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Or not. Hard to say really as these titles often feel less real to me than others that I write about. Yes, they're all real to the designers and publishers and illustrators involved, but at the point that I'm writing about them, they're only tangentially real; they're a "wish upon a star", a promise writ large, a potential pig in a poke — which is something that could be said about any future release, of course, but these games feel more ephemeral, so sometimes I put them aside to write about other things. As I mentioned to a few publishers in Germany, one of the issues that I have with Kickstarter is how titles blaze hot while they're in the midst of funding, but then, whether successful or not, attention often fizzles out and the game arrives like a cat in the night, with you barely perceiving its arrival and not paying it much attention. "Oh, that. I had forgotten about that." Maybe that's only me, and these posts contribute to that will-o'-the-wisp nature of crowdfunded games, but again so be it; here's what's on tap this time:
• DRCongo from Ragnar Brothers posits players are "enlightened industrialists" in that country who are working to build industry and transport networks within that country. (KS link)
• With Petersen Games finally getting Cthulhu Wars out the door, the publisher is moving ahead with Theomachy: The Ancients and Theomachy: The Warrior Gods, reimplementations of the Teomachia release from Fabryka Gier Historycznych with new pantheons worked into the mix so that players can have even more choices for godly battle. (KS link)
• Don't Turn Your Back, based in the Mad City setting of Evil Hat Productions' RPG Don't Rest Your Head, is a deck-building, area-control, worker placement game from Eric B. Vogel that will surely be followed by other titles in the same line, such as Don't Forget to Mail That Letter, Don't Do That Again or You'll Be Sorry, and Don't Eat All But One of the Crackers, Then Put the Box Back on the Shelf. (KS link)
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• Andrew Hunzicker's Capture: A Medieval Wargame apparently languished on a publisher's shelves for years, but now Game Salute has picked up the title, which includes tiny catapults for knocking down armies. (KS link)
• Odd Hackwelder is back on KS with M80, a fireworks-themed card game in which you're trying to collect rockets in hand without having others blow them — and you — up. (KS link)
• Moly Diggins is the seventh title in Spieltrieb's Little'N'Nice series of small card games, with this title consisting solely of ten tunnel cards that players place, then move in order to catch worms with their mole. (Spieleschmiede link)
• Space Cadets: Away Missions from Stronghold Games has topped six figures and added new characters and figures to this co-op combat game. (KS link)
• Pretense, much to my dismay, is not a game about verb conjugation but instead a party metagame by Jason Tagmire at Button Shy that gives each person a role card and associated task that they try to complete while playing other games, scoring points when they do and stealing role cards from others. (KS link)
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• In Dustin Bluhm's Stipulations party game from Black Light Games, players are presented with a superpower, occupation, lifetime supply of something, or a fulfilled dream, then are challenged to present a stipulation that would render this blessing useless, moot, or otherwise frustrating, with points being award A2A-style by that round's judge. (KS link)
• Hoyuk: Anatolia from MAGE Company brings new achievements to the Hoyuk base game, with players needing to create water supply systems and host festivals to show off what good neighbors they are to their fellow clans. (KS link)
• Villagers & Villains: City Builder from C. Aaron Kreader and Studio 9 Games drops new play options into the city-building game, in addition to upping the player count and allowing for new city upgrades. (KS link)
• Exodus: Edge of Extinction from NSKN Games introduces individual player factions to the Exodus: Proxima Centauri base game, along with larger fleets and custom action cards. (KS link)
• Ian Brody's Quartermaster General: Air Marshal from Griggling Games brings air forces and bolster cards into this World War II game. (KS link)
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• Eric Solomon's chaos vs. order abstract strategy game Hyle 7 is getting a fancy all-wood version from franjos Spieleverlag, or at least that's the plan. (Startnext link)
• Peter Newland's Wizard Dodgeball from Mind the Gap Studios is having a second go at Kickstarter, hoping that players don't once again dodge the opportunity to play. (KS link)
• Last Starfleet from Wicked Grin Games has also relaunched, with players working together to reach a habitable planet far across the galaxy. (KS link)
• Never Stop Tops & Coins has created a range of fantasy-themed coins (KS link) while Adam Whitney at Know Chance Games offers a deck of card money bearing animal portraits. (KS link)
• The Cones of Dunshire from Mayfair Games is an attempt to transport the game created for the television show Parks and Recreation to the real world, but in some ways it seems only like an April Fools' Day joke that has gone on far longer than is comfortable. (KS link)
• Scott Almes' Tiny Epic Galaxies from Gamelyn Games has done what The Cones of Dunshire can only hope to do, namely collect more than $300k in funding and ensure that the "Tiny Epic" series will land another entry at some point down the road. (KS link)
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• The only thing that people on KS like more than the burly adventures of Hyborian he-men are not-very-bright kittens that kill you by means of explosion. Yes, I'm talking about the Exploding Kittens Kickstarter project that has (as of now) 136k backers and more than $5 million in funding, and as I've mentioned to some this project seems less of a game than a way to show how much you love The Oatmeal and get something to share that love in the bargain, and I realize how snooty that sounds and I apologize. (KS link)
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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