Kickstarter Collision: March 2014

February is finally at an end and hopefully this means less crap falling from the sky, whether it be ridiculous quantities of water here in the UK or stupid amounts of snow we’ve all had to stay inside and play games. It’s also meant we’ve had more time to contemplate some Kickstarter projects and this month looks like another great selection.

As per usual we’ll take a look at how last month’s choices faired:

• Unsung Story barely scraped through its $600,000 funding goal. Personally I thought a project between Playdek and the creator of Final Fantasy tactics would do better but at least it’s funded.
• Lagoon Land of Druids has been a resounding success, funding nearly five times its goal.
• Oddball Aeronauts is still going but has cleared its goal.
• The combination of Game Salute and an existing game obviously proved a hit as Shadowrift Archfiends raised over $40,000 when all they asked for was $2000!
• Draco Magi also proved a hit raising nearly $100,000 for the dragon duelling card game.

Game Developerz

I don’t know about you but I’d love to be a game designer. Whether video game or board game my brain is crammed full of ideas that I think would make amazing games. They wouldn’t. And so I’ll never be a game designer but now I can replicate the ups and down of developing a video game with Game Developerz, a card game for three to six players about the video game industry.

It’s a game full of silly cartoony art and funny little pokes at the videogame industry. You’ll hire staff, work with publishers and make the game of your dreams.

Game Developerz has already reached its £8,000 goal and looks like it’s going to smash a lot of stretch goals over the next month.

Airlock

Airlock is a simple but fun game about building a space station from modular components. We won’t go into too much detail as we’ve covered the game in our Airlock review.

Airlock is looking for $5,000 but currently looks like it’s going to struggle to meet that goal so needs your help.

Hoyuk

I’ve said it before, but I truly believe that one of Kickstarter’s great potentials is taking tried and tested print and play games and bringing them into full and resplendent versions. This is what Mage Company are doing with Hoyuk, a game about building ancient settlements that’s been available as a print and play game for some time.

Hoyuk is all about building upon the remnants of previous civilisations, quite literally as you build up settlements using tiles on top of existing tiles. It’s already a popular game and if you want the full scoop I managed to speak to the men behind Mage Company on bringing the game to Kickstarter.

Hoyuk is a great game, an EU friendly shipping deal (so no nasty VAT surprises when it gets delivered) and is already close to its $15,000 funding goal.

Guild Ball

One of my first real boardgame was Blood Bowl and it was amazing; American Football with Orcs and a polystyrene pitch. Now to me the concept of fantasy races playing proper football (sorry American readers) never really appealed to me. But Guild Ball has surprised me as they’ve made a fantasy miniature game about proper proper football, not the Premier League with over paid prima donnas who but the old fashioned football games played in mediaeval times when the goals where several miles apart and every single person in the village took part.

Guild Ball takes this concept of mob football and turns it into a table top miniatures game where a range of colourful rival guilds attempt to get an inflated pig’s bladder into the opposition’s goal. The game is played on a typical war game style tabletop rather than a gridded board and has great looking miniatures from Clockwork Goblin.

Guild Ball has already raised the £30,000 goal and has plenty of stretch goals lined up.

Dungeon Scroll

I hate spelling games. Boggle, Scrabble and their ilk all leave me cold. It’s not that I can’t appreciate good game design it’s that I can barely string together a word with more than one syllable. Maybe if someone could add dungeons, orcs and killer squirrels I might take notice. And that’s what Game Salute has done with Dungeon Scroll, a dungeon delving card game where players defeat the terrible denizen of the dungeon using their ability to make words from the letter cards in their hands. Players are awarded gold based on the complexity of the words they weave.

If you’re old enough to remember Knightmare then you’re going to find it hard not to yell “spellcasting” before throwing your letters down. This is a Game Salute game so I don’t need to tell you that these people are masters at Kickstarter have got the process down to a tee.

Dungeon Scroll is looking for a modest $1,000 and has already met that goal.