Crowdfunding Round-up: Dead Drop, Hooch, Knee Jerk, Of Dungeons Deep, and the Greatest Name for a Game Ever

Crowdfunding Round-up: Dead Drop, Hooch, Knee Jerk, Of Dungeons Deep, and the Greatest Name for a Game Ever
Board Game: Armies of Riddle TCG
Mr. Big Shot W. Eric Martin is too busy getting ready for Essen to write one of these here crowdfunding thingamajiggers, so there were a TON of games to choose from this month. Granted, W. Eric was not so busy he couldn't find the time to write up like twenty game previews satisfying his Asian market games fetish. That guy has a problem. (Ed. note: Also a problem editing posts by others while busy with large multinational conventions. —WEM)

I, on the other hand, am completely objective and have no personal motives whatsoever. I learned my lesson last month, so I am going to write with clinical sterility and present only facts and information. With that, I will select games that I have no personal feelings on. Let's get started...

• I am probably infringing on ios Newman's territory here, but I think the intention of Game Scorpion is to launch a hybrid ios/physical TCG. It is off to a slow start, but I have determined mathematically that any game with a name as awesome as Armies of Riddle will surely succeed. (KS link) Frankly, I have no idea what the game is about and the art is...okay, but who cares! The game clearly rules. Go give it tons of money.

Quote:
Armies of Riddle is an exciting new game in which players battle to defeat their opponents' crystal shard. It will be available in Physical (Tabletop Game) form as well as a Mobile full 3D edition for iOS, Android, Windows Phone and Windows Store. Created by Mobile App Guru Abhinav Gupta who has already successfully created over 40+ Apps in over 10+ Markets with millions of downloads worldwide already.
I heard there once was a project for Armies of Martin that was MUCH worse than this one. It made -$42.38 on KS.

Board Game: Hooch, The Card Game
• Kickstarter first-timer Jason Washburn is seeking funding for Hooch. (KS link) Per usual, no one knows anything about anything when it comes to KS. I know crowdfunding can be a fickle mistress, but I started seeing info about Hooch on Twitter a few months back and everything I saw looked cool. The game looks fun, but it is struggling to gain a foothold in the ever-changing and expanding KS landscape. Hopefully it gains some good momentum down the stretch or, at worst, builds some steam for a relaunch. Either way, check it out.

Quote:
Hooch is a game set during the Prohibition Era of the 20th Century. Players build a criminal syndicate from the ground up, earning respect points by completing missions, attacking opposing store fronts and making bathtub gin. From back alley deals to buying your way into City Hall, Hooch has it all. Play your cards right and you'll run the streets of Temperance Town.
If you gave Hooch some thought then decided to pass, let me know why down below.

Board Game: Dead Drop
Crash Games is back with a game that I have actually played and that is one of the few games this side of Linko! that both W. Eric and I have played and liked. (KS link) Dead Drop is the latest game from all-around good guy Jason Kotarski. Dead Drop is just a dang fun way to spend ten minutes. It is a clever deduction and memory minigame. If that isn't enough to convince you, go look at the super awesome art. There are a TON of crazy awesome decks. I like the monsters and spy kids (see below) the best.

Quote:
Dead Drop is a game that involves elements of memory, deduction, and crafty maneuvering. As secret agents working for different organizations, players scour the globe seeking information that will help them find the location of a hidden explosive device. Agents must trade information and sell secrets in order to learn the location of the device and grab it before it falls into the hands of another agency!

On a player's turn, you must choose one of the following actions:

• Share Info: Trade one card from your hand with one card from any other agent. The target agent must trade and may not look at the card she is being given before handing over her card to the active agent.

• Hack the Cache: Trade one card from your hand with one card in the cache. The card from your hand becomes a part of the cache and should be face up.

• Sell Secrets: Reveal two cards from your hand to another agent, who must then answer "yes" or "no" to reveal whether or not she has a card equal to the sum of those cards. If she says "yes", she must hand a card of that value to the active agent in exchange for one of the cards shown. The active agent chooses which card to hand over.

At the end of a turn, after performing a regular action, the active agent may choose to...

• Grab The Drop: Place two cards from your hand face up next to the card in the middle of the table. Then, secretly look at the card in the middle to determine whether this card is equal to the sum of the two face-up cards. If you guessed correctly, you win the round; if you're wrong, you're out of the round. (In a three- or four-player game, if an agent is eliminated, she must place her cards face up in front of her. Other agents may trade with an eliminated agent's cards by placing the card traded from their hand face up in place of the card they take.) The first player to win three rounds wins the game.
Woo, I was worried that the first person to win three rounds would LOSE the game. Close call, glad they verified that. Shout out to the VERY talented Adam P. McIver for contributing two of the decks.

