Welcome to Kickstart Monday and to a new year! 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.
The Last Lighthouse
Our first game this week, and our first game of 2024, is The Last Lighthouse on Kickstarter.
The Last Lighthouse comes from designer Scott Almes (from the Tiny Epic games series) and is a solo wallet game in the “Simply Solo” line of games which focus on simple rules and replay-ability. In The Last Lighthouse you must defend a lone lighthouse against the darkness as a series of nightmares threaten to overwhelm you and extinguish the lighthouse forever.
Each turn of the game you can lay traps and attempt to defeat the nightmares that are attacking the lighthouse. If you have built up enough traps within reach of a nightmare you will be able to overcome its health to defeat it. Nightmares that you have defeated may then be used as Traps to be used against the remaining nightmares in later turns.
After the players actions a new nightmare is revealed the nightmares begin to attack the lighthouse if they can reach it otherwise they will attack your carefully laid traps. If darkness overcomes the lighthouse you lose but if you manage to survive all the nightmares with the lighthouse still intact you are victorious!
The Last Lighthouse is a pocket sized or “wallet game” and is therefore extremely portable, great for a quick game on the go or say while waiting for friends at a bar. It has a price tag to match its small size; the base level pledge is only $12 USD. The campaign is also offering all of the Simply Solo wallet games for $60 USD which includes the games Food Chain Island, Ugly Gryphon Inn, Insurmountable, Fishing Lessons and The Royal Limited. Backers can also add individual games of their choice as addons. If The Last Lighthouse feels like it would be a good fit for your wallet, consider backing on Kickstarter before January 13, 2024.
The Big Crunch
Our second game this week is The Big Crunch on Kickstarter from Alec-A-Sam Games.
The Big Crunch is a cosmic card game for 2 to 8 players where you are in a race to create the best solar system from a variety of types of planets before they are sucked into the black hole at the center of the universe. Players build their solar system by playing planet cards with different values representing the planet’s mass. The mass of your planets acts as your point total but there is a careful balance to be had – if you build too massive of a system your planets will start falling into the blackhole. And you aren’t just building your solar system in a vacuum. Your opponents can opt to send planets into your system as well!
If the total mass for a given planet type exceeds 5 in a system all of those planets will fall toward the black hole in this way you can strategically attempt to overload your opponent’s system and send their planets hurtling into the void. The Big Crunch looks to be an interesting casual card game with some good player interaction and easy to learn rules.
The base game is available for approximately $19 USD and there are some deluxe pledge levels that include a large neoprene playmat but for the adventurous ultra-supporter there is a pledge level that is truly out of this world. For around $447 USD your copy of the game will be one of a few rare copies that are given gold foil accents and be sent in a weather balloon 17 miles above the earth’s surface literally into the stratosphere!
While obviously not a pledge level for everyone it’s one of the wildest and most unique backer rewards I’ve ever seen and I thought it deserved a mention. But whether your budget is more terrestrial or you can reach for the stars I’d recommend checking out the campaign for The Big Crunch before January 13, 2024 if you are, looking to make a pledge.
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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