Kickstarter Game Update: Week 7

[spacealien_vamp]

Looking back: Week 6

Games I Viewed:
Sojourner Tales

Status: Funded

Players in this game roll and move around a board, and the place they stop on the board determines a story fragment they look up on a tablet or other electronic device. I checked out this project because I was a big fan of the authors (Tracy and Laura Hickman, writers of the Dragonlance series, among other things) when I was in high school. However, this game looks terrible. The roll-and-move mechanism is boring, and the process of looking up the story bits is way too fiddly.

Shadows over the Empire

Status: Funded

In this game, players use cards depicting characters in the Archon universe (a previous game published by the same company, Artipia) to win influence and control the city after the death of the king. This campaign also allows backers to add on other Artipia games for those who missed them, such as Among the Stars. I haven't backed yet (though I did pledge for Archon) because I'm waiting to see the review videos.

Expresso

Status: 33% funded

In this game, players are baristas at a coffee shop trying to fill their customers' orders before the customers get impatient and leave--or are stolen by another player. I think the game concept is nice, but the title makes me shudder. (The game creator is spelling it that way on purpose and refuses to change it, despite the fact that it sounds wrong. That's like intentionally naming something "Teh Game"--you may have done it on purpose, but who would know to look at it?) Also, I'm not partial to the art.

Honorable Mention:
Drive-Thru Review GenCon 2014 Coverage

Status: Funded

A popular video reviewer from BoardGameGeek is running a campaign to raise funds for making videos of games premiering at next year's GenCon. I really appreciated his coverage of the convention this year, and I've watched reviews he has done for a number of other games. If I weren't already planning on going to the convention myself next year, I might have pledged for this.

Comments

[wednesday-10-00.livejournal.com]

I'm also keeping an eye on the Shadows over the Empire Kickstarter, because of the Among the Stars add-ons. If you end up backing it and I don't, I may have a favor to ask you. *angelic smile*

That's like intentionally naming something "Teh Game"--you may have done it on purpose, but who would know to look at it?

I guess I don't know about the average consumer, but my first instinct with things like that is to think it's intentional. ("Teh" is a particularly bad example, because that's used on purpose a LOT.) I know that was my assumption when I first saw "Expresso," and was kind of surprised how strongly people felt about wanting that title to be changed. I did like some of the suggestions people made, though, particularly adding the words "express" and "espresso" into a tagline right under the title.

[spacealien-vamp.livejournal.com]

If you end up backing it and I don't, I may have a favor to ask you.

I'll keep you updated on that, then.

I guess I don't know about the average consumer, but my first instinct with things like that is to think it's intentional.

Whereas my first instinct is to tell the person to correct it. It's like when people do things like "Yay!!!111eleventy!!!" or whatever. Even if they are doing it on purpose, it makes me crazy, because it LOOKS wrong. I don't think it's clever or cute or funny, I really just want to slash a red pen through the whole thing.

[wednesday-10-00.livejournal.com]

Doing some research right now, and I'm concerned that I'm going to end up backing for Shadows + Archon + Stars. Why does Kickstarter want me to be eternally broke?? *sob*

[spacealien-vamp.livejournal.com]

Now that the Rahdo Run Through video has been posted, I've gone ahead and pledged for a copy of Shadows over the Empire. It looks like something that could be added to the list of games for the Japan trip, since it's mostly cards.

[wednesday-10-00.livejournal.com]

I've managed to talk myself out of Archon (*phew*), but I think I'm going to end up pledging for Shadows and Stars. With the expansions and extras it'll end up close to $150, though, so I'm still considering. I'm glad, at least, that I think Shadows looks like a fun game that I'll enjoy playing, so it's not TOTALLY about getting Among the Stars (unlike my Templar pledge).