Best Of Kickstarter: March 2017
Every month, Pop Geeks looks through the extensive entries to Kickstarter – some of which we may have already reported on – and brings you some of the best indie games that are worthy of your attention, all in a listicle form counting down to our favorite. From horror games, to RPGs, and puzzle solvers to adventure games, these are some of the best indie entries to Kickstarter. If you see one that tickles your fancy, why not head over to the games Kickstarter Pages and give it helpful hand? Not see some of you favorite entries? Let us know in the comments below!
Dinosaur Island
This is by the designer of Dead of Winter: A Long Night fame, Jon Gilmore….you have my attention! Build a Jurassic Park ….. SOLD! As the description of the game.In Dinosaur Island, players will have to collect DNA, research the DNA sequences of extinct dinosaur species and then combine the ancient DNA in the correct sequence to bring these prehistoric creatures back to life. Dino cooking! All players will compete to build the most thrilling park each season, and then work to attract (and keep alive!) the most guests each season that the park opens. I love the idea of building a dinosaur park and hatching eggs to attract guests. I have always been a huge fan of the video game Roller Coaster Tycoon and this theme makes it even more enticing. There is kind of a hefty price on this one if you want the Deluxe version, but it says Deluxe, so I have to buy it right?
Thunderstone Quest
I love Thunderstone Advance! Grant has it in our group and for a straight up deck builder it is hard to beat. I know Alexander cringes at the very thought of having a dungeon crawl game with only cards but it is good. I have been waiting for an affordable way to get Thunderstone, and this was not it. The normal game comes with only one “Quest” where as the upgraded version, which is quite pricey for a card game, comes with 3 Quests. The main difference with this new version is that there are different dungeons that you will go into with each dungeon having their own unique characteristics. So each quest you go on should feel different, more than just having different monsters to fight. Sounds like it will have plenty of replayablility and interesting decisions even before you start playing.
Champions of Midgard: The Expansions
We love Champions of Midgard. A solid, tight worker placement with some custom warrior dice and just a pinch of player interaction in a great theme. Why would I not want the expansions? There are actually two different expansions. The Dark Mountains comes with a whole slew of things including a fifth player, a new land to explore, new enemies to tackle and some archer warrior dice to combat them with. That right there would be good enough for me to have, but there is more.
Raiders of the North Sea: Expansions
Stop me if you have heard this already….Vikings, worker placement, pillaging, Valhalla. Yeah, this is another one. I really love the progression in this game and how things go from measly actions to all out destruction of villages. So, I am really looking forward to the expansions. This game again has two different expansions that can be played with the original game. The first expansion is the Fields of Fame. In this expansion Jarls have awoken to defend the villages from our brutal attacks. You will lose crew members but their loss will not be in vain….you will collect victory points in their honor. The second expansion is Hall of Heroes.
The Pirate Republic
I love the pirate theme! I am always looking for a great pirate game….sadly many fall flat. I have not found a pirate game that I truly love….this one might be it. It looks like it has some Mage Knight kinda enemies and the map looks really great. The one thing that is kinda throwing me off is the roll and move mechanism. It also seems to have a side bit of co-op or “teamwork” as the page suggests. There also seems to be a bit of randomness in the initiative dice…..and dice don’t like me one bit. It still has some time but with all the other Kickstarters collecting around the same time, this one might not make the list.