with the kind people over at Crowd Ox to send you a simple survey in order to collect the info we need to fulfill your rewards. Invitations were sent this morning at 10:30am Eastern time.
The invitation was directly to the email address linked to your Kickstarter account. Be sure to check your spam folder in case it was captured there!
You do not need to make a login and password in order to access your survey as you will receive an email with a unique link. If you want to go back to review your info, simply click on the link in your email again.
It is important to submit the completed survey as quickly as possible in order for us to commence fulfillment.
Crowd Ox gives you the opportunity to verify your reward, and verify and validate your shipping address. On top of all that, you can also upgrade your pledge level or add additional items and add-ons to your existing pledge!
If you run into any survey related issues, you can reach out directly to the Crowd Ox team right from the bottom of the form (see image below). They are very friendly and quick to respond!
I have moved, how do I edit my address?
You can go back into your survey at any time to update your address.
If you missed out on the Kickstarter, there’s still time to get in on the fanciest version of Castle Panic we will ever create! Just hop on over to the Castle Panic Deluxe Collection pledge manager at: https://app.crowdox.com/projects/fsd/castle-panic-deluxe-collection to get started. You can choose a pledge level, input your address, and even include extra copies or add-ons in your order.
The Castle Panic Deluxe Collection campaign has ended. It’s been an amazing adventure on Kickstarter, and we are so glad to have gone on this journey with all of you. We’re very excited to bring this collector’s edition of Castle Panic and all the expansions to the tables of fans everywhere!
What’s Next?
Now that the campaign is over, we will switch our focus to finishing up the final touches before we go to production. We will be posting updates on the campaign page on Kickstarter, as well as on social media. These updates will include final graphics and minis for the new Crowns and Quests expansion, so stay tuned! We are expecting the games to be delivered to backers around the world by May of 2022.
Oh no, I missed it!
Not to worry! Late Pledges are now open and you can get there through this link. The Pledge Manager surveys will go out towards the end of June. Once the Pledge Manager opens you will be able to confirm you address as well as upgrade your pledge or include any add-ons you would like. This step will be necessary in order to complete your purchase, so keep an eye out for those surveys.
We will have copies of the Deluxe Collection for sale on our website and at conventions after the game fulfills, but they will be in extremely limited quantities. The best way to make sure you don’t miss out is to back the game now.
Thank you for your help in creating this amazing piece of Castle Panic history!
We’re thrilled to announce that My First Castle Panic has been awarded a Hot Diggity Seal of Approval!
The Hot Diggity Seal of Approval is awarded to the best products for families and pets. Their seal “signifies innovation, quality, entertainment and/or educational value, and a commitment to excellence.” Thank you to the team at Hot Diggity. We are honored to be chosen!
If you haven’t had the pleasure of seeing your preschoolers play My First Castle Panic independently for hours, you’ve got to check it out.
Learn how to play Stringamajig, our party game that’s part drawing game, part charades. You can watch the In A Nutshell video for a quick overview of the game, or dig in deeper for the full how to play video.
Either way, the game hits shelves on June 9, so you can be ready to prove to your friends you’re a String-a-ma-genius!
We are pleased to announce that Castle Panic Deluxe launches on Kickstarter June 9! The beloved, best-selling, cooperative, tower defense game hits the table like never before! Featuring all new art, deluxe components, monster minis, and plastic castle pieces, this limited edition is the ultimate version of Castle Panic!
The game includes 31 Monster minis with spinning bases to track damage as well as a full Castle!
All new art and graphic design!
Click the link below to be taken to the pre-launch page and sign up to get notified when the project goes live!
The COVID-19 outbreak has affected people in unexpected ways. We’re all trying to be careful and prevent the spread by staying home, which presents other problems. How do you stay entertained? How do you entertain the kids? This also affects stores, since people aren’t walking in and buying as much as they normally would.
This got us thinking about what we could do to help. We have the kind of product that can help get people through this kind of time, but we want to do it in a way that helps game stores.
So, while we are all being careful and protecting one another by staying home, Fireside Games is offering 25% off all products on our website. And if you name your favorite local game store in the Order Notes section, we’ll send that store 25% of your payment. We’re calling it the Play-at-Home sale and we’re hoping it can make things a little easier for families as well as our retail partners.
