Big Week! After a few weeks of smaller campaigns or low numbers of projects starting, this week sees the return of Crowdfunding in a big way. 14 projects all due to start in the coming week over on Gamefound and Kickstarter. Some of these projects are eagerly anticipated; like Uluk and Fog. Others, sprung from nowhere to catch my attention including Waking Shards and Almost Innocent. If you decide to back any of these let me know in the comments.
RoboMon is an exploration-focused, story-driven, open-world game of robot combat for 1-2 players.
After a series of wars and climate events, most of the world's animals went extinct. RoboMon were invented to piece the environment and ecosystems back together. But it wasn't long before people figured out they could be reprogrammed for some pretty sweet robot battles.
You pick things up 50 years after the world has been put back together. Take on the role of a brand new RoboMon trainer exploring the world and attempting to become a fully licensed RoboMon Ranger and the greatest trainer on the planet.
Explore the book of maps, and work your way through the adventure book to complete quests, solve puzzles, and defeat gym leaders. Earn enough badges to become a fully licensed RoboMon Ranger and win the game!
Each game session can take 5 minutes or 5 hours depending on how long you want to play.
In Kinfire Chronicles: Night's Fall, a 1-4 player co-operative, quest-based RPG board game, players take on the role of seekers, adventurers who are fighting to push back the darkness threatening to change and destroy the world of Atios. The game plays as a campaign of 15+ quests, and each quest takes an average of 45-60 minutes to complete. Within each quest, players can expect to make choices related to adventures, battles, NPCs to speak to, and more. These choices create a branching story in the game, allowing the entire campaign to be repayable.
Each quest has three phases: adventuring, battle, and exploration. In the adventuring phase, players make choices based on options presented on the quest cards and need to accomplish something (such as crossing a river or chasing down a suspect) by flipping the correct number and colour of cards from their decks. In the battle phase, players work together to defeat enemies on a physical battle map. Turns are determined by drawing chits out of the destiny bag, with each enemy having numbered tokens that correspond with different attacks and actions. Players may play action cards on their own turns to do damage and can play boost cards on other players' turns to do things like reduce damage, move players, or even return a drawn chit to the destiny bag for redraw. The game doesn't end if an objective isn't achieved or an enemy defeats the heroes, but it will affect later gameplay and choice options. Lastly, on certain quests players can return to the city in the exploration phase to speak to NPCs, purchase items, and level up their decks.
Woven throughout each of these phases are cards that require you to make a choice, such as resting before moving on or charging into battle, or whether or not to spare someone's life. The characters in the game have their own set of morals and standards, and playing according to your character can earn you Kinfire tokens that help you level up. Ultimately though, the decisions you make are yours alone.
Weavlings in the Wilds is a fantasy grid-based solo game where you must capture the fauna of the Tender Wilds with trap cards and lure Weavlings back home with the promise of succulent meat. Collect 10 lured population to win the game. Receive 10 wounds, run out of traps, or lose 10 population, and the game ends.
This game can be played in a beginner, normal, and hard mode that adds additional challenges.
Bakufu is a Japanese themed 2-4 player strategic card game, with multiple paths to victory. As a "Daimyo", you will have to adapt to your enemies attempts to become Shogun before you, by making choices on which cards to buy and how to play them. War or Peace: which will you choose?
To win Bakufu, players (Daimyos) win through either getting 3 Peace Victory Points or 3 War Victory Points. Enlightenment cards can be purchased to accumulate Peace Points, and War Points can be accumulated by successfully attacking other players with Soldier cards. Additionally, players can also boost their base/castle with building cards - or purchase and play character cards to help themselves or hinder their opponents.
The game is for 2-4 players, with each game lasting 15-30 minutes. It's easy to learn, hard to master and endlessly repayable.
Daimyo - Japan needs you. Become Shogun and setup a Bakufu (military government)!
Philosophy is a relaxing, abstract 2-player game. In it, you and your fellow player are two friends having a conversation.
The board represents your conversation space, and your pieces represent your ideas. The goal of the game is simple: connect 3 of your ideas in a row anywhere on the board. This is called a Conclusion.
You’ll take turns placing your ideas onto the board, with the restriction that new tiles may only be placed in the centre nine squares. Each tile has a space that it will target with a unique effect. If placed correctly, a player's tiles can push or pull the opposing player's tiles. Moved tiles may also push neighbouring tiles or even enter into the target space of the current player's previously placed tiles, triggering chain reactions. Tiles that are eventually pushed off of the board are returned to the player that owns them. The game ends when a single player has reached a Conclusion: three of their tiles connected in a line, horizontally, vertically or diagonally.
Philosophy often feels more like a puzzle than a competitive game, as the board state grows in complexity and changes between turns. The calm theme, simple mechanics, difficult decisions, and premium production come together in a high quality experience for avid gamers and casual players alike.
Lying Pirates is a first to finish fast-paced dice game for 2-4 players (+2 with expansion)
You are the captain of your ship and the dice you have is your crew.
The game plays in a number of rounds where every round consists of three phases. Betting, sailing and action phase.
The betting phase: Inspired by the classic game Liars Dice , this poker-like mechanic will test your bluffing and probability skills.
The sailing phase: All except the loser sail forward on the map and battle for their event/tile. Some events you really want to explore and some you want to avoid at all cost.
The action phase: To aid you on your journey you'll have action cards on hand. Play these strategically to attack opponents and defend or upgrade your crew.
A fracture in the world’s balance has resulted in powerful Energy Shards dispersing all around. Ancient Guardians are waking up from their eternal slumber to fight over their possession. Amass an army of Guardians and collect the Shards to reign supreme.
