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

Project: 51st State: Ultimate Edition (on Gamefound)

Designer: Ignacy Trzewiczek (51st State: Master Set, Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game, Imperial Settlers, Imperial Settlers: Empires of the North, Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island)

Artists: Mateusz Bielski (Cry Havoc, High Society, Imperial Settlers, Neuroshima Hex! 3.0, Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island), Grzegorz Bobrowski (51st State: Master Set, Cry Havoc, Fields of Green, Imperial Settlers: Empires of the North), Piotr Foksowicz (Nemesis, Neuroshima Hex! 3.0, Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon), M81 Studio (Detective Club, Mysterium Park, Obscurio)

Publisher: Portal Games (51st State: Master Set, Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game, Imperial Settlers, Imperial Settlers: Empires of the North, Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island)

Genre/Mechanisms: card game, city building, economic, hand management, multi-use cards, open drafting, post-apocalyptic, science fiction, tableau building, variable player powers, worker placement

Player Count: 1-4

Solo Mode: yes

Complexity: medium-heavy

Risk: low

Summary: “51st State: Ultimate Edition is the all-in-one package for 51st State, including the base game as well as six expansions: New Era, Winter, Scavengers, Allies, Moloch, and No Man’s Land. In 51st State, the world you know no longer exists. There is no government. No army. No civilization. The United States has collapsed — and now, thirty years after the war started, new powers finally try to take control of the ruined country, try to establish a new order, try to control others and create a new country, a new state: the 51st state. In this card game, players control one of the four powers — mutants, traders, New Yorkers and Appalachians — and try to build their own new country. Players put new locations into the game, hire leaders, and send people to work in buildings to gain resources and new skills. Every card in 51st State can be put into play three ways: you can invade a location to gain many resources once, or you can sign a contract with this location to gain one resource every turn, or you can attach the location to your state so you can use its skill. One card, three possibilities. Lots of decisions and choices that matter.”

Base Pledge (w/shipping): $39

All-In (w/shipping): $120

Campaign Ends: 3/8

Game Ships: Feb. 2023

Funding Status: Funded; currently at 669% with 12 days to go.

Project: Ahau – Rulers of Yucatán

Designer: Oláh Tamás

Artists: Lázár Aurél (Operators, Travelin’, Verona Twist), Szabó Dávid

Publisher: Apeiron Games

Genre/Mechanisms: area majority/influence, area movement, ancient, card play conflict resolution, city building, educational, hand management, mythology, solo/solitaire game, tile placement, worker placement

Player Count: 1-5

Solo Mode: yes

Complexity: heavy

Risk: HIGH

Summary: “A Euro-style board game, combining elements of worker placement and resource management with innovative dual-engine building – all set in the Classical Period of the Maya. In the game, the players take the roles of leaders of city-states who are all eager to climb the ladder of power and become the most famous ruler of this era. Throughout their journey, they have the chance to invoke the ancient Maya deities, make the production flourish, build their pyramid temple and capital, and expand the borders of their territory. Ahau is an homage to the breathtaking Maya culture, bringing their history closer to the players. The cultural and historical aspects of the game were closely checked by Mayanist David S. Anderson, professor of anthropology and archaeology, an instructor at the Radford University in Virginia, U.S. The Solo Mode was co-designed with designer David Digby.”

Base Pledge (w/shipping): $86

All-In (w/shipping): $86, same as above

Campaign Ends: 3/18

Game Ships: Feb. 2023

Funding Status: Funded; currently at 144% with 23 days to go.

