This month’s Kickstarter roundup was going to start off with a big thing about Heroquest, but the Heroquest Kickstarter is currently on hold due to an IP dispute. That doesn’t stop the rest of Kickstarter going strong. It is Christmas however, and I’ve been reluctant to spend as much backing projects this month. Are you feeling the holiday pinch? Is it affecting your Kickstarter spending?
As per usual it’s not fair to look at the exciting new projects without first catching up on some old friends.
- Journey: Wrath of Demons raised a whopping $425,000 managing to achieve many of its stretch goals.
- Unfortunately Firewall didn’t make its funding which is a real shame as I think this looked like a really good little game. Sarcastic Robot has promised to re-launch the project next year and believe they have learnt what went wrong. Firewall raised only $7875 of its $25,000 total but it’s difficult to use that value as many people cancel their funding if they think a project will fail.
- Shadow of Brimstone hasn’t long finished and made over $1.3 million unlocking all manner of weird west miniatures.
- RARRR!!! Almost doubled its funding goal and I’m hoping this game does well enough that we’ll see it in shops.
- Worker Placement was cancelled mere days into its project. Publisher Dyskami issued a statement stating that the by analysing the first 48 hours of the project they could determine that it wasn’t going to be a success and are going to re-launch in the new year. If you’re interested you can still check out our Worker Placement Review.
Update 3: The curtain has finally fallen on the Heroquest 25th Anniversary Kickstarter. When we originally reported the news I used the word cancelled, instead of suspended as was factually correct. Now in a statement to it's backers and publicly on their website, Gamezone have informed the world that they will be cancelling the project.
But this isn't the end. Gamezone never stopped working on the development of the project and are planning to restart a crowd funding campaign on an, as yet unknown, platform. When the latest project goes live any news will be posted on www.heroquestclassic.com
We love a bit of trading card game action here on Polyhedron Collider and we also love it when people build on board game and card games ideas and integrate them into video games. Because of this we were very excited when Blizzard announced an online collectible card game based on the World of Warcraft universe and rightly so, Blizzard have a track record of producing well-polished and extremely high quality games. Hearthstone is that game and is currently available in beta, it’s taken a while for the beta to make its way to UK shores and now it’s here we’ve had the opportunity to give it a go.
There comes a time when you feel sorry for someone working in a call centre. A whole day on the phone talking to irate customers complaining about the price of their gas bill while having to stick to a script and never deviating. You may feel sorry for them but in Worker Placement, the latest game from Dyskami Publishing, currently raising funds on Kickstarter, that pang of pity lasts only for a few seconds as at some point you’ll give someone a job in a Call Centre and you’ll take that money.
Remember remember to Kickstart November,
Demons, Firewalls and Lairs
But before we direct, into this month’s projects
Lets see how the previous month fairs
- Darklands the mythical miniatures war game smashed its £20,000 target with a whopping £138,533.
- Unfortunately Xi Cards, managed only to secure half of its funding goal. Project creator Chris is now looking for a ‘more gradual’ release schedule.
- Larceny scraped through its funding goal raising just $552 over its $15,000 goal.
- Ortus will be making its way to backers when it raised $16,522 dollars for a $6,000 goal.
We know October is here because the shops are now selling mince pies and the pub we play board games in has put up their Christmas tree. Yes autumn is now upon us, the weather is getting wetter and the nights are getting darker and the only way you're going to cheer yourself up is by investing in some new and shiny boardgames.
But before we delve into the new hotness let’s recap on September’s projects:
- 404: Law not Found has a few days still to go but has passed its funding target, and is well on its way to some juicy stretch goals.
- Burning Suns also passed its funding goal with a few days spare there’s still a chance to get in on this one.
- Ashes-Dark Side of the Moon failed to meet its funding raising only £6k of the £30k asked for
- Septikon Uranium Wars almost doubled its funding goal, which wasn’t really surprising with e buzz surrounding this game.
- And last of all Wrath of Kings surprised absolutely no-one when it managed to raise nearly ¾ of a million dollars yet again Cool Mini or Not have had a storming project.
Burning Suns is a galactic spanning empire building game currently raising funds on Kickstarter. I had the chance to chat with the game’s creator Emil Larson about the game and its future.
