Gamefound Summer Feast

Go On Board – The Witcher Legacy

Holy Hell in a HANDBASKET! I’m 100% in already. I don’t care about anything else. It’s a legacy Witcher game. Who wants to play it with me? You level up your character and play through story. Do we know a ton, we don’t, but I’m all in.

Follow the campaign here.

PIKA Games – A Wild Venture

This is a two player game that is an engine building game. It looks pretty cute and there are tons of two player games right now And I do like engine building and it’s also a game where you break down your engine. I am very tempted with this and if you preorder you get two free gifts as well. At about $30 USD it’s a very reasonable price.

Follow the pre-order here.

Fantasia Game – Rurik Second Edition

It’s a second edition of Rurik And it is going to update some things. And it is going to have a new expansion. So if you liked Rurik this might be one to jump in to get more. I think that Rurik is one of those try before you buy games for me.

Follow the campaign here.

Spielcraft Games – Cretaceous Rails

This is a reprint. But there is going to be an expansion as well. The theme of the game is fun, you take time traveling tourists on rails in the past to see all the dinosaurs. I hope that it’s a good game because that is the type of railroad game that I could get behind.

Follow on Gamefound here.

Addax Games – Rove Anchorpoint

This is going to be rove at a more accessible and affordable point to jump into. This is going to be like Jaws of the Lions was for Gloomhaven. A 25 encounter game which is going to make it much more accessible. I hope that this doesn’t launch until Rove is in the hands of backers. I might be interested but I want to play Rove first.

Follow Rove Anchorpoint here.

Nemesis Games – Uprising Legendary Box

This is going to be more Uprising. It is a cooperative/solo game that now offers true solo. I own this game already, so I don’t need more. But I do need to play it. This is a cooperative 4x game where all the players need to beat the enemy factions you are up against. And that is easier said than done.

Follow Uprising Legendary Box on Gamefound here.

Unstable Games – Mystic Moon

It’s a light strategy game where you are creating potions. I like a good potion creation game and it looks super cute. Really what I’m basing my thoughts on the game off of is the adorable artwork. And it is a theme that draws me in as well. I don’t know a ton about how it plays though and the page only offers so much at this point.

Follow Mystic Moon on Gamefound here.

Unstable Games – Here to Slay Dungeons

This is a cooperative dungeon crawling game. It is set in the world of Here to Slay. That is a game that I need to play. The artwork is great, and I love a good dungeon crawler. It’s interesting it is going to be three base games. But you can mix the base games together to mix up the monsters, heroes and more. I hope that the price point is very reasonable then because otherwise that gets expensive fast.

Follow Here to Slay Dungeons here.

Thundergryph Games – Galileo’s Truth

Anotehr game about Galileo. This is going to be in the scientific journey game like Darwin’s Journey. It is a deck building and a single worker. I have heard good things about Darwin’s Journey but I haven’t played that one.

Follow Galileo’s Truth here.

Meeple Pug – Byzantion

A thematic and political game. This is going to be engine building with miniatures and you need to handle events that come out. There is diplomacy, intrigue and backstabbing, which that doesn’t sound super interesting to me. Now I might be wrong, but it just founds like a lot. And a 30 minutes per player I really expect it would be a long game.

Follow Byzantion on Gamefound here.

ThisWay – Arctica

It’s an animal game where you are trying to do area control and a lot more. Plus gears, if you like wheels that is going to be interesting as you plan out turn things. I could see this being a game that works well for me and the aesthetic is sharp. Not just the artwork on the cards, but the board, pieces, and gear all look very good.

Follow Arctica here.

Eerie Idol Games – The Old King’s Crown Second Printing + Expansion

I don’t know much about the game. It sounds interesting and thematic. And it looks great in terms of artwork and components. But because of how fast things are going I didn’t get a good idea of the game. I might checkout some videos or reviews for thoughts on what people had from the first printing of the game.

Follow The Old King’s Crown on Gamefound.

Board Game Ink – Lone Wolf: Vengeance of the Kai

This is based off of a fantasy series. This is a two player strategy game as you play an epic conflict. They say that you might like it if you like Star wars; Rebellion. Aesthetically I think it looks decent. But if you want a big two player game, this could be it. And I am now interested in the series.

Follow the campaign here.

Red Raven Games – Song of Silveranth

Another big open world narrative game. I love their big open game in Sleeping Gods. It is a dark fairytale and fantasy setting. I love the idea of that setting. And it is supposed to have most of what Sleeping Gods did but it is going to be even bigger. Do I expect to back this one, 100%.

Follow the campaign for Song of Silveranth here.

Board Game Ink – X-Odus Rise of the Corruption Second Ecdition

I have heard of X-odus. It is going to be a massive upgrade from the sounds of it. They said it was going to be about 95% change. While that doesn’t mean massive changes to everything it is going to be a step up. It is a game that I want to check out so I’ll check out the first edition videos. But if the second edition really does change up a bunch, I’m still hesitant to dive into it.

Follow the campaign on Gamefound here.

