Few things are as frustrating as finding out about an amazing game after the crowdfunding has already ended. Sure, there’s late pledging. But you’ll always be haunted by the thought of what could have been. How many stretch goals could you have unlocked? Fortunately, we’ve brought you these 3 campaigns before they could shuffle off this mortal coil.
Doomensions: Mystery Manor – Kickstarter (Live until Sept. 8)
This first game is top of the list because it is just so cool. Doomensions: Mystery Manor comes from the folks at Curious Correspondence and the Mysterious Package company. Mysterious Package is a high-end puzzle experience mailed to your house in a wooden crate. The price tag for each puzzle can reach into the hundreds of dollars, but they look like they’re worth every penny. Inside each crate are highly-detailed, limited edition collectible props that serve as the basis for a mystery which the recipient must solve. Curious Correspondence is a monthly subscription service by the same publisher. Except instead of shelling out hundreds of dollars, it only costs $20 a month thanks to its reliance on (highly intricate) paper props.
Doomensions seems to be a hybrid of the two projects. For the base level $80 pledge, you get the Mystery Manor, a gorgeous 3-D paper model of a very creepy house with clues Hidden inside each of its 8 rooms. Using your provided dossier, you will compile said clues in an attempt to figure out what nefarious dealings might have transpired between an obsessive scientist and an unscrupulous art dealer. You also might want to figure out why those investigating the house tend to go missing…and soon.
The base game provides 5 – 10 hours of game play for 1 – 4 players. However, an additional case file has been added to the dossier thanks to the unlocked stretch goals, and it will add another 1.5 hours of play time.
Trademarks and visuals belong to their rightful owners.
I really can’t stress how gorgeous this game looks. Considering that the majority of the stretch goals are improvements to the component, it’s only going to get better. This project only goes until Thursday, Sept. 8, so make sure to either pledge now or add an alarm to your phone. Missing out on a project that ticks off so many great-game checkboxes would be a serious shame.
Haunt Your House – Kickstarter (Live until Sept. 22)
Yes, it’s another haunted house, but comparing it to Doomensions is like comparing apparitions and oranges.
Where the previous entry is a cerebral puzzler, Haunt Your House is an AR-enhanced, family-style board game. If you’re worried about the AR being gimmicky, don’t because it’s baked into the entire experience in a way that makes it feel completely natural, something I witnessed first-hand at Gen Con.
Trademarks and visuals belong to their rightful owners.
Rather than solve a mystery, 2 – 4 players are instead trying to exorcise their home of all the monsters and spirits which have decided to take up residence. At the start of the game, players view the board depicting the house through the “Boogle” app, allowing them to see where in the house each creature is located. But pay attention, because after a few seconds the app closes and players must rely solely on memory. Now it’s time to send the beasts packing! Each creature needs a specific combination of items in order to be banished. When a player thinks they’ve got the correct items to banish, say, a werewolf, they can head to whichever room they remember the werewolf hiding in. If they’re correct, then the monster is defeated.
Trademarks and visuals belong to their rightful owners.
That’s all well and good, but the most exciting portion of the game is the “grand escape”. An incorrect guess or too many haunted items in your house can cause all of the monsters to leap off of the board and into your home. At this point, players again use the “Boogle”-enhanced AR to scan the house for the escaped monsters, then zap them back on to the board Ghostbuster-style!
Necrohamster – Kickstarter (Live until Sept. 16)
Necromancy as a magical art form is shunned by all but the vilest spell casters and its practitioners shunned by all! Unless said godless necroblights are also adorable hamsters in which case I will take two handfuls, please.
The Necrohamster is a fast and easy card came for 2 – 4 players acting as evil-but-also-fluffy-wuffy necrohamsters. Players summon undead animals, including skeletal rabbits, zombie cats, and spirit horses, in order to earn the most points. Once one player summons their 8th undead animal, the game is over.
Trademarks and visuals belong to their rightful owners.
While the game is incredibly simple to pick up, it has just enough tricks up its voluminous wizard sleeves to make this a game you won’t mind playing repeatedly. Each turn, players will simultaneously choose one of the undead animal cards in their hand to play. In order to play that card, though, players must discard other cards from their hand equal to its cost. So while a “Skeleton Ram” worth 6 points and with the ability to make other players discard cards might seem like a great play, it’s 6 card cost will mean that your hand is going to be severely depleted for several turns. In addition to the points you get from playing cards, players can also earn “Titles” worth extra points by meeting specific requirements. Want to be the “Master of Zombies” and earn 4 extra points? Easy. Just make sure that you are the first to have 3 zombie cards in play.
Trademarks and visuals belong to their rightful owners.
Remember, all of these games are currently live on Kickstarter. Be sure to check out each project’s page for the full lists of purchasing options and stretch goals before they’re gone, and you are left haunted by the memory of their passing.
by Zane Messina
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