Unlock! for Kids, Mirror-Based Quests, and Sherlock-Inspired Mysteries in Arkham

Unlock! for Kids, Mirror-Based Quests, and Sherlock-Inspired Mysteries in Arkham
• In mid-December 2020, French publisher Space Cowboys announced that Unlock! Kids — a version of its Unlock! series of escape room games — will appear in 2021 from its Space Cow brand for younger players. This collection of puzzles and adventures will be aimed at players aged 6+, will not require an app, and will be language independent aside from the rules.

Board Game: Unlock! Kids: Detective Stories

Board Game Publisher: Elixeer
• Another Space Cow release in 2021 comes courtesy of a partnership with Elixeer, which in 2018 crowdfunded the co-operative adventure game DreamQuest: L'épouvanpaille from designers Nicolas Jarry and Fabien Vincourt.

In March 2021, Space Cow and Elixeer will release DreamQuest — subtitled "L'Épée des Rêveurs" ("The Sword of Dreamers") — this being a transformed version of what was going to be volume 2 of the crowdfunded DreamQuest series. Here's an overview of this design:
Quote:
DreamQuest is a co-operative adventure game for two players — ideally one adult and one child, who take on the roles of Protector and Dreamer.

Board Game: DreamQuest

Together you are trying to complete a quest before the Dreamer awakens, choosing the path to follow, making decisions, fighting monsters, rolling dice, and trying to reach the end of the adventure in time. If the Dreamer rises before the end of the quest, you must start the adventure again, but the heroes now having gained experience that will make them more powerful.

DreamQuest also includes an illustrated book that you can use to record your adventure, personalizing the record for recollection later.
You can download a demo DreamQuest adventure (in French) from the Space Cow website. Head to the bottom of this page to téléchargez le démo gratuite.

Board Game: Patatrap Quest
• In December 2020, Space Cow released Patatrap Quest, a game from Marie and Wilfried Fort for 2-4 players, ages 6+ that features a clever contraption of the type often seen in children's games.

Here's an overview:
Quote:
To win Patatrap Quest, you need to be the first player to successfully attack the "Big Bad" in the castle three times.

The castle consists of a wall of mirrors surrounding a central pillar. On a turn, roll the dice, then move a distance equal to either die face or the sum of the die faces. When you land on a space in the castle, your figure pushes down a lever and whatever is depicted underneath that lever is then visible in the mirror. Sometimes you get to collect equipment, sometimes you must swap planks, and sometimes you do other things.

Board Game: Patatrap Quest

When you have the right equipment and can access the staircase to the top of the pillar, you can confront the Big Bad. Draw the topmost token of its stack, then look at the back of it in secret. If you can discard the item depicted, you collect that token; otherwise, you're ejected from the castle and must start moving in again. The first player to collect three tokens wins.

Patatrap Quest includes five Big Bads, each with its own stack of tokens.
• As for what's coming from Space Cowboys itself, TIME Stories Revolution: Cavendish is a standalone adventure for which 2019's demo adventure Damien 1958 NT was a prequel. Note that Cavendish is due out near the end of 2021, and the title might be tweaked prior to publication.

Botanik is a tile-laying game from Frank Crittin, Grégoire Largey, and Sébastien Pauchon that I first described in a February 2019 convention preview under the name "Jodhpur" and that will be released in March 2021 as part of the publisher's two-player game line.

From gallery of W Eric Martin

Finally, Space Cowboys has teased a 2021 title by Grégory Privat based on the gameplay in its Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective series, with this title containing "five dark mysteries".

From gallery of W Eric Martin

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