Eons of Battle – The Catacombs of the Blessed Dead

More terrain. This is going to be creating a catacomb for your RPG game. It looks very nice. If you want to get it as STL’s you can. And you can get miniatures as well.

Follow on Gamefound here.

Archon Studios – Duskhollow

This is going to be vampire setting terrain. If you want gothic terrain this is going to be great for you. I love the sound of it. But I don’t need a ton of terrain taking up space as much as I want to have some. But if you want to do Ravenloft or some other gothic vampire campaign, this looks great.

Follow the campaign for Duskhollow on Gamefound here.

Game Theory Tables – The Table of Adventure

This is a board game table. It is officially licensed for D&D and has a GM side that you can create your on GM/DM spot. It looks great. But I already own a game table. If I didn’t I would definitely consider this one. I like that it is done in conjunction with D&D so they are going to be thinking about some things that you might want for a D&D game versus more general in nature.

Follow the campaign here.

Accidental Cyclops Games – Surviving Strangehollow

This a modular setting for Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition. It is a massive book and there is going to be a ton to checkout there. But I want to know is it for the new version of 5E. What tempts me about backing this one is all the monsters. But I don’t generally run campaigns based off of modules. So if I can just get the monsters, that would be great.

Follow the campaign on Gamefound here.

Cotswald Games – Machiavellian The City of Masks

A world of masked nobles set in another world. They say it’s like Ark Nova and Scythe mixed together. This sounds like a game where they are throwing in a lot of theme. I like the sound of mix of mechanisms for the game. And a steampunk style world is also interesting to me. But is it going to be a game that can combine everything into that elegant design they promised.

Follow Machiavellian here.

Godot Games – Yokai Forest Duel

They are making a duel game. It’s a tournament game of some sort. I’m not 100% how it is going to play because it is two to eight players. So it’s not a two player game, which is odd. But you are fighting best of three battles, looks like a fun head to head game mainly.

Follow Yokai Forest Duel on Gamefound here.

Invedars – Chants for the Old Ones

This is a new expansion and a new game. It looks interesting though I haven’t heard much about the original game. I do love a good Lovecraftian theme for a game. Plus the minis look very nice for the game as well.

Follow Chants for the Old One here.

Titan Forge – Bloodfields: Third Edition

This is a two player miniatures game. I think it looks very cool, but it’s definitely not one that I’m going to get. This is going to be new cards, lore and more in the game. If you want a minis game that is coming out with a lot of new stuff and seems to have a lot of classic fantasy, like elves and dwarves, this one might be for you.

Follow Bloodfields on Gamefound.

Final Thoughts

There are two games out of the twenty-three that are must backs for me. Witcher Legacy is obviously one of them. But then when Red Raven comes out with another open world style game, that is an easy back. As much as I love the setting for Sleeping Gods, I think a dark fairy tale setting is probably even more enjoyable for me.

But there is a bit of everything in this Gamefound Feast. It is really a feast, Whether you want terrain, an RPG module, a table, a small game or some huge games, you can find them all here. What is the game that you are most excited for?

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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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Pros

• Cooperative and a hard cooperative game
• Fantasy and Post Apocalyptic
• Good in Box storage solution
• Asymmetric factions
• Available to try on TTS

Cons

• Kickstarter Exclusive
• First game Created
• Information Overload

The Page

First, even though I say it’s a con that it’s the first game they’ve created, and that’s always going to be a con, this is a company that seems to know Kickstarter really well. The page is laid out like I expect a Kickstarter page to be laid out and they actually do a decent job of giving you an idea of what the game is about. There’s a ton of information on the page. That is another thing I have in the cons, the amount of information. Let me make this very clear, I like all the information on the page, but there is a ton of it. I’d prefer to see this much information and dig through all of it then less.

The Game

New section, because I feel like I cover this half in the page and half in my back or brick, and it should have it’s own section.

The game really interests me for a few reasons, hence why I dug deeper into the page. I like cooperative games and I’ve been interested in trying 4x games like Twilight Imperium and Heroes of Land, Air, and Sea. But those are big competitive games, so I’m curious about this one being cooperative. Then you put it in a magical and post-apocalyptic setting, and that makes it even more interesting. I love a good world where most everything has gone wrong. There seems to have been a lot of thought put into this game from the asymmetrical player powers, to every player needing to beat the enemies, not just collectively, so I feel like there’s a lot going on in the game, of needing enough for yourself, but needing to leave stuff for others as well. Finally, I like that this game sounds hard, I like to win cooperative games 30% of the time, that’s about right for me, unless they are story games then let me progress, and this seems like it’s a tough one ,and I like that. It also seems like you’ll be able to scale the difficulty level, which I like as well.

Back or Brick

Short and quick is a brick for me. Now, that said, it might become a back because of the TTS. If I can play on TTS (Tabletop Simulator), I will have a better idea of how the game would work for me. This is one that I’m bummed isn’t coming to retail because I feel like I need to see it in action more. I know that I would like it, but is it one that I could get to the table all that often. Definitely one that I want to try and keep my eye on though and could be sold on to pick-up.

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

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