Project: Circuitry

Designer: Jeremy Dawson

Artist: Jeremy Dawson

Publisher: Blood Moon Games

Genre/Mechanisms: abstract strategy, grid movement, hand management,
modular board, network and route building, player elimination, solo / solitaire game

Player Count: 1-6

Solo Mode: yes

Complexity: light

Risk: HIGH

Summary: “Build the circuit board with the help of 30 double-sided cards. Move strategically your pawn from a Charge Point to the Master Node and collect and play the charge cards. Each turn the active player selects 2 mini cards of any combination they wish to take. A player can have as many mini cards in hand as they wish, and may play any amount of mini cards in any order during their turn. Each player may also play (but does not have to) a single circuit-board card at any point in their turn, any way up and in any orientation, as long as it connects to a corresponding edge of another card. You can change the circuit board’s pathways, or force your opponents to move when they don’t want to. The goal: build and negotiate the pathways to reach your charge point, before returning to the master node and eliminate other players.”

Base Pledge (w/shipping): $49

All-In (w/shipping): $49, same as above

Campaign Ends: 3/15

Game Ships: May 2022

Funding Status: Currently at 44% with 19 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 game, cooperative game, dice, dice rolling, expansion, fantasy, open drafting

Player Count: 1-4

Solo Mode: yes

Complexity: medium-light

Risk: HIGH

Summary: “Mageling is a dice placement, engine-building, and 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.​ You will need all of your wits, and maybe a little help from your friends, to overcome the challenges of your journey and prevail in a final showdown of arcane sorcery.

The expansion, Mageling: Rise of the Ancient Ones, is a game of zero chance. It will require wise use of your scrolls, potions, mana, and your mageling’s powers to snatch victory from between Asdea’s jaws.”

Base Pledge (w/shipping): $30

All-In (w/shipping): $70

Campaign Ends: 3/24

Game Ships: May 2023

Funding Status: Currently at 86% with 29 days to go.

Project: Rumors and Legends

Designer: Reuben Brunson

Artist: Kyle Taylor

Publisher: BIGABOT Games

Genre/Mechanisms: collectible components, deduction, draw and discard, murder / mystery, roll / spin and move

Player Count: 3-6

Solo Mode: no

Complexity: light

Risk: HIGH

Summary: “A mystery deduction board game. It stars a creepy cast of creatures and Cryptids, like the Sasquatch and Loch Ness Monster. You are investigating the disappearance of Professor Daffle, the world’s leading researcher of Cryptozoology, as you travel to legendary locations like The Himalayas and Roswell, New Mexico. You are also in constant peril of getting lost in the Bermuda Triangle. Rumors and Legends uses mechanics you should be comfortably familiar if you’ve played the usual suspects of mystery games before, but with a host of new twists and turns to make the game feel unique, modern, and thematically interesting. A player rolls the dice to determine their next move. Their move may involve moving their mini a specified number of spaces, drawing a Rumor card, moving the door minis, and/or moving to the Bermuda Triangle to end the turn. The game ends when a player is first to solve the mystery of Professor Daffle’s disappearance. There are three components: the Creature responsible, the Location of Daffle’s disappearance, and the Incident that was involved. The player who is able to solve the three components of the mystery is the one who wins the game.”

Base Pledge (w/shipping): $70

All-In (w/shipping): $140

Campaign Ends: 3/24

Game Ships: Oct. 2022

Funding Status: Currently at 62% with 28 days to go.

Project: Starship Interstellar

Designers: Davide Calza, Andrea Crespi (1969, Alone, Potion Explosion)

Artists: Davide Corsi (Kingsburg Second Edition, Last Aurora, Xi’an), Kurt Miller (1846: The Race for the Midwest, Arkham Horror, Evolution, Hannibal: Rome vs. Carthage, Railways of the World)

Publisher: Pendragon Game Studio (Last Aurora, The Thing: The Boardgame)

Genre/Mechanisms: action / event, point to point movement, resource to move, space exploration

