News Flash: Victory Point Games Christmas Sale, Lanterns Expansion Hits App Store

Victory Point Games Christmas Sale
The game company has announced their 12 Games of Christmas sale. "Starting December 1st, ten selected games (and two bundles) from our catalogue will be going on sale at a 20% discount! Each game will remain on sale until December 26th ... thus, The Twelve Games of Christmas!"
Source: http://www.victorypointgames.com/news/christmas-sale-announcement/

Lanterns Expansion for App
Lanterns: The Emperor’s Gifts has hit the digital adaptation of Lanterns: The Harvest Festival, an expansion whose physical counterpart won't hit stores until January 4th. "Lanterns: The Emperor’s Gifts expands upon the base game with Pavilions, Emperor Cards, Wild Lanterns, and Gifts to make this the best Harvest Festival yet!"
Source: http://www.direwolfdigital.com/the-emperors-gifts-comes-to-lanterns/ 

Early Bird Badge Registration is Open for Origins 2017
Registering early and online gets you a discount. "By registering your badge online early, you can enjoy Early Bird badge pricing and avoid long line waits onsite by picking up your badge at any pre-registration counter."
Source: http://originsgamefair.com/registration/

Victory Point Games Discontinuing Bagged Versions of Their Games
Victory Point Games has announced that they will no longer be producing bagged versions of their boxed games after December 31.
Source: http://www.victorypointgames.com/news/polybag-discontinue/

The Telegraph Recommends Their Favorite Games of the Year
With 2016 wrapping up, the Telegraph lists their favorite new releases. "This past year has been an outstanding one for board games, with all manner of new table-top games arriving on the scene. Some are quick and easy to pick up, others come with rule books that resemble lengthy literary offerings."
Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/christmas/2016/12/11/best-new-board-games-2016/

Balancing Board Games
In an interesting look into the development of a game, Monsoon Publishing talks about the work that went into keeping their game, Iberian Rails, balanced. "After four years of development, Iberian Rails is finally live on Kickstarter. The development process involved dozens of playtesters over hundreds of playtests. Here are five things we did to balance the game."
Source: https://www.facebook.com/notes/monsoon-publishing/5-things-we-did-to-bal...

Asmodee Interviews Citadels Team
An interview with Bruno Faidutti, Steve Kimball, and Alex Ortloff has been posted on the Asmodee website.
Source: https://www.asmodee.us/en/news/2016/12/5/constructing-citadels/

Board Games, Rock Music, and Surgery
A study was recently run in which people played the classic board game Operation while rock music played. "They found that men concentrated the least when listening to rock music and the most when listening to classical music, while women in general took longer to remove the organs but made fewer mistakes and seemed less distracted by the rock music."
​Source: http://time.com/4599007/rock-music-operation-board-game/