Find the campaign for Project L Pieces Missing Kickstarter Here.

Project L

Project L is a game that reminds me of the spatial puzzles that you maybe played as a kid. Though, this is much easier as thee is always a solution even if you don’t play in the most optimized way. Plus you mix in an engine building game.

In Project L you are placing down polyomino tiles onto different cards trying to fill them in. If you complete one it gives you or two things. You get a new piece to add to your collection to help fill in more tiles. And it might provide you points. The goal is to get the most points, but getting more pieces helps speed that along.

For more details on the game play, you can checkout my review here.

Why Back Now?

Normally I put my reasons not to back first. In this case, if the game interests you at all, back it. Mainly because of the tale that I’m about to tell of a board game company that came back from the dead. Details as to how, I don’t have all of them, but they don’t seem like malicious zombies or other undead.

Boardcubator’s Story

Boardcubator had good success with Project L. It is a very fun game that I enjoy quite well. I got in on the game during the second Kickstarter. But for them it was the first big hit and turned out to maybe be a one hit wonder.

With the funds that they raised, plus I’m guessing other funds they raised they started work on an ambitious project: Kingdom Come – Deliverance. This is based off of a video game by the same name. A very open world RPG system where you don’t start out as a class but can put stats into whatever you want and build up your character that way. Boardcubator invested heavily into developing this game and an app for it and went to Gamefound to launch it.

That’s where the issues started. The game gained some traction but not enough to make it financially feasible. That’s a secret, poorly kept one, of crowdfunding. Often the goal isn’t the goal. Mainly, it costs a lot to do some parts of games, and you need a certain volume to make it feasible. They didn’t hit those totals fast enough or were even on track to hit those totals.

So, they cancelled the project. But not only cancelled, the issue was, that ate up their money. They were developing this massive, ambitious game with an app. And they didn’t have more money to continue as a company. So they went again. Now, they are back. Don’t know the details, but they are back with a game that there is track record to show that this is a fun game.

What’s New

So, say you already have the game and you want to support Boardcubator, what is new in the game for you. You can get the Phoenix expansion. In that expansion it is just more tiles you play with and those give you additional scoring opportunities higher than any others in the game. But they are shaped in ways that you need to think about using the smaller pieces. So slower completion but a way to get even more points.

What Works?

This is a game that has nice slick actions to it. You do a few actions but they are all pretty easy to follow and understand. The hardest being the master build action where you add to each shape you are building. But even that isn’t too bad when it gets down to it, there are just a few times, early, when you need to figure out how you are trying to optimize it.

This is a very good engine building game for people who want that light engine building. I’d put it in the same weight as a Splendor or a Century: Golem Edition. And that’s a very nice thing about it. Those games give you engine building and something interesting, though hopefully not too repetitive, as you play. And while I find that Splendor plays out pretty much the same each time, I haven’t hit that point with Project L yet. And with the expansions, I’m not sure that I will.

Back or Brick

I telegraphed this one, it is a Back for me. I already talked about that I like the game. And I might even back for a second copy of the game to give as a gift to someone, it’s a game that I think is really accessible that way. But beyond that, the board game hobby has lost a few companies recently.

I am out a Kickstarter game, adventure puzzle book, potentially because money ran out. And another company as well had to close their doors with crowdfunding games unfulfilled. And Mythic Games, while still going, was touch and go there for a little bit. If you wonder why game prices are going up, why shipping is higher, don’t. If that means you can’t back or support as many, so be it, but these companies aren’t trying to rip you off.

Boardcubator, I am really happy, is back. But that is going to be the rarer story than those who are just gone forever. So, support a good company trying to do the right thing. Support a fun game that you can play with family and friends. But know if the game is for you. I back it because I like the game already. And I’ll share it because I think others will do.

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Demonstrating The Problem

Why am I thinking about this now? Well, I just had my CMON Marvel Zombies pledge manager open. And I thought about getting Galactus, I really did. But when one wave shipping for what I got, and now it is a ton of stuff, is $90, and it’d be over $100 adding Galactus, I couldn’t pull the trigger on that. That is almost double of what the original shipping projections were. So, now can companies who were funded before the price hike make it work?

And I don’t want this to be a negative on CMON, Marvel Zombies any of these things. Shipping is completely crazy right now. And with parts of China being closed for chunks of time, including ports, because of COVID cases, it is going to get worse. And even though it might not make that much sense, anything that is getting worked on now or soon, you have to start to think about holiday shipping as well.

Basically, even massive companies that can ship a ton at once, Marvel Zombies had 29,000 backers and more will late pledge, shipping is still expensive. There is no volume discount. Then you think about smaller companies out there for shipping. What does something like Grimlord Games do with Village Attacks. Now, they messed up for another reason, they took too long and producing it. But what is a solution for them since they did?

Possible Solutions

Wait on Shipping

So, one option is for a company just to wait. I dislike this solution a lot. Backers rightfully do expect you to try and get the game out in a given time frame. Now, smart backers understand that the time frame is probably 6 months to a year longer than expected. And maybe even slightly over that right now. But as I said, I don’t think shipping is going to improve. It might stabilize or improve slightly, but not majorly. So waiting means that either it’ll cost you more, or it’ll ship for the same cost they are seeing now.

