It’s that time of year again where the Dice Tower has their Summer Spectacular. We have a lot of announcements to cover, and I won’t lie, I might have missed some stuff, but let’s talk about it. And, this is going to be a fast rundown of them. If there is one that you want to know more about, I really recommend checking out the stream, which I’ll drop in right before I start writing all of my stuff on it. It’s better to get the information from the video. But I know that it’s a long video, so this might be helpful for some who just want to find a particular announcement or details on it. Let’s get to the 16 different publishers and what they are announcing.

Dice Tower Mega Announcement

Rock Manor Games

Maximum Apocalypse 2nd Edition

This is basically making it fitting the Wasted Wilds to make it easier to play and make it faster to play. There’s going to be more information coming, but just very quickly.

Brass Empire 2nd Edition

This is a steampunk deck building game. I am curious about it just because it’s deck building. But it seems like it’s very in your face compared to what I’d want, which is a shame. But then again, maybe I’d like it as a two player game.

Merchants of Magick Expansion

This is their crunchy roll and write game. It’s going to be coming up on Kickstarter with some new modules of the game. It’s not one that I’ve played, but if Rock Manor has some at Gen Con, I might pick up the base game. I think that it sounds interesting and of course I’d love to check it out prior to the crowdfunding campaign.

Bright Eye Games

The Plot Thickens

A cooperative story creation game. We actually talked about this yesterday on the Malts and Meeples for sale at Gen Con live stream. I am curious about it with the Science Fiction version to at least see what it’s like. But I don’t love it in theory.

Ponzi Scheme

This one is coming out in 2024. It’s a game about creating a ponzi scheme and seeing if you can stay afloat with the most money when someone goes bankrupt. It sounds okay, a light, silly game, I’m hoping.

Ares Games

Fire and Swords – War of the Ring The Card Games

This is an expansion, and there is a new expansion at Gen Con, but this one is going to be coming out in 2024. This one doesn’t interest me as much, but the one at Gen Con to make it soloable that one interests me. And if it’s an interesting game, I could see it being one that my wife likes as we’re both big Lord of the Rings fans.

Horrible Guild

Quicksand

A real time cooperative game. That isn’t my sort of game, I’m not a fan of real time. But it does sound fairly interesting to try once or twice because you are playing against puzzles. It’s just that I’m not a big fan of real time.

Sunrise Lane

This is a game from Dr. Reiner Knizia one of the most prolific designers. I’m somewhat interested in it, it’s about building out houses and scoring points. I like the idea of building out houses and how you build out houses. It sounds actually really good now that I hear more about the rules, because it looks very pretty on the table. And it has some fun scoring options with it. Sunrise Lane is very high up there for me from what’s been announced thus far.

Pencil First Games

Sunrise at the Studio

This looks like a small game, and it’s kind of in that Floriferous style of game, or at least box size. This one is a pottery themed games. I like this weight of game, and it has set collection, drafting, and shared goals. So this sounds a lot like Floriferous again, but I’m down for that.

Snowfall over Mountains

Pocket sized solo tile laying game. That is a lot of things that I like. I am very used to a lot of snow. But you build it out a map from your cabin to create different scoring options. This one looks very cool. Pencil First Games makes amazing looking games aesthetically and very fun games.

Stoneblade Entertainment

Solforge Fusion App

It’s meant to improve the game play. Your collection gets automatically imported. That said, this is not a game that I was ever interested in. They are demoing it, and showing stuff off at Gen Con. It’s a fine idea, you don’t have to buy stuff again; it’s still a very specific announcement.

CGE

Kutna Hora

The announcement for a game that is already out. It’s talking about how it is using Re-wood. Re-wood is similar to plastic, but it’s sustainable to use over and over again. And it’s going to be at a similar detail level for plastic components. A cool thing, for a game I’m not interested in. The game is going to be at Gen Con to demo.

Grey Fox Games/Ludeon Studios

Rimworld

A board game adaptation of a video game. I’m not familiar with the video game, but I like the aesthetic thus far. It’s going to be coming to Kickstarter. There is not much information on this, unless you are familiar with Rimworld. Could definitely be a cool one, but I’ll be waiting to see it on Kickstarter.

Board & Dice

Nucleum

This one is going to be a big hit for a lot of people. This is about the nuclear power plants and it’s a very heavy euro game. Unless I build up to something like this over time, I don’t think it’s going to be one for me. There’s definitely a lot going on in the game which is why I think that a lot of people will enjoy it. It’s coming out in October at Essen Spiel

Inside Up Games

Clock & Key

This is going to be a Kickstarter coming in 2024. Another puzzle sort of game like Block & Key which is one that I thought looked interesting but I’ve never tracked it down to learn. I’m curious to see if this game is going to be similar or not. It reminds me of the pipe connecting games, which is something that I do enjoy.

Kosmos

Ingenious

It’s a relaunch of this game, also another Reiner Knizia. Don’t know a ton about this one, but I have heard of it. I think it’s supposed to be a family style abstract game. Probably not one that I’ll look into too much

Dragon keepers

A dragon game where you are taking care of dragons. This is done through card play, and they like to talk about the cute dragons, not to Flamecraft level, but definitely cute.

Rebel Studio

Meadow Adventure Book

It’s now coming out in 2024. This is a campaign or scenario style game. It was going to be a 2023 game, but now it’s been pushed back.

Avel: the Card Game

This is going to be pushed back as well. The timeline is still be determined.

Klink

It’s a number game, supposed to be a quick game. It’s a small box game, not a ton of a details on it. General impression was that this is going to be a family weight filler style game. And this is going to be a card game, or at least an action selection or playing game. Coming in early 2024.

MLEM: Space Agency

Cats… in… space….

That seems like a dangerous combination. It’s going to be a fun game with hopes of creating some laughs. This is going to be a dice game, so I’m thinking it’ll be a pushing your luck kind of game. Another Reiner Knizia game, like I said, he’s very prolific.

Cardboard Alchemy

Bistro Bay

An animal cooking game, but not cooking animals, if that makes sense. This looks like the same artwork style as Flamecraft, so a ton of fun to see it. You are trying to do the best and impress the the food critic. I am going to be looking at this one coming to Kickstarter in 2024.

Pandasaurus

Unrest

An asymmetrical two player card game. The rebellion vs the empire. Now this is not a Star Wars game. The aesthetic of the game is pretty solid, but I’m not sold on it. I feel like it’s a bit like Hanamikoji in some ways with having limited actions, it’s intriguing that way. It could be good. November retail release, and not expensive.

Unexpected Games

3000 Scoundrels Expansion

It’s not a game that I’ve played, but from what I heard of the original game was that it was fine. I this is definitely one that I’d want to checkout. And it sounds like the expansion is going to improve some things or will help with some of the complaints that people had. Definitely makes it sound more intriguing to me. As I do like the Wild West theme. And it’ll now have a solo mode as well, which again interests me.

Arcane Wonders

Foundations of Metropolis

This is going to be a retail version of Foundations of Rome. I’m guessing that this is going to be a smaller version because Foundations of Rome is huge. No miniatures in it, but that might get me to play the game and buy the game. Still looks really good, and it’ll be coming to retail in 2024, I think they said early. This one I’m very excited for, again because it makes it more accessible for more gamers.

Final Thoughts

Goodness, this is a ton of write really fast. I try and pause the video as little as possible because it’d take so much longer if I did pause all the time. I did have to do that a few times. Which ones are most interesting to me, I’m going to say my Top 5 are Foundations of Metropolis, Bistro Bay, and Sunrise Lane, Sunrise at the Studio, and Snowfall over the Mountain.

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