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Author Topic: Board Games - The Kickstartering  (Read 72649 times)
schild
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on: September 08, 2018, 10:18:27 AM

So, I think we can all agree that the effect Kickstarter has had on the board game industry has been absolutely immense. Between just raw knowledge that something exists and the way it's brought straight up art quality to the forefront, it's fairly reasonable to say that the net effect has been good. Advertising, in a way, has become cheaper (just give up a cut to Amazon / Kickstarter). Hell, now you CAN advertise board games. I don't think I ever saw an advertised board game before Kickstarter. I'm not even sure I saw a worker placement game without hot garbage art before Kickstarter.

Anyway, a lot of people here have bought 10, 20, 30+ games on Kickstarter and I'd like to know how you come to the decisions you come to. Or what immediately turns you off. As an example, here's something I typically would have bought but it contained something so deal-breaking that I didn't even put it on my "saved projects." I present to you, Tradewarz: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/480710422/tradewarz-a-game-of-kings

Minis were unique, fun and didn't REALLY need to be painted.
Art in general was good.
Tiny bit of the ruleset/gameplay I read about seemed ok.

But the name, should I see something called Tradewarz sitting on the shelf, I'd regret the purchase until the sun burnt out. Given that its failing (in a world where total garbage... doesn't fail), maybe others couldn't get past the name?

Moving on, in addition to what you like and don't like, what purchases have you all made that you regret?

Mostly, I'd like to narrow down not so much "what makes a good kickstarter" but "what presentation makes a game seem good enough to throw money at." For the sake of argument, let's ignore CMON and Zombicide or whatever the fuck. Yeah, it's a lot of minis. I get "value," this isn't about "value." Also, those games suck and are ugly.

in b4 "nice try, Seth Hiatt"
Ard
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Reply #1 on: September 08, 2018, 10:55:48 AM

My normal process depends heavily on how much the kickstarter is.  If it's less than $30 and looks interesting, a fool and his money are parted.  If it's less than like $60, I'll read the pitch in full and make a call based on that.  Below $100 I start looking at the gameplay videos, mostly to see how the actual gameplay plays out.  Above $100 I have not bought first editions, and I read the shit out of reviews of the first editions before buying them.  So far that only includes gloomhaven and city of kings which both pushed my buttons hard after the reviews.  

That said, there is some simplicity to Teleku's version:  "Hey Teleku, look, something shiny" *a year later*  "Oh right, i bought this".


As far as Tradewarz goes, the name is what made me open up the page.  I wanted to see what sort of trainwreck would name itself that.  Then I saw what they made and temporarily lost my mind.  Then I read the rules and noped out hard on the first page when it was as wishy washy as the name.  Names matter folks.

So far the only thing i regret buying is Founders of Gloomhaven.  It clearly needed a few more design passes, and in the future I'm not going to be backing anything that looks like an unfinished rules set because of it.

All that said, this looks amazing and fit my < $30 criteria, yet I still read the rules due to the theming and name.  Everyone should buy this though  awesome, for real https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/socialsloth/gem-hens-a-real-time-dice-rolling-eggstravaganza?ref=nav_search&result=project&term=gem%20hens


edit:  It looks like they're taking the name change recommendations seriously, although maybe not seriously enough.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/480710422/tradewarz-a-game-of-kings/posts/2279103
« Last Edit: September 08, 2018, 11:04:02 AM by Ard »
schild
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Reply #2 on: September 08, 2018, 11:06:50 AM

i am not buying gem hens
Goldenmean
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Reply #3 on: September 08, 2018, 03:54:13 PM

I'm an outlier data point here, as I've got 721 backed projects in the games category, and at least 90% of those are board games, so clearly I'm a little indiscriminate, though I'm basically completely out of space, and have been trying to be better about what makes me pull the trigger. Off the top of my head, the things that matter most to me in some sort of roughly ordered list of importance are

1) Name recognition of the designer. Board games aren't quite a single auteur endeavor in most instances, but they're pretty damned close. It's rare that I really enjoy one game a designer puts out and can't find at least something interesting to think about in another one of their designs.

2) My hot button interests from the mechanics side. I like co-ops and legacy or campaign mechanics. Any game touting those is going to at least get a detailed investigation. This also works the other way. Are you dice chucker dudes on a map game without much else going? You're probably getting a pass.

3) Name recognition of the publisher. This is more of an anti-indicator that I should back then anything else. CMON miniature heavy products are largely crap, so if it's one of those and it's not also an Eric Lang design, it's probably getting ignored. The Horizon Zero Dawn game is another one. If I'd attached Steamforged as "The Dark Souls people" earlier, it wouldn't have gotten a second glance.

4) Innovation. If I read through a description and can't immediately pigeonhole it as "Oh, that's a lot like $FOO", I'll probably back it just to see what's going on under the hood. I've ended up with a lot of pretty blah projects that didn't quite come together as a result of this, but I've ended up with a ton of hidden gems as well. To me this is really what's amazing about kickstarter. It let's things that are risky or niche enough that a publisher won't go for them see the light of day.

5) Cost. I'm fortunate enough that money isn't much of a concern (thanks Bay Area tech bubble), but I'm not completely stupid. I'll think a bit more about something that costs triple digits than something that doesn't. However because most games that do end up costing that much are miniatures heavy dice chucker type games, they probably already got weeded out by section 2.

As for games I was disappointed with, the biggest ones are practically all of the CMON miniatures fests before I made a rule about that. I think Dogs of War is the only good one they kickstarted, and while that has miniatures for absolutely no good reason, they're not really the thrust of the project.
schild
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Reply #4 on: September 08, 2018, 04:14:38 PM

721 backed projects? I thought I had a problem.
Goldenmean
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Reply #5 on: September 08, 2018, 04:19:16 PM

Yeah, it's a bit gross. I think that number is everything backed in the category, regardless of whether or not it was canceled or the funding failed, but it's a stupidly high number however you slice it.
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Reply #6 on: September 08, 2018, 04:21:18 PM

I have two Kickstarter accounts and probably clock in between 150 and 200 total with about 20-30 cancellations / refunds. I'm pretty picky but some stuff is just snap purchased. That said, I don't think I'll ever run out of space, so it's less of a problem.
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Reply #7 on: September 08, 2018, 08:52:49 PM

I pretty much can echo everything said so far.  Another big criteria for me is rarity.  Boardgames used to be scarce and KS used to be about helping entrepreneurs.  I’m turned off when a campaign is just a pre-retailer marketing spend.  If the KS is the only way to get the game or if it’s a small publisher who often isn’t in retail (like war games, or Phil Eklund’s joint) then I’ll usually back.  I can’t stand seeing publishers like Queen or Artipia or anyone doing a campaign and the game is then 5% more at a FLGS a few weeks later.
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Reply #8 on: September 08, 2018, 09:31:29 PM

I should add, I'll go in blind on anything involving John Clowdus from Small Box Games.
Ard
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Reply #9 on: September 08, 2018, 10:13:05 PM

That ^, although he and his stuff basically got purchased by another company last winter to start doing kickstarter to retail for his back catalogue.  So far they've only pushed out Omen though, so we'll see if any of his other stuff ever actually sees the light of day again.

Edit:  Looks like I haven't been paying attention.  Appears that they're staging a handful of his other games, and one that I don't have might be about to be listed on kickstarter.  Interesting.  Going up on the 25th supposedly.  Date is in a thread on BGG.

https://kolossalgames.com/our-games/mezo/
https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1998448/kickstarter-date

Edit edit:  Holy crap.  No, it's a completely new game, and a board game at that.  My brain just exploded.
« Last Edit: September 08, 2018, 10:29:28 PM by Ard »
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Reply #10 on: September 09, 2018, 04:56:11 AM

That said, there is some simplicity to Teleku's version:  "Hey Teleku, look, something shiny" *a year later*  "Oh right, i bought this".
I saw this thread and was all set to write up all my reasons for kickstarting games, saw this, then realized I couldn’t refute it.   awesome, for real

But hey, lets do a list of the reasons I’ll back something anyways as I help myself to the open bar in the Executive Lounge at the Westin Chosun. 

1.)  Collectable - This is something I can only get on Kickstarter.  This is why I backed the collectors edition of Twighlight Struggle and Tokaido, despite already owning copies of the originals.  Also things like Scythe, where I get a bunch of extra nice miniature/plastic version of components I wont get in normal retail versions.

2.)  Shiny - I’m a sucker for impressive components.  And I do not think this is a bad thing.  To me, in this day and age, board games have to be a very visual experience (or be well suited to quick party game play.  See next point).  I can go online and play any sort of multiplayer game much easier than getting a bunch of people to sit around and try to enforce/remember rules myself.  Everybody sitting around a table with a game that gives an impressive presentation of art, style, or shear number of miniatures is a big part of the fun.  This is why Warhammer 40K can still rack in the amount of money it does for overpriced miniatures, even though you could play the game with cardboard chits.  Because fuck that, you are in it for the spectacle WW1 style space lazor tanks crashing into hordes of bright green aliens wielding scraps of metal as swords and firing jank ass machine guns in the other hand.

Conan, Bloodrage, Rising Sun, UBOOT, and Street Fighter all fit into this one (plus some more).  Oh, and something called Kingdom Death.  Mind you, I still only kickstart if the game seems fun, so I still avoid a lot of the mass miniature games that just don’t appeal to me.  Most recently I backed “So Long, My World” just because the art and the whole theme of the game really appealed to me, despite pretty much being a card only game.  And I rarely kickstart card only games, unless....

3.)  Cool Party Game, Bro - I kickstart stupid cheap shit because while I work in a job where I’m often at drunken social gatherings with intelligent people who are down to play games, its to hard to pull out some 5 hour long horseshit and try to explain the rules.  The collectors edition of Secret Hitler (good crossover with my first point) may be one of the most successful kickstarters for me ever.  I have gotten so much use out of that in the Foreign Service, and it never gets old getting high level government officials around a table and have them start accusing each other of literally being Hitler.  It has been a massive hit everywhere I take it.  The wooden box it comes in also gets praise over the peons who bring their standard cardboard shit.  Anyways, this also includes shit like exploding Kittens and Bears vs. Baby’s.  It’s quick, its easy, its fun, its visual.  No reason not to if it has some decent names behind it.  I’ll sort of glom things like Omen and other small box games into this.  If you do a good job of presenting the game mechanics, and its just basically a cheep deck of cards, then why the hell would I not kickstart.  I backed a glorified deck of cards called Bushido Breakers because it seemed like the idea might work, and it was super cheap (I have not yet opened the box).

4.)  Some Specific Mechanic - There are certain things that appeal to me specifically as a gamer, and I’ll naturally be drawn to kickstart games that follow that theme, even if others wont.  In the old MMO personality type shit (that means nothing anymore), I was hard exploration.  This means I backed things like the 7th Continent or even Endevor.  I also enjoy crafting, and even bounce a game idea round in my head that revolves around crafting magical weapons.  This made me kickstart Enchanters (which was probably a really dumb idea) just to see other ideas around the mechanics of creating magical items.  I’m sure we all have our own specific quirks that set us off and kickstart shit others might shake their heads at.  I kickstarted City of Kings because the RNG mechanics looked like it could be fun.

5.)  Specific Theme - I should probably borg this into point 4 as it fits the overall category, but I’ll just point it out as something people may decide to back a game based on.  I love history, majored in it in college, so I have a huge weakness for historical games.  I kickstarted ‘Days of Ire’, a game about the uprising against communist rule in Budapest, for this reason (also helps I was living in Eastern Europe so it was on my mind).  Despite the fact I have nobody to play it with and with all the other games out there, I doubt I’ll ever open the damn box at this point.  But I have zero regrets, and I’ll probably kickstart more random historical shit like that in the future.  I’m sure others do the same thing for different reasons.

"My great-grandfather did not travel across four thousand miles of the Atlantic Ocean to see this nation overrun by immigrants.  He did it because he killed a man back in Ireland. That's the rumor."
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BobtheSomething
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Reply #11 on: September 09, 2018, 10:24:49 PM

I never, ever read about the game mechanics.  I don't care.  Rules are cheap and plentiful online, and I can always house rule cool minis into a game I know I enjoy.  For me, it's all about the miniatures.
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Reply #12 on: September 10, 2018, 02:35:32 PM

I've backed:

Exploding Kittens (gift for the wife)
Blood Rage
Kingdom Builder Marshlands and Harvest (fuck Queen Games - they're the worst)
Small Star Empires (both KS phases)
Deep Madness (delivering soon)
Rising Sun
Vindication/Epoch the Awakening (delivering soon)
Cthulhu: Death May Die
Eclipse 2

All are enjoyable games for my various game groups.  How do I know this about the games that have yet to release?  I mock them up for a demo session with my friends before the KS ends to help me decide whether I want to back it. 

I open KS daily with the saved search t see new tabletop games.  If something has an earlybird and looks at all interesting, I back it and then schedule a check i later to evaluate it.  If no Early Bird, I wait until a week before it ends to evaluate it.   For the most part, I won't back games that do not have KS exclusives as I can generally get it cheaper down the road and have enough games that I'm not desperate to get something new.

I have 100 games.  If I buy a new one, I get rid of an old one.  Even if a game is good, I won't buy it unless I think it is better than similar games that I already own,  or it fills an empty hole in my collection.

Most new games on KS are not impressive and I pass them by in a few seconds.  I spend more time with a game if I like the theme, mechanics and look.  However, I rule out a lot of games and regret it, such as Spirit Island and 7th Continent.

2020 will be the year I gave up all hope.
lamaros
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Reply #13 on: September 10, 2018, 08:32:39 PM

I don't by KS games unless it's a reprint I have played and want, essentially.

I dunno why I'm in this thread.
schild
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Reply #14 on: September 10, 2018, 08:38:16 PM

Quote
Most new games on KS are not impressive and I pass them by in a few seconds.  I spend more time with a game if I like the theme, mechanics and look.  However, I rule out a lot of games and regret it, such as Spirit Island and 7th Continent.

I've backed:
Cthulhu: Death May Die

whew, what a rollercoaster
jgsugden
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Reply #15 on: September 12, 2018, 10:09:12 PM

Quote
Most new games on KS are not impressive and I pass them by in a few seconds.  I spend more time with a game if I like the theme, mechanics and look.  However, I rule out a lot of games and regret it, such as Spirit Island and 7th Continent.

I've backed:
Cthulhu: Death May Die

whew, what a rollercoaster
I like the theme, the game is fun in the same way that Betrayal is, and I can use the minis for an RPG I run that is set in a early twentieth century setting.  Some of the minis will also get used for my D&D games - the next campaign I run will be heavily influenced by the Far Realms.  It isn't going to be my favorite of the games I got from KS, but I won't regret the ~$100 expense. 

2020 will be the year I gave up all hope.
Sky
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Reply #16 on: September 13, 2018, 07:49:46 PM

Solo support and a strong atmosphere are pretty much all I look for (I also backed CMON's Cthulhu at the last minute). I was pleasantly surprised with Massive Darkness, its shallow and cheesy but hits just the right level for a solitaire game for me. Especially with the promo and crossover content (the vanilla game is really thin).

My main disappointment with KS has been video games. My main happiness has been KDM, all in twice now.

jgsugden
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Reply #17 on: September 14, 2018, 10:03:06 PM

Solo support and a strong atmosphere are pretty much all I look for (I also backed CMON's Cthulhu at the last minute). I was pleasantly surprised with Massive Darkness, its shallow and cheesy but hits just the right level for a solitaire game for me. Especially with the promo and crossover content (the vanilla game is really thin).

My main disappointment with KS has been video games. My main happiness has been KDM, all in twice now.
You might want to keep an eye out for Deep Madness returning to KS.  It can be run Solo and looks to be challenging.  Their first KS run cost more than expected, so they're doing a second run now that the game is ready to go to fund the retail release.  I played through the demo and it was challenging and fun, but not earthshattering.  The minis rival CMON. 

2020 will be the year I gave up all hope.
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Reply #18 on: September 29, 2018, 10:36:00 AM

Dark Domains looks like a good game.  It is a placement game with a multiple tiered economy (the cost and benefit of actions changes upon game state).  However, we're in the last couple days of the KS and it looks like core features of the game are in stretch goals that will not be met (at around $85K, things that appear to be key features are in goals up to $145K - maybe $185K).  Unless they address this adequately, I'll have to drop - but I'll be a bit sad.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/laboratoryh/dark-domains/description

These newer companies need to learn how to do stretch goals:

* Don't make key mechanics of the game stretch goals.
* Any KS exclusives need to fall in the 'cool, but not essential' category.  Alt art/sculpts are good, as are nonserious expansions (Santa Claus figure, etc...)
* Organizers, card sleeves, etc... are also good additions.
* Allowing early bird awards for a cost as expansions is a good technique (and was used in Dark Domains).


2020 will be the year I gave up all hope.
Goldenmean
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Reply #19 on: September 29, 2018, 12:12:35 PM

Heh, and now I know what your kickstarter account is, considering the most recent comment is someone complaining about exactly this.

Don't know why you're pinning this on new companies. Stretch goals like this have been around as long as I've been backing things on kickstarter. The goals you seem to be complaining about here are just additional cards added to a deck already in the game. I wouldn't call that a new feature. It's just more variability for an existing feature. I think stretch goals like that are fairly stupid, as it's even more apparent that the milestones are arbitrary. It certainly wouldn't affect me backing the campaign one way or another though.

As for your list of good stretch goals, I've got plenty of quibbles, but not enough to comment on with the exception of "Organizers, card sleeves, etc". I *hate* seeing this as a stretch goal. Lots of people don't sleeve their cards. They change the play of the game absolutely not at all (barring things like Mystic Vale). You are giving me something I will promptly throw away, as the drawer that I was tossing all of the sleeves I didn't want filled up a long time ago.  Sleeves should always be an add on. It's practically the perfect definition of an add on, as it's something some people want quite a bit, and other people want not at all.

Organizers are often even worse. If you're a one box game and never have an expansion, then fine, maybe your organizer saves me a few plastic bags. But that almost never happens. What does happen is that you ship me a game, and then you ship me a bunch of kickstarter exclusives at the same time that do not fit in your stupid organizer, or you ship me your product in five separate boxes, each with their own organizers, and I promptly overflow my trash throwing all of those organizers away and compressing the contents of those five boxes down into a single box.

Anyway, rant done. As for Dark Domains itself, there's something about the art design of that game that is a huge turn off for me. I think it's mostly the spells. Biiiiiig art area. Teeeny tiny game play text. I don't usually care so much about this sort of thing, but for some reason it's really bothering me this time. I probably would have backed this pretty quickly before I finally admitted I was rapidly running out of space. Now, I just can't quite tell why I'd play this over Champions of Midgard other than "new and shiny"
schild
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Reply #20 on: September 29, 2018, 12:33:31 PM

i passed hard on dark domains

art is fugly
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Reply #21 on: September 30, 2018, 05:35:41 AM

Their reponse to my comment was that the game works just as well with or without the 'extra' stretch goals.  Meh.  That doesn't inspire confidence.  You should be more controlled in game design.

2020 will be the year I gave up all hope.
eldaec
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Reply #22 on: October 03, 2018, 02:37:27 AM

The art - it is just tremendously dull.

I assumed those were fake stretch goals - because if you don't have them the Internet gets pissed - still wouldn't be surprised if they bundle them on anyway or sell an expansion. But hey, maybe be not.

Either way, more cards on a pile don't change a game.
« Last Edit: October 03, 2018, 02:44:22 AM by eldaec »

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schild
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Reply #23 on: October 15, 2018, 11:02:22 AM

https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/247050/kickstarter-yikes

haha i did a thing that's gonna make neckbeards sweat
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Reply #24 on: October 15, 2018, 12:43:27 PM

I wish I had gotten in on Omen earlier. The newest edition looks pretty awesome but I have so many games I just don't play, it seems silly to spend money on something else that won't get played.
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Reply #25 on: October 15, 2018, 01:34:31 PM

You're not alone re: Dungeon Monster. I hated the one game of that I played.

While I'm posting anyway, get your wallets ready; It's a big week for new kickstarters. Spirit Island expansion going up tomorrow. Reprint of Level 7 Omega Protocol up today, which has been out of print and a lot of people have been raving about on the boardgame reddit. Cloudspire is also meant to be up tomorrow, which is a new game by the people who did Hoplomachus and Too Many Bones. Barrage is meant to be up later this week by Simone Luciani, who did Grand Austria Hotel and Lorenzo Il Magnifico, which are great euros. Project Elite's reprint kickstarter is later this month

Lots of good stuff.
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Reply #26 on: October 15, 2018, 01:51:30 PM

ok but how many are ACTUALLY good

edit: i just looked at level 7 omega, what part of it is fun exactly?
« Last Edit: October 15, 2018, 01:53:18 PM by schild »
Goldenmean
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Reply #27 on: October 15, 2018, 02:04:18 PM

ok but how many are ACTUALLY good

edit: i just looked at level 7 omega, what part of it is fun exactly?

Honestly, not entirely certain. It looks like a pretty typical one vs. many dungeon crawler except alien themed. I passed on that entire series when they released, but this one seems to have been getting pretty positive grassroots word of mouth since. I'm backing it for now, but might drop after I do my due diligence and read the old edition of the rules. It seems to be trying to fill the Descent/Imperial Assault niche. Probably nothing you need to own if you already have one of those. It's the one I have the least information/knowledge about.

As for the others though, Spirit Island is the best game ever, and the new expansion is great as well (I'm in the playtest, so that's not just me assuming based on past performance). I haven't played anything by Simone Luciani I haven't liked, so if you like euros, Barrage is highly promising as well. Project Elite is a good game that was hamstrung by really poor management on the kickstarter. For the most part, I hate CMON, but even they'll be able to do a better job actually getting the game released with decent looking minis than Artipia did. And Too Many Bones and Hoplomachus are both just very solid games in their respective categories. I've got no reason to expect Cloudspire won't be the same.
schild
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Reply #28 on: October 15, 2018, 07:27:15 PM

I finished my goofy ass Geeklist thing. I'm not sure what's going on with Kickstarter, there's some shit missing that I absolutely backed like Cards Against Humanity. I have to assume I had a different Kickstarter account at some point.
Goldenmean
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Reply #29 on: October 16, 2018, 01:39:21 PM

I looked over the rules for Omega 7 and am planning on keeping my pledge. It is basically a Descent/Imperial Assault type game, complete with dice driven combat (blech), but it's got some mechanics that seem interesting. There's a give and take between the alien and marine side where the number of actions the marines take in a turn determines the resources the alien player has to activate abilities. I've generally liked this sort of mechanic when I've encountered it in the past. It also seems like just a general step up from those games in terms of what's going on. There's facing, which is a plus. Plus I'm getting a bit of a Space Hulk vibe from it, and that tickles my nostalgia in a pleasant way.

Also, this one seems designed more as a single shot game sort of deal than the campaign nature of D2E or IA. Generally I like campaign experiences, but less so for PvP games than pure coops. Campaign mode for head to head games always makes for weird feedback loops and balance complaints.
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Reply #30 on: October 16, 2018, 03:07:46 PM

Cloud Spire is tempting me because I gravitate to highly competitive two player games. Getting an actual group together is too much effort. I read your spirit island post and ehhhhhhhhh
Goldenmean
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Reply #31 on: October 16, 2018, 03:54:22 PM

Cloud Spire is tempting me because I gravitate to highly competitive two player games. Getting an actual group together is too much effort. I read your spirit island post and ehhhhhhhhh

Yeah, if you strongly prefer head to head, maybe Spirit Island isn't for you. It's definitely a co-op in the traditional mode, without even the minor personal goal tweaks that Gloomhaven has that might cause you to work against the common interest. It's just that it's the *best* pure co-op. If you're at all interested in having your mind potentially changed, I'd love to  address why it doesn't sound appealing to you.

As for Cloudspire, yeah, it looks pretty decent. Feel like it might be a bit fiddly running the AI during the onslaught phase, but I really don't know how they'd avoid that while still going for a MOBA style gameplay.
Goldenmean
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Reply #32 on: October 17, 2018, 12:19:29 PM

Probably not worth their own threads, but the (possible) hits keep coming. The Barrage kickstarter is live now: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/craniocreations/barrage

I'm pretty excited about this one. Simone Luciani has done a lot of really solid euro games. Probably the best known is Tzolk'in, which he was the co-designer on, but he's also worked on Lorenzo Il Magnifico, Grand Austria Hotel, Voyages of Marco Polo, and others. The game itself seems like an interesting combo of mechanics: some sort of Ora et Labora-ish resource disk, some pseudo-route building with the flow of water between dams, which should make this a lot more than multiplayer solitaire, the obligatory and ever popular worker placement. Plus that kickstarter exclusive 3d board looks pretty cool.

Phoenix Syndicate dropped today also: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/asmadigames/phoenix-syndicate

I've been following this one for a while because the designer of this was the developer on Spirit Island, plus a core playtester on Innovation and Glory to Rome, which is a decent enough gaming pedigree to get me to auto-back. Mostly posting this one selfishly because it's not shiny and glitzy and getting lots of buzz, and I want it to fund. The game itself is space themed network building with upgradable techs. There's a pretty good run through of how it works on the kickstarter page.
schild
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Reply #33 on: October 17, 2018, 12:46:29 PM

trying real hard not to convince myself to get fucking Cloudspire atm.

Edit: I can immediately and confidently say that I have zero interest in either of those. lol
« Last Edit: October 17, 2018, 12:48:25 PM by schild »
Goldenmean
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Posts: 844


Reply #34 on: October 17, 2018, 08:08:59 PM

Yeah, this group seems to hew more towards ameritrash than euro in general. How about this then: Wild Assent

This project is weird. It's trying to be both some sort of KD:M type "Hunt the monsters and make things out of their parts" game and a PvP skirmish game. Not sure why you wouldn't just split that into two separate games, but enh. Trying to figure out how compelling I find the KD:M clone side of that equation. Also, man do I hate that name. If you're going to make up silly names for your characters, maybe don't pick an actual word, or if you do, pick one that makes some sort of sense in context.
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