Catalyst Game Labs had a great 2009 GTS experience and the Catalyst booth was constantly busy both days. Most importantly, however, is that all of the retailers stopping at the booth asked pertinent, intelligent questions and were expressing interest not only in the staples of BattleTech and Shadowrun but showed interest for everything that Catalyst Game Labs has to offer in the coming year.

Undoubtedly it was the coming release of Catalyst Game Labs’ casual game line (comprised of board and card games) that was the star of the show. Three card games—Paparazzi, High School Drama and Merchants (a Reiner Knizia game)—will be part of that launch, each with a fun, quick play style. The unique packaging for all three designs garnered a host of attention.

At the end of the day, however, Balance of Power, Catalyst Game Labs’ first casual board game, walked away with the most buzz. Set in the Napoleonic era, it has easy to learn rules. As several self-proclaimed “board game snobs” attending stated, “the depth of play for Balance of Power is subtle but huge, with a lot of strategy and great re-playability”. And if that weren’t enough, the map is an eye-catching, beautiful piece of graphic design; perfect for snagging new players’ attention at a table.

The digital proofs of the anniversary edition of Shadowrun Fourth Edition caught a lot of attention, as did the nearly three foot panoramic illustration of Seattle for the new Shadowrun Gamemaster screen found in the Runner’s Toolkit. The coming of a new series of linked adventures, and a deluxe full-color Seattle 2072 hardcover book also generated a lot of eager comments.

The massive stack of digital proofs that was Strategic Operations elicited a lot of retailer questions, mainly from their customers: where’s the book?!  Strategic Operations—along with all of Catalyst operations—ran afoul of the closing of WizKids and ended up stuck for several months. It’s been completely unstuck and the printer is hard at work on getting this one out. Talk of the 25 Years of Art & Fiction deluxe coffee table book, along with a 25th anniversary Introduction Box Set with new cover art and high quality board-game style playing maps in place of the current paper sheets also had retailers excited.

With two supporting products out for the CthulhuTech RPG (Vade Mecum and Dark Passions) and digital proofs of Damnation View—the third release beyond the core rulebook—for retailers to flip through, the game line is continuing to pick up speed and a lot of interest.

Catalyst Game Labs was also excited to talk about our new immersive universe and all-new roleplaying game, Eclipse Phase. This transhuman conspiracy and horror setting spiked a lot of interest, especially in the more unusual roleplaying aspects that bring a unique flavor to this hard science fiction RPG.

Leviathans—an alternate history miniatures game of air fleet battles set in 1910—also had a lot of retailers excited. While there were no game mechanics to show off, a folder with a dozen concept illustrations and a box cover illustration from Doug Chaffee got high marks across the board.

Catalyst would like to extend a giant round of thanks to all those retailers that swung by the booth and kept us so busy with your interest and superb questions. We hope to see you next year (as well as any that weren’t able to make it to our booth this year)!

In the coming days Catalyst Game Labs will release more in-depth reviews and information focused on various aspects of our game lines described in short above.

Lake Stevens WA – Catalyst Game Labs is offering retailers the ability to sell PDF and other downloads to their customers beginning this summer. Retailers will be able to register with the Catalyst Game Labs Retail Support website, giving them access to electronic sales, listing in the upcoming retailer locator, and other special services.

“The technology exists to offer this service to retailers,” says David Stansel-Garner, Operations Manager for Catalyst Game Labs, “and Catalyst Game Labs feels that the investment in technology to implement this new system is an investment well made.”

Retailers will be able to offer PDFs to their customers using nothing more than a standard internet connection. In addition, retailers can choose to participate in the pre-order “Print + PDF bundles” — getting access to sell electronic files at the exact same time Catalyst puts them on sale.

LAKE STEVENS, Wash., Thursday, April 2 -

Catalyst Game Labs, LLC, and Pinata Games, Inc., have resumed a strategic alliance, previously announced last December.  While the former partnership was based on a bid for the WizKids portfolio of properties, the current alliance focuses on the release of new games.

Catalyst, the master license holder of the Shadowrun and BattleTech properties, will develop and distribute a series of new games with Pinata managing the production and vendor relations for those new releases.

“The same synergies that existed between our two companies are still relevant today,” said David Stansel-Garner, Catalyst Operations Manager.  “While we didn’t have a chance to collaborate on the WizKids’ properties, we are excited to develop our new game titles with Pinata’s support.”

Properties developed under this collaboration will launch as Catalyst Game Lab products and will be available through Catalyst’s distribution channels.

“Catalyst has a talent for producing high-quality RPGs and published content,” said Jake Theis, CSO of Pinata Games.  “With Pinata providing production, licensing, and vendor management assistance, we hope to expand Catalyst’s portfolio of products into board games, fixed deck card games, and potentially, collectible games.  Several months ago, we were excited about Catalyst’s future, and the same holds true now.”

Catalyst plans to announce their new game properties shortly, and will have several new products in stores later this year.