Designers:  Jenny Iglesias, Kevin Riley (Aeon’s End, Aeon’s End: Legacy, Aeon’s End: The New Age, Aeon’s End: War Eternal)

Artist:  Kwanchai Moriya (Catacombs Third Edition, Cryptid, Dinosaur Island, Duelosaur Island, The Game, Pret-a-Porter, Sidereal Confluence: Trading & Negotiation in the Elysian Quadrant)

Publisher:  Indie Boards & Cards (Aeon’s End, Aeon’s End: Legacy, Aeon’s End: The New Age, Aeon’s End: War Eternal, Coup, Flash Point: Fire Rescue, Haggis, The Resistance, The Resistance: Avalon, Snowdonia)

Genre/Mechanisms:  abstract strategy, tile placement

Funding Status:  At the time of this posting, Kodama Forest is already fully-funded. Pledges currently total more than 4x the initial funding goal with less than 2 days to go on the campaign.

Player Count:  1-6

Solo Mode:  yes

Complexity:  light

Risk:  low

What It’s About:  A tile placement game where players coordinate with each of their 2 neighbors to fill shared player boards, much like the gameplay of Between Two Cities.

How It Works:  Kodama is a tile placement game, and every turn players will place 2 of the 3 tiles in their hand, one on each of the boards they’re collaborating on with each of their neighbors. The goal is to cover as many of the spaces containing points as possible; at the end of the game all still-revealed point squares on both boards are added together to calculate a total, and the player with the lowest number of total points is declared the winner.

Whenever players match two halves of a flower, two halves of a pond, or two halves of a bamboo patch, they’ll also earn bonus tiles that can be placed. A completed flower nets the player pair a butterfly– a small square tile that covers 1 square; a completed pond nets the player pair a 2-square frog; and a completed bamboo shoot nets the player pair a 4-square panda. At the end of each player’s turn, they’ll draw 2 new tiles to replace the 2 they placed, and then they’ll start the next turn again choosing to place 2 of the 3 tiles in their hand.

Comparisons:  The fact that players are working on one player board with one neighbor and a second player board with their other neighbor draws a direct comparison to Between Two Cities (and that game’s spin-off, Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig). In Kodama Forest, however, players total their points from both boards instead of just their “worst” collaborative board, and then the player with the lowest total score wins. There are additional variants for solo play, two-player competitive, and two-player cooperative. Of course the game also shares its universe and adorable Kwanchai Moriya art with Kodama, Kororo, Kodama Duo, and Kodama 3D, which are all available through this Kickstarter both in pledge levels and as add-ons.

What Should I Pledge?:
$34 Kodama Forest: a copy of Kodama Forest including all unlocked milestones.
$54 Kodama Forest and Kodama 3D: a copy of Kodama Forest including all unlocked milestones, plus a copy of Kodama 3D.
$94 The Kodamaverse: a copy of Kodama Forest including all unlocked milestones, plus copies of Kodama 3D, Kokoro, Kodama: The Tree Spirits, and Kodama Duo.

Add-Ons:
$15 Kodama: The Tree Spirits
$15 Kodama Duo
$34 Kokoro
$34 Kodama 3D
$15 Kodama Promo Pack: 33 card pack including all previous KOdama, Kodama Duo, and Kokoro promo cards.
$5 Kodama 3D Promos: a 14 card set containing 5 additional goal cards, 8 decree cards, and 1 rules card for Kodama 3D.
$15 Kodama 3D Playmat

KS Exclusives
All of the Promo Cards in the Kickstarter added as stretch goals/milestones are KS Exclusives, including the extra Kodama boards.

All-In Total: In the continental U.S., you’re looking at $94 for the Kodamaverse pledge, $20 for both Promo Packs, of $15 for the Kodama 3D Playmat, and $19 in shipping for a total of $148.

Kodama Forest completes its Kickstarter on Friday, April 25th and tentatively ships in October 2020.