It’s that time of the month when I pull out the old atlas and scour the world for my Kickstarter projects! Where could they be this month??? Let’s find out together!
First up is Star Scrappers Orbital, a game designed by the same fella that designed Terraforming Mars, a game that we have had hundreds of hours of fun playing — it’s right up there with the top board games I have ever played, and a purchase I never regret. It’s described as an “engine building, worker placement” game, which only means that it’s made in Europe, where they love that kind of stuff. This game is being shipped to me from Portugal, and is currently sitting somewhere in a warehouse in Köln, waiting for a jet to the USA, I assume. It’s scheduled to arrive next week, sometime.
Next up is Steve Jackson’s latest omnibus-filled-with-passengers-screaming-in-terror auto dueling game, Car Wars, Sixth Edition. I backed the core set, unsure how popular this would be on Game Night. They are shipping to backers who went “all in” first, but I assume I will see this game on my doorstep at some point in the next month or two. That would make them only a year late, which is practically right on time for Kickstarters. I believe this is coming from Georgia, USA.
It’s a mystery if I ever see them, right? RIGHT??? Mystery Dice’s packers lost an entire set of dice, so the creator was going to remake the set, and then they found them, suddenly. IT’S A MYSTERY!!! So mysterious. The dice are still going to be stuck in China for awhile, but they are doing their level best to get them on a boat, any boat, going anywhere. They think the dice might be shipping sometime in December, but they don’t really have any idea. Just a year late on this project as well.
Music theory card game Lord of the Chords wanted me to spread the bad news that their game is still stuck in China, and the date is going to slip until March, 2022. The original date was July, 2021, so, for a Kickstarter, they’re doing pretty well. They caution folks that hoped for Christmas presents that they should buy something else, instead. But anyone who backs a Kickstarter assuming that it will land within a year of its target date is just… naïve. And yet, I still do it.
I think they’re still designing parts of Frosthaven? At one point, I was worried this would arrive before we finished playing the Jaws of the Lion campaign, but that doesn’t seem likely. I believe this massive game is being constructed in pieces, and some of those are already shipped, while others are still in progress? Their new date is 1st quarter of 2022, which would make it just a year late. Remember — when you back a project, add at least one year. Two years, if you’re hoping to make it a present for someone.
Since the last edition of this post, Tales from the Loop, the “Goonies, except in a 1980s Europe with super high tech” board game, is on a ship from China, and headed to the USA and Europe. They are expected to arrive by the end of October, where they will likely sit offshore for a few weeks while the backlog is cleared. This game was expected last May, so if this gets here before the end of the year, it will have set some sort of Kickstarter record for on-time delivery.
This Owlbear Plushie is still one of my personally most-desired projects. I mean, look at it! I was thinking about getting a couple to give to my twin grandchildren, but they wouldn’t appreciate them and now I think I will just keep them. These are still in development (though they were targeted for last August), and their current estimate is late spring/early summer 2022. Sorry, kids.
Their birthday is next week, though… I better get them something quick! (Immediately starts browsing Kickstarter for gifts).
The project that started this series of posts. Set a Watch: Swords of the Coin is apparently sitting offshore Seattle, waiting for a berth that might open up as soon as today. They estimate the game getting here by November 8th, which would be nice. This was due in September, so if it actually does arrive in November, that will be super fast. I know the folks at Rock Manor Games have been busting their buns to get this game in our hands, and I do appreciate it, but dang. There really is nowhere else in the world that can affordably produce small print-run games at an affordable price?
Something is seriously wrong, here.
Creator Tim Buckley says the finished books for his “Part One” editions of his rebooted web comic are in various stages of transit all over the world. You could spin a globe and throw a dart at it and wherever it stuck, good chance you’d hit pretty close to a shipment of these books, unless that dart were to land somewhere in North America or Europe. But he’s pulled the BackerKit trigger so they should be arriving sometime.
I haven’t talked about Restoration Games’ Return to Dark Tower here, yet, but I should have. (Have I? I honestly don’t remember). My boyfriend backed it, not me, so I don’t get the updates. He just forwarded me their latest update, sharing that the boats with the first wave of game fulfillment to the USA are slowly traversing the globe. They are still talking about the end of November.
I really loved this game the one time I played it, decades ago. This re-imagined version looks to be so much more than the original, and I can’t wait to play it.
If all these shipping updates are to be believed, we should be receiving a lot of these games before next month’s update!
Proving that I am nothing but a slow learner, I have backed some more projects in the last month, because if I weren’t waiting for a new game, I don’t know what I would do with myself.
- The Fart Pedal — electric guitar pedal that turns your shredding into wiping. The funny bit is that I don’t play guitar — I play mandolin, and it’s acoustic, not electric. The funnier bit, maybe, is that I didn’t even back the project for the pedal. I backed it because its creator is a guy who appeared on Shark Tank a few years back with a dance and a song promoting his “I Will Draw A Cat For You” website. So I backed the project to get a cat drawing.
- Artisans of Splendent Vale — Everyone at Game Night is pretty happy about the way Jaws of the Lion uses its scenario books to instantly set up adventures. Artisans of Splendent Vale is similar. It’s a huge book of scenarios. There are four different characters, with stickers you earn to dress your characters in the gear they find. It’s absolutely amazing. I can’t tell you how much time I spent with the magnetic versions of dress up dolls I had when I was a kid. Plus adventure. This game is me.
- Flamecraft — A cute worker placement game where little dragons help a village thrive. Not sure if I’ve talked about this one yet. Both my BF and I backed this; he backed the full game, but I backed it for a little dragon plushie.
- Thumby — a miniature game console with a Raspberry Pi inside — you can play the games it comes with, or write your own in Python! It’s cheap! I bought two, so my BF and I can play them together.
I think that’s all? See you next month! We’ll see if I get any of those promised games by then!
