Below is a selection of games that stood out to us while browsing kickstarter.com.
Backing a project can be a great thing, but please do the research on a game before you put money into it. Happy exploring!
Miniatures Games
Role-Playing Games
Other Board Game Related Projects
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@Account Deletion I feel the same as you about Bunnies vs Zombies. Shame of it is that it would be a game I would probably love. So Ameritrashy it was right up my street. 🙂 They had one major problem – anytime I saw them mentioned on the Dark Interwebs in half a breath there was a mention of Zombicide Season 3. Not really helpful for them.
But with the initial endorsement from Soda Pop and SDE and their campaign set up with the Bunny Shop it looks like what they wanted was akin to the recent March Mini Madness. They really didn’t have an $80 campaign but wanted a $150+ Endgame plan and when they didn’t Floodgate Fund in the First 48 they floundered a bit and then pulled the plug because they foresaw mainly the base game without the necessary upfund unlocks being released. Bad Taste Territory.
It is a shame about Rive though because they weren’t doing anything wrong aside from not being 100% launch ready and having an impossible product vs funding goal. 🙁 They could have just ran the campaign out and increased their mailing list.
@Bit and Bot But that’s $70 for pretty much 150 individual dice – that’s Dice Craziness
@Budgie I’m doing an all-in for Dungeon Dice also and have good faith in it because they are running a good campaign…and not just with loot in my opinion. KS reboots should take a page from them. First time out they were totally eclipsed by Dungeon Roll (who can’t seem to put out a half dozen cards now) and cancelled. They just didn’t roll back the odometer and put up the same campaign two weeks later. They took some time and restructured and came back fighting – basically wiping the first campaign and Dungeon Roll from everyone’s mind. Then they put out a product and let it settle and make some noise and THEN let it drive this current campaign for not only the expansion but their initial product as well. A good KS is like a fire – you need Fuel (The Product) and Oxygen (The Campaign) and if you handle both well enough the Backers will bring The Heat.
I didn’t get in on Dungeon Dice, but it looks intriguing now. However, $70 for a bunch of dice is a bit steep. Arrg, decisions.
On the other hand, $80 for a Catan board? I like Catan and all, but paying twice the entry price to keep the hexes from moving really sounds like overkill to me. Each to their own I suppose.
Finally bit the $125 bullet and backed Dungeon Dice: Guilds on the day that they were doubling pledges toward stretch goals. I never played the original but I keep hearing great things and they’ve run a professional campaign with all the right types of stretch goals and promos…more dice!
I’m also backing Maha Yodha, but vicariously, through my brother. I’m not sure what I think about it yet. The art is beautiful, but I haven’t heard great things about gameplay. I have the feeling they may be doing the same thing as Bunnies vs. Zombies and had some core game content labelled as stretch goals given that they weren’t close to unlocking all of them and then yesterday they decide to unlock all stretch goals.
Well, yesterday was the Day of Cancellations for me. Three backed projects were cancelled in quick succession: The Outlaws, Rive and Bunnies vs. Zombies.
While I expected The Outlaws to miss funding, they still had plenty of time on the campaign to try to spread the word. Rive was doomed by an astronomical funding goal, so I’m not surprised there.
But Bunnies vs. Zombies shocked me, and leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth. There is no doubt they were going to fund – they were at 70% with several weeks to go – and knock down a handful of stretch goals. The cancellation makes me believe they had a bunch of core game content they had every intention of including in the game all along labelled as stretch goals. Never cool when a publisher sets their funding target at an “incomplete game” level.
A worker placement/resource management/settlement construction card game project, called Harbour, launched TODAY and funded in less than an hour, with an “Early Bird” reward of card sleeves:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/michaelmindes/harbour-master-markets-in-a-fantasy-port
Looks like a REALLY fun game project with a comedic sword & sorcery theme, and I’m already sad about waiting 9 months to receive it.
Chicago Express is showing up twice.
My active carryovers are: Luchador!, Dungeon Dice: Guilds, Realm of Heroes, Rive, Waggle Dance, The Outlaws, Bedtime Heroes and Forge War.
I’ve backed 3 new campaigns since last week:
Bunnies vs. Zombies: I really don’t need this at all… but I like these bunnies better than the heavily armed Cross Hares, and I like these zombies better than the less-cartoony Zombicide… so here we are. And oddly for such a polished miniatures campaign, it looks like this will actually need the support. They’ve just added 18 additional miniatures free to the base game to try and help people get over their value misgivings.
Ophir: this looks like a beautiful pick up and deliver Euro, but may struggle to fund.
Through the Ages: this has been on my Want list for a year, and everything I’ve heard of it is so enthusiastically positive that I’ve considered paying the exorbitant Amazon Marketplace prices for it while it’s been out of print. This campaign was perfectly timed and reasonably priced, and you’ll get at least 3 games for $55 instead of paying double for just one. If you haven’t looked at the campaign, backers could potentially receive 7 games for a $55 pledge if the funding reaches $100k (a long shot at this point). The quality of the additional games is, of course, iffy.
I have to stop looking at this page. My wallet is really despising me at this point.
Currently backing:
Hollywood
Twilight Struggle Digital
Luchador!
Scrapyard Empire
Penny Press
I succumbed to Luchador! due to the theme tied into the gameplay. It just looks like a good romp of a dice chucker. It’s a tad pricey but I believe the stretch goals will end up making it a decent value.
Penny Press just looks amazing! A unique theme and interesting mechanics. No wonder it won CAH’s Tabletop Deathmatch competition. And take a look at the art for the box cover. Can’t wait to see this in action.
I’m a little lukewarm on Scrapyard Empire right now, but I have one of the $21 pledges at the moment. So right now it’s not a bad deal and keeping me around for now.
Edit: The stretch goals for this one are pretty lackluster so far as well, with no new game material added until $45K (with a $15K funding goal). Two separate stretch goals with blank cards is pretty underwhelming. This is one of the major red flags I have with staying on board this project.
Looking forward to seeing the campaign for New Dawn from Artipia Games starting up next week. Tasty Minstrel teased a new project starting this weekend or early next week as well. And hopefully some new Zombicide goodies before the end of the month.
Man, I’m waffling on 12 Realms. It’s beautiful to look at…but the game play is sort of meh. Only 20 more hours to decide!!!
~ I’m Definitely Backing ~
Evolution, XenoShyft, Dungeon Dice, Maha Yodha, Progress, Forge War, Penny Press, and Galaxy Defenders.
~ Maybe Backing ~
Luchador and Ultimate Battles
A lot of games will be coming out between Origins and GenCon. I may need to save some dinero for scrumptious titles like: Doomtown, The Witcher, Abyss, and Assault on Doomrock (over on Indiegogo).