Time to explore 3 great projects, that will be crowdfunded through KS in the next few weeks. What should you expect? Pirates, a kraken with over a dozen tentacles and an even bigger spaceship exploring the unknown reaches of space.
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Shiver Me Timbers – May 28th
There’s never enough pirate themed games. Pirate setting is easily in my top 3 themes along classic horrors and feudal Japan. There are hundreds of games about piracy but many lack magic and freedom vital to properly portray the age of corsairs.
A debut by German Weltflucht Verlag is aiming to re explore the theme and give us a whole new scope of freedom. Shiver Me Timbers is an open world, sandbox game, where you play as a leader of a pirate crew.
Instead of a single goal, Shiver Me Timbers has at least 10 different winning conditions, randomly chosen at the beginning of the game. Each player picks 2 of these without telling others and starts his or her journey to achieve victory. Goals include finding treasures, defeating sea monsters or making gold from trading.
What makes Shiver Me Timbers unique? Huge level of modularity. You can upgrade your ship by physically attaching new equipment to the miniatures. Same with the board, which will vary a lot between individual games.
Kickstarter campaign will have 2 pledges available: a regular one, and another one with metal coins and 4 chests included.
Refuge: Terror From the Deep – June 3rd
Time to dive a little deeper and leave pirates behind. Refuge: Terror From the Deep will take us to the deadly ocean depths. The game takes place in alternative year 1934, where people explore the bottoms of the seas, as the land above is no longer fit for living. Every player controls a single diver exploring the ocean.
The game is epic in scale, and despite that: plays fast – often 20 to 40 minutes total. Refuge: Terror From the Deep sports two different gameplay modes. Competitive mode is available for 2 to 6 players, while the co-op rules can be used by 2-4 players (or when playing solo). Successfully getting to an escape pod is the main goal in all modes. Majority of mechanics are tied to cards and these include: salvage cards, ability cards and objective cards.
Both modes include a very unique threat, and the main hook of the game: a colossal Kraken. No matter if you want to compete or cooperate with others, this big, hungry guy will do everything he can to turn you into his lunch. The beast is represented by 80cm “mini”, with additional plastic tentacles, that spawn across the board.
All miniatures, including the sea monster were crafted by industry veterans known from Dark Souls, Descent 2.0 and many others. The game is a sequel to The Refuge: a Race for Survival, but it’s fully a stand alone title.
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X-ODUS: Rise of Corruption – June 10th
X-ODUS feels like an ambitious SF board game. The action takes place many hundreds of years into the future. Humanity has moved to the stars and chases after ancient mysteries of the universe. Meanwhile you and other players, are the sole survivors of an unexpected attack by a force called the Corruption. Now, the only way to stay alive is looking for “Keys”, that can close a dangerous dimensional rift, and stop the Corruption from expanding.
The game is heavily inspired by roguelikes. You explore a randomized map of space, shaped by events encountered while playing. Each game session will have a different set of enemies to defeat.
There’s also a wide array of ships at your disposal and authors encourage players to experiment and find ones that fit their playstyles best. As the game seems to be pretty challenging, you’re bound to restart your adventures often. That means more than enough time to find your favourite vessel. Ships can be modified and upgraded to suit your needs and fit the situation on table.
X-ODUS is first and foremost a co-op game, with heavy focus on consulting your strategy with other players. If you feel like playing alone, there’s also a solo mode, which focuses mostly on solving puzzles. All in all, the game seems pretty exciting and I can’t wait to see the campaign. According to the authors it’s supposed to launch on June 10th.
