At Gen Con last summer, there was an actual Cones of Dunshire game for charity. The fictional game, from the television show Parks & Recreation, had been made real, and the crowd gathered around to see the spectacle. The crowd didn’t last long because, as on the episodes featuring the game, the rules were all over the place and it was confusing.
On the show, Cones of Dunshire is a Euro-type game invented by the character Ben Wyatt, while bored on a week off from work. It’s meant to poke fun of the rule-intensive games that we often play these days. Mayfair Games helped out with the episodes, and, while a good deal of fun was poked at gamers, they generally enjoyed the effort that was put forth to get the details right.
Now, thanks to Kickstarter, you have the opportunity to try to get your own deluxe copy of the complicated game. It sounds like there will be lots of cardboard pieces and roles and dice and character sheets and… I still don’t really know what is going on. There’s no printed ruleset and the whole thing still feels like a big joke, a PR stunt tying in to the premiere of the first episode of Parks & Recreation‘s last season, this week.
If you want to get in on the Kickstarter, bring a big checkbook. You have to contribute at least $500 just to get the game! It seems really more like an opportunity to sell some related merchandise, but who knows? There are two months to go on this project, and maybe they’ll hit their hefty goal and have to produce some of these sets.
“First created, 0 backed”
That’s a big red flag for me.
Except that it’s Mayfair Games. Queen Games first Kickstarter, for Escape: The Curse of the Temple, also read “First created, 0 backed”. Of course at that time everyone was questioning why a major game company would be using Kickstarter.
Bottom line – it’s a way to get funding for development costs, and considering how well many tabletop game Kickstarters do, it seems like a smart move for smaller companies. Now, if someone like Parker Brothers does a KS, we can all call BS. 😉