(or here’s a list of what launched yesterday that might deserve a closer look)

Project:  Zen Garden & Way 2 Go

Designers:  Mike Georgiou (Zen Garden); Urtis Sulinskas (Pigasus, Planet, Way 2 Go)

Artist:  Dennis Lohausen (Aquasphere, Camel Up, Carcassonne: South Seas, Coal Baron, Crown of Emara, Dominion: Intrigue, A Feast for Odin, Fields of Arle, Gaia Project, Glass Road, Hansa Teutonica, Hawaii, Luxor, Merlin, No Thanks!, The Oracle of Delphi, The Quacks of Quedlinburg, Rajas of the Ganges, The Taverns of Tiefenthal, Terra Mystica, Village, The Voyages of Marco Polo, Way 2 Go, Zen Garden)

Publisher:  Queen Games (Alhambra, Amerigo, Chicago Express, Escape: The Curse of the Temple, Fresco, Kingdom Builder, Lancaster, Luxor, Merlin, Shogun, Thebes, Wallenstein)

Genre/Mechanisms:  end game bonuses, pattern building, tile placement (Zen Garden); action/dexterity, line drawing, party game, race, real-time, team-based game (Way 2 Go)

Player Count:  2-4 (Zen Garden); 2-14 (Way 2 Go)

Solo Mode:  no

Complexity:  light

Risk:  low

Summary:  “Zen Garden is a tile laying and pattern building game that pays tribute to the beauty and simplicity of Japanese Rock Gardens. Every one of the 90 tiles in the game has unique features, and the players must draft the tiles wisely as they seek to construct a tranquil garden for the emperor. The game features a simple ruleset with high variability, and the satisfaction of creating a beautiful garden with your pieces.”

“Way 2 Go is a sensory deprivation party game for a team of 1-7 players (or two teams of up to 7 players) that promotes team play… the object of the game is to draw a line within a confined space from start to finish. This would be easy—except the person drawing the line is blindfoldedand must receive direction from the other players. All other players form a line and have different means of communicating where to draw the line next. A complex and hilarity inducing chain of hampered communication forms, where information is lost or misinterpreted, making the simple task of drawing a line quite challenging. 

Base Pledge (w/shipping):  $46 (Zen Garden); $41 (Way 2 Go)

All-In (w/shipping):  $81, both games

Campaign Ends:  2/3

Game Ships:  June 2020

Funding Status: Funded; currently at 140%, with 10 days to go.