October Kickstarter Retrospective – Mechs, Beasts and Wooden Tables

October is over, and it’s time to talk about best and most successful projects, that ended in the spookiest month of the year. What made October really unique for the “tabletop” category on Kickstarter? We had not just one, but 3 campaigns dedicated to board game tables. No games have reached the magical number of 1 million this time, but that’s probably due to so many varied titles being crowdfunded at the same time. And November is shaping up to be even more varied!

Now, onto the games!

“I had hard time picking my game of the month, but went with Wild Assent. I like how it mixes two genres into one game.”

6. Wild Assent – 332,310 USD

Two huge and separate game modes (co-op and PvP), with tons of minis and varied gameplay, packed into one box. First mode focuses on developing a settlement in a dangerous jungle called The Wilds. Second,  is about fights in The Arena, and includes monsters captured in the other mode. Wild Assent comes with a set of detailed, beautiful minis of gladiators, hunters and monsters.

5. BattleCON: Unleashed – 383,153 USD

One of the earliest successful board game campaigns has made yet another appearance on Kickstarter. The series was inspired by “fighting” genre video games. BattleCON has an insane number of characters to choose from, and thanks to the new KS campaign, players could order every single product from the series, released over the past 7 years.

4. Hagglethorn Hollow – 435,595 USD

A set of various wooden and stone miniature houses, usable in Dungeons & Dragons (as well as all sorts of wargames). The buildings were sculpted by Johnny Fraser-Allen, an industry veteran, with decade and a half of miniature sculpting experience. All buildings have their own detailed floors, and these can be detached to explore the rooms inside.

3. Things from the Flood – 465,916 USD

A classic pen & paper RPG, inspired by TV shows and movies from the 80-90s (think Stranger Things). Rulebooks come filled with beautiful illustrations, made by the amazing Simon Stålenhag. The action is set in the nineties of the 20th century. The system itself is pretty easy to grasp, and based around “skill rolls” and six sided dice.

2. D6 – 468,281 USD

A game about players… playing a RPG game. Visuals are cartoony and funny. Players battle monsters by rolling dice, and using various cards and shop bought items to change their rolls. The entire thing parodies games like D&D  including random, unexpected and often silly decisions by the game master (who is controlled by other players during your turn).

1. Tiny Epic Mechs – 545,531 USD

Most funded board game of the month. Yet another title from the “Tiny Epic” series and another huge success. This time, players can put their meeples into giant, plastic mechs and make them fight each other in a king of the hill type battle. The board is customizable, and the game is based around a system, where players “program the actions” of their characters, through a special deck of cards.

Tables, Tables and Even More Tables

And finally: a few words about board game tables. The Jasper is a clear winner here with 784,577 USD collected in pledges. A solid piece of furniture with some buyable add-ons managed to become the top funded project of the month in the “tabletop” category.

2nd Breakfast, a table with plenty of gadgets (like cup holders) in the basic pledge version came second with 464,520 USD.

Third table campaign belonged to Gamechanger and offered a wide choice of board game tables and table toppers. This one managed to collect 310,796 USD.

If you want to learn more about these, check our article about board game tables here.