Why Is This Happening?

Firstly, because there is money in board games. Maybe not as much as some people speculate and hope. But for crowdfunding platforms, there is money in board games. Board games have made up almost $2 billion for Kickstarter. So if Kickstarter takes 10%, I believe, that’s $200 million just on board games. And $2 billion is out of $7 billion total for Kickstarter.

So you can see why Gamefound, IndieGoGo, and Backerkit would want to get in on things. Add in Kickstarters stagnancy it created opportunity. Kickstarter, while having a smooth interface, hasn’t updated their navigation or anything in several years. And with the advent of pledge managers, ways to collect shipping, do add-ons and allow people to find it later, Kickstarter just didn’t keep up.

Where Did Backerkit and Gamefound Come From?

Both Backerkit and Gamefound started out as pledge managers. With Backerkit, I’m not sure it was really their intention to ever start being a crowdfunding platform. For Gamefound, I do believe it was. But basically, they are already doing a lot of the heavy lifting needed.

They could process cards, they had ability to do add-ons, get people’s addresses. Work with the board game companies and the logistics and distribution companies that handle sending out crowdfunding games. So for them, it was a fairly simple shift to add in, now, some features that track money, that track stretch goals, and that add conversations, a piece they might have already had in progress.

Which is the Best Crowdfunding Site?

Right now, I do not think that there is clearly a best one. And Backerkit is just getting into the crowdfunding side of things. So we haven’t seen a pledge, but we can talk about what they do have in the limited pictures and pieces in place.

Kickstarter

Kickstarter does well at letting you see everything, fairly easily. Yes, for me to get exactly where I want to be – games sorted by newest – it takes a few clicks from the home page. I wish that their system allowed you to pick how you default looked at things, none of this “magic” I want newest. I dislike “magic” whenever it’s an option, and I’m talking about Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram doing that as well.

But I can easily bookmark the page that I want and I know that I’m just going to see active projects in order that they are coming out. It’s great for on Tuesday, I can see what the newest things are and if any big things have dropped.

Gamefound

On the page, though, Gamefound destroys Kickstarter. Kickstarter offers no navigation. And Gamefound lets you put in headers for sections and creates navigation to get to them. That means if I want to see game play, it can be all the way at the bottom and I can easily get to it.

Their development for pulling up pledge levels and seeing everything in them is a lot better as well. There are more single page features that they have without you needed to reload something. On Kickstarter it takes you to the pledge page where you can do add-ons. For Gamefound it is more like a shopping card and you can add everything from that one page.

On the flip side, though, I have yet to find a great link that I can save for projects. The big issue with it is that I want to filter to just active crowdfunding projects. I can get to active projects but that also has anything that is available to late pledge in the pledge manager. Sometimes I want to see what I can late pledge, but not all the time. Or make it really obvious which ones are active and which ones are late pledges.

Backerkit

Now, finally we have Backerkit, and like I said, I can’t tell you much about it. Mainly because there aren’t any active projects yet on it. But I will say that out of all of them, I think that currently Backerkit is the most dated. Now, that doesn’t mean that they might not have more features than Kickstarter, I fully expect them to. Their pledge manager piece has more features than Kickstarter does.

But speaking from a purely aesthetic point of view, the site is dated. It looks like it was created about 2010 and hasn’t been updated much since. Now the page that they used to announce their partnerships or first projects is nice. But the rest of the site, the notification for when things are going live, the emails you get when you sign up to get notified, all of those look bad.

Backerkit had an nice announcement. And I am guessing they are working on updating the aesthetic before things launch. But the pieces that they did show off still needed work. Like I said their upcoming projects page, the notifications page, the notifications email. So I hope it looks better because right now it is the worst of the three.

Will You Need to Use All Three?

