Kickstarter keeps on becoming one of the most popular places to release new board games. Just take a look at the top grossing project list at any time and you’ll notice. September had many great projects: rereleases, famous IPs turned into board games and completely new ideas. Who was the most successful and became the monthly king of Kickstarter?
8. Nanty Narking – $302,154
An interesting case of a popular board game reimplemented into something else. Originally called Discworld: Ankh Morpork, the game moved from the world of Terry Pratchett’s fantasy books into XIX century London. Many of its famous fictional and non-fictional characters included. PHALANX, whom you may know from U-Boot, upgraded it with beautiful minis, buildings and cards representing celebrities such as Irene Adler, Ebenezer Scrooge and Dr Jekyll. The gameplay of Nanty Narking focuses on area control and can be played by up to 4 players.
7. Rampage Dungeon – $393,158
The only accessory on the list, which is pretty rare lately. Customizable miniature dungeons by Architects of Destruction can be used with pen and paper RPGs like D&D or with plenty of wargames. Terrain tiles can be connected in any way you want and contain some additional gadgets like traps and openable gates.
6. Machina Arcana – $442,895
One of the biggest surprises of the month. It had a slow start, but the second half of the campaign had backers coming from all directions. Machina Arcana is a new edition of 2012 game with the same title. Players visit a dark, steampunk themed world and explore it together. Machina Arcana proves, that you don’t need few pounds of minis to sell a board game on Kickstarter. It’s almost exclusively made of cardboard.
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5. Everdell: Pearlbrook – $609,902
First expansion to Everdell by Starling Games. This addition to the popular card drafting / worker placement game takes us from the forest setting of the original to a world under the waters of Pearlbrook river. New expansion adds many underwater creatures like frog ambassadors, extra boards and fresh mechanics like pearl collecting.
4. Power Rangers: Heroes of the Grid – $705,087
If you lived your childhood in the 90s, there’s no way you haven’t seen at least a single episode. The game includes miniatures of all the protagonists, their allies, enemies and main villains. Each player controls a Ranger of their choice and cooperates with others, while defending the world from the forces of Rita Repulsa. She deploys them to various territories displayed on cards. After spending some time fighting, heroes will be able to activate the huge Megazord and pilot it together.
3. Starcadia Quest – $935,956
CMON managed to come third in September, thanks to the newest Arcadia Quest spin off. Starcadia Quest transfers the game to a SF setting, where players have to fight dangerous creatures led by the evil Commander Thorne. The game has players compete to complete various objectives, while fighting monsters and each other at the same time.
2. Horizon Zero Dawn the Board Game – $1,819,554
Based on a best seller video game for the PS4, Horizon Zero Dawn the Board Game takes us to the 31st century, where civilisation got annihilated and robotic animal beasts rule the world. Gameplay consists of deck building, developing heroes represented by minis, fighting enemies and traversing the world made of modular boards.
1. Unstable Unicorns: Control & Chaos – $2,069,100
And finally: the winner of September is… Unstable Unicorns – the second campaign for a party card game filled with lots of rainbows and violence. Tons of cute graphics mixed with unhealthy amount of negative interaction makes for a really unique title, that can destroy friendships like nothing else. The campaign managed to surpass giants like CMON, a licensed IP owned by Sony and its own version from 2017. New expansion adds 2 varied decks called Chaos and Control.
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