Reviews & Previews of Indie and Kickstarted Games
The Indie Jungle is a lush, vibrant world, filled with color, beauty and eye-popping wonderment. From wildly imaginative images in games like “Mysterium” to stellar fantasy portraits like “Abyss” to rich visual landscapes like “Tides of Time,” illustrations can transform board game players to a different reality.
Dan chats with Diane Sauer about her current Kickstarter campaign, Pinball Showdown, her fifth campaign. He asks the veteran creator about about what she’s learned from those earlier campaigns and mistakes she still made preparing for this one.
Interview with designer, Michael Eskue (Darkrock Ventures and Council of Verona), on his new game (co-designed with Lisa Eskue) – Trash Pandas. A push-your-luck, take that, set collection game that is one of the finalists in the Hasbro Gaming Lab Contest.
We got lots of comments about Dan’s Lesson #12: 4 Reasons Your Campaign Failed. The list was not intended as exhaustive. Today, Fairway throws his hat into the ring (of fire) with the question: Was your campaign radioactive? And he explores a list of 4 Other Reasons Your Campaign Failed.
In today’s preview, Fairway tries really hard to avoid making multiplying-rabbit jokes as he burrows into Rabbit Island. See if Fairway can successfully lead his fluffle (or is it herd) of rabbits to victory in this 4X game coming to Kickstarter in February.
What exactly is the draw of “the claw?” You know, stick a few quarters in, direct a crane claw over cheap toys, push a button and hope? Oh, right. They’re frustratingly fun with slot machine like payoffs but the feeling that you actually control the outcome. It’s not true since most of the relevant things are randomized, but it works on us anyway. This is the premise of the game Fairway previews today: David Sheppard’s Sheppy’s Greedy Claw Crane Game.
Writing a rulebook is one of the hardest aspects of game design. Teaching a game in person is one thing, but creating a comprehensive document that anyone can sit down with to learn a game is a very daunting prospect. Enter Rulebook Cookbook. This series will guide you through this difficult process one step at a time.
Think it’s terrible when a person is standing backwards in an elevator? Or if one of your elevator-riding companions has a bad case of body odor? Things don’t get any better when you’re loading up an elevator car full of monsters. Today, Fairway takes a look at the upcoming, cooperative card game for kids, Monsters in the Elevator.
In episode 52, we have fun with a lighter party game titled SiXeS, in which at least six players has sixty seconds to write a list of six words. The game lasts six rounds. I can only guess where they acquired the game title…
There are so many great resources out there for budding creators who are interested in funding their games on Kickstarter. Despite all of the advice out there from people like James Mathe and Jamey Stegmaier, it seems creators still make some major mistakes when launching a Kickstarter campaign.