Most likely yes. Kickstarter still has CMON and a few other big companies on it. Gamefound has Awaken Realms and Lucky Duck and a few others. And Backerkit already has upcoming projects from Cephalofair (Gloomhaven and Frosthaven’s company) and Restoration Games. If you want to keep abreast of crowdfunding, I think that you will need to keep an eye on all of them.

But with there being three now, I think this is an opportunity for people like myself as well as then others Tantrum House, BoardGameCo, Liege of Games, and more to be a resource for you. I think I’m going to start covering more crowdfunding on Malts and Meeples. In particular looking at projects. Why, because you shouldn’t need to look on all the sites. Not if all of us are putting out content to help with that. And it will make it less likely that you’ll miss the next Leder Games expansion for Root because it was on Backerkit and not Kickstarter.

Final Thoughts on Crowdfunding Platforms

As a consumer this is going to be good. It should force companies, all of them, to put out better and better products to entice creators to come to their platform. But I know that it is a bit of a struggle as well because as consumers we are used to just going to Kickstarter.

Overall, I think that Kickstarter has shown, to this point, that it won’t do the quality of life improvements that it should. Stuff like navigation for their pages. Instead they are focusing on the blockchain and more secure transactions but costly in other ways. And also means more likely to encourage fraud because of how that all works. Now, not fraud in someone getting access to your accounts but someone taking the money and leaving.

I hope that Gamefound and Backerkit don’t reach that point where they are become lax. I doubt that they will for a while, but it is certainly a concern that it could happen. And I think it behooves them to remember why this is happening to Kickstarter in the first place. But competition should be good, and hopefully good for the consumer and for the smaller companies that are having troubles now with Kickstarter.

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The next 10 are going to be on Wednesday at 8 PM Central Time. You can join me over on Malts and Meeples YouTube Channel. You can flick the notification bell, here, to know when I’m going live. I hope that you can join as we get higher into the Top 100 list.

100 Through 91

90 Through 81

80 through 71

70 through 61

60 through 51

50 through 41

Top 100 Board Games – 40 through 31

40. Not Alone

This is a one versus all game, and normally I don’t gravitate towards that type of game. The one is either playing a different game orrunning the game. But in Not Alone, while the game they are playing is a little bit different, it is a lot of fun. The one is the planet trying to kill off the crew of a crashed spaceship before they can be rescued. Everyone else is trying to survive and signal the ship to get there faster. The group can discuss but it must always be done so that the one can hear. The card play works well, the game play fast, and overall a fun time as crew or planet.

Not Available

39. Downforce

I think this is the highest racing game that I have on the list, or at least racing themed game. Downforce has you bidding to get cars and race them around the board, as well as bet on who you think is going to win. The game actually is more about. how well you can tell early in the game who is going to win? because the betting is where you make the most money.

The card play in the game is very clever as well. You play down your cards and you have to move every car on the card in order from fastest to slowest. This can create bottlenecks and strategic card play. The game feels like a racing game, but it doesn’t take too long. Some racing games can feel more drawn out but Downforce doesn’t overstay it’s welcome. And keeps you engaged as other people are moving all the cars as well.

Buy On Miniature Market

38. Sushi Go Party!

Another good big group game, in fact all of these games work best, thus far, towards their higher player counts. Sushi Go Party is a drafting and set collection game as you build out your ideal meal to score points. All the cards score in different ways, and Sushi Go Party allows you to swap around the cards that you use every game. It means that you can create some very unique combinations that either give a ton of points or can cause people to go negative in points. And you can really tailor it to your group.

Buy On Miniature Market

37. Roll Player

A dice drafting game, in Roll Player you create a Dungeons and Dragons, or RPG character. The whole game is about how well you can build your stats for the character. I really like how the game works and I really like building up D&D characters. My one knock on the game is that you don’t do anything with the character, you just build it. Monsters and Minions expansion is supposed to help with that. Plus then Dice Throne Adventures is coming which I know helps with my issue.