Board Game: Dead Drop

Quick Hits

My favorite theme of the month goes to Goblin's Breakfast from Midnight Campaign. (KS link) "In this card game, players take the role of goblins at the breakfast table, scrambling to eat as much food as they can, while simultaneously keeping food from others. Players choose actions, selecting which food and makeshift weapons they are going to snatch in a small arms race of theft and chaos. Eat the most, so that you can be the biggest goblin!" This game has a solo variant called "every person at Old Country Buffet".

Going, Going, Gone

Eh, I got nothing. Busy month, so I didn't actually pay much attention to the goings-on of KS and BGG. (Ed. note: Ha ha! Thanks to the miracle of slowness, Riddle now has two listings in this section. —WEM) Oh, the Galaxy Trucker app is awesome.

Board Game: Knee Jerk
• Party games are certainly not my thing. I do not particularly enjoy them. Give me a dry, thinky, soulless Euro any day of the week — BUT if you are so inclined, check out Knee Jerk from Andrew Federspiel and Knapsack Games. (KS link) Looks like a clever enough idea and people have responded to it so far. Party games are usually just an excuse to make people say silly or embarrassing or clever or funny things and Knee Jerk looks chock full of that. I wonder if that is why I don't like party games very much. I asked noted game designer T.C. Pettty what he thought: "I ALWAYS say funny and clever things, so I hardly notice the difference except now I am forced to listen to other people be less clever and funny than me when it's not my turn. Boring." Wow, thanks for the perspective, T.C. I think he just called everyone reading this boring and lame. You should never buy a game of his again. You should consider backing Knee Jerk even if T.C. is a big meanie.

Quote:
In Knee Jerk, you'll hear the start of a situation that you have to shout an ending to as quickly as possible. For example: "I Feel Panicked At The Beach Because I Saw ______!" You can shout anything, like, "A shark!", "A smoke monster!" or even "My grandmother in a bikini!"

The fastest player to shout a valid answer wins the point, but you have to outwit your friends; if two or more players answer, the host player picks his or her favorite. The games moves rapidly, switching from scene to scene in seconds, from Your First Date to A Haunted Mansion to Outer Space! The first player to gain three points is the winner.
As it turns out my first date was at a haunted mansion in Outer Space. I totally scored.

Board Game: Of Dungeons Deep! (Second Edition)
• The very prolific Jason Gray of Grey Gnome Games is back with Of Dungeons Deep. I backed his last game, Dig Down Dwarf, because it looked neat-o. This one is not really my thing, but it is doing well, so go take a look. (KS link) I am not picking on Jason, he is a really good dude and he has a lot of successful projects under his belt, but I am always curious how backers feel about backing a new game before they have the previous project in hand. I know project owners rely on those repeat customers. Once you have done several successful projects like Jason, you have a strong customer base to draw from as opposed to one project's worth, but it still seems like it would bother backers potentially. Does it? Let me know what you think.

Quote:
Of Dungeons Deep! employs a few cool mechanisms that certainly will keep any player entertained. Let's take a look at a few of the highlights:

• Bluffing and Blind Bidding. Players are attempting to destroy the nasty creatures below in the dungeon to gain fame by playing cards face down and revealing simultaneously. Each enemy has a set number of hit points based on the number of players. There are three enemies to deal with in each level of the dungeon, so strategy, tactics, and bluffing are a must. There is also two rounds of bidding so players gain insight into what other players are up to.

• Deck Building. When a player defeats an enemy, that card is rotated 180 degrees and then added to the player's discard pile. The bottom of each monster card indicates what item the enemy is carrying. These items add power to your character in future rounds, and act as an organic and thematic way to show that your characters are advancing.

• Draft Your Unique Party. Before play begins, players complete a draft in order to create their starting hand of twelve cards. Each player gets one Hero and one Henchman. All characters are very unique and play quite differently from one another. This sets the bar high for replay value!

• No Downtime! Since all play is done simultaneously, no players are ever waiting on others for very long. This makes Of Dungeons Deep! one of the fastest dungeon delvers out there.
Deck-building, drafting and bluffing, oh my.

Editor's note: Please don't post links to other Kickstarter projects in the comments section. Write to me via the email address in the header, and I'll consider them for inclusion in a future crowdfunding round-up. Thanks! —WEM

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