![Crowdfunding Round-up: On the Success of Humor, Hot Genres, and Established Audiences](https://cf.geekdo-images.com/Ns_3UxVvk0XuqAo0YJhL9g__original/img/i9x4WmRqqmKQbZLIF_n19mY40_M=/0x0/filters:format(jpeg)/pic2889757.jpg)
• Step 1: Create a popular webcomic. Step 2: Translate that humor into a card game. Step 3: Profit! The folks behind "Cyanide and Happiness" have stepped onto KS with Joking Hazard, their answer to the unprecedented success of Exploding Kittens. Mechanically, it's little more than a rehash of the Apples-to-Apples-after-dark formula popularized by Cards Against Humanity. (In fact, CAH co-designer Max Temkin himself provided a ringing endorsement that is displayed prominently on the KS page.) This is yet more proof that fanbases are willing to follow their favorite creators across mediums. Your move, xkcd. (KS link)
• The most inhospitable of B&Bs is found in Ghostel, a dice-placement game that could be described as the gothic grandchild of Kingsburg. In this title from designer Bevan Clatworthy and publisher Tinkerbot Games, players are rival ghosts working to scare the bejeebus out of the guests at Creepstone Manor. Some guests have a higher threshold, though, and require multiple ghosts to team up, which is where the interesting co-opetitive elements emerge. There are glow-in-the-dark components, as should be the case for any self-respecting game about ghosts. (KS link)
• Tower defense is a genre that lends itself to cooperative play, but Gingerdead House breaks that mold. This game from designer Jonny Rivera and publisher Zafty Games draws inspiration from Plants vs. Zombies, but sets all the action in a world populated by creatures from Grimm's fairy tales. Punny humor is interleaved throughout (e.g., "get off my lawn, witches"), and the rulebook features a photo of the game devs looking for all the world like a punk band. (KS link)
• Designer Poki Chen self-published a small print run of his dexterity card game Wok on Fire! for the Tokyo Game Market in late 2015. Green Couch Games has since acquired English-language rights to the game, making it the fifth title in its line of "great little games that make great big connections". In the game, a culinary art form becomes a physical challenge: The table becomes a wok and the players are chefs, flipping ingredient cards with spatula cards and trying to collect them in advantageous combos. Okay, now I'm hungry for some Cantonese stir-fry. (KS link)
• The game is afoot, dear readers, in Mythos Tales (née Arkham Investigator) from designers Hal Eccles and Will Kenyon and publisher 8th Summit. Their design — which the BGG community has been print-and-playing since 2013 — draws heavily on the mechanisms of Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective, but drops the players in Lovecraft's Arkham to solve a series of mysteries involving the elder gods. Competitive, cooperative, and solo modes are all present here. Time to don your deerstalker caps and set to work! (KS link)
• If you think the Despicable Me movies are a fun subversion of Hollywood's reliance on hero plots, then you're predisposed to enjoy Binh Vo's AssassinCon, in which players are attending a villain convention to brush up on their knavish skills. In 2014, the game received recognition as an ION Award finalist and was signed for publication by Mayday Games. Players must eliminate their secretly assigned targets, while avoiding elimination themselves. The central conceit of the game sounds like the last-man-standing Nerf-weapon competitions that take place on college campuses. (KS link)
• Grey Gnome Games is bringing the post-apocalypse to your tabletop with Siege of Sunfall from designer Jonathan Bouthilet. The wasteland art direction is awash with nods to Ralph Bakshi's 1977 cult-hit cartoon Wizards. The game arose out of The Game Crafter's challenge to make a fun game with the dreaded player elimination mechanism. Bouthilet's design, which went on to win the challenge, takes a soft approach as players can be bumped from the action for the duration of a round but never completely axed from the game. (KS link)
• The customizable-but-not-collectible card game is a hot genre right now, and designer David Sirlin of Sirlin Games is making his mark on the scene with Codex: Card-Time Strategy, a game set in the Fantasy Strike universe shared by most of his designs. Sirlin describes this as his "biggest and most ambitious work". Like many of its peers, Codex has a multi-level release plan, with a small "starter set" for cautious buyers, a larger "core set" for players who want to get serious about the game, and a KS-only "deluxe set" for jump-in-with-both-feet types. (KS link)
• Like many of the B movies that it spoofs, Zombie Tower 3D has a name that's rather on the nose. This game from designers Ryo Kawakami and Kiya Miyano is already on the market in Japan, but this is the first title in a push from publisher cosaic to become a conduit of Japanese designs — both their own and possibly others — to the U.S. and other markets. The foot-tall cardboard tower that makes up the game board is certain to draw attention at game night, as 3D components are wont to do. (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