If you’ve been around the gaming community in almost any capacity recently, you most likely have heard of Kickstarter. But if not, Kickstarter is currently the world’s largest crowd funding platform. Creative people start projects and try to entice the public to donate money to fund them and bring their ideas to fruition. The projects range from the absurd to the zany, economical (pay what you want) to the pricey, simple to the horrifyingly complex. In most cases, those that donate get some sort of payout for their time and trouble but many projects just want money and don’t claim to provide anything in return.
Within the last year or two, Kickstarter has really become a mainstream way for independent game designers (and even some game companies) to fund new designs, expansions, or “big box” sets. If you follow the forums on BGG, many in the community love Kickstarter for its ability to lubricate the flow of designs into the market bypassing the cumbersome and sometimes painful “pitch” phase when approaching a publishing company with a new design. Others in the community despise Kickstarter as an only avenue for simply pushing “ungroomed” designs onto the public, prolonging delivery times, increasing the risk of non-delivery, etc.
I’ve backed seven gaming projects since April 24, 2013:
- A Study in Emerald (£50)
- VivaJava: The Coffee Game: The Dice Game ($44)
- Fantasy Frontier ($60)
- Reaper Miniatures Bones II: The Return of Mr Bones! ($120)
- Coin Age: Pay What you Want Area Control Microgame ($3)
- Doublesix Dice: Roll Better ($10)
- Kingmakers: Board Game Parlor ($20)
As it stands, only A Study in Emerald has been delivered. VivaJava The Dice Game had a few problems with their hard-proofs but it looks like they’re into true production now. They’re shooting for March, 2014. Fantasy Frontier was funded in October, 2013 and they seem to be sailing into production estimating delivery in May, 2014. The Reaper Miniatures are a set of high-detail, molded sculpts that just look cool. Not sure what I’ll do with those yet but the estimate for those is not until November, 2014.
Coin Age, appears to also be on track for an April delivery and Doublesix Dice is a bunch of various colored double-D6s. Basically a D12 with pips for a D6 duplicated. For $10 I chose a pledge level where they roll some of their dice and the result determine how many dice you get. With stretch goals I ended up with a slightly less than average roll but I’ll be getting 19 dice. Not bad for $10.
Kingmakers is a bit different. This Kickstarter project was simply a “plea for money” to create a “board game parlor” in the Short North section of Columbus. Boardgaming is a such a big part of my life, I figured I should back a project that tries to get the word out to others in novel ways. There’s no “product” in return for my pledge other than I supposedly get my name written in “fancy” chalk on one of their pillars for some period of time.
All in all, I I’m satisfied with my experience with Kickstarter but I do feel some fatigue. I’ve not been involved in them but some projects have imploded after they’ve been funded and all the pledged money was lost. It is an unfortunate risk that you take when you back a KS project leaving a bad taste in everyone’s mouth.
In most cases, Kickstarter projects offer stretch goals. If, for example, a project is asking for $30,000 to be funded, they may offer that they’ll throw in better bits at $35,000, and an expansion at $40,000. etc. The more money they raise, the better product everybody gets (depending on the tier to which you pledged). When you pledge you’re not really sure what you’ll end up with but you can pledge the minimum and if it takes off, you might end up with all of the stretch goals too for the same pledge amount. Taking it a bit further, some project are only offering these stretch goals *if* you backed the project on Kickstarter. If they move the project to regular mass production (keep in mind that “mass” is still a board game niche market here so still small quantities relatively speaking) buyers that obtain a copy later won’t have these stretch goals.
This discrepancy between Kickstarter versions and retail versions has complicated the process of trading and buying used games in that everyone must be aware of the version they’re trading or purchasing. Not all versions of Euphoria, for example, are the same. The “Deluxe” Kickstarter version is different from the “Supreme” Kickstarter version which is different from the retail version and they all were released in the same year!
I’m a proponent of Kickstarter but I’m tending to agree with the comments I’ve seen about fatigue. It’s hard work keeping up with the latest Kickstarter campaigns, what stretch goals are available, tracking versions, etc. all while still keeping up with the latest buzz for non-Kickstarted games. But, it is a hobby and somewhat a labor of love so to speak.
What are your feelings about Kickstarted games? Have you been happy with the results?
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Yeah, it looks like Booby-Trap but it’s definitely a Euro-game. Players are trying to build three segments of the road using paving stones. The stones are manufactured (not really of course!) when raw materials are placed in the front of the mechanism and then when the player pushes the stick, stuff falls out the other end (and you swap them for the flat stones of the road). When you build part of the road, you get victory points and having build the most in each segment or advanced more quickly to the ends of the segments of the roads earns the player a bonus. It looks cool but the game is rather mechanical lather-rinse-repeat sort of affair that I tired of quickly.
