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

Project: Astro Knights

Designers: Nick Little (Aeon’s End: Legacy, Aeon’s End: Outcasts, Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition), Will Sobel

Artists: Gong Studios (Aeon’s End, Aeon’s End: The New Age, Aeon’s End: War Eternal, Fields of Green, Tiny Towns)

Publisher: Indie Boards & Cards (Aeon’s End, Aeon’s End: Legacy, Aeon’s End: War Eternal, The Resistance, The Resistance: Avalon)

Genre/Mechanisms: card drafting, card game, cooperative game, deck building, delayed purchase, fighting, hand management, science fiction, solo / solitaire game, variable phase order, variable player powers, variable set-up

Player Count: 1-4

Solo Mode: yes

Complexity: medium-light

Risk: low

Summary: “A cooperative deck building game where your deck is never shuffled. Your goal is to defeat the Boss before it destroys your team or the Homeworld you’re defending. Each round, the players and the Boss will take turns in a random order. During a player’s turn, they will be able to acquire Fuel, Tech, and Weapons from the supply, equip and attack with those Weapons based on the number of slots they have, gain new slots, power up, and use their special ability. All four of the Bosses in this game have their own decks and abilities, and will require a different strategy to be defeated.”

Base Pledge (w/shipping): $76

All-In (w/shipping): $76, same as above

Campaign Ends: 2/25

Game Ships: Oct. 2023

Funding Status: Funded; currently at 353% with 15 days to go.

Project: Floating Floors

Designer: Takashi Sawada

Artists: Gong Studios (Aeon’s End, Aeon’s End: The New Age, Aeon’s End: War Eternal, Fields of Green, Tiny Towns), Jovial Graphics

Publisher: Guf Studios

Genre/Mechanisms: action / event, abstract strategy, action / dexterity, map addition, maze, print & play, prisoner’s dilemma, resource to move, team-based game, three dimensional movement

Player Count: 2-4

Solo Mode: no

Complexity: light

Risk: HIGH

Summary: “A tactical balancing duel in which you, a ninja, become the architect of your own domain, creating a labyrinth of floating floorboards for your rival to cross. In more detail, you create a stable path to your target by balancing a labyrinth of floorboards that will also be used by your rival. The trick is in strategically using your jutsu tokens to keep your new ninja camouflaged with the surroundings, while sabotaging the rival ninja’s path. The first ninja to claim all four bansen seals, concealed by your rival during set-up, wins.”

Base Pledge (w/shipping): $35

All-In (w/shipping): $45

Campaign Ends: 2/28

Game Ships: Apr. 2023

Funding Status: Currently at 80% with 19 days to go.

Project: Iron Forest

Designer: Brian Gomez (Icecool, Icecool2, Social Network)

Artist: Reinis Pētersons (Icecool, Icecool2, Pyramid of Pengqueen)

Publisher: Brain Games (Icecool, Icecool2, Pyramid of Pengqueen)

Genre/Mechanisms: action / dexterity, adventure, fantasy, fighting, variable player powers

Player Count: 1-4

Solo Mode: yes

Complexity: light

Risk: HIGH

Summary: “A flicking game for 2-4 players, split into two opposing teams: Animal Clans and Iron Force. Each scenario offers asymmetrical objectives that each side needs to fulfill in order to win. Scenarios involve players trying to control certain areas of the game board, destroying the opposing team’s mechas, collecting certain objects, and much more. On their turns, players draw cards from their team’s activation deck, then activate the mecha depicted on that card by either flicking it or launching it. Players also have access to a range of different power-up cards that will grant their side unique abilities, turning the tide in their favor.”

Base Pledge (w/shipping): $106

All-In (w/shipping): $106, same as above

Campaign Ends: 3/3

Game Ships: May 2023

Funding Status: Funded; currently at 128% with 24 days to go.

Project: Kabula

Designers: Antonio Liga, Miguel Hermida

Artists: Dario di Bartolo, Ferdinand Ladera, Maxime Minard, Blanka Söre (Cultistorm), Rod Tinapay

Publisher: Stranger Games Studio

Genre/Mechanisms: adventure, fantasy, fighting, humor

Player Count: 1-6

Solo Mode: yes

Complexity: medium-heavy

Risk: HIGH

Summary: “On a fantasy island, a magic tree, the Kabula, is held in a Sanctuary to ensure immortality to all inhabitants. The balance is broken when six deranged characters from Earth find themselves transported to this island. Their surreal adventures include humorous encounters and heavy satire. Kabula a competitive board game set in a uniquely twisted fantasy world. It blends a sandbox RPG experience with skirmish elements and a combat system comparable to that of a dungeon crawler. Heroes will develop one of three possible personalities as they fight and tame monsters, explore dungeons and encounter peculiar quests. Eventually, they clash with each other in pursuit of the Kabula, the tree which holds the fate of the Universe.”

Base Pledge (w/shipping): $77

All-In (w/shipping): $190

Campaign Ends: 2/28

Game Ships: Feb. 2023

Funding Status: Funded; currently at 113% with 18 days to go.

