Welcome to Kickstart Monday! This is our weekly series featuring 2 or more crowdfunding projects that have caught our eye. We scour over platforms like Kickstarter, Gamefound, and Indigogo to find projects that interest us.

There are certainly some exciting projects out in crowdfunding land. Let’s take a look at a couple of games that we think you should check out.

Wondrous Creatures

First up this week we have Wondrous Creatures from Bad Comet on Kickstarter.

Wondrous Creatures is a worker placement game for 1 to 4 players that takes place on a mysterious island filled with strange creatures. Players take on the role of a Captain who as a great animal enthusiast is competing to create the best reserve for the wonderful animals of the island. Each Captain has a crew of 3 fantastical creatures that act as workers. Players place their workers out onto the island hex map to interact with the 4 natural habitats on the island: the fruit habitat, coral habitat, flower habitat, and mushroom habitat. Each crew token takes up two hexes on the map and can interact with all adjacent habitats. Players can choose to gain resources from the habitats or gain creature cards. Gathering new creature cards is key to building the best reserve but you will need to have the resources the creature needs to play the card into your reserve. Players will also be collecting unhatched creature eggs, upgrading their crew to gain special abilities and competing for achievements to earn end game points.

Thematically Wondrous Creatures looks light hearted and peaceful. If you are looking for a pretty game this is it. The art and component design are beautiful and colorful Creature cards have lovely illustrations that remind me a little of Pokémon in a more realistic painterly style. The screen printed crew and captain tokens look especially nice. I also like the combination of worker placement with tableau building through creature collection and resource management.

The base game is available for $55 USD but you can also go for the Captains Tier pledge and get upgraded components and the Gargantuan Beasts expansion. If all of this seems as wonderful to you as it does to me, consider making a pledge for Wondrous Creatures before the campaign ends on November 15, 2023.

Escape Room Tycoon

Next up this week we have the Kickstarter for  Escape Room Tycoon from Creative Jam Games.

Escape Room Tycoon is a mid-weight euro-style game with a unique theme where players build and manage their own escape room. Players will compete to build the most popular escape room by attracting customers, marketing their venue, researching and improving their escape rooms, and renting out rooms for parties. Each round represents a season of business where players can attract customers, take actions to invest in their business and book groups of customers to their escape rooms.

Each customer has their own preferences and will solve a room that matches their favorite genre more quickly making the room available again sooner for another group. As customers visit and complete escape rooms players will earn popularity which counts as end game points as well as money to reinvest in upgrades to their rooms or developing new rooms to expand their venue. The player who manages their business the best and has the most popularity wins the game!

I think the unique theme is definitely a draw for this game and the mechanics seem well suited to simulating managing your own escape room. The base game is available for about $52 USD but you can also grab a copy with 3 expansions for $90 or go all out and get the game, expansions and deluxe components for about $122 USD. The campaign for Escape Room Tycoon ends on November 14, 2023 so get your pledges in before then.

Did we miss your favorite project?

Thank you for checking out this week’s Kickstart Monday! If you find these interesting or want some attention on a Kickstarter or other crowdfunded projects that you would like to read more about please share your thoughts with us via our social media or email.

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