Games in Progress, September 2018

I always have a range of games in the making at any given time, and I thought it was about time to summarize what’s coming up in the late half 2018. I’ve been hard at work these past few months on several new releases and am excited to share a few with you that are close to being published. These are games that are nearly ready and will be released as they are completed, hopefully all by the end of 2018. Are you as excited as I am for any of them? 😀

The Spider’s Web

In this tile-laying game 2-4 players take turns expanding an ever-increasing collective web using hexagon tiles. Prey will get caught in the web and the goal is to surround the prey with web tiles of your own color to score the point value of the prey tile.

Web tiles come in different strength levels (1-3) and must be placed adjacent to existing tiles of your own color. Prey tiles are drawn from a separate pile and are placed on top of web tiles of an equal value. Specialty tiles add strategy to the game by allowing you to score points for adjacent opponent tiles, place tiles separated from your own color, score extra points for completely surrounding the tile with only tiles of your own color, and more.

The Spider’s Web is a quick strategy game suitable for the whole family.

Kingdoms

Dragons, Pixies, Seafarers and Animals populate the world in Kingdoms. Based on the classic card game Sevens the aim is to get rid of the cards in your hand by playing them in descending (7-1) and ascending (8-13) order of the corresponding Kingdom (suit). The game incorporates and economy (coins) and the goal is to be the player with the most coins by the end of the game.

Each card has an ability when played including paying or collecting coins, collecting all taxes paid to the corresponding Kingdom, playing additional cards, and more.

Play the Princess (number 12) to draw a Prosperity Card. Prosperity Cards have unique abilities that can be activated at any time, for example to force a player to play a specific card or borrowing coins from the bank.

Kingdoms goes hand-in-hand with The Spider’s Web as a casual family game but has a more luck-based feel which makes it more accessible to many players. A game can take anywhere between 15 and 90 minutes to play.

Highest Bidder: Porn Stars

As a porn movie director you’re looking to hire the most valuable cast for your next film. Place secret bids on 14 unique porn stars using a combination of Cash Cards and text-based Effect Cards. Effects include things like drawing a random card, discarding the next card revealed by an opponent, doubling the value of a porn star, and more.

Bids can consist of 1-7 cards from the players’ hands and are placed simultaneously in piles face down. The cards are then revealed one at a time around the table and hilarious situations frequently arise as Effect Cards begin to to interact with one another in unexpected ways.

This adults-only edition of Highest Bidder is available to pre-order right now! Warning: contains nudity.

Other works in progress:

The following titles may or may not be released at some point in the future, but are currently further from being ready to publish:

• A Spy Among Us — Find the secret spy among 8 guests at a fancy cocktail party. The player acting as the Spy must complete missions to score points by moving the characters around the game board, without being too obvious about which character they’re playing as. The opponent must figure out who the Spy is by making it harder for the Spy to meet his or her current mission requirements.
• Ships & Cargo — This follow-up to Trains & Cargo has you send off cargo on your container ships and sail to various destinations to score points, while attempting to keep the value of the cargo that you carry high and lowering the values of the cargo of your opponents. This is a new, stand-alone game that is different from Trains & Cargo but goes in the same mid-weight board game spirit as its predecessor.
• Vikings — A kid’s card game age 6+ that helps children learn to add and subtract numbers. Based on the Swedish garden game commonly known as “Vikings” internationally you must knock down your opponents Viking cards numbered 1-9 by combining up to three numbered cards in your hand. For example, a 7 and a 2 can knock down a Viking valued 9 (7+2) or 5 (7-2). Combine three cards for more elaborate equations that can incorporate both + and – to get the value that you need. This game is actually pretty much complete but is not a focus point right now which is why it is not on the “soon to be released” list.