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Other than 2017's Space Explorers, which was co-published with Moroz Publishing, CrowD Games has released only Russian-language versions of games from other publishers, but in 2019 it released the original game Deep State: New World Order from designer Konstantin Seleznev, with the English-language version of this title due out in 2020. Istomin said that he'll have this title and four other new releases that he hopes to license at Spielwarenmesse 2020, so here's an overview of these releases:
—In Deep State: New World Order, you use agents to infiltrate political, financial, and research institutions represented by objective cards; advance toward World Domination projects that give you advantages during the game; carry out covert operations that provide a lot of influence while requiring the sacrifice of agents; and make treaties with organizations both secret and overt.
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—In Yuri Zhuravljov's Winter Queen, you create magical ornaments from enchanted crystals, with a turn consisting of you either placing a new crystal on the board or using already placed crystals to score victory points depending on the spell books you and your opponents have.
—Ganesha, by Maxim Istomin, feels similar to the game above: Either place cubes on the mandala to score points or to save them in order to score even more points in the future. Video overviews should be useful in finding out what, if anything, makes these designs unique!
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—In the deduction game Enigma: Beyond Code by Sergey Pritula, each player is a cryptology expert stuck in a mansion, but only one of you is actually trying to break the Enigma code. Each player has a unique secret mission, and in turn you look at a card that represents a room or an object inside the mansion, telling others what you see, but possibly lying about. Lying is a risk, while telling the truth may allow others to win before you by completing their mission first.
—In Windmill: Cozy Stories, another Istomin design, one player tells a story each round based on odd fantasy cards, with the other players trying to guess which card inspired the story and the storyteller scoring more points as long as people keep guessing incorrectly — at the risk of scoring no points if no one guesses. We've seen games along these lines before, so more details might let us know how it compares to others. All in good time...
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Maybe this type of description is meant only to say, "Do you like this type of thing? Then look closer...", but it seems like a lost opportunity to grab the passerby who isn't sure whether this is their type of thing or not. Here's what I'm talking about:
Quote:
In Pacific Rails Inc., players are the presidents of their own railway company with a contract to build a railroad from one side of the board to the other.
To succeed, your workers need to gather resources, lobby Congress for funding, and hire specialists to help manufacture tracks. You then lay them on the map, placing bridges, tunnels, and rails to travel through the harsh terrain. You also need to build train stations and telegraph posts to connect remote cities.
Your railway adventure begins now!
To succeed, your workers need to gather resources, lobby Congress for funding, and hire specialists to help manufacture tracks. You then lay them on the map, placing bridges, tunnels, and rails to travel through the harsh terrain. You also need to build train stations and telegraph posts to connect remote cities.
Your railway adventure begins now!
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The original
—Paris, by Wolfgang Kramer and Michael Kiesling: Kickstarter launch on March 16.
—A surprise card game, on Kickstarter in June 2020. (Update, March 21, 2020: I presume this will be Arkwright: The Card Game by Stefan Risthaus)
—Rulebender, by Tom De Vandeweyer, on Kickstarter in autumn 2020.
—Hippocrates, by Alain Orban on Kickstarter in winter 2020-2021.
—Stroganov, by Andreas Steding, on Kickstarter in spring 2021.
Flip the seasons if you live the southern hemisphere. (Someday publishers will realize that using seasons for important dates doesn't work for everyone, but we're not there yet.)
Aside from these titles, Game Brewer plans to launch a new family line of games under the brand AMUZA: "We will organize pre-order campaigns for those games, but these games will not hit Kickstarter. Our first family game will be called Pizza and will be released in June 2020. Other titles that are coming up later this year are Bugz, Babylon, Starlit, and Circus."
So many games!
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