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.

Photo Tour: North America

Our first game of the week is Photo Tour: North America, a Kickstarter from designer Eugene Timashov.

Photo Tour: North America is a strategy game for 1 to 5 players where players will travel across the US and Canada taking beautiful pictures of famous landmarks and locations. As you travel across North America you will collect photographs to capture in your photo journal. As you add more pictures you will build a small card engine that will increase the efficiency of your future turns.

To take a photo you will first need to plan your trip by collecting a landmark card. Famous locations from all across North America are depicted on the beautifully illustrated landmarks cards. The Grand Canyon, The Statue of Liberty, Jasper National Park, The Everglades and The Golden Gate Bridge are just  a few of the places you can visit. You will use one of five transport dice to take planes, buses, and cars to your destination to get your perfect photo of the landmark.

Once you get your shot you can trigger bonuses by adding the landmark to your journal in a slot that matches the type of landmark, either urban or natural. Landmark cards themselves grant permanent abilities that help you build an engine to make your turns more powerful. Once a player has placed their 7th Landmark card in their journal the game end is triggered. The player with the most points from their landmark cards, photography equipment and points from photography contest objectives will be the winner. While The base game is easy to learn and suitable for family play players can also customize the difficulty by adding one of the two available expansions.

Photo Tour: North America is available starting at $45 USD for the base game and stretch goals. A deluxe version pledge is available for $66 USD that includes premium wooden components and a plastic box insert. To get the expansions you will need to opt for the Expansions pledge at  $74 USD which also includes everything in the deluxe version. The campaign for Photo Tour: North America runs until February 23, 2024, so make sure to get your pledge in before then.

EVE: War for New Eden

Next this week we have EVE: War for New Eden on Kickstarter from Titanforge Games.

EVE: War for New Eden is a sci-fi 4X board game for 2 to 4 players and is an adaptation of the popular MMO game EVE Online. Set in the EVE universe players will control a faction with a fleet of ships exploring the galaxy, developing and expanding their empire and of course engaging opponents in epic space battles.

You begin the game with limited resources and territory. As you explore you will gain rewards for discovering new systems and as you move your fleet in to claim them you can extract materials and resources to build more ships and structures. Technological advancement will also be important to the success of your faction and your research into different areas which can be kept secret from your enemies and sprung on them at the opportune moment. Each faction has their own deck of development cards and you are able to customize the technological path of your empire.

Combat is an important part of the game and when initiates starts with each player creating a formation with their fleet with 3 “orbits” that include one lead ship and multiple potential supporting ships. Combat is resolved with a combination of custom combat dice and each faction’s unique strategy cards. Each player is attempting to roll damage results to overcome their target’s armor and critical damage results can be especially punishing with bonuses that change based on the abilities of the lead ship!

EVE looks to be a massive space epic featuring 112 ship miniatures, 500 cards, 330 tokens and an estimated playtime of 90-180 minutes (though I would wager it would tend toward the longer side). The pledge levels start with the Capsuleer for $129 which includes the core box with the four base factions and any unlocked stretch goals as well as a starter pack for the EVE online video game. At the Veteran level for $219 you get the core game and the Titan, Havoc and Azariel expansions. These additional components for a fifth player and massive Titan  capital ships for each faction.

If you are an EVE ultra-fan you might want to look at the $399 Capital pledge that uniquely offers a set of components (board tiles, tokens, dice and miniatures that are 200% larger than those in the base game and are sure to provide some truly massive table presence. The campaign for EVE: War for New Eden ends on February 21, 2024, so be sure to send your fleet over to planet Kickstarter before then 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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