It’s been a busy week, and new projects are appearing faster than ever! Join us in this pre-Origins edition of Kickstarter Spotlight, and see what awaits us.
ESSEN
by LudiCreations
Well, this is awkward.
Not to be confused with ESSEN: The Game – Spiel’13 that’s due to be launched on Kickstarter tomorrow, LudiCreations’ ESSEN has players take the opposite point of view, that of exhibitors frantically trying to build the necessary buzz in order to sell their games!
As a publisher (and we are talking from experience here), you have to manage your booth, you have to push your games, you have to get noticed. If you don’t, this may be your last ESSEN. If you do, you get to come back – hopefully to stay.
Battle of the Electric Vikings
by Black Slither Games
The Gods made Heavy Metal, and it was good.
Black Slither Games’ latest creation, Battle of The Electric Vikings pits you against your friends in a contest to throw down the most epic metal song titles possible from your hand of cards. While there is no board to constrain your placement, and words can be overwritten by stacking cards, titles must be read either horizontally or vertically, building off of what is currently on the table.
There are point values on the various words for scoring, but this feels like the sort of game where you should say ‘… the points don’t matter!’ and leave the scoring, if any, to popular opinion.
What’s better than metal? The answer has always been nothing…until now. Battle of the Electric Vikings gives you full reign to make the most epic metal song titles and lyrics. Be your own Lemmy or Rob Halford or Bruce Dickinson. With a 100 card deck the possibilities are seemingly endless. No board to hold you back from making the most brutally epic metal title known to man! The only limit is yourself.
XenoShyft: Onslaught
by CoolMiniOrNot
CoolMiniOrNot is running with the ‘OrNot’ theme for this particular project, it seems, for the first time that I can remember. XenoShyft: Onslaught is a card-driven futuristic tower-defense game, designed around a deckbuilding mechanic.
With XenoShyft, CoolMiniOrNot wanted to create a deck-building style game that tasks players with working together rather than defeating one another. This goal lead to the development of an outstandingly brutal card-based game that played more like a tower defense game then your standard deck builder. Furthermore, this focus made the game not only a great cooperative experience, but also allows Xenoshyft: Onslaught to function as a single player game.
Book of the Wyrm
by Onyx Path Publishing
Onyx Path Publishing is back again with another Deluxe treatment of one of White Wolf’s myriad titles. This time, it’s The Book of the Wyrm, a companion to Werewolf and Changing Breeds, that details the nature and forces of the Wyrm, enemy of all creation. It provides information on everything from Wyrm-worshipping cults to the twisted realm of Malfeas.
When will you Rage?
Progress: Evolution of Technology
by NSKM Games
From NSKM Games comes Progress: Evolution of Technology, a card-driven civilization game in which each player must do their best to guide their chosen nation from the depths of Antiquity, up through the very beginnings of the Industrial Revolution.
This is your chance to experience a walk through mankind’s history of progress. You will forge your nation’s path not through magic, but through technology.
The Outlaws
by Bibelot Games
Set in the American Wild West, The Outlaws, by Bibelot Games lets you lead a low-down, dirty, no-good pack of bandits through town, looting and robbing as you go. The objective? To try and become the most feared outlaw in the West!
Described as a Euro-style card game, The Outlaws allows players to put that ill-gotten loot to good use by hiring characters to join their posse, then taking that posse out and about town, gaining reputation and even more loot by doing the sort of jobs that need doing by a pack of hungry outlaws. There’s no honor among thieves, either, as a well placed tip whispered in the right ears might net you some easy loot as a reward from the authorities. The game ends when the cards run out, leaving the player with the highest reputation as king of the roost!
The folks at Bibelot Games have an (un)healthy obsession with lasers, and quality components, so cast your eyes over the laser-etched wooden dice, and metal tokens they’re offering with the base pledge. For those land barons out there that are flush with loot of their own, you might want to take a look at the Hardcore set that features a full set of laser-etched hardwood cards, among other bits of lovely excess.
Keep an eye out soon for our in-depth preview of this fun little game!
Twilight Struggle – Digital Edition
by GMT Games
Breaking News! Just as I was about to publish this, there was an e-mail from GMT Games, announcing the launch of the Kickstarter for the Digital Edition of Twilight Struggle! Now, this is a game whose digital publication has had a very long, very turbulent history, but with this announcement it seems that Playdek has taken over the development, and will be producing it for PC, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android platforms.
Twilight Struggle inherits its fundamental systems from the card-driven classics We the People and Hannibal: Rome vs. Carthage. In that tradition, it is a challenging strategy game of medium complexity that presents new and different challenges with every game session. The game map is a world map of the period, whereon players move units and exert influence in attempts to gain allies and control for their superpower.