There’s no coupon code needed. Your discount will be automatically applied, and it’s good towards any purchase on our site, not just games.
We hope you’ll all stay safe and take care of each other in this uncertain time. We’re looking forward to when we can all get together and play games with you again. Until then, we hope this Play-at-Home sale helps your stay-at-home go a little smoother.
Trouble putting your thoughts into words? Try putting them into string!
Announcing Stringamajig, the new party game from Fireside Games that mixes the creative challenge of a drawing game with the hilarious antics of charades—with a string. The game hits stores this April, and we couldn’t be more excited!
Here’s how it works
Each player is given 60 seconds to draw a shape with a loop of string, move it around, and interact with it, trying to help other players guess that word and as many other words in the time allotted.
Choose your word by drawing the top card from the deck, which lists 4 numbered words. The word you can choose is indicated by the numbers that are on the back of the card that is now on top of the deck.
Draw your word by using the loop of string to make a shape and then interacting with it while the other players make guesses. Strum that guitar, move the tentacles on your octopus, or spin the rotors on your helicopter! The game really shines with the creative drawings and funny interactions with the string.
Score 1 point for every word that was guessed correctly, and each player scores 1 point for every correct guess they made.
Challenge words score 2 points, but are harder to draw:
2-Player: Make your drawing in the air with another player.
Don’t Look: Draw with your eyes closed.
Forbidden Word: Guessing a certain word costs you a card.
After everyone has had 2 turns as the drawer (or 1 turn in a 7+ player game), the game is over and the player with the most points wins.
Stringamajig is laugh-out-loud fun for 4-10 players, ages 13 and up, plays in 20 minutes, and retails for $19.95. Get this game on your table and see which of your friends is a Stringamagenius.
Today marks the official 10-year anniversary for Castle Panic! Ten years ago today Castle Panic first hit store shelves and launched not only a new game on the market but a wild adventure for us. Of course, we’d been working on the game for years. I started tinkering with the idea for Castle Panic back in the early 2000’s, but it was only a side interest then.
The early versions of Castle Panic were rather primitive . . .
When we finally realized the potential for Castle Panic, we formed Fireside Games and released the game. I still remember getting that first box of sample games from the factory, I was so excited that I cracked it open and immediately texted a photo to Anne-Marie. I was like, “Holy cow, this is really happening!” And I was more than a little nervous.
Sample games arrive!
We knew we had something special with all the testing and feedback we’d received over the years of working on our tower defense game, but we weren’t quite prepared for just how much players would be enthralled with defending a cardboard castle. Our first print run (which we thought would last us for at least 3 years) sold out in about 10 weeks and left us scrambling to catch up.
We celebrated the launch of the game at one of our favorite local game stores, Wonko’s Toys & Games. Eric and Denise made us feel super welcome and became great friends as well.
We had old friends and new show up to our big release party!
Once the game was actually available, the rest became a whirlwind of managing press, scheduling reprints and keeping up with all the great feedback we were getting. People loved the game from the start. One of the neat things that happened early on was when Scott Nicholson featured Castle Panic on his vlog “Board Games with Scott.”
This was back when board game reviews were still kind of a new thing, and Scott giving us high praise like he did was amazing and really helped spread the word on our game.
Castle Panic was then featured on Season 1 of TableTop and has gone on to win multiple awards, all while continuing to make hundreds of thousands of people happy—if not a little panicked.
The next few years had us working hard on expansions. The first to be released was The Wizard’s Tower, which let me introduce fun ideas like magic and fire to the base game. After that, I wanted to introduce a really big villain to the game and that turned into Agranok, the nemesis featured in The Dark Titan expansion. The third expansion was inspired by the idea of letting players build traps and weapons they could use anywhere on the board. That evolved into Engines of War with some terrible monsters to balance it all out, of course.
In addition to expanding on the world of Castle Panic, we took the game in whole new directions with our variations. Almost as soon as we released Castle Panic, we had fans requesting a zombie version of the game. It took a while to get all the elements to work the way I wanted them to, but Dead Panic ended up being a really fun, cinematic twist on our original game.
A few years later, we partnered with our friends at Steve Jackson Games and got to work on MunchkinPanic. This time, Anne-Marie worked on mixing the “all-for-one” spirit of Castle Panic with the “all-for-me” attitude of Munchkin, and the result was a hilarious take on a cooperative game that includes plenty of backstabbing.
