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• If your geek Venn diagram includes "anime" and "deck builders", then odds are good you've played something from Japanime Games. The publisher is adding to its repertoire an English-language version of Heart of Crown, a 2011 design by ginkgo with a bog-standard "seat of power is suddenly vacant" narrative. The game is coming to PCs too, courtesy of video game studio illuCalab. Most pure DBGs have either a static market (e.g., Dominion) or a random market (e.g., Star Realms) but Heart of Crown has elements of both. (KS link)
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• Good Cop Bad Cop: Undercover is the second expansion to the Brian Henk and Clayton Skancke design — now a fixture on Barnes & Noble shelves — that first launched Overworld Games into the market. Henk co-hosts the Board Game Business Podcast (recommended listening!), which is a window into the world of development, marketing, and fulfillment from the crowdfunder's perspective. This expansion brings another layer to the deduction by way of undercover assignments. (KS link)
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• Dubbed by some the "King of Kickstarter", designer Scott Almes has seen lots of success via the KS platform, with a wide variety of publishers. This time it's House of Borgia, in a co-publication effort between Talon Strikes Studios and Gamelyn Games. The setting is Renaissance Italy, but this is no trading-in-the-Mediterranean affair; it's a game of hidden roles and bluffing. The trick lies in throwing your support behind your political candidate without tipping your hand. The only downside I can see is no Jeremy Irons. (KS link)
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• After an aborted first KS attempt in mid-2015, Will Meadows and Ryan Pilz of Tantrum House are back with a retooled version of Steam Court, this time with a more standard 2-6 player count. It's a ladder-climbing trick-taking game, and the players all have special powers. (You'd be lame steam-gineers if you didn't!) I admire when folks with a steampunk game fully commit themselves to the aesthetic as the team here has in their how-to-play videos. Method actors, truly. (KS link)
• In a blast from the past, Mountain Climb designer Tim Novak plans to make a new edition of his two-player wooden abstract via domestic manufacture, two decades after its initial publication. The game achieved mainstream success following its initial release from Channel Craft, but has been long out of print because the manufacturing cost necessitated a higher MSRP than the market could bear at the time. It's certainly a beautiful sort of roll-and-move, but with a fairly nasty streak. (KS link)
• Usually, the presence of "werewolf" in a game's title is a strong hint that the game will feature Mafia-style gameplay, but Escape Room in a Box: The Werewolf Experiment breaks that mold — and many others. Juliana Patel and Ariel Rubin saw opportunity in the escape room trend and have created a portable package that provides much the same experience. Like any escape room worth its salt, this is one-and-done, but the planned availability of a refill kit means you will be able to pass this on to another group or GM it for another group of friends. (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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