This Week’s Crowdfunding Spotlight 11/4/22
By the way, I totally didn’t mean for this list to be dominated by push-your-luck mechanics, but that seems to be the flavor of the week!
Slay the Spire: The Board Game
It was only a matter of time. Slay the Spire is a wildly popular video game that plays like a card game and soon will be able to be played as a board game. This cooperative deck-builder challenges players to move up the spire board to defeat the boss and move on to the next level. As you traverse the board you’ll run across many encounters which will force you to draw enemy cards and place them into each players row. At the beginning of each fight players will roll the die to determine what the enemies actions will be and then spend energy to use cards in their hand to defend and attack. If you manage to defeat your enemies, you’ll gain the rewards shown on the enemy card. Just like the video game, you’ll be able to choose different paths along the board to reach your goal. Along the way you can find treasures and campsites which will allow you to regain hit point or level up your cards. The game ends if any player reached 0 health or all players defeat the final boss.
I adore the video game and am totally stoked to be able to play the game cooperatively with my friends. The production of Slay the Spire: The Board Game looks fantastic. There is a regular level to back where you get all the base components, but of you want to truly deck out your game you an back at the higher levels to get playmats, metal coins, a bigger box (for storing the playmats with your game), and even an extra copy of the cards with beta art from the video game. If you enjoy the video game or are looking for a challenging coop, then make sure to check out Slay the Spire: The Board Game on Kickstarter here.
Die-namo
Die-namo is a fast-paced dice rolling and set-collection game. During the game there will be a line of 3cards in the middle of the table (the pot) and each player will have three cards. On your turn you will roll the color die and collect a card from the middle if one matches the color of the die roll. If none of the cards match the die, you must instead bet. To bet, you will select all cards of one color from your hand (your bet) and then mark them by placing
the color die on top. Then you will roll the number die and if the die roll matches the value of any card from your bet, you may collect
cards from the pot. If your roll doesn’t match you will add the cards you bet to the pot. Once one player has a full set of cards of one color, the game ends and everyone tallies their scores. Whoever earned the most points wins!
Die-namo has that classic game appeal. The simplicity of the rules should make it quick to teach and I like that you need so few components to play. This is the kind of game that I can see being good for travel. You can check out Die-namo here on Gamefound.
Race to the Raft
Race to the Raft is a co-operative, tile placement game where players are trying to save kitties. HOW COULD I NOT WANT THIS GAME??? In it you must guide cats to safety by cooperatively playing cards to build paths or discarding cards to move cats along the paths built. Whenever you place a card or the discard pile has 4 cards in it, you must take a fire tiles and add it to the board. This doesn’t sound too complicated until you realize that despite playing cooperatively together, you cannot show your path cards to anyone else or talk about specific details. So trying to figure out how to build the best path forward can be challenging.
One part puzzle and one part social deduction, Race to the Raft looks like and exciting coop that will have me tense as heck as I agonize over avoiding my kittens becoming crispy critters. Learn more about Race to the Raft here on Kickstarter.
Trick Shot (Second Edition)
I’m not usually a fan of sports-related games, but there is something about Trick Shot that is really exciting. The goal of the game is to score the most goals by the end of the game. You start each Turn with no dice in your dice pool and every time you take an action you will add one die to your dice pool. The more dice are in your dice pool, the more likely it is that your action will fail and your turn will end so you have to weigh your choices carefully. To take an action you will activate a hockey player. Each hockey player can move a number of squares up to their speed in a straight line. Once they have moved you choose an action, add a die to your pool, and roll. You can exhaust stamina to re-roll, but if you roll one or more X’s the action fails and your turn ends. There’s a lot more to it than just that, but the general gist is that players will go back and forth attempting to guide the puck into their opponents net before the period is up.
Maybe it’s the goofy player minis or maybe its the combination of strategy and push-your-luck mechanics, but either way I am intrigued! I think Trick Shot will be a winner with hockey fans, strategy players, and good ol’ chaos goblins like myself. Score a copy of Trick Shot on Gamefound here.
Chicken!
I adore the level of care and talent that goes into Keymaster Games’ designs. Their work is always high-quality and the artwork superb. Chicken! is their latest endeavor and combines die-rolling and push-your-luck gameplay with a captivating physical design. In the game, players are racing to be the first to 25 points. On the first turn 1 player will roll all of the white dice. Any die showing a fox must be locked and if you roll 3 foxes, you bust and end your turn. Chicken dice are put aside for scoring points and egg dice will hatch, allowing you to add a yellow die, or if there are none left a riskier orange die, to your pool. Then you must choose to either roll again, pushing your luck, or stop and collect your chicken points. You only get one re-roll, but the dice you collect from hatched dice will stay in the pool, meaning that the next player can roll all of the dice. If they decide they do not want to roll the extra dice, they can pay a penalty of one point and return all the extra dice to the coop.
I love that each turn that goes by can potentially increase your chances of busting, but you can “Chicken Out” and reset the pool. This adds a layer of chance as you not only have to choose wether you will re-roll on you turn but also how many dies you are willing to roll to begin with. As I said before the art is great, I love the wooden bits, the gameplay looks really fun, and I love that everything fits into a small, portable tube, making it perfect for on-the-go play. Of all the games on my list this week, Chicken! is at the top. Learn more about Chicken! here on Kickstarter.
What Kickstarters are you backing this week? Let me know in the comments below or on Twitter with #GameCrowdfundSpotlight and check back next week for more fun projects!