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

Project: Numbsters

Designer: Milan Zivkovic (Battlecrest: Fellwoods Base Game, It Was This Big, ROVE: Results-Oriented Versatile Explorer)

Artist: Luke Flowers

Publisher: Button Shy (Circle the Wagons, Sprawlopolis, Tussie Mussie)

Genre/Mechanisms: card game, hand management, print & play

Player Count: 1

Solo Mode: yes

Complexity: light

Risk: low

Summary: “A solo game that can be played in your hand or on a table. Each of the hungry Numbsters features a number and special ability. Starting with a stack of 6 random Numbsters (plus the Mouth card) you’ll need to eat, move, and manipulate your way to victory. If you can get down to just one Numbster and the Mouth remaining in your hand, you win!”

Base Pledge (w/shipping): $17

All-In (w/shipping): $17, same as above

Campaign Ends: 12/17

Game Ships: Mar. 2023

Funding Status: Funded; currently at 494% with 9 days to go.

Project: Sol: Last Days of a Star – Insert and Reprint

Designers: Ryan Spangler, Sean Spangler

Artist: Jon Mietling (Palm Island, Planetoid, Zephyr: Winds of Change)

Publisher: Elephant Laboratories

Genre/Mechanisms: action points, area movement, cooperative game, movement points, network and route building, ownership, pattern building, science fiction,

Player Count: 1-5

Solo Mode: yes

Complexity: medium-heavy

Risk: HIGH

Summary: “The board represents the solar environment: two layers of orbit around the Sun (Upper and Lower Orbit), and three layers within the Sun itself (the Convective, Radiative, and Core). The deeper you take actions, the higher your rewards, but the faster the instability of the Sun is increased. Your Mothership rotates slowly in orbit around the Sun, and this is the only place your ships can launch from to perform useful tasks in the solar environment. You can either convert ships into stations or use the ships to activate yours and other players’ stations. If you activate your own stations you get the full reward, while activating other player’s stations you split the reward with the owner. You gain energy by activating Energy Nodes, and you use this energy to either activate Ship Foundries to build new ships (which you need since you are constantly losing ships by converting them into new stations) or activate Transmit Towers to transmit the energy back to your Ark to turn into Momentum (which is ultimately how your Ark will escape). But you cannot enter the Sun without converting ships into Solar Gates which span the high energy membranes separating one layer of the sun from the next. You must carefully manage your time and resources in order to transmit the most energy back to your Ark before the Sun is lost forever. With any luck, some small collection of your last planetary residents will escape the solar system before it is engulfed by the oncoming supernova.”

Base Pledge (w/shipping): $37

All-In (w/shipping): $105

Campaign Ends: 1/3

Game Ships: Sep. 2023

Funding Status: Funded; currently at 151% with 26 days to go.

Project: Stefan Feld City Collection – Classic

Designer: Stefan Feld (Bonfire, Bora Bora, Bruges, The Castles of Burgundy, Trajan)

Artists: Christian Fiore (Airlines Europe, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Heaven & Ale, Skat), Klemens Franz (Agricola, Amsterdam, Caverna: The Cave Farmers, Clans of Caledonia, Hamburg, Le Havre, New York City, Orléans), Patricia Limberger (12 Thieves, Alhambra, Amsterdam, Skylands), Andreas Resch (Amsterdam, Great Western Trail, Gùgōng, Istanbul, Lorenzo il Magnifico, Mombasa)

Publisher: Queen Games (Alhambra, Amerigo, Fresco, Lancaster, Shogun)

Genre/Mechanisms: action points, canals, dice rolling, hand management, network and route building, open drafting, pick-up and deliver, set collection, solo / solitaire game, tableau building (Amsterdam); card game, city building, economic, dice rolling, hand management, multi-use cards, solo / solitaire game, tableau building (Hamburg); action drafting, auction / bidding, card game, city building, construction, solo / solitaire game (New York City); city building, cube tower (Marrakesh)

Player Count: 1-4 (Amsterdam, New York City); 1-5 (Hamburg) 2-4 (Marrakesh)

Solo Mode: yes (Amsterdam, Hamburg, New York City); no (Marrakesh)

Complexity: medium-heavy (Hamburg, Marrakesh, New York City); heavy (Amsterdam)

Risk: low

Summary: “Amsterdam is a reimplementation of Macao with a new setting, improved card balance, and new gameplay elements. It challenges players to build combinations of abilities, as well as to correctly calculate the advantage of delayed gratification for actions.

Hamburg is a card game in which each card has five different uses, and players must cleverly choose the best use for each one, all while avoiding disasters and racing for different objectives. Players act as mayors of the city of Hamburg in the late 19th century. Hamburg is a reimplementation of Bruges, including The City on the Zwin and Pets expansions and some new content, with some moderate rules enhancements.

A game of New York City is played over 5 game rounds. First, players deal out cards in sets of two cards equal to two times the number of players plus one additional. In turn order, players draft a pair of cards until they have 4 cards. Then, they draw 3 more cards from the deck. Next comes the bidding round, where in turn order players will play cards to bid to determine the strength of their action, with the player who bids the highest getting a bonus. The game is played over six rounds (one for each borough). Each game, the value of boroughs is randomly assigned, and the player with the most skyscrapers in a a borough receives full value, and the next player receiving half, and so on. There is a bonus for building in every borough, and points are also awarded for certain characters. Based on Rialto, a previously designed game by Stefan Feld.

Marrakesh is played over three rounds, with each round consisting of four turns. On each turn, players simultaneously and secretly choose three colored cylinders from behind their screen. Then, in turn order, they place matching colored assistants on their player board (these will be the actions they will perform later), then all cylinders are placed in the cube tower. The cube tower randomizes which cylinders are available this round, with some getting stuck and some from previous rounds coming out. In turn order, players select a color and take 1-2 of the cylinders that have passed through the tower (or those that were stuck from a previous round but have now emerged) and place them on their player boards. These cylinders will enhance future actions taken in the same color in future rounds. Then, in turn order players will activate the regions where they have placed an assistant. Actions allow players to gain wealth, which can be traded for influence in the city. Performing various actions also earns bonuses and enhances actions even more as the game proceeds.”

Base Pledge (w/shipping): $98

All-In (w/shipping): $365

Campaign Ends: 2/15

Game Ships: Mar. 2023

Funding Status: Funded; currently at 417% with 7 days to go.