Kolossal Games Aims to Cast a Huge Shadow on the Industry in 2018 and Beyond

in Western Legends, players will traverse the Wild West as one of the historical figures of the time (Billy the Kid, Doc Holliday, Calamity Jane, etc.), playing poker, robbing banks, and avoiding the sheriff to score Legend Points. The open-world, sandbox environment allows players to shape the landscape through their decisions and become fully immersed in the landscape of the American west.

These decisions can also lead players down the path of becoming a desperado. Once a player becomes "wanted" for their devious acts, the local sheriff will be in pursuit in order to make an arrest. Players can also attempt to catch desperados in order to claim the bounty placed on them.

In Kami-sama, each player takes on the role of a Kami, a Japanese spirit, and haunts a small village over the course of three years. At the end of the third year, the Kami who has done the most effective haunting will become the Kami-sama — the leader of the Kami.

Kami-sama uses area control on a rotating board to simulate four villages. Each quarter of the board is representative of a village, and players will perform actions in each of the four villages (sections of the board) before the round comes to an end. Players will also have variable player powers at their disposal to help them on the journey to becoming the Kami-sama.

The ruling house of the empire is in decline and in their weakness an opportunity presents itself. The throne is within the grasp of any rival faction bold and cunning enough to grab power for themselves. However, this is a nuanced conflict, one in which diplomacy cuts just as sharply as the weapons of an army, but only half as sharp as the assassin's blade. There are wheels within wheels and machinations beyond your view.

In Imperius, players represent powerful houses, each seeking to ascend to the throne. Every player has the same six cards, which provide strength, favor, victory points, and bonuses. Unfortunately, the path forward is shrouded in fog, forcing players to manage the uncertainty of the times. Every round, players draft a hand of cards, choosing a mix of their cards, their opponents', and powerful events. The key is building a viable strategy with your own cards and events, while denying key cards to your opponents. Then, cards are played to the planets, with no more than two of these cards per planet being played face down. Players are forced to make decisions with imperfect information gained during the draft and by reading your opponents. Finally, the cards are revealed and resolved. In most cases, players want to be the strongest or most favored faction to score victory points.

Imperius builds on the existing mechanisms of Solstice: Fall of Empire by adding asymmetrical factions, less secret information, and varied planet effects that can grant additional special abilities to players.

In Omen: Fires in the East, players compete to control Persian and Phoenician cities in order to rule over the land. The game introduces new mechanisms and new unit types, including sphinxes and merchants.

Omen: Fires in the East is a two-player card game that features two distinct game modes: standard and draft. The standard game has players drawing cards from a collective deck, and accessing cards from a collective discard pile. The draft game allows players access to their favorite units, with each player drafting his own deck to play the game with.

Players take turns placing units into one of three cities on the table. When one player has three or more units in a single city at the start of their turn, or there is a total of five units in any city, a battle is fought. The side with the most power wins the city and claims a reward. Play continues until all rewards from all but one city have been completely claimed. Points are scored for the rewards claimed, and the player with the highest score wins.

Consumption is a worker placement/resource management game about meeting your body's food needs. Shopping and cooking or going out to various eateries is central to the strategy that is balanced by physical activity to help you burn extra calories. Points are earned by completing recipes and activities, but ultimately, giving your body what it needs to be happy earns the most points, as various diseases can sneak up on you if you're not careful.

Over six rounds, players select actions on the main game board, as well as their player board, such as cooking or going out to eat. To cook, players must first go grocery shopping for ingredients, but careful planning is needed as food can expire if it isn't used in time, and fighting your cravings may cause a few problems too. Completing recipes unlocks extra abilities, which can be very useful during the game.

Eating out is also an option, and going to the buffet or visiting the stands at the farmer's market can be tempting; decisions may depend on what they have to offer. While cooking both allows players more control over what they eat and provides points, it can be hard to resist the drive-thru when you can get so much food! All food, represented by colored cubes, goes into the player's "body" based on different food groups, and as the game progresses, it is possible that players may find they have eaten too much of one or more groups. Time to exercise!

Through a variety of activities, players may remove cubes from their body to return to a healthier state, but don't wait too long as this may require more time than you think! Completed activities offer end-game points, so don't be a couch potato! After six rounds, players see which of their food needs have been met and how many different activities they have completed, and the player with the most points is the winner!

The fields are alive. Butterflies are vying for control over the flowers in the meadow. Hummingbirds hover nearby, darting from flower patch to flower patch. Mantises attempt to prevent the butterflies from staying too long on any one flower. And all of these creatures are trying to avoid the deadly wasps.

In Papillon, players complete to build flower gardens to attract the butterflies fluttering throughout the meadow. The butterflies they attract are used to determine control of the individual flowers. Control awards points. After eight full rounds of play, the player with the highest total score wins.

Papillon uses a combination of tile-laying (for building the gardens), area control (for determining who controls the individual flowers on the shared flower board), and secret scoring objectives (with a hint of set collection) to create a quick-playing, light game for all ages. A fair amount of strategy and planning hides behind simple rules and easy-to-learn gameplay.

Hordes of goblins and other terrifying beasts of the land are attempting to lay waste to the city. The various militia inside are mounting a defense in attempt to make one final stand to save the land that they love.

In No Dawn, each player assumes the role of one of these militia, defending the city from the relentless onslaught of goblins, ogres, hill giants, and other creatures who are bent on destroying the final stronghold for mankind. No Dawn is a scenario-driven cooperative game that introduces unique twists to the common mechanisms of worker placement and deck building. Players can partner up on worker spaces to assist in tasks such as recruiting others in the city to the fight, repairing damaged supply lines, and gathering food.

No Dawn introduces a unique threat level mechanism that increases the difficulty of the game as it progresses. This mechanism forces players to make tough decisions about how quickly they want to complete their scenario objectives. Complete the scenario too soon, and players may lose cards that could prove valuable assets for future scenarios.

For centuries, heroes roamed Magnu, exploring its many dungeons, avoiding armies of evil overlords, and defeating dragons (for the right price). Those times are now long past, and a new breed of warrior bestrides the land: the rock star!

Being part of an up-and-coming rock band, you are about to embark on your first tour. Magnu is still populated by elves, dwarves, and goblins, but now they are your audience. Dungeons still exist but are just as likely to have heritage status, while dragons are a protected species. Do you have the right song to appeal to the undead, or will your gig be saved by a bunch of easy-to-please halflings? Will you lose another drummer in a bar fight? And why do the dwarves have to chuck things at you?

This innovative game combining 1960s rock-and-roll and a world of fantasy takes the role-playing board game as we know it to a whole new level. This 1-5 player game that can be played in around two to three hours creates a fast-moving, entertaining experience that will keep the most jaded gamer happy for hours.

Now, instead of killing dragons, you must slay audiences. Your band will be rated for its melodiousness and energy but remember, audiences have different tastes, and it's up to you to best entertain with the right songs. Success allows you to develop new skills and the ability to take on more demanding audiences and the money made from your record sales allows you to buy better songs and devices such as the Banjo of Protection. The latter may be of use as Magnu is still not a safe land to travel around – the Moral Majority is upset as they don't like this new-fangled "rock music".

You are not restricted to just playing gigs though. You can also embark on adventures to explore dungeons and take on the few fearsome dragons left. You can even challenge the Devil to a rock-off, but beware, failure means somebody is going to Hell!

Will you have what it takes to keep your audiences entertained?