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

Project: Cheese Royale

Designer: David Lopez

Artist: Christina Sanchez

Publisher: Loyal Knight Board Games

Genre/Mechanisms: action/event, animals, grid movement, hexagon grid, player elimination

Player Count: 2-6

Solo Mode: no

Complexity: light

Risk: HIGH

Summary: “In Cheese Royale you will become a little mouse in the middle of the field, where you will fight against hunger, traps and the rest of mice, to be able to get hold of the central cheese. The main objective of the game is to be the last surviving mouse. The game is divided into rounds, in which each player has 2 actions to perform in his turn. At the beginning of each round an event card is revealed and it can affect the whole round, such as reduction of the map at the end of the round. In this case, the last layer of tiles is removed from the map making it smaller.”

Base Pledge (w/shipping): $58

All-In (w/shipping): $70

Campaign Ends: 12/9

Game Ships: Sep. 2022

Funding Status: Currently at 14% with 28 days to go.

Project: Clash of Decks: Season 2

Designer: Léandre Proust (Clash of Deck, Clash of Decks: Starter Kit)

Artists: Studio Rexard (Clash of Deck, Clash of Decks: Starter Kit)

Publisher: Grammes Edition (Clash of Deck, Clash of Decks: Starter Kit)

Genre/Mechanisms: card drafting, card game, card play conflict resolution, fantasy, fighting, hand management, medieval, solo/solitaire game

Player Count: 1-2

Solo Mode: yes

Complexity: light

Risk: HIGH

Summary: “Clash of Decks is a dueling card game where players create an army of 8 units, then fight other Lord-Sorcerers, trying to destroy their Strongholds.” Six new stand-alone expansions are available through this campaign.

Base Pledge (w/shipping): $9

All-In (w/shipping): $35

Campaign Ends: 11/25

Game Ships: May 2022

Funding Status: Funded; currently at 408% with 14 days to go.

Project: Devil Bunny Games!

Designers: Christopher Burton (Devil Bunny versus the Entire Galaxy), James Ernest (Devil Bunny Needs a Ham, Kill Doctor Lucky, Lords of Vegas, Tak), Maggie Clayton (Devil Bunny versus the Entire Galaxy), Matthew Kroll (Devil Bunny versus the Entire Galaxy)

Artist: Scott M. Brown (Devil Bunny Needs a Ham, Devil Bunny versus the Entire Galaxy)

Publisher: Greater Than Games (Sentinels of the Multiverse, Spirit Island, Tak)

Genre/Mechanisms: abstract strategy, dice, grid movement, race, roll/spin & move, take that (Devil Bunny Needs a Ham); dice, dice rolling, humor, mancala, set collection (Dice Bunny versus the Entire Galaxy)

Player Count: 2-5

Solo Mode: no

Complexity: light

Risk: medium-low

Summary: “In Devil Bunny Needs a Ham, players compete in a dice-rolling race to the top to see who can get to safety before Devil Bunny knocks everyone down to get his ham– it’s not clear just why Devil Bunny thinks that knocking everyone down will get him a ham, but he believes it and is intent on doing whatever it takes, so you’d better get to climbing! Each player has two sous-chefs on their climbing team. On their turn, players roll the dice to see how far up they get to climb, but if they roll a Devil Bunny, he gets to knock the highest climber down — hopefully, someone manages to catch them. Fall too far and players just might be dead meat. Get it? Like ham?

In Devil Bunny versus the Entire Galaxy, players are intrepid actuaries collecting butterflies of a specific color at a circus. Devil Bunny loves butterflies, and whenever he sees a big enough stack of them, he jumps on that stack, scattering them everywhere. Who will be the first to save enough butterflies, before Devil Bunny destroys the Galaxy?”

Base Pledge (w/shipping): $27

All-In (w/shipping): $47

Campaign Ends: 12/10

Game Ships: Dec. 2022

Funding Status: Currently at 45% with 30 days to go.

Project: Gambit of Kings

Designer: Michael Stutz

Artist: John Avon (Magic: The Gathering, Portal)

Publisher: The First Edition Gaming Company

Genre/Mechanisms: 2 players, abstract strategy, fantasy, grid movement, medieval, variable set-up

Player Count: 2

Solo Mode: no

Complexity: medium-light

Risk: HIGH

Summary: “A two-player grid-movement game where you need to use strategy and cunning to lead your armies to victory and overtake your opponent’s castle. Customize your side of the board to give each game a unique feel from start to finish. Expansion packs unlock new ways to play the game and add more variety and excitement to gameplay. Will you use dragon fire and dark magic to overthrow the king, or will you unite the forces of elves and men to bring justice to the exiled king? The choice is yours.”

