Gold Mine Wins Prestigious Awards   Since 1971, The Toy Man® Product Guide has been serving the industry with unbiased evaluations of the latest products for children and families. Recently, The Toy Man® evaluated Stratus Games' family-friendly tile laying game, Gold Mine, through an extensive and thorough review process. Notable scholars and consumers alike were involved in the evaluation, which included "random public hands-on evaluation, independent evaluator reports, analysis of functionality and psychological response results in addition to multiple other evaluation elements." So, what were the results?
Gold Mine scored the highest possible rating of a 5-star average across all of the evaluation categories (creative agenda, fun quotient, learning curve, marketability, skill improvement and overall visual appeal, to name a few). In addition, it stood out as one of the best products the evaluators had seen all year and was given numerous awards. The following are excerpts from the evaluation summary: "Gold Mine is an absolute winner in our book. If you are looking for a game that has the same level of excitement every time you play as the very first, then Gold Mine is what you are looking for." - The Toy Man® "[Gold Mine] pushes the players into developing greater creative strategies to improve and win with each game. The creative agenda of Gold Mine demonstrates recognition of the significance of experience, active thought processing, and executive cognitive functioning in learning and recreational entertainment...With each game played, a clear cut exploration pattern of each and every facet of the game ensues. This is the kind of game that is not only entertaining, but rekindles the flame of desire for the challenge in recurrent yet constantly evolving competitive strategy development." - Professor of Organization and Strategy (name withheld) "This game helps to encourage problem solving and many other developmental skills through abstract symbolic and spatial reasoning, matching and sorting. The game demonstrates its greatest value in how it contributes to an individual's basic mental abilities used to think, study, and learn with each tile piece and the tile pieces together in general....This game exercises the task to recall information from memory, make associations between different pieces of information, and maintain concentration on specific tasks to complete the game whether winner or not." - Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Ph. D., E. D. (name withheld) For the consumer evaluation, Gold Mine was demonstrated to the public at a multi-screen theater in northern California and surveys were collected to score the evaluation. The following are excerpts regarding this event: "Not once, twice or even three times, but 11 different times over the two day period at the theater, people missed their movies because they were so engrossed in playing Gold Mine!" - The Toy Man® "Never have I had so much fun with a game...thank you for the opportunity to play it." - Evaluation participant As a result of the extremely positive evaluation, Gold Mine has received all of the following awards from The Toy Man® Product Guide (click on any award image for more details):  | The Toy Man® Seal of Approval Since 1971 "The Toy Man® Seal of Approval" has served as an emblem and standard for professional recognition of a product or online service having met the globally recognized evaluation standards of The Toy Man® Product Guide. |  | The Toy Man® Award of Excellence The recipients of this award have achieved an evaluation category rating average of [5] Stars, the highest level of rating available on a 1-5 scale evaluation model. The average is based upon the overall average from all applicable evaluation categories, not just the 6 evaluation categories featured in this summary. |  | The Toy Man® eChoice Award An emblem of recognition for products and online services that contribute substantially to positive skill growth and/or productivity.
This distinguished award is exclusive as well as unique, with the editor's signature which represents a product being selected as an editorsChoice. |  | Quarter 4 Top Ten Award (2010) Recognition as one of the top 10 products evaluated in a quarter. The recipients are "selected by our independent evaluators as the [products] that pave the way for others to follow. These are the inductees that set the bar which encourages those to follow to match or exceed." |  | Fifty Best Products Award (2010) Recognition as one of the top 50 products evaluated in a calendar year. |
For more information about Gold Mine, click here. To read the full evaluation summary, click here. Stratus Sphere Rewards Club: Join the Fun!  Stratus Games recently launched a private club, Stratus Sphere, that will allow fans to join in on the game development process by playtesting games, filling out surveys, and attending events. Each task that is carried out by a club member earns reward points, which can be cashed in for free games and prizes!
To join, users need to sign up for an account on the Stratus Sphere website (limit one account per household). If approved, the account will be activated and the club member can begin earning points right away toward the prizes listed under "Products" on the Stratus Sphere website. All current reward opportunities are published to members periodically via the Stratus Sphere email newsletter. Stratus Sphere members must be U.S. residents. "Eruption" Sneak Peek Stratus Games' latest game is an exciting volcano-themed board game where players defend their villages from scorching hot lava flows. Players build walls near their villages in an attempt to stop the lava and protect their homes. The inhabitants of the villages surrounding a dormant volcano were happily living their lives in peace, until — KABOOM! — the old volcano sprung back to life, spewing molten lava in every direction and blasting volcanic rock into the sky. The villages, now faced with sudden annihilation, must do whatever they can to protect themselves from the incoming surge of lava.
Your village is about to burn up — can you take the heat? Cover artwork for this game is currently being designed, with component designs to follow. Playtesting is still underway for the finishing touches of the game. To sign up for playtesting, join Stratus Sphere and look for further details in the next email newsletter. | 