This week’s news roundup of board game news contains a collection of heroes and villains. We’ve got the good guys of DC Comics battling it out in the DC Deckbuilding game Heroes Unite; we’ve got the dastardly pilots of the evil empire taking to two new TIE Interceptors for Star Wars X-Wing Miniatures game and we have the brave soldiers of the Enforcers battling the plague in Deadzone. Best of all we have a rumoured return of some of the greatest heroes of gaming in the form of Heroquest.
The concept of collectible card games, or CCGs, in a video game is becoming a bit of a thing. Big names in both the video game industry and board gaming industry, such as Blizzard, Minecraft creator Mojang and even Wizards of the Coast are developing games based along the concept of collecting and trading cards and then using them to battle each other. As with a lot of concepts, as soon as it becomes popular there is an explosion of games using the same mechanic and so it is that Zynga, a company made famous by a social farming game have released War of the Fallen, a collectible card game for iOS.
The stand out game from this year UK Games Expo was Lords of War, an interesting little card game from new company Black Box Games. At the Expo only the first set of cards where available and I said I would resist a review until there was more to explore in the game. Well now the second boxed set is available and I’m happy to say it hasn’t disappointed.
But before we jump into the exciting new projects, let us recap on last month:
- We may have a new Kickstarter record here as The Agents nets over a $270,000! That may be the biggest board game project that didn't include miniatures. All of the original stretch goals where achieved and even those added later to compensate the over eager pledgers where gobbled up.
- Casual Game Insider is guaranteed a second season raising $26,410 of their $15,000 goal.
- IncrediBrawl achieved a very respectable $23,267 of its $15,000 goal.
- Carmarace managed to get over the finishing line by the seat of its pants, exceeding its goal by only $130. For most of the project it looked like Carmarace wasn't going to meet its goal but a last minute push put it through, in fact you may say a very big jump?!
Casual Game Insider is a magazine devoted to casual games. It’s easy when you’re neck deep in heavy euros and dungeon crawlers to forget about the little games and Casual Game Insider has been working hard to remind everyone that not every game needs hundreds of finely sculpted miniatures or a tree’s worth of tiny wooden cubes. Casual Game Insider is currently raising funds for its second year of print over at Kickstarter and I had a chance to chat with the magazine’s editor in chief, Chris James on the appeal of casual games, surviving Atlantis and writers who can’t be trusted.
Things are continuing to hot up for convention season with another News Collider brimming with news on the latest board and card game releases. We’ve got a new game from Fantasy Flight Games (which may not actually be that new but never mind), Z-Man games revising our beloved Neuroshima Hex and giving away free stuff for Pandemic, yet another Nightfall Expansion and what might be the last expansion for Ascension on iOS.
Here we outline some of the best British made board and card games on display at the UK Games Expo 2013.
It’s true to say that the UK Games Expo is a very board game led event. The majority of publisher, game designers and traders were concentrated on board games but that’s not to say the miniature war games weren’t also well represented. Several big names in the UK miniature games market where present and a handful of retailers where selling products, mostly second hand and bits box affairs, as well as our local miniature handling solution; KR Multicases. Not only where the latest moulded resins available but you were never far away from the smell of burnt MDF as there where a surprising number of companies selling laser cut buildings, the standout company for me at the expo was Warmill. Of course, laser cutting suggests sci-fi but there where also many fantasy dungeons and caverns on display which were mainly intended for roleplaying games but where very handsome set ups. Several tournaments where taking place and Saturday afternoon was dominated by the Warmachine and Hordes tournament. Half of the wargames room was taken up by Privateer Press’s steampunk wargame showing that Warmachine has a huge following in this country.
Over in our tiny island nation we may not have the grand convention scene that our American cousins enjoy. We don’t have the headline grabbing GenCon, the controversial Origins or the wargame focused Adepticon. What we do have is the UK Games Expo which was held last week and it was a blast.
I love video games and a couple of weeks ago we saw the news that Plaid Hat Games where producing a board game based on the lore and setting of Bioshock Infinite. It’s a shame that there's not more games based off of video game properties. Board Game Quest covered all the bases of the best video games that exist but there's a rich compendium of video games just begging to be transcribed into cardboard and dice. Here's my top picks for which video games would make brilliant board games and which already existing board games come close.
