Designers: Helana Hope, Sen-Foong Lim (Akrotiri, Belfort, Complexcity, Junk Art), Jessey Wright (The Legend of Korea: Pro-Bending Arena, MBL Pocket Pro Tour, Mutants)

Artists: Mateusz Komada (Chronicles of Crime, Vikings Gone Wild, Zombie Tsunami), Katarzyna Kosobucka (Chronicles of Crime, Jetpack Joyride, Zombie Tsunami)

Publisher: Lucky Duck Games (Chronicles of Crime, Vikings Gone Wild, Zombie Tsunami)

Genre/Mechanisms: cooperative play, hand management, miniatures, modular board, pattern building, resource management, tile placement, variable player powers

Funding Status: At the time of this posting, Kingdom Rush: Rift in Time is already fully-funded.  In fact, pledges currently total almost 38x the initial funding goal!

Player Count: 1-4

Solo Mode: yes

Complexity: medium-light

Risk: medium-low

What It’s About: A cooperative, campaign-driven, tower defense board game based on the mobile app.

How It Works:  Gameplay varies from scenario to scenario, but in general, each scenario ends when the players have destroyed all of the portal tiles representing the portals opened by the Time Mage.  This is done over 7 phases per round.  In Phase 1, players play Tower and Hero Cards.  In Phase 2, they use their cards to destroy Horde Trays.  In Phase 3, players advance the Horde Trays, and in Phase 4, players spawn new Horde Trays.  In Phase 5, players upgrade Tower Cards received from the player to the right. And in Phase 6 the reclaim their Hero Card and Tower Cards from building sites.  Finally, in Phase 7, the team may spend 2 Crystals to add a new Level 1 Tower Card to a player’s hand, and 1 crystal for a player to gain a Hero Ability.

Comparisons: Some other popular tower defense board games include Carnival Zombie, Castle Panic, Dawn of the Zeds, Star Trek Panic, Stronghold, Sylvion, Tiny Epic Defenders, and Village Attacks.

What Should I Pledge?:
$59 Knight Pledge: the Core Box plus Stretch Goals. 
$79 King Pledge: the Core Box plus Stretch Goals, and the Limited Edition Deluxe Upgrade.
$129 Dragon Chest Pledge (All-in): the King Pledge plus the Gerald vs J.T. Expansion, the Vez’nan vs Moloch Expansion, and the 3D Towers Expansion.
Retailer Pledges for multiple copies at higher pledge levels.

Add-Ons:
$19: Vez’nan vs Moloch Expansion
$19: Gerald vs J.T. Expansion
$25: 3D Towers Expansion

KS Exclusives:
The Spider Goddess Expansion is largely, but not completely, comprised of the campaign’s stretch goals; a copy is included free with every Kickstarter pledge and the expansion will not be offered at retail.  The Spider Goddess includes the Spider Goddess, Grawl, and Lynn miniatures, as well as Grawl and Lynn player boards, and supporting content for all three characters. Additionally, the Knight Pledge and the Limited Edition Deluxe Upgrade package are features that will not be offered at retail.  The Deluxe Upgrade includes 12 plastic hero miniatures (replacing wooden tokens), 4 custom heros trays and cover, 1 custom tower tray and cover, 12 plastic crystals (replacing cardboard tokens), 18 wooden hearts(replacing cardboard tokens), and an exclusive poster. And finally, the 3D Tower Expansion is a Kickstarter exclusive. Lucky Duck Game reserves the right to sell overflow of all KS Exclusives through their website and through retailers who have specifically pledged for copies of the KS Exclusive content, but none of these KS exclusives will be included in regular retail copies.

All-In Total: In the continental U.S., you’re looking at $129 for the Dragon Chest Pledge (All-in) plus up to $25 for shipping, for a grand total of $154.

Kingdom Rush: Rift in Time completes its Kickstarter on Thursday, May 2nd and tentatively ships in April 2020.