Crowdfunding Round-up: Evolutionary Progress, Multiples of 49, Sketchy Battles & Much More

Progress: Evolution of Technology is a card game about researching technologies. Each player takes his civilization from early antiquity and learns various technologies, moving progressively to the Middle Ages, the Industrial Revolution, and Modern Times and ending with today's Internet or Social Welfare.

Unlike other civilization games, Progress focuses on a single aspect of civilization building: researching technologies that help a society advance. The 210 technology cards in the game are divided into three ages (Ancient, Middle Ages, Industrial) and three types (Military, Science and Culture). With every advancement on a path, you gain easier access to its more advanced technologies and you'll end up opening the door to the next age.

Each tech card provides one bonus, which can vary from one extra knowledge to a larger hand size. Even though most tech cards in the game come in multiple copies (usually one per player), the key technologies occur less frequently, forcing players to specialize and granting them unique advantages. Every technology you research decreases the cost of up to three more advanced technologies, accelerating the race towards the end of the game.

Starting with $49 apiece, players in The Game of 49 bid to buy spaces on the 49-square (7-by-7) game board. Randomly drawn number cards are auctioned one at a time, with the highest bidder placing a chip on the matching board space. Wild/Payoff cards give players a choice of where to place their chip and also award cash to all players for their chips on the board: $7 per chip, with a payoff maximum of $49. The first player to claim four spaces in a row, in any direction, wins.

Dilemma is a two-player strategy game in which players compete by moving pawns around the board to collect tiles worth varying points.

The 49 tiles are placed in a preset pattern on a 7x7 grid, and two pawns are placed on top of two tiles in the central diagonal. One player can move the pawns along columns, while the other moves them along rows. Players cannot move the same pawn they moved the previous turn, so strategy is built around knowing which choices your opponent has next, and working to make those choices miserable — thus putting them in a dilemma. Some of the tiles affect the board when collected: moving tiles or pawns, returning pieces to the board, or stealing tiles from an opponent. When neither player can move, the game ends and whoever has the most points wins.

In Athlas: Duel for Divinity, each player takes the role of a young Athilian, a godlike being, outcast to the seven outer worlds to explore and uncover the secrets of creation laid by his ancestors. While traveling the outer worlds, Athilians practice their abilities to manipulate time and space until they become powerful enough to be challenged by the Athilian council to open the portal back to Athlas, thus passing the final test to adulthood.

As an aspiring god you can design and create your own unique units by enhancing basic Genus cards with powerful abilities, artifacts and spells. You also get to choose divine interventions that might ultimately affect the outcome of the duel. Then you will summon your creations onto the battlefield and attempt to assemble two of three ancient relics in order to open the portal and win the game.