Base Pledge (w/shipping): $50

All-In (w/shipping): $50, same as above

Campaign Ends: 12/9

Game Ships: June 2022

Funding Status: Currently at 41% with 28 days to go.

Project: Gartenbau

Designers: David Abelson (Intelle), Alex Johns

Artists: Matt Paquette (Mariposas, Mystic Vale, Thunderstone Quest), Todd Sanders (Mr. Cabbagehead’s Garden, Small City, Trick of the Rails)

Publisher: 25th Century Games (Kōhaku, Ra, Space Explorers)

Genre/Mechanisms: abstract strategy, pattern building, tile placement, variable player powers

Player Count: 2-4

Solo Mode: no

Complexity: light

Risk: medium-high

Summary: “Players race to create and grow a garden that contains four fully mature flowers, along with other seedlings and plants, in an effort to earn the most prestige by fulfilling each of the flower’s unique growing requirements. The player with the most prestige at the end of the game is crowned ‘Gartenmeister’ — The Master Gardener.”

Base Pledge (w/shipping): $62

All-In (w/shipping): $62, same as above

Campaign Ends: 11/18

Game Ships: Sep. 2022

Funding Status: Funded; currently at 118% with 8 days to go.

Project: Hegemony: Lead Your Class to Victory

Designers: Vangelis Bagiartakis (Among the Stars, Fields of Green, Kitchen Rush), Varnavas Timotheou

Artist: Jakub Skop (Nanty Narking, Tawantinsuyu: The Inca Empire)

Publisher: Hegemonic Project Games

Genre/Mechanisms: action/event, economic, educational, hand management, political, variable player powers, voting

Player Count: 2-4

Solo Mode: no

Complexity: medium-heavy

Risk: HIGH

Summary: “An asymmetric, politico-economic, card-driven board game that puts players in the role of one of the socio-economic groups in a fictional state: The Working Class, the Middle Class, the Capitalist Class and the State itself. While players have their own separate goals, they are all limited by a series of policies that affect most of their actions, like Taxation, Labor Market, Foreign Trade etc. Voting on those policies and using their influence to change them is also very important. Through careful planning, strategic actions and political maneuvering, you will do your best to increase the power of your class and carry out your agenda. Hegemony is heavily based on actual academic principles such as Social-Democracy, Neoliberalism, Nationalism and Globalism, and allows players to see their real world applications through gameplay.”

Base Pledge (w/shipping): $92

All-In (w/shipping): $92, same as above

Campaign Ends: 12/2

Game Ships: Nov. 2022

Funding Status: Funded; currently at 1672% with 21 days to go.

Project: Heroes of the Shire

Designer: Damian Senior

Artist: Edwin Hieo

Publisher: Senior Games

Genre/Mechanisms: action/dexterity, adventure, cooperative game, dice, fighting, math, role-playing, team-based game, tile placement, turn order: stat-based

Player Count: 1-6

Solo Mode: yes

Complexity: medium-light

Risk: HIGH

Summary: “A turn based combat game where players cast spells, use abilities, and learn combos to defeat their enemies. With 20 characters, 12 bosses and over 800 spells and abilities. There are 2 main game modes: Arena & Scenario.”

Base Pledge (w/shipping): $100

All-In (w/shipping): $304

Campaign Ends: 12/9

Game Ships: Dec. 2022

Funding Status: Funded; currently at 130% with 28 days to go.

Project: Honey Buzz: Fall Flavors

Designer: Paul Salomon (Genotype: A Mendelian Genetics Game, Honey Buzz, Periodic: A Game of the Elements)

Artist: Anne Heidsieck (Honey Buzz, Majesty: For the Realm, Welcome To…, When I Dream)

Publisher: Elf Creek Games (Atlantis Rising Second Edition, Honey Buzz, Merchants of the Dark Road)

Genre/Mechanisms: action retrieval, animals, economic, expansion, tile placement, worker placement

Player Count: 1-4

Solo Mode: yes

Complexity: medium-heavy

Risk: medium-low

Summary: “Fall Flavors is an expansion that introduces five new modules for Honey Buzz. You can mix and match to add these modules to the game in any combination. Honey Buzz is a worker bee placement game where players expand a personal beehive by drafting various honeycomb tiles that grant actions that are triggered throughout the game. Each tile represents a different action. Whenever a tile is laid so that it completes a certain pattern, a ring of actions is triggered in whatever order the player chooses. A tile drafted on turn one could be triggered up to three times at any point during the game. It all depends on how the player places their beeples (bee+meeple) and builds their hive. After all, in the honey business, efficiency is queen.”

Base Pledge (w/shipping): $44

All-In (w/shipping): $194

Campaign Ends: 11/24

Game Ships: Nov. 2022

Funding Status: Funded; currently at 598% with 14 days to go.

