PAX-goers try out Sentinels of the Multiverse in the exhibit hall.
I first heard about Sentinels of the Multiverse at PAX last year. It officially launched at Gen Con in 2011, and made a huge splash — it’s a cooperative comic-book game essentially created by three guys. Since then they’ve run two successful Kickstarter campaigns, the first for their Rook City expansion and the second for the Infernal Relics expansion which also included the “Enhanced Edition” of the game (featuring better card stock, a better box, counters, and more balanced villains). I’ve backed both projects and just got my latest rewards after Gen Con, so I’m looking forward to playing it. I know, I promised you a review after PAX last year, but then Kickstarter happened. I’ll make time to get it on the table soon!
Michael Block, Software Engineer for The Men Who Wear Many Hats
I’m sure most of you are familiar with the old computer game Oregon Trail (you have died of dysentery), and we were delighted to discover the zombie-themed Organ Trail on Kickstarter earlier this year. The campaign was to take the flash-based version and turn it into a game for iPhone, iPad, Android, PCs, and Macs. At the Kickstarter Arcade, I met software engineer Michael Block, who said that the game is now available, and they’re working on getting it onto Steam through Greenlight. For more info visit The Men Who Wear Many Hats website.
Gamers trying out Zombicide at PAX.
Here’s another one in the “ridiculously overfunded” category: Zombicide, a zombie-themed board game from Cool Mini or Not, the company that also brought you Super Dungeon Explore. The game comes with a pile of miniatures and a modular board and looks like it’s a lot of fun. I didn’t happen to back this one myself — after Super Dungeon Explore I needed a break from assembling more miniatures — but it’s one I might check out down the road now that it’s out. Then again, I also saw that Cool Mini or Not had an expansion for Super Dungeon Explore out, plus another upcoming expansion …
I’ll round out this write-up with two more that I failed to get photos of: Borogove is a card game with a Wonderland theme, created by artist Kory Bing. I missed out on the Kickstarter myself, but managed to pick up a deck at Stumptown Comics Fest this year. The deck of cards has 13 suits of four numbers each, all based on creatures from Wonderland, and the artwork is a lot of fun. Bing has a new non-game Kickstarter project online now, for a printed collection of her Skin Deep webcomic.
Finally, one last project which had a huge presence at PAX this year: Cards Against Humanity. It was a fairly modest Kickstarter campaign for a game that was basically an R-rated version of Apples to Apples, but after its release it became the top-selling game on Amazon. Rather than adjectives and nouns, CAH used questions or fill-in-the-blank phrases with off-color answers, and it has been a pretty big hit. There are no graphics to speak of — they’re just black or white cards with text — but nearly everyone I’ve ever spoken to who has played has called it the funniest thing ever. Needless to say, this is probably not the sort of game you should play with your kids, or your parents. For PAX, CAH gave away thousands of T-shirts, black ones with the questions and white ones with answers. Throughout the weekend I saw a lot of people walking around wearing T-shirts, and if you check out the Twitter hashtag #cahshirt you’ll see a lot of pairings. (Warning: “55-gallon drum of lube” seems to be one of the more popular T-shirts.) For more about this “free party game for horrible people,” visit the website.
Well, that wraps up the Kickstarter projects I saw at PAX this year, though I’m sure there were plenty of others that I missed. Later this week: more about the rest of the experience, including the time we got trapped on the 16th floor of the Westin.
