Kickstarter Weekly—July 17, 2013

Here we go with another installment of Kickstarter Weekly, we've got lots to talk about so let's give in!

Currently Running!

Frog Flip - Sprocket Games

We gave you a sneak peek at this campaign last week, and the mini game designed by Jason and Claire Kotarski funded within the first 12 hours of the campaign—coincidence? Probably. They're looking to knock over some stretch goals, which will only add to the value of your pledge. Check out our review of the game here. The game costs you a pledge of $14; you can check out the campaign right here.

PigPen - Island Officials

Pigpen is a take-that, family strategy card game for 2-4 players. Players will take turns trying to build their pens, gather pigs within them, and also do what they can to destroy their opponents' pens! Designed by Kevin Kulp, and developed by (friend of the blog) Jason Tagmire, this one looks like another fun family game we are sure to enjoy! Stay tuned for our Double-Take Review of this soon! But in the meantime check out the campaign, and consider placing a $20 pledge to grab a copy of this one.

Incredibrawl - Vision 3 Games

Incredibrawl is subtitled "A chaotic, casual card game," and that is exactly what you'll get with a copy of the game (which is just a pledge of $25!). The game is very well suited for family play or casual play. We just reviewed this game here. They are two-thirds funded with 23 days to go (the campaign ends on Aug. 10, 2013). You can find the campaign here.

Casual Gamer Magazine Year 2

Casual Gamer has become a strong voice in the casual gaming industry, and they've launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund their second year. You can get a PDF subscription for $15 and a print-and-PDF subscription for $25. Check out the full campaign here.

NanoBot Battle Arena - Derpy Games

A fast-paced tile-placement/card game set in the epic battle arena of a petri dish. NanoBot Battle Arena claims to have a one-game (10-15 minute) learning curve and is for 2-4 players. You can take a look at the campaign here, and a pledge of $25 gets you a copy of the game!

This is just cool!

Darkling Plain: An Augmented Reality Miniatures Board Game - Nocturnal Media

Okay, Just watch the video. For $55 you get the full game board, AR app, and some army cards. They have a very high goal to get the game to market, but the game looks pretty well thought out and the AR just looks cool! You can check it out here.

Thanks so much for reading, please don't forget to take our reader polls, and don't forget to subscribe this week for your chance to win a free copy of Boss Monster! And as always look for us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube!

Kickstarter Weekly—July 11, 2013

Hey! Kickstarter Weekly is back! And boy is there a ton of stuff going on in Kickstarter Land, so let's get started! VivaJava: The Coffee Game: The Dice Game - Dice Hate Me Games

The follow up to Dice Hate Me's coffee game, the dice game appears to be more than just a dice version of the original VivaJava, but introduces new game play themes and concepts. The campaign funded super fast and they've already knocked down a couple stretch goals, with plenty of time left! $30 gets you the game and any stretch goals as well! You can check it out here! You can also check out our interview with designer TC Petty III right here!

The Agents - by Saar Shai

The Agents is a card game based around a series of characters who are all decommissioned secret agents who have been reactivated. The game play invovles playing agent cards and choosing to either score points, or use their ability—the catch is that whichever you choose, the other effect works in favor of your opponent. We'll be getting the latest prototype of this game and let you know our full thoughts very, very soon! Check out the campaign here; it just launched and you can get in on the early bird deal, which scores you the game for $15!

Ancient Terrible Things - Pleasant Company Games

Game Salute is powering another Kickstarter Campaign, and they're doing it very well (as usual)! Ancient Terrible Things is a dice roller with some meat on its bones. A good level of resource management adds some nifty decision making elements to the game. Check out Jeremiah's video preview of the game here. You can check out the campaign here, it's been funded and they've also hit several stretch goals. A pledge of $45 will score you a copy of this fun dice-roller!

Coming Soon!

Frog Flip - Sprocket Games

Jason Kotarski has designed a mini game, along with his daughter Claire, that plays in just a few minutes. We've reviewed the game, and it's a great kids game! The campaign doesn't begin until tomorrow (Friday, July 12) but you can get a sneak peek ahead of time, right here!

Congratulations!

Princes of the Dragon Thrones - Clever Mojo Games

We're super excited for Clever Mojo, who just brought this one in under the wire! This is yet another successful campaign by Game Salute. This game has been a long time in the works, and we're glad to see that it will make it to the marketplace soon! Jeremiah was fortunate enough to play one of the prototypes, you can read his full review here. Want more Dragon Throne goodness? Check out our interview with Fred and David Mackenzie here!

Council of Verona - Crash Games

The first in Crash Games' Pub Series of games, that feature small games with big game play! The campaign funded at 303% hitting over $27k! That unlocked what Patrick says is the most exciting stretch goal - a 5th-player expansion! We haven't played this yet (unreal!) but we LOVE the idea of the game, and see a smash hit coming to market with this game's arrival! Congrats Crash!