It wasn’t long after that when we started talking with USAopoly about a licensing opportunity that turned out to be part of celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the original Star Trek. As a big fan of all things Trek, it was a real treat to be able to blend that amazing world with the tense gameplay of Castle Panic. I’m very proud of how Star Trek Panic turned out, especially when I hear from fans that we did the license right.
As part of celebrating the 10-year mark, we’ve come up with some fun new additions to the world of Castle Panic as well. First, we released My First Castle Panic, a preschool version of the game that doesn’t require any reading but still provides that “all-for-one” sense of excitement.
Next up, we put the base game and all the expansions together in one box along with a sweet insert and all the promo items we’ve ever made. The Castle Panic Big Box was released in July and has already made a lot of gamers happy.
And for fans who already have all the games but want a cool place to put them, we are running a pre-order for the Castle Panic Big Box BOX. It’s the same box from the Big Box, but it only includes the insert, promo items, and updated rulebook, so you can fill it with all the castle goodness you already have.
That pre-order will end on September 30th, so if you’re interested, there’s still time to get your own box!
Another long-awaited item that’s new for this anniversary year is the Castle Panic Playmat. This neoprene mat is sturdy and easy to store, with a non-slip bottom to make sure it stays in place. It’s the same size as the actual game board and features the same art, so it’s a great way to enhance your game or replace a worn board.
Mmmm . . . rubbery playmat
The last item for this year is the 2019 International TableTop Day Promo Tower. We’ve been making a special tower every year for the last 5 years now and each one brings a special ability to your game. This year’s tower lets you move all monsters in the same arc as the tower back to the forest when that tower is destroyed. Good stuff!
The best news is that we are nowhere near finished building the world of Castle Panic! We’ve got new games coming out next year to bring even more panic to your table, and we’ll be sharing more info on those as soon as we nail down the details.
We couldn’t have done it without you, our fans, and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for making this game the success that it is. Thank you, and good luck defending the castle!
We’re thrilled with the reception that Grackles has received at Origins and Gen Con and can’t wait for everyone to have it in hand! Grackles releases September 5! Ask your local game store if you can grab a copy.
In a Nutshell Video
To learn a bit about the game before you pick up your copy, check out this video.
How-to-Play Video
To learn how to play before you pick up your copy, check outthis video.
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For retailers, we have our marketing kit for Grackles as well as all our other games on our retailer page.
The reviews for Remnants are coming in, and people are really enjoying the real-time dice-rolling in this post-apocalyptic world! But we’ll let them do the talking. We’ve pulled out a summary quote from each review and followed it up with a link to the full review for your perusal. Enjoy!
“Remnants provides an excellent tabletop experience. Looting and scavenging are well designed, and the addition of managing and recruiting specialist survivors is very welcome. There’s enough here to feel crunchy and deep without being overwhelming.”
“For fans of delicious decisions, there is a lot of thought and planning required. [. . .] It is still early in our plays, but Remnants is my favorite Fireside Game so far. Remnants has a great theme, good artwork, and two of my favorite mechanisms (real time dice-rolling and card purchase from a market) done well. The tension from building up your compound to withstand the attacks every other round is palpable, and the end game is very satisfying. Throw in the competitive point scoring, and this hits a lot of marks for me.”
“You go from frantic dice rolling to calm tactical decision making regularly, which was thrilling to me and actually made the theme a little more immersive.”
“Remnants is a very good game that I absolutely can recommend if you hit 2 to 4 players routinely. [. . .] I’m going to be keeping it, it’s going to be going onto my shelf. Easy to learn, easy to teach, overall, very good game.”
“I enjoyed this game. It was easy enough rules wise that I could pick it up on the run, but it was challenging enough that I had to take some serious moments considering my actions. I’m pretty happy to play this game and I think that Fireside has done a good job at making a more serious game. [. . .] I think with the mechanic additions, and the great post-apocalyptic setting it’ll be a great addition to anyone’s board game closet.”
“Remnants is fun to play. I enjoyed the tension of trying to scavenge the materials I needed to pursue my strategy, and alternating between building up my outpost and preparing for the next attack (with those attacks getting stronger as the game goes on) kept things interesting.”