When it comes to this or Sagrada, I do think that there is enough difference between to the two to keep both. Sagrada is more family friendly in how it plays in that it is easier to play. Plus the theme is much less nerdy, not that a nerdy theme is bad. Roll Player with creating a character for an RPG, that is a theme that specific groups will enjoy better but also one that some people won’t be interested in at all.

Buy on Miniature Market

36. Homebrewers

Homebrewers is a nice and fast engine building game. In it you compete to be the best brewer of beer at Summerfest and Oktoberfest. Mechanically this is a pretty simple engine building game. You roll dice and can trade them around to determine what actions you get to take in a round. You can brew, sanitize, add ingredients to your pantry or beers or use them to get an advantage.

For me the theme of brewing makes this game very appealing. I homebrew my own beer and it’s fun to come up with crazy ingredient combinations. Would I want to drink a full point of a smoked oyster porter, most certainly not, but I’d try it. And at the end of the game I like to look and see what is the best one that I’ve created, even though that doesn’t determine the winner.

Buy on Miniature Market

35. Clever Cubed

The only roll and write on this section of the Top 100 games, Clever Cubed, or Clever Hoch Drei, is part of the Clever trilogy of games. This one follows the same standard as the others with rolling dice, taking one and discarding all the ones lower. But this one gives you the most points as you play. It’s fun because the pink section really lets you lean into combos, filling in lots of other spots on the board. Yes, the game is themeless, but I really enjoy the puzzles that the Clever games bring.

Buy on Miniature Market

34. The Night Cage

If you want a game for Halloween, The Night Cage might be an ideal one for you. You are trapped, as a group, in an ever changing labyrinth that you can only crawl through. You only illuminate the spaces directly around you and if you go backwards to where you were before, the labyrinth will have changed. Plus there are monsters in there, and you need to avoid them if you can. You all are searching for keys and then a portal to be able to escape, but all of you need to find a key and get to the same portal to activate it. All this as your candles burn down.

This is really kind of an abstract game, but it is still thematic as you deal with the monsters and search for keys. The game also has a really nice tile holder which looks like a candle that is burning down, so as you put more tiles onto the board, the more that the candle will have burned down. It’s a very easy game to play, but it has an amazing tension as you get further into the game.

Buy on CoolStuffInc

33. Orchard: A 9 card solitaire game

I talk about Orchard fairly often, and I backed it’s successor Grove on Kickstarter recently. It’s still up for backing if you want to check it out. But Orchard is a great solo game. It’s a game that has you stacking cards and matching up fruit tree symbols to grow as much fruit as you can. The more you overlap cards, the more points you’ll get from the fruit you grow.

Orchard is an extremely fast play and generally I’ll play it several times in a single sitting. It also has a little footprint and easy set-up and pick-up. The game isn’t too mindless, but I call it a good mental reset game. I always feel like can refresh my brain and distract myself for a little bit while I play to then have fresh eyes to look at some work problem again.

Buy On Miniature Market

32. Ohanami

Ohanami is a very simple game. You draft two cards and then you put them into three columns split up however you like. But you always need to put down higher or lower numbers. The game is a lot of fun at it’s high player count of four or low of two and changes a lot as you play between those two. At two players it is much more strategic. At four players you only see two cards from that original hand come back to you. So drafting changes up greatly at higher player counts.

But there is also the scoring that keeps the game interesting. You draft over three rounds and score at the end of each. The first round you score for blue cards, the second blue and green, and the final, blue, green, grey and pink. Blue cards are worth less overall, but if you get them early, they can be the most lucrative to have drafted. So while the game is very accessible to any type of gamer, it isn’t too simple for heavy gamers.

Buy On Amazon

31. T.I.M.E Stories

The biggest game on the list T.I.M.E Stories is a campaign style game but also an escape room. You work together to try and figure out how to stop timing from being changed off of the proper flow that it’s supposed to be going. Your consciousness is sent back in time or across timelines so that you can investigate. If you can’t get it done in time, you can always restart armed with the knowledge that you now know.