Eat The Cost

Next up the company could just eat the cost. There are massive problems with this one as well. The main thing is that some companies cannot eat the cost of $100,000 or more in additional shipping charges. So, let’s look at Grimlord Games. They are not printing right now because of costs, but like I said, the costs probably won’t go down. And they are a small operation that is not the designers fulltime gig, so they can’t eat the costs without going under. Shipping to 50% of the people and saying tough luck to the other 50% and shutting your doors is a horrible option.

Raise More Money

I have seen this option out there. Another one that I don’t love because it doesn’t incentivize the backers to join in. Setting up a GoFundMe might be what you need to do, though. And I think for a company that can offset some of the costs, but having that little bit extra to help, this is a solid option. Especially if you have good will in the community. A company that is always open and transparent, plus has delivered on time with products people like, you can probably get people to chip in.

On the flip side, I do think that Grimlord Games is going to have issues if they want people to support for more shipping via a GoFundMe sort of things. I might toss in a few bucks to help offset new shipping costs. But their inability to do regular updates on their projects, plus then the massive delays on their projects, they don’t have the good will. And to be fair, this is on them, not the community having undue expectations. Delays are fine, but then you need to communicate, so what other options are there.

Ask For People To Buy Directly From You

Let me explain what I mean here. When I backed Roll Player Adventures as a late pledge and had backed Cartographers Heroes, Thunderworks Games reached out to say that shipping was more expensive than expected. But they could eat the costs, things would be shipped no matter what. However, they asked that if people wanted to help offset the cost, they order something directly from their webstore. Why, because that is product that had already shipped more cheaply and selling it at MSRP would give them some influx of cash for shipping the new stuff.

So I got a few things from them, not much, but some to help support them. Now, this only works for some companies. Some companies do not have webstores. That means that even if their stuff is at retail, they are seeing less of the money on an MSRP sale. Because whole sale to the retailer is already the price they get, a sale doesn’t do anything more for them. This can be a solution for some companies to help offset but not all of them will it work.

Offer Merchandise

So, then, you could do what Boardcubator did, which is offer merchandise, hoodies, t-shirts, things like that. And I do think that this is a clever enough solution, but not one without it’s flaws. The main flaw for me is that I don’t do too many branded t-shirts. And when I do, it is fairly specific. I have a Marvel one and Dragonball Z. And having Boardcubator branded gear didn’t interest me, nor did it look that great.

But I do think this is a decent solution. And using some of the more print on demand sorts of services for shirts or things like that could work. But, and I think this is important, offer more than just apparel items. Like I said, I don’t generally want a branded t-shirt or hoodie. And depending on the person’s figure, a print on demand t-shirt might not fit well. For me, I generally should wear a t-shirt that is a tall.

So offer other things. There was no Boardcubator coffee cup, but had their been one, I might have ordered that. Do I need more coffee cups, no, but it’s something I don’t need less of, so I might have backed it. Instead, they only offered apparel, so I passed. But merchandise is a solid idea.

Offer A Bonus

Finally, and this is my top option, offer a bonus item. Two examples of this, El Dorado Games is printing a pack of cards. Why, because for their games, like Legends Academy, shipping is about $240,000 more than expected. That is insane. So they are offering a pack of 10-20 cards of promos for their games. $20 for a pack of cards, or so, but you get something extra for a game you are getting, albeit two cards, and you can help offset the shipping. Similar to that, Nemesis Games, who did Uprising: Curse of the Last Emperor, asked their backers to help the same way. I supported them by picking up their bonus pack of cards for $20.

Now is this a good way because cards are more cost? Well, yes, it is good, in my opinion. Firstly, you are giving the backers the option to get something more. This is an add-on basically but done outside of a pledge manager in the came of Nemesis Games. So printing cards is cheap, doesn’t add much cost for them. Air shipping 2000, let’s say, packs of 20 cards is also cheap. And then distributing those cards after the fact via post is cheap. So of those $20, most went to help offset shipping.

Final Thoughts on Crowdfunding Shipping

Like I keep saying, shipping is not going to get better. It might ebb a little and stabilize or spike once in a while depending on the time of the year. But pre-pandemic shipping prices are not reasonable. And I worry when I see shipping numbers that seem too low.

I see more and more games of Kickstarter and Crowdfunding that will give a very general ballpark for shipping. Or it will be stated as, shipping right now is $X, but it is presented not as a price for what my shipping cost will be. That is going to be determined later in the pledge manager when closer to the date for shipping. Chronicles of Drunagor did this. Edgeguard is doing this. And I believe all crowdfunding campaigns for the next year should do this.

