Lazy Links: from Daybreak to Heartbreak
Here’s some random weekend R&R for you all!
In “Can a Board Game Save the World?” No Pun Included argues how important Daybreak’s message of cooperation and it’s encouragement of exploring ideas and technologies are. And how fun it is to save the world in a fictional board game setting at least.
Feeling underrated
There’s a thread on Board Game Geek where people can suggest “Truly underrated solo games”, that’s a nice read. They are at some 130 suggestions right now, and even though some are in the People’s Choice Top 200 Solo Games, and others have already been covered by us on the website, there are a lot of games that I’d forgotten about or that could use some attention. No time for that though, so for now here's just a lazy link. 😉
CMON
“Everything is wrong since me and my baby parted”
…like Chuck Berry sang. So CMON has left Kickstarter for good. No money, no honey. Will Kickstarter slowly fade away and die from a broken heart?
And do we even care?
The first time I backed a project on Kickstarter was in April 2011. I've supported countless independent musicians, writers, video game creators, card deck publishers and finally board game designers. It would be sad to see it go away, but they don't seem to improve their platform for creators or visitors much.
I am not really interested (sometimes even frustrated) with the crowdfunding platforms being used as pre-order "shop fronts", where reasonably successful companies just use it for bypassing local stores.
I also hate the practice of launching projects before the previous one is fulfilled, as it suggests there's something wrong with the cash flow of those companies. Though I understand it's sometimes been unavoidable since COVID and shipping problems…
I believe we have more over-rated games than we have under-rated ones. All games have flaws, this is why publishers attempt so tirelessly to find new designs and titles that will at last overcome these flaws, but they have failed to succeed so far.
The most under-rated game of all is Puzzle Dungeon. It's such a flexible design, with an incredible variety over different games, crammed into a portable deck and a very simple set of rules. I still can't understand why it is not prominently featured in the Top 200 solo games.
But you knew that already!
The one thing I noticed in the Underrated Solo Games thread is Dominic Crapuchettes pushing forward his own product.
Did I ever mention he was on my publisher's dark list (I'm not saying black list because I don't rule out ever getting a game from him). Alongside Stegmaier and Tristan Hall.
I do have a black list but it only includes Shem Phillips and Asger Harding Granerud.
+1 for Red Rising