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!
Board, Card & Miniatures Games
Role-Playing Games
Other Board Game Related Projects
Help support our sponsors! We must express our appreciation for the publishers supporting BoardGaming.com by advertising with us. If you see an ad on our site for a kickstarter game, consider giving them an extra look because they’re helping support BoardGaming.com.
Top Upcoming Games on kickstarter: If you’re a fan of a kickstarter game and it’s been added to our site, you can help it move up in the popularity list by visiting its game page, giving it hearts and clicking the “Want it” button!
Pixel Glory: A Deck Building Game
My only addition since last week is Thebes. Queen Games’ Kickstarters are such good deals… they frequently throw in entirely free games. This time it’s Maharani.
Various games and many of them interesting.
I’m still waiting on the print-and-play for Maha Yodha before committing. I don’t want to be blinded by it’s awesome art design. Must…remain…objective. >_<
Dungeon Dice: Guilds looks great too, though I may just be dice crazy because of Marvel Dice Masters. I do wish I’d gotten in on the first KS campaign because the amount of content (base+expansion+multiple add-ons+exclusives) is intimidating. At least I have the next 30 days to sort it out. 🙂
@Kaleb – although The Lord of the Ice Garden is a Polish game, shipping to the US is free. Unfortunately the game is still pretty expensive.
So I just played AlakaSLAM (there’s a two page PnP with no cutting and you use a regular deck of playing cards). It’s a lot of fun, I’ve backed, but I certainly suggest you try out the PnP, my wife also really enjoyed it. Probably because she won 😐
@Kaleb, the international shipping for Rise to Power is pretty reasonable to the US, only $8. Plus the US Dollar is a little stronger than the AUS Dollar, so for the base package, it should end up being around $31 US.
Linkage is $14 for the game, which is actually pretty comparable to many of the playing card projects for a single deck of cards. Much of the cost has to do with the numbers produced. A smaller print run will cost more per unit than a larger print run, due to the economies of scale.
I’ve been helping my friend figure out pricing for his new card game that has over 100 cards and will likely come in a box big enough for you to sleeve the cards and keep them in the same overall box. I suggested $15 considering Hanabi as a comparator. Yet Link-age is a 54-card deck for $20. Guess it comes down to demand/printing/numbers, but I’m curious if this goes into your consideration when pledging/buying.
I’m intrigued by both Rise to Power & Lord of Ice Garden though international shipping (I know, I’m spoiled in the US) is rough. Transylvania is backed (shout out to semi-local designers!)
@Rob I use myUS.com for intl shipping (South Africa), I just pledge at the US level and I’ve saved loads.
The Lord of the Ice Garden looks absolutely beautiful and intriguing, but I can’t budget the asking price at the moment. I’ll have to pick it up later.
Dungeon Dice: GUILDS looks like fun. I’ll have to check it out in more depth, too.
Right now, only Transylvania: Curses & Traitors has me locked in.
Good spot, Jim. AlakaSLAM looks cool. Unfortunately. $29 to ship internationally puts this on my “unlikely” list, despite being inclined to back.
And on the subject, what is it with folk describing just about anything as a “micro game”? A box with 76 cards in it sounds like a “game” to me.
Along with adding your suggestions (Wield and Brave the Elements), I just discovered another game that just launched called AlakaSLAM: A Sorcery Tennis Microgame. First off mixing Sorcery and Tennis sounds awesome (I used to play Tennis as well as play tons of Warhammer Quest in high school… go figure!), and then I saw how great the graphic design is, and had to add it to the list!
I’ll also flag up Brave the Elements, which is a lovely looking game which I think will play well, and has a full print & play version available. Unfortunately, however, they seem to be struggling to get support.
@Granny, yeah both Linkage and Rise to Power are going through some significant game play changes at the moment during the middle of their campaigns. On the one hand, it is a bit disconcerting that there are such major changes being made while asking for funding. OTOH, it does show that the designers are open to suggestions from backers to improve gameplay. With card games I think it’s easier to make changes to the game play without significantly altering the project components. You just hope that enough playtesting is done to vet these changes.
For an additional item to add, John Wick has a new RPG on KS named “Wield”, a game where you are playing an ancient artifact or weapon, and you manipulate the people using you to accomplish your goals (think Elric and Stormbringer, where you are Stormbringer trying to influence Elric). It’s a very unique concept for a RPG.
Wield: A Litte Game About Ancient Power
I have a lot of these on my radar. I have made a rule to drop any game that says the rules aren’t done yet…so a few of these might drop off my list.