I know that some people don’t love every scenario, and the scenarios aren’t always consistent. The game also promises are story throughout it linking each different scenario, and that doesn’t really exist. But the game is a lot of fun for me. I don’t mind going back and taking another run at things. The stories have all been enjoyable, some more so, but I’m always ready to see what the next puzzle or scenario is going to be when I finish playing.

Buy on Miniature Market

The Next 10

If you want to catch any of the remaining Top 10’s live, you can check them out and my normal streams on Wednesday at 8 PM Central time. If you subscribe and click the notification bell you’ll know whenever I go live or upload a new video to Malts and Meeples YouTube channel. When I’m not doing my Top 100, you can find me on Wednesday playing board games solo on the YouTube channel.

Now, I did say I wanted to talk about my streaming times. Through the Top 100 list, I am going to keep my 8 PM Central time on Wednesdays for streaming. However, this might be changing. A channel that I like to watch and be part of their live chat, the GloryHoundd channel is adjusting their schedule. And I know I have crossover viewers from their channel. If they take that 8 PM Central Wednesday spot, I might look at making my main streaming day on Monday. Be aware that change may come.

But what game do you like best out of this part of the Top 100? Are there any that you want to get to the table that you haven’t played in this bunch?

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Top 10 Games to Demo At GenCon

So, there aren’t many rules for how this list will work. The only one is that if I’ve played it or demoed it before, it won’t go onto the list. So I think Stuff of Legends is going to be there. I think that’s a fun game that I’d want to try again, but I’ve already played it. So anything like that won’t count on this list.

10. Lost Ruins of Arnak: Expedition Leaders

I’m starting off with an expansion. This one is for a game that I own but have yet to play. It combines deck building with worker placement, and I really like deck building. But the expansions adds in leaders, basically unique powers that players start with. I’m really excited for that because I like unique or variable powers in games a lot. It if fun when you can do something I can’t and I can do something you can’t in a game.

9. Merchants of the Dark Road

Another worker placement game, and generally I don’t love worker placement. But this one interested me after watching the GloryHoundd Playthrough. The game play seems interesting and the theme isn’t dry, which I like. The artwork on the game is really nice. If this one was for sale, it might have made the list, but it’s a game that I want to see in person and try, maybe not own.

8. Steam Up: A Feast of Dim Sum

I like my food themed games. Sushi Go Party! is great, I have Foodies to play, I want to pick up On The Rocks and already own Homebrewers. There is just something about food themes that I like. I also like that they tend to be pretty straightforward to play. I am hoping that this is going to be another good one because the artwork looks nice and the theme is fun. And the idea of set collection is something that has worked well with my game group.

7. Machi Koro 2

This one almost breaks the rule I set for myself. I have not played Machi Koro 2, but I have played Machi Koro. This seems to build on that but be a pretty similar game. Machi Koro is a game that I liked but didn’t love. The issue I had with it was that everyone was doing basically the same thing, same strategy. There weren’t enough differences, this seems to have fixed that with putting out a variety of the big buildings you need to build to win the game. Having that randomness should make it better.

6. Now or Never

This is the sequel to Near and Far and Above and Below from Red Raven Games. I like Near and Far but I got rid of it because there wasn’t enough of the story it promised. The artwork was amazing and the same is true for this one. I want to see if this would fit better for my group. But, that said, I think that the game on the other list, Sleeping Gods, is going to be the better fit for me from Ryan Laukat and Red Raven Games.

5. Return to Dark Tower

I almost backed this one on Kickstarter. A big cooperative game with a giant powered tower in the middle of it that is spewing out skulls, that is cool. I don’t have the nostalgia to the original game, but watching this one played seems like a lot of fun. It’s also cooperative which works well for me. It’ll be one of those games that when it’s on the table people will notice.