Project: Mageling: Rise of the Ancient Ones

Designer: Joseph Butler (Mageling)

Artists: Charles Butler (Mageling), Jonathan Elliott (Dark Domains), Rebecca McConnell (Intelle), Naomi Lila Nirmala

Publisher: Familiar Games (Mageling)

Genre/Mechanisms: adventure, card drafting, card game, cooperative game, dice, dice rolling, expansion, fantasy

Player Count: 1-4

Solo Mode: yes

Complexity: medium-light

Risk: HIGH

Summary: “Mageling is a dice placement, engine-building, adventure game that can be played competitively or cooperatively. Take on the role of a young Mageling as you embark upon a perilous quest to save the Evertree. Use custom dice to activate spells, relics, creatures and allies as you battle the dark forces of the Tempest in five unique locations.​ In the Rise of the Ancient Ones expansion, enemies of the Evertree have rallied behind the Cult of Asdea– an insidious force that will stop at nothing to break open the void and unleash Asdea, devourer of life, upon the world. Should Asdea awaken, her festering hunger will spare no being. The Devouring would be the end of life in the mageling world and all the worlds connected to it. The Evertree is not strong enough to defend its people, so once again all hope turns to the Magelings.”

Base Pledge (w/shipping): $32

All-In (w/shipping): $52

Campaign Ends: 12/9

Game Ships: Jan. 2023

Funding Status: Currently at 32% with 29 days to go.

Project: Megapulse

Designers: Samuel E. Desjardins, Nicolas Fournier

Artists: Ariane Boies, Nicolas Fournier, Michael Legros, Jun Seong Park, Adrian Stone, Unreal Studio Works

Publisher: Orion Games

Genre/Mechanisms: catch the leader, fighting, grid movement, racing, modular board, multiple maps, programmed movement, race, science fiction, simultaneous action selection, take that

Player Count: 1-4

Solo Mode: yes

Complexity: medium-light

Risk: HIGH

Summary: “A futuristic racing game inspired by titles like Wipeout, F-Zero and Mario Kart. It features hand-building, simultaneous action selection, and a modular track. Each player starts the game with a hand of 7 action cards. Each round, players simultaneously choose 2 cards to play from their hand and reveal them. Players then take their turns, using their chosen cards as well as their accumulated speed to catch up with opponents, drift, use their nitro, launch bombs and missiles, and use their precious special ability. Curves are dangerous, and might damage your vehicle. Upgrade cards can be acquired to enhance your options, but sometimes require you to remove another card from your hand. The first to finish the last lap of the race wins it all. Megapulse includes catch-up mechanics and multiples game modes like Derby, Neon God, and Spellflux Ball.”

Base Pledge (w/shipping): $68

All-In (w/shipping): $108

Campaign Ends: 12/2

Game Ships: Apr. 2023

Funding Status: Currently at 77% with 21 days to go.

Project: The Realm of Shadows: A Trio of Solo Games

Designers: Gabe Barrett (The Final Flicktier, The Forgotten Road, Hunted: Kobayashi Tower, Hunted: Mining Colony 415, The Last Stronghold), Joe Klipfel (Gloomholdin’, The Hand of Destiny)

Artists: Jorge M. Velez (Hunted: Kobayashi Tower, Hunted: Mining Colony 415), Jon Merchant (Squire for Hire, Squire for Hire: Mystic Runes)

Publisher: Barrett Publishing (The Final Flicktier, Hunted: Kobayashi Tower, Hunted: Mining Colony 415)

Genre/Mechanisms: fantasy, hand management, move through deck, solo/solitaire game (The Hand of Destiny); dice rolling, hand management, solo/solitaire game (The Forgotten Road); 2 players, cooperative game, dice rolling, solo/solitaire game, tower defense (The Last Stronghold)

Player Count: 1 (The Hand of Destiny, The Forgotten Road); 1-2 (The Last Stronghold)

Solo Mode: yes

Complexity: light

Risk: medium-high

Summary: “The Hand of Destiny is a no-table-needed, solo game played completely in your hands. You’ll use your hero’s limited strength resources and unique abilities to vanquish foes and move through the deck. Manage your health, upgrade your hero, and play cards as efficiently as possible to win the day.

The Forgotten Road is a hand management game where you’ll need to play your cards and use your special abilities as efficiently as possible to take out monsters, pass tests, move to new locations, and defeat bosses of ever-increasing difficulty.

The Last Stronghold is a dice-driven siege game in which you must fend off monsters in the areas surrounding Lux and prevent them from overtaking
the city. You’ll use special abilities and magical artifacts to manipulate the dice and monsters and eventually take out the final boss…if you last long enough.”

Base Pledge (w/shipping): $17

All-In (w/shipping): $62

Campaign Ends: 12/3

Game Ships: June 2022

Funding Status: Funded; currently at 200% with 23 days to go.