Does that suck for me as a backer? Yes. I want to know what I need to set aside for shipping right now. However, I prefer that you give me that ballpark for what the shipping is right now. Then, not locking yourself into the price, calculate a more specific shipping at the time you open the pledge manager. I want to get my product, and I don’t want to wait or even lose my money, because shipping went too high and you can’t print without going under. I want more board game companies and more small ones. But setting your shipping can be the thing that puts a company under if they aren’t careful.

What is a creative solution you’ve seen, if you’ve seen any I haven’t mentioned?

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How To Play Project L

Project L is a game about basically playing Tetris, or with Tetris pieces. You are trying to complete shapes by filling in pieces to it. At the start of the game, you have two pieces a single square and two squares, but you get more as the game goes along.

On your turn you have a number of actions that you can do. And you get to take three of them per round. You can pick up one of the shape cards that you need to fill in and put it in front of you. Next you can upgrade a piece, and they have different levels which determine how you can upgrade. Or you can take a basic piece. You can clear a row, or one important one is you can master. Master you can do once per turn, but allows you to put a piece in every shape that you have.

The game continues until you get down to none of the harder tiles left. After that you finish out the round plus one more. That way each person gets a similar number of turns. Then you count up points on your shapes, and most points wins.

What Doesn’t Work?

The base game is a lot of fun, and I have more positives than negatives. However, I am concerned about how the base game will play over a lot of plays. I expect it to stick in my collection because the game is very accessible, more on that later. But for me, without the Finesse expansion or Ghost expansion which I want to get, will it be interesting enough.

The game play itself is simple, and after a handful of plays. I feel like it doesn’t change up too massively. Now, I think it can change up with different players because if I go for the higher scoring cards and push the end game faster, that will make it feel different. But if I build up a really strong set of pieces and go from there, it’s going to feel like what I’ve done before.

What Works?

The ease and time of play are great on this game. In a two player game, turns are snappy. And while there is decision space with what shapes you take, how you allocate your pieces, things like that, it isn’t daunting. I felt like I could sit down and play this game with anyone.

The game also looks great on the table. The bright colored pieces that you are fitting into the black and white cards makes the game pop. It makes it feel easy to get to the table and play. And the pieces are a lot of fun, very high quality game.

Who Is This For?

I think that this is a great game for gamers to teach people getting into the hobby. Or to teach players who gravitate towards that Splendor, Ticket to Ride, and Smallworld weight of game. I don’t know that this will work for a group of heavier gamers. It might work a few times but it won’t be one that sticks around because the decision space and strategy for the base game is a bit limited.

But more casual gamers, I highly recommend this game. Project L is a game that should be in Target and sell a million copies or at least one hundred thousand, because it is fun, it is easy to learn, and it looks great. Put this on a shelf next to a lot of games and it’ll stand out.

Project L- Final Thoughts

I think that this is going to be one that sticks around in my collection. And I think that even though it won’t be one that I always want to play. Because while the game play is fun and easy, I’m not sure the base game has the level of strategy that I want.

I am hopeful, with looking at the expansion, that will improve the game for me. This is a game that should have staying power on my shelf for a lot of people I game with. And I don’t think it is going to be a game where I will turn down playing it. I also think that the expansion is going to make that even less likely that I’ll turn down playing it. Mainly because it looks to add to the puzzle of the game.

Finally, this isn’t part of the review, but there is a insert or Game Trayz for Project L. I’m not sure if it’ll be something you can buy later, but man, is it nice. Takes what could have been a bit of a messy table and a slower set-up and makes an easy game easy to get to the table.

My Grade: B
Gamer Grade: C-
Casual Grade: A

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Pros

• Established company
• Engine Building
• Expansion and base game
• Good price
• Quality components

Cons

• No base game only level

The Page

I like the page, you can tell that they are an established company and they know what they are doing. Because it is a previous game as well, they can really highlight the game with images of something that’s not a prototype and have quotes from reviews without it feeling like it’s a preview instead of a review.

Now, when looking at the pledge levels, so me there is one glaring missing level. That’s one just for the base game. Clearly they don’t need it to make this game happen as they are fully funded, but for myself who would want to budget more in terms of games that I get, I don’t know I need the expansion as the base game seems interesting enough to me.

The Game

This game seems really interesting, I like how it feels almost like a cross between Splendor and Century. It is that small little engine building game that generally works really well with my group.

I think the game play is very simple, but clever in how you can work on building up an engine. The start of the game goes “slow” but as you get further and further in the more you can do and the faster you can complete the cards, which is what you want in a good engine building game.

Back or Brick

Now, generally what I’ve said has been glowing about this game, and if I weren’t on a bit of a board game budget right now, I’d probably lean towards this being a back, but for me, this is a brick, because I really want there to be a base game only level pledge. It really feels like they are probably missing out on a solid chunk of change because of it. And the base game with expansion is $60, the expansion by itself is $18, so that puts the base game at $40-45 range, which when you get under $50, it makes it more tempting as well. So this is a brick for me, though, I know I’m probably in the minority on that. If/when this comes to retail, and right now places like CoolStuffInc and Miniature Market are sold out, I’ll likely just pick up the base game.

How about for you, is this a back or a brick?

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