4. Wonder Book

I hadn’t heard anything about this game until I saw it on the list today, but now I want to see it. Cooperative games are always good for me. And add in that this has 3D pop-up scenarios, that’s really cool. I wonder how it would compared to Shivers which I almost backed, but ended up passing on, on Kickstarter. The idea is interesting for at least the look of the game.

3. Dubious

I’m always dubious of deduction games with a social aspect to it. But Dubious from Hobby World seems interesting. I’ve heard good things about it, or about it’s mechanics anyways. And the artwork on the box really stands out to me. I’m always interested in social deduction games because I want to find more that I like. And Dubious looks like it might be a deduction game with a social aspect which is really in my wheelhouse.

2. Velocity: Vanguard

A cooperative space adventure, that sounds interesting to me. I don’t know much about this game, but the theme is interesting. The question I have to ask myself is do I need another adventure game, or want one. The answer to one of those questions is basically always yes. But I want to get better when I would have a chance to demo something, demoing it prior to buying it.

1. Key to the Kingdom

This one is one that I’m basing it mainly off of the artwork. The game has take that as a mechanic, which I really don’t like. But I am always interested when Restoration Games takes an old game and turns it into something new. It means that it might work better for me. And I am curious about this one because taking pixies to fight a Demon King, that seems entertaining.

All The Games

This list was much shorter than the games for sale. Now, I’m guessing that is because a bunch of companies won’t announce what’s going to be there ahead of time, or at least Board Game Geek doesn’t have them yet. But you can checkout the list to see all 33 for yourself here. And I’d totally expect to see a lot more games to demo.

This is going to be a different year at GenCon though. I am sure that there will be less games to demo and less games just in general. Some of that will be due to Asmodee not being there, which means a number of companies won’t. Some of it is going to be supply chain issues. Let me know what games you’re interested in demoing though.

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Artisans of Splendent Vale

This is a game from Renegade games that is coming up on Kickstarter in September of 2021. This is a cooperative story driven game with a diverse cast of characters. There was a lot of attention placed on characters that you might not see in a normal fantasy setting.

The Designer, Nikki Valens, has worked on a lot of different games that I like. They have led the designs on Mansions of Madness 2nd Edition and Legacy of Dragonholt, both which are very good games. And this looks like they have taken some of both of those and created a cool and unique world. Not much on game play in the video, but one, because of Nikki Valens pedigree as a designer that I’ll checkout on Kickstarter.

Skybound Announcements

Tidal Blades 2

Tidal Blades 2 coming to Kickstarter this fall. It is going to be more of a dungeon crawl. It takes the characters from Tidal Blades and then now they are coming on a dungeon crawl adventure. It’s the same designers but not the dice building, dice progression system. More of a deck building style of game. Tidal Blades didn’t interest me too much, but a cooperative dungeon crawl set in that world, I’m very interested. The universe is really interesting for sure.

Kim-Joy’s Magic Bakery

And then a game Kim-Joy’s Magic Bakery. It’s an interesting thing because Kim-Joy is a baker who was on the Great British Bake-off. She definitely has a nerdy flare to herself and her life, so Skybound and James Hudson have met her and are working to create a game with her. It is a cooperative game, a bit of The Crew but also a bit of Kitchen Rush without a timer to rush you.

Boruto: Naruto The Next Generations The Board Game

So this is based off an anime, Boruto which is the sequel to Naruto from Blacklist games. Another cooperative game, and this one is a boss battling game. You get to play as characters who are senior ninjas and the junior ninjas so you can have a wide variety of combos to play with. And you are spending energy, shakra, and the cards you play give you as a group more shakra to spend to play more cards and stronger cards.

Unmatched Battle of Legends Vol 2

This is a continuation of what is showing up in Unmatched. This game has been put out by Restoration games. They are known for taking old games and modernizing them, and Unmatched has been massively successful for them. This is a tactical battling game where you are playing out cards to move, attack, and defend against another player. It’s a game that I haven’t played yet, and I think it looks solid, but I do want to try the game before I buy it. This includes Bloody Mary, The Monkey King, and more. Coming out later in 2021.

