Eye on Kickstarter #54

Welcome to my Eye on Kickstarter series!  This series will highlight Kickstarter campaigns I am following that have recently launched (or I've recently discovered) because they have caught my interest.  Usually they'll catch my interest because they look like great games that I have either backed or would like to back (unfortunately budget doesn't allow me to back everything I'd like to).  But occasionally the campaigns caught my attention for other reasons.  Twice a month, on the 2nd and 4th Fridays, I'll make a new post in this series, highlighting the campaigns that have caught my attention since the last post.  In each post I'll highlight one campaign that has really grabbed my attention, followed by other campaigns I've backed or am interested in.  I'll also include links to any reviews I've done.  Comments are welcome, as are suggestions for new campaigns to check out!

You can also see my full Kickstarter Profile to see what I've backed or my old Eye on Kickstarter page that was too unwieldy to maintain.  Also, check out the 2018 Kickstarter Boardgame Projects geeklist over on Board Game Geek for a list of all the tabletop games of the year.

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So, without further ado, here are the projects I'm currently watching as of the fourth Friday of November, 2018:

Live Campaigns from Past Eyes:
UGEARS Mechanical Devices for Tabletop Games
Zoo-ography
Atlantis Rising
City of the Big Shoulders
Terminus Breach TD

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HIGHLIGHTED CAMPAIGN
Diced Tomatoes

• GJJ Games Backed
• Diced Tomatoes is a light, dice allocation game with a bit of take-that action. It's designed by local Chicago designer Arkadiusz Greniuk, and although I didn't get a chance to play Diced Tomatoes at Protospiel Chicago, I heard quite a few other designers talking about how much fun it was. In Diced Tomatoes you are trying to grow and harvest the best tomatoes while also working to get your neighbors' tomatoes to be less than great. There's an interesting balance between growing your own tomato vines and sending your resources (your dice) over to your opponents. You want to send your low dice to them, but doing so may leave you with no dice to use on your turn, leaving you at the whims of your opponents. Be sure to check out this fast, fun, filler game!

Enter the Inaugural Tomato Growing Competition and flex your horticultural muscles in the art of growing the red fruit. Your goal is to seed, grow and harvest the most valuable tomatoes. All sorts of chaos is happening in the garden so slipping your opponents the less attractive tomato dice or any rotten pieces will most likely go unnoticed... Or will it?

Diced Tomatoes is a light-hearted dice rolling and pattern building game for 2 to 4 players. Deceptively simple game with light strategy and "take that" elements. Try to outdice, outsmart and outscore your opponents!

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Jabberwocky

• I've had lots of fun with the games I've played by Jellybean Games, especially Dracula's Feast. One of their hits from last year was The Lady and the Tiger, a game system that contains 18 cards and a handful of tokens. Jabberwocky is a sequel to that title, also featuring a number of games that can be played with just 18 cards and several glass tokens. The artwork is gorgeous and the individual games look interesting and fun.

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Downlink

• From the designer of Xtronaut and Constellations comes Downlink, another game about astronomical science. This time you're exploring the solar system, learning real science while you do it!

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Mechanisms

• People Behind the Meeples Interview
• Looking for a fun party game to play at conventions? Mechanisms brings board game mechanics and a ton of designer cameos into a fun, casual card game. This is another game I saw at Protospiel Chicago, but didn't hav ethe opportunity to play. There were always a lot of laughs and boisterousness coming from the vicinity of the Mechanisms demos though.

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Imagineers

• Imagineers is a fun looking game about designing the best amusement park and the best rides. Together players build and design the amusement park, but using an innovative twist on the Mancala mechanic of picking up all the pieces in one area and dropping them, one at a time, along a path, players move visitors to the park through the park and toward the rides they've designed. It looks like a ton of fun and a great gateway game.

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Metal

• Metal is the first in a series of games where every single part of the game is made out of the material that is the game's title. In this case everything in Metal is metal, right down to the box. Metal consists of six games that are miniature variations of classic and new yard games and everything is made of metal.

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Dicees

• These are very expensive, but also very cool. Customizable dice that light up with LEDs in any of countless customizable patterns and colors, all able to be controlled via a smartphone app. This would make prototyping custom games on the fly super easy, could be really cool for things like ability upgrades and changing custom dice mid-game for games like Dice Forge, and could even make a smaller dice pool for games that have different types of dice for different purposes. I'm not saying I'm ever going to spend $30 per die for a set, but if I did have the disposable income to splurge on something, this would be really cool to have.