Floodgate Games

Building Upon A Classic

By Ian Birdsall Marketing & Brand Management, Off Duty Ninja

Construction on the Sagrada Familia began in 1882. Over its 150 years of continued construction, it has become one of the most well-known pieces of architecture in the world. While the main cathedral was opened to the public years ago, the final work on the three great facades continues. Likewise, the three Great Facades expansions to Sagrada the board game aim to expand on the core gameplay of Sagrada with additional flourishes. Passion, Life, and Glory, set to be released in early 2022. These will complete the set of the Sagrada: Great Facades expansions, well ahead of the real-life cathedral’s timeline.

Passion was released in 2019 as the first of the Great Facades expansions to Sagrada. Like each of the others, Passion includes three modules that can be added individually or all together depending on the type of game you’re in the mood for. The most striking addition of this expansion is the addition of the Rare Glass Dice. These silver-colored dice coincide with new scoring options and are coupled with additional window and symmetry objective cards. Inspiration cards offer each player an ability to use during play that mirrors the public tools, adding even more flexibility to the dice placement. The first, but not the last, Passion is a great addition to Sagrada.

Next in the series, Life added something completely unique to Sagrada. For the first time, players could draft dice that had no numerical value! These Masterwork Dice offer players additional scoring opportunities if they take on the added challenge of satisfying the die’s restrictions. Toil public objectives can be added to throw a twist on end game scoring objectives, but the Apprentice Cards may be the quiet heroes of the Life expansion. Apprentice Cards can be obtained directly from fulfilling specific window spaces on an all-new set of Sagrada Windows that players can select at the beginning of the game. Offering bold new abilities, the Apprentice cards can be single or multi-use, making their abilities highly prized.

Completing the Great Facades expansions to Sagrada is no easy feat. Like the fabled cathedral, the final piece must be impressive indeed. The Glory expansion is scheduled to release in early 2022. Like the two previous expansions, Glory will include three new modules to mix and match for each game. Still putting the finishing touches on this final expansion, Floodgate Games is planning on including more player interaction options in Glory. If it’s anything like the first two, this final installment to the Great Facades expansions will be as highly prized as it is anticipated by Sagrada fans everywhere.

To help retailers introduce new customers to the Sagrada family of games, Floodgate Games has created an eye-catching point of purchase display for stores to showcase these titles. With room for Sagrada, the 5 & 6 Player expansion, Passion, Life, and soon Glory, game stores and retailers will have an easy go-to when customers ask for their next family-friendly game.

Sagrada fans are a loyal bunch - when introduced to new content for their favorite game, they’re excited to try it! Simply ask your distributor about this display wherever you acquire Floodgate Games products.

Progress Update from GAMA’s Diversity Committee

By Mark Diaz Truman, Magpie Games & Chair of GAMA’s Diversity Committee

Last year, our industry faced what seemed to be an endless cascade of challenges: a global pandemic cancelled our conventions and shut down most retailers, while a muchneeded call for racial justice prompted many in our industry to reexamine how little had been done to make the hobby games industry a diverse and inclusive community. Sometimes it felt like a decade of history was being slammed into a single, challenging year.

While GAMA tried to meet those challenges and support GAMA’s membership, it was clear in June of 2020 that on issues of diversity and inclusion— especially regarding racial justice—GAMA was still falling short. Specifically, GAMA appeared to waffle on supporting the Black Lives Matter protests, alienating many partners and allies, and then ultimately cancelled Origins Online in the wake of the backlash.

As a Latinx designer and publisher, I was deeply hurt and frustrated to watch GAMA’s staff and board make these mistakes on these important issues. I know our industry can do better, and I was shocked to see the cascade of failures that led to Origins Online’s cancellation. There are times in which I doubt that I am truly welcome as a professional in our industry, and I had hoped GAMA would never give me reason to question my inclusion.

Even still, I was unwilling to give up on GAMA’s potential to be a positive force for change. I attended the town halls GAMA held in response to the Origins cancellation, and I was surprised and encouraged by both the number of members who showed up, and by the staff and board’s willingness to listen to criticism. It felt to me that the failures of the past might just light the spark the organization needed to make changes for the future.

One of those changes, of course, is the establishment of the official Diversity Committee, an effort pioneered by board members such as Nicole Lindroos and others who believe that diversity programs are a real opportunity for positive change. I was proud to join the Diversity Committee last year, and I’m equally proud to report to the membership on our progress so far.

Our Work

At our first meeting in January 2021, I agreed to take on the role of Chairperson of the committee; we have since had monthly and bi-monthly meetings over the last four months to establish a community-led strategy to expand diversity and inclusion within GAMA and the broader industry. After recruiting a diverse group of leaders— retailers, publishers, and professionals from many different communities within our industry—we’re now working on three distinct pathways:

Nurturing New Voices: We believe that one of the main obstacles to success for new industry professionals from underrepresented and marginalized communities is a lack of support and mentorship for their work, and a lack of awareness that GAMA exists. We have begun working to connect new retailers and publishers to coaches—successful industry leaders—and peer mentors, hoping to see GAMA’s membership expand to include new companies and designers who would not otherwise find successful careers.

Educating GAMA Members: In concert with the Education Advisory Committee, the Diversity Committee is excited to help design educational modules for GAMA members to help them understand diversity and inclusion practices that will strengthen their businesses and secure opportunities for marginalized people across our industry. We hope to see GAMA become a wellspring of resources for members as we all work to transform existing institutions to seize

the opportunities diversity makes possible.

GAMA Accountability: GAMA itself—as both an institution and a collection of member organizations—must change to both meet the needs of the current membership and to create an inclusive environment that represents our collective values. It is this committee’s role and responsibility to hold GAMA’s leadership and staff accountable to handle issues of diversity and inclusion with more forward-thinking activity, and we are dedicating time and resources toward pushing GAMA on its communication, activities, and commitments moving forward. GAMA is not sitting idly by while we do the work on these issues. In addition to the two staff members to support our work—Melissa Jacobs (Education & Diversity Manager) and Paul McGraw (Events

Manager)—GAMA has committed $20,000 to the above initiatives. We hope to do additional fundraising within the industry to expand these programs, but

GAMA’s commitment to us and our work is precisely why I feel like this is a place from which we can make real change.

How You Can Help

If this work is appealing to you and you believe that you have energy, expertise, and experience to offer the committee, please reach out to our staff liaison at melissa.jacobs@gama.org and let us know that you’d like to be a part of our work. The most beautiful part of community work is that there is no contribution too small to matter, and many of our best ideas will come from those who bring fresh eyes—and a great deal of passion! —to old problems.

The structure of our committee has already taken shape, but we are eager to talk to new folks because there is still so much left to decide and act upon. We have put a focus on prioritizing leaders from underrepresented groups so far, but this work is something all of us must do together. If you care about expanding diversity in our industry and GAMA’s role within that expansion, please reach out to us and let us know you want to help.

I have no illusions about the difficulty and challenges of the work ahead of us; diversity and inclusion are easy buzzwords to throw into a mission statement without really making any serious change. But I also know that the second-best time to plant a tree is today! We cannot hope that the work of diversity is done for us.

We have to do it ourselves.

GAMA is a member-driven organization that has the potential to shape our industry for decades to come; I hope you join us in seizing upon the opportunity to shape GAMA and its diversity and inclusion efforts alongside us. mark@magpiegames.com