Thanks so much for reading, as we continue our 1-year Blogiversary! Don't forget to subscribe to the blog over on the right, and you can win a copy of Clever Mojo's game Sunrise City! And look for us wherever social media is happening, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube!

FrogFlip—A Double-Take Review

Jason Kotarski is a busy guy. He's a husband, and a dad, and a church planter, and a musician, and a game designer. His first published game—The Great Heartland Hauling Company—is a cool pick-up-and-deliver game. He was kind enough to let us interview him, too. He's got a new little 2-player card game in the works, and we're going to give you our impressions of FrogFlip. Components

14 Cards, which include two cards with instructions, four Lily Pad cards, and eight Bug Score cards.

1 Frog Disc, which is a plastic disc with a frog sticker on one side.

Setup

Take the four Lily Pad cards and place them equally spaced between the two players. Then shuffle Bug Score cards and place them flower-side-down on the side. Then the youngest player grabs the frog disc and starts.

Gameplay

Each of the Bug Score cards has a number of bugs on it—either one, two, three, or four of them. On their turn, each player will attempt to flip the frog to the Lily Pad card that corresponds to the number of bugs on the top card of the Bug Score stack. So if there are two bugs on the top card, I'm trying to flip the frog onto the Lily Pad card that's two away from me. If I miss, my opponent is trying to flip the frog onto the Lily Pad card that's two away from her.

You flip the frog just as you would with flip a coin.

Your hand can't pass the first Lily Pad card, and if the frog falls off the table, your opponent gets two turns in a row!

The frog only has to touch the Lily Pad card in order to count; you get to take the Bug Score card, and the number of bugs on it is your score. If you manage to get any part of the frog disc to rest on the correct Lily card, you get to take the Bug Score card and flip it onto the flower side—the score is the same, but flowers are tie-breakers.

You continue back and forth until either the deck runs out, or someone claims five of the eight Score cards. Whichever player has the most bugs on their score cards wins, and flowers break ties.

Recommendations

Family? Definitely! It's just the right depth for a quick game with the kids. The only downside is that it's only for two players—though there are rules for a 4-player variant that requires two sets of the game.

Youth group/party game? Probably not! It looks like a kids game, so I don't think teenagers would like this much. And since it's two-players-only, I'm unlikely to even try this at a party.

Gamers game? Mmmmaybe! If your group likes Flowerfall, and other quick-playing, small fillers, this might be a good one to throw into the bin. But I'd probably still just pull out Flowerfall, though...

The Verdict

Firestone—This is yet another example of someone creating a "micro-game"—one that's fully contained in a very small package. I like that trend, as it keeps the price down and the portability high.

Jeremiah - Agreed, the brevity of the game is a highlight too; we can play best of 3, 5, 7, and so on, depending on how close it is to bedtime when we start playing. And my boys can teach it to others (friends, grandparents, etc) without my help. They really like it when that happens!

Firestone—The 5-year-old loves it, and the fact that the frog only has to touch the card means he has a chance. My 8-year-old likes it, but he's sadly getting to the age where he'd rather play deeper stuff. But he does love playing with his younger brother, so we'll see how long that lasts.

Getting that frog where you want it isn't as easy as it sounds! There were plenty of times it would go off in some crazy direction—and I've had years of coin-flipping experience! I think this adds to the fun, though, as it keeps kids competitive with grown-ups, who have obviously inflated opinions of their frog-flipping abilities.

Jeremiah - I feel like we're in the same boat. Frog Flip is definitely going to hit closer to home for the 4 or 5-year-old range; the novelty of the coin flip is still a draw to the older kids. The flipping mechanic seems to level the playing nicely, and the theme ties in perfectly with the game play.

Firestone's Final Verdict—This is an adorable little family game. I fear it has a very short window where it will continue to interest my boys, but I'll happily play it until that window closes.

Jeremiah's Final Verdict— This is a fun little game, and it did give me the opportunity to teach my boys how to properly flip a coin. (I guess that's a skill I've neglected to teach them in my parenting.) The boys had fun with it, and like I said, it's a great length for the times we don't have time to play a lengthy game before bedtime. My oldest is advancing into games like Heroclix and Pokemon so I, like Scott, don't know how long this will hold his attention, but it's still right in my youngest's wheelhouse and he loves it!

Jason just announced this week that the game's been picked up by Michael Fox's Sprocket Games. Watch for a Kickstarter campaign in July—and we'll try to get Jason to sit down for another interview. Thanks for reading!

Theology Of Games would like to thank Jason for providing us with review copies of FrogFlip; this in no way affected our opinions of the game.