Player Count: 1-4

Solo Mode: yes

Complexity: medium-heavy

Risk: HIGH

Summary: “2357: in stark contrast to mankind’s hopes, violent astronomical events and the unregulated use of the new ‘solar extraction’ technology have greatly accelerated the growth rate of our star during the recent decades. Now the Sun is nearing the end of its life cycle, and its fate – as any other star of its category – is to transform into a Red Giant. This will result in an exceptional increase in volume that will cause it to engulf Mercury, Venus, and possibly Earth itself. In the best-case scenario, the increase in volume will stop short of our planet’s destruction, but life as we know it would have already been destroyed due to radiation and the dramatic increase in surface’s temperatures. Our only hope, as mankind, is to build a colossal interstellar spaceship that would allow a fraction of humanity to evacuate on a ‘new earth’ we have located in the Trappist star system during our search for viable extrasolar planets. Such a project, however, is far from simple: the resources we need can’t be found on our planet, and the few made available from the solar extraction technology are still insufficient. The only way to complete this monumental task is to harvest the materials needed directly from the other planets of our solar system. Every player will guide a Nation with the aim of becoming the foremost contributor in the race for the interstellar spaceship. If mankind is to be saved, whichever nation will be deemed the greatest contributor will have the honor of guiding humanity on this new Earth.”

Base Pledge (w/shipping): $122

All-In (w/shipping): $151

Campaign Ends: 3/15

Game Ships: Feb. 2023

Funding Status: Funded; currently at 128% with 19 days to go.

Project: Sythopian Wars

Designers: Antony Jump, Jason Jump

Artist: Antony Jump

Publisher: Bloodforged Games

Genre/Mechanisms: 2 player only games, dice rolling, miniatures, moving multiple units, real-time, science fiction, simultaneous action selection, wargame

Player Count: 2

Solo Mode: no

Complexity: medium-light

Risk: HIGH

Summary: “Players take control of unique armies made up of terrifying miniatures, each with their own distinct rules defined by their lore in this original setting. This fast-paced, brutal wargame with alternating activation and immersive combat rewards tactical play over dice rolls and your ability to act, and react to your opponent’s moves, turning the game into a tactical dance as players shoot simultaneously, dive into cover or charge into the enemy before they can unleash their firepower. Beware however that there are pros and cons to every tactic, as reacting to everything leaves you constantly playing second fiddle to your opponent.”

Base Pledge (w/shipping): $124

All-In (w/shipping): $124, same as above

Campaign Ends: 3/24

Game Ships: Feb. 2023

Funding Status: Currently at 56% with 28 days to go.

Project: Tang Garden: Seasons

Designers: Pierpaolo Paoletti, Francesco Testini (15 Days, Tang Garden, Xi’an)

Artists: Andrew Bosley (Blood Bowl: Team Manager – The Card Game, Citadels, Everdell, Mission: Red Planet Second Edition, Tapestry), Sergio Chaves (Dwellings of Eldervale, Rise of Tribes, Sanssouci)

Publisher: Thundergryph Games (Iwari, Spirits of the Forest, Tang Garden)

Genre/Mechanisms: area majority / influence, auction: sealed bid, environmental, expansion, cooperative game, miniatures, open drafting, set collection, solo / solitaire game, tile placement, variable player powers, variable set-up, worker placement

Player Count: 1-4

Solo Mode: yes

Complexity: medium-heavy

Risk: medium-low

Summary: “Tang Garden: Seasons is the final expansion for Tang Garden. We have crafted different rich scenarios by getting inspiration from the mechanisms you most love in board games that will completely change the way you create your beautiful garden. In this expansion, you will find new tiles, decorations, panoramas, visitors, boards, and new components that you have never seen before.

Tang Garden is a Zen-like game that will take you to the first golden age of China, where players will progressively build a garden by creating the landscape, placing the scenery and projecting their vision through vertical panoramas. During the construction, noblemen will visit the garden to admire the surroundings and the way the natural elements coexist in the most breathtaking scenery humankind has ever laid their eyes upon.”

Base Pledge (w/shipping): $67

All-In (w/shipping): $237

Campaign Ends: 3/17

Game Ships: Feb. 2023

Funding Status: Funded; currently at 971% with 21 days to go.