Flamecraft

Card Board Alchemy is announced a new game about dragons who are baking bread. This is a dragon placement game as they placing dragons around town. It’s small dragons who are making food, at the forge, or brewing potions, it could be a lot of different places. The artwork on this game is amazing. I feel like I know it from where, but I would need to look it up. This looks like a super cute game and it’s coming to Kickstarter in August, definitely looks like a cute game. I hope that it’s easy to play because that aesthetic is amazing.

Galaxy Trucker

This is getting a new version. They are putting out a free expansion, Rough Roads that was out before. But they are making it for the new version as well. They have been putting out small and free mini expansions that can be downloaded for a lot of their games throughout 2020 and 2021 to give more small content to their games. This seems like a nice refresh.

Portal Games Announcements

Million Dollar Script

This one is a party game from Portal games. I am not super interested in this one. While the theme is interesting, I just don’t know about making movies. You are trying to come up with scripts for movies, which I like, but I’m not sure how well it’ll work. I think that it could be funny sometimes, but it feels pretty standard. But you are creating the movie really well. I think that it looks like one which will be great sometimes and bad others, which is the type of party game I pass on.

Dune: House Secrets

This one I am super excited for. It is a Dune game that uses the Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game. I love that system because it can offer so much. And it means that they can tell a really interesting story. Dune is an interesting theme for me, because I like the book pretty well. I think that the world of Dune is very fascinating. This is one that I’m pretty sure I’m going to pick up. I’m waiting for Portal Games to do their pre-order. I could order it from a store, but Portal tends to do pre-order bonuses. July 12th is when the pre-order opens up.

Queen’s Dilemma

Horrible Guild is announcing something super generic, but they are teasing the Queen’s Dilemma. They came out with The King’s Dilemma, a legacy game that I really need to play. It is a fascinating sounding game where you are making decisions trying to influence the king and it’s highly story driven. You play around the table discussing and making deals and trying to pitch things. This is one that I really need to play, like I said, so that when the Queen’s Dilemma comes out I’ll be able to play that one as well. It looks like they are building upon what they’ve already done. Also, I love Horrible Guild’s stuff that I’ve played thus far.

Paint the Roses

Another Wonderland based game. This is a theme that has been done a lot because, well, it’s free for public use. This is a cooperative game all about building the perfect garden from North Star Games. The art doesn’t look too bad. It sounds generic to me. But of course with the Queen of Hearts as your employer, she is going to be executing you. So she’s only handing out pieces of the puzzle to how to build the garden out.

So there is an element of cooperative deduction which is interesting. This seems like a try before you buy for me. You can’t discuss what your secret card is. But it is fun because you can discuss what you think other people’s whims, the secrets, are openly. And the whims might change throughout the game. The Queen of Hearts is very fickle.

Detective Rummy

This is a game from WizKids. It is a successor of sorts to Mystery Rummy. This is not a game that I know anything about. But it is a series of cases that you can play, so I am interested. I like games where you are trying to solve something. But the word rummy just throws me off as to what it is. I’ll need to look into Mystery Rummy to see how that plays and keep an eye out for more information on this one.

Machi Koro 2

I like Machi Koro pretty well. However, I got rid of my version of the game because I want to play the legacy version. It seems like a simple game that I and my wife could play as a legacy game for a little bit. Machi Koro 2 is interesting, however, I have Space Base, a game that uses similar mechanics that I need to play. This will likely be one that I want to try before I buy. Though, if you haven’t played Machi Koro, it is a great gateway and family game. This is coming out from Pandasaurus.

They are saying that this should be a bit more challenging for people who want to find a little bit more. The big change is that they have added in a wide variety of landmarks to build in the game. That means that you will have a different set than I will. I really like that because in Machi Koro you might be building too much that is just the same. The variety wasn’t there for me. This seems to be a simple change that just adds in more variety. And they will be in the market versus in front of a player.

