Watch your Back: Week March 4 - 10
And then there were three. Originally I had written blurbs for five soloable games launching on crowdfunding platforms this week, but two have been postponed. Which leaves us with a very short overview. Huh. What do you do. I am still game. Come on, let's go cruisin' for a bruisin'.
In the worker placement game Galactic Cruise (1-4 players) you'll build luxurious space shuttles, then send customers on their space vacation and compete to become the next CEO. Lots of things to do, lots of icons to learn. The artwork by Ian O'Toole will make sure it all makes sense though. Solo you play against a card-based AI.
The campaign will have pledge levels for the base game, one or two expansions and upgraded components. To be found on Kickstarter later today, Monday March 4.
Personal opinion: All the content creators go crazy over this one. Paul Grogan says it's one of the best game he's ever played. I see Mark Dainty has got a solo preview on his channel. I'll check if I can stomach the bot, then I'll probably jump aboard the hype train, er, ship. I mean, one day I'll be a content creator as well, right? Gotta have the games to prove it.
Next up, more worker placement. And once again we're the CEO, but this time for a board game production company. In Meeple Inc. (1-6 players) you put actual components in actual boxes and put them on display to score victory points. Solo you compete with one or more Meeple-Bots that block spaces and score points every turn (the amount depending on the difficulty level).
In case you're worried about replayability, it boasts 70,000 unique starting conditions. So at the very least setting those up should keep you busy for a while. The game will launch on Gamefound on Tuesday March 5.
Personal opinion: Meeple Inc. features lots of little boxes. But will it tick any? we wonder.* Even though I enjoy playing worker placement games, and one about board games should be just my thing, I am afraid I'll skip. I am not a fan of the artwork and shallow enough to just move on then.
*) This joke was previously made in our wonderful Lounge. Drop by if you want to hang out with us and be the very first to hear all silly remarks. I won't copy them to our news posts every week.
"A story rich cooperative fantasy board game with loads of combat and quests!" Oh, yes, yes, thank you, Omens of Destiny (1-4 players), I was afraid we'd have none of these this week. The game will be playable either in one-shot sessions or as a legacy campaign and you'll level up and get new gear whichever way you play.
Omens of Destiny will go live on Kickstarter on Wednesday March 6.
Personal opinion: I couldn't find much information about this one, but I always check out fantasy questing games, so I'll see what they have got later this week. I am happy to see standees and dice and many decks of cards in the picture. If it doesn't feature a choose-your-own-path narrative book, I might absolutely be interested.
I playtested an earlier version of Galactic Cruise last year and had a lot of fun! I've been following along with its progress and it seems like it has gotten better and better over its development!
I didn't know Omens of Destiny was about to launch (well, I had known at some point when I added it to the calendar but I forgot all about it). This is the kind of game I always check and I am always interested in by default. I look forward to the campaign launch.
Modern Euro games full of bits are obviously not for me. I never comment on them because I don't have anything relevant to say about them. I just think Meeple Inc. looks way way overproduced for its own good but maybe its core gimmick will be a great marketing argument without adding too much cost.
I playtested Galactic Cruise several times in early development and a few times when it was done. Excellent game.