Waking Shards is a portable dark fantasy card game that focuses on strategy and combos. Get victory points by recruiting Guardians and control the game by collecting Shards.
The game is played in rounds. Each round players draw a number of cards and then take turns until they empty their hands. In each turn players play one card, which can be a Unit (aka Guardian) or a Shard. When the round ends, the players with the strongest army (strongest units) wins the round. Cards are then shuffled back into the deck to start a new round but Shards stay in play. This is where strategy comes in. You want to win the current round with a strong army but you also want to collect Shards to win future rounds.
In the Age of Ambition expansion, you discover new frontiers of the Golden Era of Astronautics.
Defend the interests of your Space Power. Enlist the support of influential politicians, powerful military leaders, and renowned scientists. Overcome crises and reach your strategic goals. Launch cutting-edge spacecraft and achieve breakthroughs in research. Manage it all using your own unique talents to carry out the most daring plans.
The glorious history of space exploration unfolds over the 7 separate Modules. You add them to the game in any combination, using up to 3 Modules at a time. Each Module perfectly fits the others and creates new gaming experiences.
Solo rulebook is also included and is compatible with the new modules.
Elders say that our world is a fruit of the sacred uluk tree. No humans have ever stepped on this magical land, and you are the leaders of its hunter-gatherer tribes of sentient animals, collecting food, developing inventions, and erecting monuments in honour of the ancient gods to fulfil their spiritual needs. The winner in this competition will ensure happiness and well-being for their tribe members, and he or she will be praised as the arch leader of all the tribes!
The goal of the game is to have the most Happiness Points at the end of the sixth round (season). There are several different ways to score points, but the most important activity in the game is to send your tribe members (called here "tribes") to various spaces on the main board and take actions corresponding to them.
Uluk mostly makes use of the classic worker placement mechanics. The players send their tribes to spaces on the main board to build monuments and gather raw resources. The resources gathered are stored on each player's tribe board and may then be processed into food. Feeding your tribes brings you HPs and lets you win the game after the sixth season. A single season is divided into six phases in which the players take their actions in a clockwise order:
Errand phase - place your tribes on the main board Harvest phase - gather resources from the main board Processing phase - process raw resources from your tribe board into food Feeding phase - spend food on feeding your tribes Ecology phase - adjust the harvest levels (quantity of resources available) on the main board Clean-up phase - build monuments and prepare for the next season
Developing inventions (in the form of invention cards with different symbols) enhances the effectiveness of your food processing, and collecting sets of different symbols brings extra points at the end of the game.
RUN is a quick, tense, hidden movement game of cat-and-mouse. One player is the Runner, who is navigating a city skyline and using gadgets. Pursing him is the Dispatcher, sending her helicopter and patrol cars to hunt him down.
The Runner has a limited supply of movement tiles, so he'll need to plan ahead to not paint himself in a corner. Every movement also leaves clues for the Dispatch to deduce where he went. The Dispatch has powerful searching abilities and can call for backup if things get tough. If the Runner gets tagged twice, the game is over.
The Fog is a competitive, challenging and enthralling game with 45 to 120 minutes playing time for 1 to 6 players. It is about villagers of a lonely island who are trying in panic to reach their boats on the shore to escape the rapidly approaching mysterious, horrifying and perilous Fog that has taken over their island. The game combines tactical depth, interactive dynamics and a high variability through the islanders many different movement options and a very variable setup.
You are playing a guardian coordinating the difficult path of several self-drafted islanders towards their boats – trying to save as many of them as possible. Each turn you use the available movement points for the various movement options like running, swapping, pushing, squeezing through, jumping and crossing, to move your selected islanders towards the rescuing boats. While the beach is packed and everyone is in panic, will you stay calm and assure that your islanders reach their boats before the FOG reaches them?
For your achievements you will receive or loose rescuing points. The guardian with the most rescuing points wins the game against The Fog and the other players.
Almost Innocent is a co-operative deduction game with a progressive story in which your teammates must work together across different scenarios to prove your innocence.
Each player will be responsible for the solution of another player. Turn after turn, each player asks select questions that will help not only them, but everyone else playing as well. The goal is to find out who committed the crime, with what weapon, and where before time runs out!
Lurking behind the thin vale of sanity, ancient beings of imaginable power lurk, forever ready to bring the world to its knees. These godlike beings from beyond time and space can warp the mind, break the will, and obliterate the body. Now, as they stand against each other, the world will be plunged into a maelstrom of horror and madness. Will your hand guide the victors - or will your eternal legacy be wiped out by a being more cunning, more ruthless, and more malevolent than you?
Welcome to a world of unspeakable horror inspired by the works of Howard Phillips Lovecraft, and the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game, where beings older than time itself manifest on Earth and fight each other, as they prepare to dominate our world.
During the game, you will take on the role of an alliance of two nightmarish creatures from the Cthulhu mythos. Your cards will generate Horror that will allow you to power especially formidable abilities and effects, including summoning your Avatars to the field of battle.
At the beginning of your turn you rotate the Power Cores on the Character cards and other cards in play area, dealing damage to the opponent, gaining defence and raising horror - a special resource used for powerful actions. Then you can play up to two actions, chosen from: rotating a chosen Power Core again, playing a card (ally, ability, item or manoeuvre), drawing a card or sometimes summoning an Avatar. At the end there is an obligatory card draw. You win if you deal enough damage to the opponent's Characters or if your opponent has to draw a card from an empty deck.