Power Plants

This game comes from Kids Table Board Games (KTBG from here on out). I actually haven’t played anything before from KTBG but people tend to like their games a lot. And I am interested in their game Creature Comforts. This game isn’t about power plants producing electricity, but powerful plants. The style looks pretty nice and coming to Kickstarter this fall. Not much more about it in the video, just a visual tease.

Pegasus Spiele

Fire & Stone

This game is from the creator of Carcassonne, which is a great gateway style game. If you haven’t tried it, I definitely recommend it. This game has you trade resources and expanding across the globe. This doesn’t seem like my type of game completely, but I am interested because of the designer, Klaus-Jurgen Werde. I am thinking this will be a try before I buy.

Carnegie

They are bring this game to retail. It originally was on Kickstarter. Another Euro style game that isn’t high on my list of games to play. This one, though, being more available will make people who missed out on the Kickstarter happy. I’d play this one but I doubt it’d ever make it into my collection because it is a heavy weight Euro game.

Bonfire: Trees and Creatures

This is a modular expansion to Pegasus Spiele’s game Bonfire. In fact, there are three modules in there. Yet again another Euro game, this is one where if you already like the game, it’ll give you more to play with. Another that I’d play but it’s not up the alley for me as a gamer. It also lets you play a 5th player which is always a worry to me for a bigger Euro game because they can sometimes take way to long between turns depending on players.

Arcane Wonders

Onitama – Light and Shadow

This is an expansion for Onitama. It adds in a ninja. The ninja can move in secret which is a big change. I kind of still want to get Onitama as a simple abstract game, but I also know that I don’t play abstract games all that often. For fans of the game, though, this is going to be cool for you. The shadow play version has the ninja, and the light play version gives you an asymmetrical starting position.

Viral – The Hive

This is an expansion as well for Viral. Viral is a game where you play as disease that are going throughout the body. It basically adds in more viruses that you can play and viruses that are asymmetrical and can grow as you go. Viral is one that was interesting for me to play, but it kind of fell off my radar. I’m not sure that this pushes it back onto the map for me, but if you want a silly themed area control type of game, Viral might be a good one to checkout.

ALS: Critters at War

A new version of the game is coming out of Air Land and Sea. Not one that is on my radar. War themed games aren’t all that interesting and adding in critters isn’t all that interesting to me. The artwork does look nice, but a two player push and pull on three battlefronts could be fun, but isn’t really for me. Another one that I’d probably enjoy if I played it but won’t be one that I pick-up.

Picture Perfect

You are trying to set-up the perfect photograph. It’s an interesting sounding game about trying to set-up the perfect picture where each character has three things they desire to have in that perfect picture. You are trying to figure out the information but events keep happening that might give you more information or mean that you need to share some of the information that you’ve found. In the end you snap an actual picture with your cellphone. The concept is interesting but a try before you buy just from the sounds of it for me.

Mortum

This has a lot of things that I like. It is a cooperative storytelling and deduction game. All three of those things are really cool for me. It’s a grim setting in medieval Europe. The base game has 3 scenarios that all tie together. I probably will end up getting this one because, like I said, it has three things I really like. I hope that the game works well, and with a lot of Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game left to play from expansions, I might wait for reviews on this one.

Leylines

This one is further out from Arcane Wonders. The artwork looks quite cute on this game. It sounds like a resource gathering game and then getting victory points. In terms of the look, this seems way better than most euro style games, but for me it probably won’t be one that I pick-up.

Dune Imperium: Rise of Ix

Dune Imperium from Direwolf was one of a few worker placement and deck building games to come out last year. I have Lost Ruins of Arnak on my shelf waiting to be played, and I didn’t get Dune Imperium just because aesthetically this didn’t look as interesting. Now, they are both getting expansions. But I’m talking about Rise of Ix here. This one should be an easy buy for Dune Imperium fans as well as some just Dune fans who I know. While Portal is putting out the Dune game for me, this is one that I want to try and maybe own.