One of my favorites of the con. Players use a central hub to choose an action that all players will take. The player that chooses the action gets a bonus (think role selection in Puerto Rico). Thematically, players are constructing ships and shipping goods to earn victory points. The variable hub that changes the parameters of the action from turn to turn keeps the game fresh. Looking to pick up a copy of this.
A very cute dice/card-based building game where players roll a die (potentially two dice) to activate cards in their city and other players cities earning (and sometimes losing) money. The money can be saved from one turn to the next or used to purchase new cards from the market to place in your city. Nicely done but may quickly become samey. From what I understand, there were very few copies produced in English (a dozen?) so it’s nice to have played it.
My first of many Stefan Feld games of the con. A nicely produced game where players use cards to earn points or spend money to build canals around the city. The traditional Feldian “hit you in the face” feature is that periodically, disasters can trigger bad stuff to happen (e.g. lose all your money) but individual players can work to reduce the likelihood of being affected.
Back to back Stefan Feld designs for the win! A San Marco-like game but without the down-time of the card split phase. Individual card types allow players to take actions on the board to earn victory points. It has some interesting decisions to make concerning which buildings to purchase and some nifty turn order manipulation options. The Feldian bad-event feature is almost non-existent. Definitely on my buy list.
I spoke too soon. Back to back to back Stefan Feld designs for the win! Nobody at our table had played before so we ripped off the shrink and sat down to the rules. Oh…boy. Wow! Don’t do that. Find somebody to teach you. After an hour slog I think we finally got the handle cranking and to our surprise, there’s a really good game in there. In fact, this is the game I pulled on my turn at the GLG prize table and I’m really looking forward to playing again. Bora Bora is a Trajan-esque “victory point salad” game of lots of mini-ways to focus on earning victory points. The Feldian bad-event treatment *is* non-existent in this game. I found it a deep and satisfying game.
Not much to say here beyond, Dominion rethemed with a board and trains. I’d happily play again but don’t see a need to own it.
Players use individual boards to track progress in a region where they’re allowed to use it to manufacture the building blocks used to make glass and bricks. Players use identical decks of cards to choose actions they wish to perform. These actions modify the state of their player boards and sometimes produce and/or consume production resources and/or the produced products. Nifty rotating clock-like wheels track the amount of resources and goods available to the player at any one time. Neat little game. I’m trying to decide if I’d need to own a copy or not though.
Fun!
A fun, push-your luck, dice game where players roll dice in hopes of gaining dominance in numbers in one of the six pots of money available each round. Roll your dice and choose a set of numerically matching dice and place them on the matching card. Watch out for the white dice because they have to go too and ties are a push leaving other players the opening they need to swoop in to get your money.
Difficult to find in English, this game pits players against one another in constructing buildings from bricks purchased from a nifty spinning wheel. On your turn you simply choose to construct a building using your previously purchased colored bricks, spinning the wheel one notch clockwise and purchasing one or more bricks, or scoring something for money and/or victory points. Certain colored bricks are needed to build buildings in certain parts of your personal player board. The game is okay but not something I’m looking to acquire.
Played this beautifully produced prototype from Jonathan Chaffer. Players take on the role of a film crew attempting to film scenes for a movie studio. Each player is trying to figure out the most efficient way to arrange their set placing different types of cameras and lights and timing the availability of actors to film the scene for victory points. It uses a time-track (think Tinners’ Trail) mechanism to the spatial puzzle but it’s certainly not solitaire. Other players can ruin your best-laid plans by being faster at filming the scene you were trying to film or using the limited actors you needed to film your scene. It’s a neat thematic effort. Well done Jonathan! I wish you luck.
Okay, now we’re talking. Another Stefan Feld game. Huge box. Pirates hitting you in the scoreboard every round unless you prepare for them. A cube tower. Spatial tile laying. Screwage. Yeah, Amerigo is a cool game. Must buy for me.
I was interested in seeing what playing with three felt like after playing with five and I think I like five better. Players use an Egizia-like action selection mechanism to prepare for each of the three voyages. Once everyone has outfitted their ship with cannons, crew, payments for goods, special options etc. the ships set sail and attempt to successfully attack Spanish galleons, fortresses, and towns to gain victory points and other items for victory points. Being first to attach a site is important as well as attacking sites of differing types during the turn. Three independent voyages constitute a game and it’s over before you know it. The game looks beautiful and at first blush appears to represent some epic game but in reality it’s really a straight-forward, rather light Euro. I’m a bit worried that the static-nature of vp available on the map will make it feel too same-y. In addition, the market for 3-players felt overly tight. I felt like I had more opportunities to gather needed supplies in the five player game than I felt I did in the three player game. However, I just have to have a copy. It’s just so nice looking.
Find a friend and play. Nobody has to read any rules and we can just sit, play, talk, and enjoy each other’s company. A perfect game to end the con.
