Hunted: Wode Ridge is live (Break on through to the Hunted side)
Update: Hunted: Wode Ridge has launched on Kickstarter and the campaign will run for 24 days. You may pledge for a copy of the game, or the game plus the playmat. It is also available as a PnP.
Our preview post below was published on February 18.
Hunted: Wode Ridge is the newest installment in Gabe Barrett's Hunted series of games (Hunted: Kobayashi Tower and Hunted: Mining Colony 415 were the two preceding ones). This is a Stranger Things-inspired 1-2 player card game in which a group of kids in the 1980s is going after the evil entity hiding in their town. It will launch on Kickstarter on February 23.
Wode Ridge follows the basic structure of the Hunted games, with a few changes. You start with the cards of your 5 heroes set on the table face-up. Each of them has a special ability which is exhausted after one use but can be regained when they rest. On each turn, you will be drawing cards from the main deck and placing them in a row in front of you. Some of these cards have icons that can potentially be matched with the icons of another card in the same row to trigger the card effect and give you a bonus or Evidence cards.
Other cards show the 'noise' icon. If you get too much noise, the whole row of cards is discarded and you have to draw 'trouble' cards. If a trouble card transports you to the other side of the deck where things get tougher, you can try to find the portal to return to the good side. When you wish to avoid getting more noise, you can choose to 'hide': discard the current row of cards and lose one time in your time track.
Wode Ridge includes an extra board where you will be placing Evidence cards. You gain these when you successfully combine the right icons. Every time you fill a column on the Evidence board, you read the associated text in the storybook. If you manage to fill the whole board, the final boss comes out. If you meet its icon requirements, you win the game.
Good call, Z. Archie, Jughead, Veronica, and Betty were the main characters, as I recall (I actually didn't just 'research' that - it's what I remember :^) - but I may be wrong).
The Character Cards (and others, I guess) aren't very colorful, which is a bigger deal to me than it probably should be. I like Desolate, but I still wish the cards had more than 2 colors (B&W). I'm an "eye candy" person. I'd rather watch a movie in color than the same movie in black & white.
But, I still think I could like this game.
I would say that it more generally evokes the style of Archie Comics, of which Scooby-Doo is indeed a production (I think), but I don't know much about these things.
This game looks to be 'my speed'. Plus, I find Stranger Things to be entertaining. :^)
What type of 'art' would you call the Character Cards? Scooby Doo art? Obviously, I don't know squat about Art, other than I'm no artist.