It’s been a little while since I’ve done a round-up (and I’ve admittedly missed a few pretty cool projects along the way) but here are a couple of current tabletop projects on Kickstarter that look intriguing!
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Santorini Co-op and Deluxe Pantheon Edition
Santorini was one of our Game of the Year finalists back in 2017, and it remains a favorite in my collection—my youngest kid came across it earlier this year and so I’ve had some fun revisiting it with her! It’s an abstract strategy game that is very easy to pick up, and has a fun Greek Gods theme to it. The new Pantheon Edition adds things like a fancy island, more gods, and storage trays, but what I’m especially excited about is the Riddle of the Sphinx expansion, which makes the game cooperative and has a book of scenarios to work through. This one ends later today, so don’t delay too long if you’re interested!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ivstudios/fractured-sky
Fractured Sky
This is the fourth project from IV Studios, which has gotten a name for making really gorgeous games. I backed their first project, Moonrakers, and have been keeping an eye on their others (alas, I haven’t gotten a chance to try out their games in time to review them for the campaigns). Fractured Sky is about airships seeking out fragments of a fallen star, and it has some fancy organizers that keep some information hidden while also tracking your resources and miniatures. (Fingers crossed that maybe I’ll get in on the next IV Studios title in time!)
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fowers/paperback-10th-anniversary-typewriter
Paperback 10th Anniversary Edition and Typewriter
Tim Fowers has a project with two games: a 10th anniversary edition of Paperback, the deck-building, word-making card game I reviewed back in 2015. The new edition adds some new mechanics and cards, and a fun bonus is that it will also have novel covers by lots of other artists, adding to Ryan Goldsberry’s illustrations. There’s also a deluxe edition that upgrades some of the components, for the superfans. Typewriter is a new portable word game that uses little letter tiles in a bag, and tiles will flip over and become other letters or give you powers if you can use them in certain ways.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dicehateme/milkman-a-legendairy-dice-and-delivery-game
Milkman
Dice Hate Me Games has been around for a while—their first published game was Carnival back in 2011, and then they joined up with Greater Than Games for a while before going independent again. Now they’re back with a new game, designed by Joshua J. Mills (the designer of Rocky Road a la Mode); it’s a dice game about running a dairy farm with a 1950s Americana feel. It’s cool to see some familiar names back in action!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/starreachgames/cysmic-a-race-for-survival-during-seismic-armageddon
Cysmic
Cysmic (I’m assuming the pronunciation is something like “seismic” based on the theme) is a first-time project, and it’s about various factions competing to build an escape ship as a planet crumbles. Presumably you’d all be able to escape if you worked together, but this isn’t that sort of game—instead, you’re going to have to steal blueprints from other players to complete your ship. I’ll be curious to see how this one does, but so far I like the designer’s story.
