Crowdfunding: Kickstarter

Beast

Welcome to the Northern Expanse, a place where nature is still unexplored, mystical and dangerous. When the humans first arrived, they thought they found an unspoiled paradise, filled with bountiful forests, lakes swimming with fish and cold freshwater flowing from the mountains. But as their settlements expanded and the surrounding forests grew thinner, nature itself pushed back. Great creatures known as Beasts emerged, and with their fangs, claws and mystical powers, they proved an incredible threat to the humans. In order to protect the settlements, humans enlisted specialised hunters, tasked with tracking and killing the Beasts before too many of their kin perish.

The Beast uses a deck of direction cards to move over forests, swamps and caverns, using guile and deceit to hide its track from the hunters. However, whenever a hunter moves over a location where the Beast has previously been, a trail appears. Only when a hunter searches a location or the Beast itself attacks an unsuspecting target is the Beast's actual position revealed. More so, each hunter has but one chance of searching each round, making it a tense and difficult decision. Hunters seldom have full information whether the trail they’re pursuing contains the Beast’s actual location, or if the trail has already gone cold.

Each action you perform in this game is done by playing a card from your hand (up to a maximum of two cards per turn). This means that if a player wants to search, attack or move, they need to have a card in their hand that lets them do that. Before each round, both hunters and Beast participate in a draft for the most important cards. All action cards can be used by both Beast and hunters alike.

In order to win this game, you either need to cooperate every step of the way if you play as a hunter, or skillfully outmaneuver your opponents if you play as Beast. On their own, hunters are never stronger than the Beast. Only when hunters communicate, strategize and combine their actions can they bring down the Beast before it’s too late.

—description from the designer

Zoo-ography

In Zoo-ography, players take turns drafting building tiles to construct a zoo while drafting sets of animals as they arrive on boats into the game. Players have to balance building pens to support the animals available while also building sufficient attractions to keep guests engaged. Each zoo can earn up to 10 stars by meeting a variety of specific goals involving biodiversity, attractions, features, and aesthetics.

Evolution: New World – Kickstarter Box

Every ecosystem is a complex combination of living organisms and the environment. Even a small change in any element affects the entire system, but balance is usually restored quickly. However, sometimes a random event leads to the butterfly effect – an unpredictable cascade of changes that can completely transform the whole biosphere.

Evolution: New World – Kickstarter Box includes The Butterfly Effect expansion and all additional exclusive and limited content from the crowdfunding campaign.

In the box, you’ll find:

New Evolution and Area cards (including Exclusive Promo cards, alt-art cards and foil cards). Add more gameplay depth and create dynamic survival strategies for your animals.
The Solo mode. In the Alien World scenario you will fight 1 on 1 against the merciless Dominator and insatiable Devastator for supremacy or create your own monsters to compete with.
Additional tokens. With the expansion, up to 6 players can enjoy Evolution together.
Butterfly Effect scenario. Start a chain reaction of random events that affect the game’s course and change the evolutionary process.
Exclusive non-gameplay components (sticker pack, metal pin).

—description from the publisher

Faux Diamonds

Faux Diamonds is a 4-suit trick-taking game in which players sell their cards (diamonds) on value tracks that change after each sale. After a series of hands, the winner is the player who has accumulated the most wealth.

You have tough choices to make in Faux Diamonds. Will you sell high by winning the trick? Or, if you don’t have any of the led suit, which alternative market gives you the best chance of profit? Be careful, your opponents can also play Faux Diamonds at any time, and this will cause the markets to fluctuate!

The deck in Faux Diamonds consists of sixty cards, numbered 1-13 in 4 different suits as well as 8 faux diamond cards. In each round, the players start with a hand of ten cards. Each player will select one card to keep facedown as their end of round diamond sale. One player leads a card, and everyone else must play one card, following suit if possible. As you play a card, if you cannot follow suit, you immediately get to sell a diamond in the suit you did play. The player who played the highest card in the suit that was led wins the trick, and also gets to sell a diamond.

The player who won the trick leads a card to start the next trick. After a full Round of nine tricks, each player will then sell their end of round diamond. Players then start a new round.
Whoever has accumulated the most wealth at the end of the game wins!

Autobahn

Autobahn is an economic strategy game about the building of the German motorway system over three periods of time spanning from the end of World War II to the present day.

At the end of the second period (in 1990), the Unification opens up opportunities to further extend the network into the eastern part of the country.

As a director within the BundesAutobahn Organisation, you are responsible for managing and developing the German Federal Highway System.

​Aside from building roads, you’ll also be responsible for facilitating the transport of goods to neighbouring countries and constructing petrol stations to benefit from this new traffic.

As you contribute to the development of the network, you gain seats at the administration boards of each highway, and they will increase your budget at the start of each period.

Over the course of the game, your board members will eventually advance to more prestigious seats within the Bundesautobahn building, which instead will provide victory points at the end of the game.

Plan ahead to optimize your efficiency: Each contribution you make builds your reputation and gains you access to new departments and scoring opportunities that better align with your chosen path to victory.

​The cards in your hand allows you to take actions on one of the 7 main Autobahns.
You’ll need to plan carefully and time your actions perfectly if you want to make the most of your hand before you need to collect your cards back.

—description from the publisher