Shiny Games is an online games store focusing on bringing the best and brightest miniature skirmish and role playing games to the UK and Europe. Shiny Games was started with the intention of highlighting great games that were yet to gain the popularity they deserved amongst the gaming community. Equally, many of these games provided a brighter experience than the grim and dark leaders in the miniature wargaming and role playing fields.
The idea of Shiny Games was conceived during a campaign of one such grim and dark game.
In the Beginning, there was Grim Darkness…
Grim and dark miniature wargames are a lot of fun, and we at Shiny Games were playing in just such a campaign when it became increasingly clear that not all the players were enjoying it equally. The game favoured those who knew it best to a significant extent and the more casual miniature gamers struggled to remain enthusiastic. Equally, the number of miniatures involved was getting increasingly difficult to prepare for games. The campaign was feeling increasingly like a job rather than a hobby, and not a job that made you popular with your friends.
So I began to look at other games to take my mind off the campaign, and I’m not afraid to admit that bright, colourful miniatures were amongst the main features I was looking for. Games that didn’t involve too many miniatures appealed, and ones that would work for casual gamers too; I don’t mean casual as in “I played Risk once”, but people that liked lots of different games and had other things that took up their brain power too.
So I found games that met these simple criteria, often games that you had to search for information on, and weren’t always easy to get hold of. Some of them I’d seen before, but hadn’t really paid attention to; they were too original to be instantly relatable, and so I’d just moved on.
…And Then There was Shiny Games
And so we decided to create Shiny Games and shed some light on these games that needed to be seen more clearly. We’re not anti-grim, dark games (and we can probably get them for you if you want) but they seem to be doing just fine at the moment without our help.
We’re creating a place where these games can be bought alongside all the information you’ll want when you start playing them. If there are free rules available to get you started, or cheap scenery options that will enhance your game, then you can get to them from here. You shouldn’t have to scour the internet for card protectors that match your faction, or specific miniatures you can’t buy in the UK and yet all your opponents seem to use them.
Welcome to Shiny Games, we hope you like what you see here.