Project: Twin Palms

Designer: Kristi Bink

Artist: Eric Hibbeler (Junk Orbit, Terror Below, Yukon Airways)

Publisher: Bink Ink (Pups, Trekking the National Parks, Trekking the National Parks Second Edition)

Genre/Mechanisms: card game, trick-taking

Player Count: 2-5

Solo Mode: no

Complexity: light

Risk: medium-high

Summary: “A beach-themed escape from your traditional trick-taking card game. Each round you must manipulate your hand of cards to create unique paired combinations that are stronger (or weaker) than your opponent’s pairs. It’s a trick-taker that grants total freedom. No following suit. No trump. But only the cleverest players will hit their bids to earn points. So strategize, and don’t be afraid to change your plans at the last second.”

Base Pledge (w/shipping): $25

All-In (w/shipping): $25, same as above

Campaign Ends: 3/21

Game Ships: Oct. 2022

Funding Status: Currently at 42% with 26 days to go.

Project: Unsettled® Board Game Plus All-New Content

Designers: Marc Neidlinger (Unsettled, Vindication), Tom Mattson (Unsettled)

Artists: Bartek Fedyczak (Uprising: Curse of the Last Emperor, Vindication, Waste Knights: Second Edition), Krista Zimmerman (Unsettled)

Publisher: Orange Nebula (Unsettled, Vindication)

Genre/Mechanisms: cooperative game, exploration, modular board, science fiction, variable set-up, worker placement

Player Count: 2-4

Solo Mode: no

Complexity: medium-heavy

Risk: low

Summary: “The critically-acclaimed Unsettled board game, with all-new planet boxes and a few extra bizarre and wondrous treats.

Unsettled is a cooperative survival adventure set in the wondrous and unnerving fringes of uncharted space. There are no enemies and no combat, only an environment where every step, every breath, every particle around you could mean immediate, terrifying, death. Enemies are the least of your concerns. In these incredible conditions you must complete a series of tasks necessary to your continued survival. Perhaps the water reclamation system on the ship needs repair, or (as usual) food supplies are running low. Before you lies a strange alien landscape – it’s up to you to complete these tasks using… whatever you find out there. Each time you play you will have a different combination of survival tasks to complete and the things you discover (and their weird properties) will be different as well. So while you always start out knowing what problems you need to solve you have no idea how you’re going to use the world before you to do so (or what the world is going to do to you while you try). As you explore the environment, encountering wild & unique opportunities along the way, you will work closely with the rest of your crew to achieve your goal of continued existence. The only thing you can be sure of is each other; lose that trust and you’ll lose all hope of survival.”

Base Pledge (w/shipping): $98

All-In (w/shipping): $289

Campaign Ends: 3/8

Game Ships: Feb. 2023

Funding Status: Funded; currently at 1098% with 13 days to go.

Project: Way Too Many Cats!

Designer: Carla Kopp (Roar and Write!, Super Hack Override, Stellar Leap)

Artist: Ilyse Hines

Publisher: Weird Giraffe Games (Dreams of Tomorrow, Fire in the Library, Tumble Town)

Genre/Mechanisms: animals, open drafting, push your luck, set collection

Player Count: 1-6

Solo Mode: yes

Complexity: light

Risk: medium-high

Summary: “A competitive drafting spatial puzzle game about drafting cats, making each cat happy, and pressing your luck in the number of kittens you take on. Players are managers of an adoption agency trying to show off each cat in the best light. They accomplish this differently depending on the cat type and the individual characteristics of each cat. The game is played until one player fills all showcase spots in their adoption center; all players get equal turns and the player with the cutest cats wins.”

Base Pledge (w/shipping): $38

All-In (w/shipping): $58

Campaign Ends: 3/18

Game Ships: Mar. 2023

Funding Status: Currently at 68% with 22 days to go.