We’ve been excitedly anticipating the release of Remnants and happily sharing what we’ve received from the printer. Sadly, we now have to share a disappointing bit of news from the printer. There has been an unforseen shipping delay getting Remnants on the boat, which has caused a ripple effect and pushed the street date to July 25. We’ll have demos and pre-orders available at Origins Game Fair, and we’ll get those copies shipped out as soon as they hit the warehouse. We’ll continue to share bits about Remnants on social media and post the how-to-play video soon, so stay tuned!
Don’t forget, if you buy from us or from retailers with Launch Kits, you’ll get the Giant Scorpion promo card.
Here some early reviews of Remnants to give you a hint of all of the post-apocalyptic fun you’re in for.
We’re also pushing back the street date for Grackles, which will now hit stores September 5, to allow for more time to manufacture the cool bird tokens. We’ll have demos and pre-orders at Origins and Gen Con and will ship those out as soon as possible as well.
The Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design has just announced the nominees for the 2018 Origins Awards and we are incredibly excited to say that Hotshots has been nominated in the Family Games category!
It’s an honor to have our game recognized and we couldn’t be more proud of those brave, little, cardboard, firefighting heroes! They’re in some good company too. It turns out several of our games have also been nominated for the Origins Award including: Castle Panic, Bears!, The Wizard’s Tower, and The Dark Titan (which won the fan favorite award in 2016!)
We’ll see how it all works out at the Origins Game Fair coming up in June, and don’t forget, attendees to the show can vote for their Fan Favorite in each category!
Congratulations to all the nominees! You can see all of them in every category here.
We’re thrilled to be celebrating our 3rd annual International Panic Day! What started out as a funny way of observing a silly holiday has turned into a great way of sharing the love of Castle Panic.
This year, we are celebrating on June 2 with new Castle Panic Event Kits. Each kit supports 16 players and offers 3 different game formats: casual play, team play, and scenario play.
Casual play is noncompetitive and offers new players the opportunity to learn this evergreen, cooperative game.
Team play provides a group competitive experience in which teams add up slain monsters to win prizes.
Scenario play offers a unique, exclusive way to play Castle Panic. In this format, 2 teams play head-to-head in Nightmare Mode, throwing their slain monsters into the forest of the competing team. The goal is to have the last tower standing. And it is a fast blast!
Each participant receives a new promo card. Team and scenario play winners receive exclusive suede Monster bags (as does the Event Coordinator). Runners up go home with Monster-eye game totes. And the person who most contributes to the spirit of the event is awarded the Defender of the Realm pin.
Kits include the rewards listed above as well as event instructions, an event sign-up sheet, and 2 demo copies of Castle Panic. An Add-On Kit is also available without the demo copies. Retailers may contact distributors for pricing and to place orders.
For retailers and distributors, we also have the following marketing assets here.
images of the kit contents
web banners
shelf-talker (to place below Castle Panic)
Facebook ads (with and without text)
1920×1080 in-store TV ads
Hope to see you at your local game store this June 2 to celebrate!
It’s that time again! The 2018 International Tabletop Day is April 28, and Fireside Games has joined with Geek & Sundry to bring you a promo pack to help celebrate.
Each pack includes the new 2018 International Tabletop Day Tower for Castle Panic and 9 or our best-loved promos for $9.95 MSRP to retailers only. This is a $50 value!
Orders are due March 16 and can be placed with these participating distributors:
Hotshots is an exciting game that depicts real life danger and heroism. On September 6, the official release date, we’ll be taking a moment to honor the many firefighters who risk their lives to protect our families and communities. To express our gratitude, we invite you to join us in making a donation to one of the following charities.
This is the official charity for the Granite Mountain Hotshots, 19 of whom gave their lives to protect Yarnell, Arizona, on June 30, 2013. You can read more about their sacrifice on these websites:
This organization supports wildland firefighters and their families across the United States, especially to provide financial support to families immediately after a tragedy and to provide long-term grief recovery.
We’re taking to the road on our Smash and Burn Tour! Join us in person or through social media as we visit 16 stores in the Midwest. We’ll be demoing our new releases, Hotshots and Kaiju Crush, and giving out promos. It’ll be a great opportunity to meet Justin De Witt, designer of Castle Panic, Hotshots, and more. Bring in your favorite Fireside Games, and he’ll be happy to sign them. You might also make it into our store videos! For more information on the games, check out these links:
For more information on the games, check out these links: