Let’s keep looking ahead to 2025 right now. What board games are coming to Gamefound that I am most excited for? I think I could probably come up with ten pretty easily, but five is more reasonable that I might back. So let’s look at what’s been announced and shared thus far that I look at I think is cool. If you like big thematic games like I do, these are probably some that you’ll want to checkout as well.

Top 5 Gamefound Campaigns in 2025

5. Night Parade: A Yokai Cleansing Word Game

I am not sure about this one, but it just jumped out to me as something different. I just say that I like big games and now I pick a smaller one. But the artwork drew me in as something that is kind of weird and different and looks good. And it’s a word game. I am so so on word games, but when there is a good word game out there, I want to check it out.

This is definitely one of those games that I might not back it because it is that smaller game. It is going to be easier to find after the fact because some people won’t want it and it won’t have the premium of a big minis game. But also with that, it’s a smaller game so it’s easier to justify backing on Gamefound. My big concern is probably that it’s competitive, cooperative, and solo, which is a lot to get right. It’s probably good at one of those, but which one?

4. Gone to Gaia

First off, yes this a campaign game. But as compared to some it looks smaller, in some ways. Or maybe it’s that it’s a 1 to 2 player that is catching my eye. And it is Roguelite so it calls out video games like Hades (which I need to play) on Steam.

But there are a number of elements that it’s trying to sell me on and I’m a fan of all of them besides the player count and roguelite nature. A box of secrets, so I’m assuming things unlock as the storyfolds, or as you finish off a run. And I do love that in a game. Plus there is a “living town” so I am assuming that there is an element of town management which I like a lot. And it looks like they are trying to really develop something that is grand when it comes to that town and the NPC’s that leave there.

3. Timeline: The Board Game

Well, that last one was Roguelite and this one is roguelike and a deck building game. So two things that I like there. And it’s a dark Slavic kind of fantasy world. Time has been shattered and you need to kind of recreate that timeline. But of course, as you face off against things and recreate it, how you do that is going to influence how future events come out or how the timeline is put back together.

I love deck building so there is that. And set in Slavic fantasy is definitely intriguing to me. Yes that’s still European fantasy, but not an area of if that is all that delved into. And there is great lore in there. One cool thing too is that this is a smaller passion project, well I say smaller, the game looks big. But it’s not a big company that is putting it out. The person says it’s 1.75 person team with their spouse being the one to help as they can, but it’s mainly one person, which cool. Harder to do on Gamefound than on Kickstarter, but I hope it works out.

2. Rise of Myths: Cthulhu

This is another roguelite game and one obviously set in the Lovecraftian mythos. I think it’s interesting how we see trends. When a game like Slay the Spire is a huge success as a video game and then as a board game there are going to be people who try and copy or lean into a similar style of game. We saw that with roll and writes and trick-taking games pretty recently.

Again, it’s roguelite so that is an element that I like. I also like that it has that character progression that you’d expect from a game like that. And of course deck building, which I think I skipped over mentioning before. So it’s going to use the Slay the Spire element of after a run you upgrade your deck, maybe not as much and as quickly as slay the spire, but I’m really interested in this one for the theme and style of game it is.

1. Ascendia – Seasons of Thargos

This one is not a roguelite or roguelike deck building game. Instead this is going to be a civilization building game, I say that in loose terms though. I don’t think it’s as much of a full civ game but more of an adventure board game as you explore the lands around your town, awaken spirits of nature, and fight monsters.

After a bunch of games that look dark in theme. I think that Ascendia is going to be a fun game that looks a whole lot more light in nature. Yes, there is combat still, so if you want to avoid that completely, it won’t be for you. But for me, I like a little bit of that mixed into an adventure game. And it isn’t a game with a ton of minis as well. I’m a fan of minis, but sometimes it’s nice to find a game that should be cheaper with less plastic in it.

Which Interests You Most?

I’m sure that I’m missing stuff on Gamefound that’s been announced. I wanted to look through a ton of them, but there is only so much time, and I found a lot of games already that I’m interested in. And of course Gamefound games all have different amounts of details for the upcoming ones. And I suspect there are going to be lots of others that I’m interested in.

Already I see games like Dragons of Etchinstone that I think I’ll be checking out because it’s from Chip Theory Games. And then titles like Titan’s Ascendance, Sinister Institute or games that say that they are things like a JRPG that I’m very interested in. So let me know which ones I should be checking out. And I want to reach out to some publishers to see about letting you know about them.

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