Wild Tiled West

Another game from Direwolf. This one is just a little sneak peek. We can safely say it’s an old west themed game, a tile laying game. And well, that the artwork is cute with it’s animals in hats. Beyond that not too much information on the game as this was just a little bit of a tease. This one is coming sometime in 2022.

What Am I Looking Forward To?

So what am I looking forward to most out of all of these? Dune: House Secrets has to be high on the list because it’s based off of a Top 10 game for me, or at least Top 20 game for me. Plus the Tidal Blades 2, the world is so cool in that game, and a dungeon crawl is more my speed. And then finally Queen’s Dilemma, yes, I do need to play King’s Dilemma first, but I love a good legacy game and I’ve heard nothing but great things about King’s Dilemma.

Which are you looking forward to most?

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Marvel Champions Drax

Now, this is a bit of a standard first one and generally why I write these articles. Monthly Marvel Champions comes out with something new and in this case, they are continuing to build off of the Galaxy’s Most Wanted expansion to add in more of the Guardians of the Galaxy. We now are able to play as Rocket, Groot, Gamora, Star-Lord, and Drax. And Nebula is coming. More characters is always fun and always reminds me to pull the game out and play more.

Doodle Dungeon

The other game I picked up at my FLGS was Doodle Dungeon. This is a new game from Pegasus Spiele, and looks like a lot of fun. This game reminds me of Boss Monster and a Roll and Write smashed together. In Doodle Dungeon you are making a dungeon. But unlike Deadly Doodles where you an adventurer delving into the dungeon, here you want the dungeon to win. The hero must die, they shouldn’t kill your monsters and of course not steal your treasure.

Now, do I need another game like this when I already have Boss Monster? Oddly enough, I had pulled Boss Monster off the shelf to sell recently because, while I think the game is a lot of fun it is a bit clutchy. The rules aren’t as smooth as they should be, and the game takes a bit to get going. I am hoping that Doodle Dungeon will work better for me.

Kohaku

This is a game that I’ve been eyeing for a little bit, mainly since GloryHoundd played it.

But what is drawing me to the game? Firstly, I like the aesthetic of the game. The tiles look amazing and different than a lot of other games. It also seems like a simple game. You draft tiles and do set collection around points, basically, and that’s it. I think this is a game that my wife will like but also one that I could take to play with my parents, or a heavier gaming group as something different. I like games to seem to offer a variety for a lot of people.

Fireball Island

Finally, we have Fireball Island: The Curse of Vul-Kar. This is a kids game, basically. Or more so now a family game. There was an original Fireball Island from the 80’s that was fine from what I’ve heard. It just had an awesome marble chute and cool 3D board. This version keeps all of that but adds in more game to it. It isn’t a roll or spin and move anymore, instead you are play cards to move.

This is one that I got to see and kind of demo at GenCon in 2019 and while I don’t know it’s a game that I will play all the time, it is fun. The game play is very simple and should work to play with the toddler in a few years, but can be played with friends now. I haven’t bought it until now because it’s a $75 game.

However, at Target, I happened to spot it on the shelf with no price. So I took it to one of the scanners and it was listed at $30. SO I definitely had to buy this game I’ve been looking at. My guess to what happened, and I’ve seen this happen before with Magic: The Gathering cards is something got entered into the system wrong. Fireball Island should be retailing at $75, like I said, but the expansions, $30. So someone, somewhere, priced it as if it were an expansion when it was the base game. This will likely get fixed soon, but if you really want to try and get it cheap, right now might work.

Which Do You Want To Play?

For me, I think the one that I want to play most is Kohaku. That one is just pretty and it’s been on my radar, like I said, for a little bit. Though Doodle Dungeon does look really cool and I already know I love Marvel Champions. I should just play some more games coming up here soon. Marvel Champions for sure because I can play it solo.

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