Project: Mind MGMT: Secret Missions

Designers: Jay Cormier (Akrotiri, Belfort, In the Hall of the Mountain King, Junk Art, Mind MGMT), Sen-Foong Lim (Akrotiri, Belfort, Junk Art, Kingdom Rush: Rift in Time, Mind MGMT)

Artist: Matt Kindt (Mind MGMT)

Publisher: Off the Page Games (Mind MGMT)

Genre/Mechanisms: comic book / strip, deduction, expansion, fantasy, grid movement, hidden movement, point to point movement, science fiction, spies / secret agents, team-based game, variable player powers

Player Count: 1-5

Solo Mode: yes

Complexity: medium-heavy

Risk: medium-high

Summary: “Throughout the components of the MIND MGMT game, there are 9 hidden codes. When you enter these codes into the website FluxSafeHouse.com, they give you a brand new card that you can print out and add to your game. This Secret Mission expansion provides all 9 of the hidden cards, professionally printed. Each card will come sealed in an envelope so you can choose to either open them all up, or search for the hidden codes yourself. When you find a code and enter it into the website, you will be instructed to open a specific envelope.

In Mind MGMT: The Psychic Espionage “Game,” one player controls Mind MGMT and must scour the city for new recruits. They move around on a secret map, trying to visit locations that match one of their three randomly drawn feature cards. They can also use their four Immortals to protect locations from being exposed. All other players control the rogue agents who must try to stop Mind MGMT before it’s too late. They ask questions to the Recruiter and deduce their whereabouts from the answers they receive. Rogue agents can use dry-erase ‘mental notes’ to track all the information they’re given. Mind MGMT wins by either collecting twelve recruits or surviving sixteen turns. The rogue agents can win only be capturing Mind MGMT, which they do when they believe they’re on the same block as Mind MGMT.”

Base Pledge (w/shipping): $12, just the new missions

All-In (w/shipping): $108

Campaign Ends: 2/28

Game Ships: Aug. 2022

Funding Status: Funded; currently at 1234% with 9 days to go.

Project: Old London Bridge

Designers: Gabriele Bubola (Hats, Merchants of Dunhuang, Skyliners), Leo Colovini (Carolus Magnus, Cartagena, Clans)

Artists: Markus Erdt (Copenhagen, Pioneers, Treasure Hunter), Patricia Limberger (12 Thieves, Alhambra, Skylands)

Publisher: Queen Games (Amerigo, Chicago Express, Fresco, Lancaster, Shogun)

Genre/Mechanisms: action selection, hand management, rondel

Player Count: 2-4

Solo Mode: no

Complexity: medium-light

Risk: low

Summary: “It’s London in 1136, and the great wooden bridge across the mighty Thames has been consumed by fire. Soon the churchman Peter de Colechurch plans to construct a new, fortified bridge from stone upon which various buildings may be built over the years. Players are architects who are each responsible for one section of the (new) ‘Old London Bridge.’ By playing character cards, you will contribute to the construction of the game’s 3D bridge. Buildings must be built with house numbers in. Each house has a coat of arms that will grant special abilities, new character cards, and increase the player’s income. The architect at the end of the game who has the most money is the winner.”

Base Pledge (w/shipping): $69

All-In (w/shipping): $229

Campaign Ends: 2/20

Game Ships: June 2022

Funding Status: Funded; currently at 554% with 10 days to go.

Project: Rolling Heights

Designer: John D. Clair (Cubitos, Ecos: First Continent, Mystic Vale, Space Base)

Artist: Kwanchai Moriya (Cryptid, Dinosaur Island, In the Hall of the Mountain King, Sidereal Confluence, Under Falling Skies)

Publisher: Alderac Entertainment Group (Calico, Cascadia, Istanbul, Space Base, War Chest)

Genre/Mechanisms: area majority / influence, bag building, city building, dice, dice rolling, end game bonuses, industry / manufacturing, push your luck, random production, tile placement

Player Count: 2-4

Solo Mode: no

Complexity: medium-light

Risk: low

Summary: “Roll Your Meeples, Build the City. It’s the 1920’s and your career as a general contractor is about to take off. You have just started your business in a rapidly expanding city. In Rolling Heights, players roll workers in the form of meeples. Standing meeples work hard that day and provide special actions and building materials, while face-down meeples provide nothing. You can always push your luck for better rolls, but you might lose valuable materials you need to construct new buildings. Completing buildings gains you prestige, as well as new workers to help you construct even larger buildings, including skyscrapers.”

Base Pledge (w/shipping): $73

All-In (w/shipping): $73, same as above

Campaign Ends: 2/24

Game Ships: Feb. 2023

Funding Status: Funded; currently at 762% with 15 days to go.

Project: Wreckland Run

Designer: Scott Almes (Heroes of Land, Air & Sea; Tiny Epic Galaxies; Tiny Epic Quest)

Artists: Brett Parson (Student Bodies), The Warden

Publisher: Renegade Game Studios (Architects of the West Kingdom, Clank!: A Deck Building Adventure, Clank!: Legacy – Acquisitions Incorporated, Paladins of the West Kingdom, Raiders of the North Sea)

Genre/Mechanisms: action / event, campaign / battle card driven, dice, dice rolling, racing, solo / solitaire game, storytelling

Player Count: 1

Solo Mode: yes

Complexity: medium-light

Risk: low

Summary: “Load up your vehicle with supplies, strap on a few weapons, and prepare to make your wreckland run. Wreckland Run takes place in a post-apocalyptic landscape known as the Wrecklands that’s filled with marauders and other dangers. In this post-apocalyptic solitaire game of vehicular carnage, you choose a vehicle and driver to guide through a seven-chapter campaign, trying desperately to get supplies through to the last holdouts of civilization. Each chapter introduces new options and challenges, and the whole game can be replayed with different combinations of drivers and vehicles.”

Base Pledge (w/shipping): $52

All-In (w/shipping): $187, also includes everything Warp’s Edge to-date

Campaign Ends: 2/23

Game Ships: Nov. 2022

Funding Status: Funded; currently at 1822% with 14 days to go.