Zombie House Blitz—Kickstarter Weekly

Jeremiah Lee, designer of the award-winning Zombie In my Pocket, is back at it with a fast-playing, zombie-themed game.

Zombie House Blitz is a fast-paced 2-4 player card game, in which players are trying to evacuate a house of 10 people during an invasion of zombie hordes. Each player has their own deck of cards, and are trying to help the people in their house to escape, all the while being attacked by zombies, AND having other players jump in their escape vehicles, leaving no room for them.

My first look at it reminds me (Jeremiah) of a game that some friends and I play called NERTS, which is basically Solitaire with multiple people, and everyone can use your aces in the middle of the table to play their cards and vice versa. We've played NERTS (I have no idea why it's called that) with everyone from teenagers to some of our regular party game type friends.

Zombie House Blitz puts a fun, themed spin on the game and gives you the color-coordinated decks so you're not searching for four different decks of playing cards.

It's important to note that this game is NOT going to be brought to market through the Kickstarter campaign. Their goal is to simply produce as many copies of the game as are purchased via backing the game, so if you want this one, you're going to have to back it!

The campaign is about halfway to being successful and you can get in and get your copy of Zombie House Blitz for $18. It looks like some pretty sweet stretch goals are going to be put in place as well, including hitting "like" milestones on Facebook to unlock "trick taking rules"!

You can find the campaign here, with lots of videos and images, including a gameplay explanation.

Thanks for reading!

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Dungeon Roll Is On a Roll!

Well, with only six days left, Tasty Minstrel Games is absolutely crushing their Dungeon Roll Kickstarter campaign. The original goal was $15,000, but they're currently sitting at just under $132,000! They've unlocked lots of stretch goals, and are close to yet another—the Dwarf Berserker. The game is only $15 shipped, which is really reasonable. In fact, I know some people who just couldn't say no to that price, and made this the first Kickstarter project they've backed. Check out the campaign for yourself. Check back tomorrow when we'll have a double dose of Kickstarter Weekly news. Thanks for reading!

Triassic Terror—Kickstarter Weekly

Today's edition of Kickstarter Weekly features a new game from Eagle Games: Triassic Terror. It's an area-control game where you're competing for the best habitats. From the Kickstarter page: "Triassic Terror is a highly interactive game in which players compete for the best habitats. The better the habitat the more Victory Points (VP) you earn for occupying it. Ownership of a habitat goes to the player with the greatest number of Dinosaurs (Dinos) present, so the heart of the game is all about growing your herds, making new herds, and migrating your herds to new uninhabited lands with the best habitats. Competition for habitats is fierce, and if outnumbered your Dinos may become extinct." The game comes with:

• Prehistoric Island Game Board
• 6 each of Player Dinosaurs + T-Rexes + Scoring Markers
• 1 Game T-Rex + 2 Velociraptors
• 1 Pterodactyl Token
• 1 Turn + 1 Start Player Marker
• 12 Volcano + 12 Hatch Counters
• 1 Set Up and 3 Player Aid Charts
• 120 Wooden Dino Meeples
• 78 3-Dino discs
• 6 Action Tiles
• 28 Environment Cards
• 1 Rulebook

The game still has 15 days to go, and it's only $3000 away from funding. The buy-in is pretty expensive, but it looks like you get a TON of stuff in the box. And some of the advance buzz is pretty good. One Boardgamegeek user who has played the prototype version said, "Without doubt this is the most interesting area control game I have played..." Check out the campaign for yourself. And as always, thanks for reading!

Machine of Death—Kickstarter Weekly

We've got another Kickstarter Weekly campaign for you this week. An interesting twist on a novel by the same name Machine of Death is itself a twist on all of those social media apps that purport to tell you how you will die. The Machine of Death tells players "how" they will die, but not when. Players then take on the roles of assassins, and since there is only one way to kill off the other players, they will play cards to try and find the most creative way to bring about the death given by the machine.

From the official campaign -

"So if you can know, cryptically but with 100% accuracy, how a given person will one day die...

And you’re an assassin, and you want to make that day today...

Then you have a puzzle to solve. Given a person who is slated to die by BANANA PEEL, but is currently in (let's say) a space station...how do you make it happen?

Oh, and I forgot: all you have at your disposal is a tool, a liquid, and a piece of furniture. GO!"

This campaign is going like gangbusters, and has blown past multiple stretch goals. You can get in on the action fairly inexpensively and get yourself a PDF print and play version, or for $25 you can get an actual copy of the game.

You can check out the campaign right here.

Dungeon Roll—Kickstarter Weekly

Tasty Minstrel Games launched a new Kickstarter project this morning, and they're already 1/3 of the way to their goal.  

According to the game's description, "Dungeon Roll is a light and quick press-your-luck dice game with many important and interesting decisions.

In Dungeon Roll, you will:

• Be a Hero with special and unique abilities.
• Roll your party made of clerics, fighters, mages, thieves, champions, and scrolls.
• Destroy the monsters, drink potions, collect treasures, and slay dragons found in the dungeon."

The game comes with:

• 7 Dungeon Dice - Custom Molded Dice
• 7 Party Dice - Custom Molded Dice
• 4 Hero Characters - Commander, Paladin, Battlemage, and Necromancer
• 30 Treasure Tokens
• Experience Tokens
• 1 Rulebook
• 1 Book of Heroes

And the best part is that all of this is only $15—shipped! That's a great deal, and a price-point that I'm willing to take a chance with... Head on over to Kickstarter for yourself, and check out the project. The stretch goals include more Heroes, so let's blow past the goal!

Thanks for reading!

The Card Game of OZ—Kickstarter Weekly

The folks at Game Salute/Springboard have made their way to Kickstarter again, with The Card Game of Oz. The game looks gorgeous, with a full complement of wonderfully illustrated cards, and some cool-looking story dice. The game uses a new "Storyline" engine, which, according to the campaign, works something like this: "A storyline is laid out before you. It is your job, as Author of your own Oz story, to populate it with characters. Each character's vitality is worth so many points to the story. At the end of the game, the Author whose characters have the greatest total vitality wins the game."

Like most Kickstarter campaigns, you can get in for as little as a dollar, and at the $40 level you get a copy of the game (shipping included). Game Salute and Springboard have a long history of bringing great games to market and this one appears to be no exception to that rule!

You can check out the Kickstarter page right here!

Thanks for reading and as always we appreciate you liking us on Facebook, following us on Twitter, and subscribing to the blog over on the right!

Wizard's Brew—Kickstarter Weekly

This week's featured game is actually a reboot of an older one: Das Amulett, an out-of-print 2001 game from designers Alan R. Moon and Aaron Weissblum. It was on the short list for Spiel des Jahres that year, but lost out to Carcassonne. Gryphon and Eagle Games have launched a Kickstarter for Wizard's Brew, a new version of Das Amulett, with a few small differences and improvements. They passed their $10,000 goal just this morning, so it will be funded in 18 days—and this will be a limited edition that will include a small expansion and promos only available through the Kickstarter campaign. Some of the stretch goals include component upgrades and even more expansion spell cards. The game looks to combine resource management, auctions, and player interaction into a meaty filler that plays in around an hour. Check out the campaign for yourself, and as always, thanks for reading!

Dragon Whisperer—Kickstarter Weekly

Thanks to our Top 10 Games of 2012 post yesterday, we bumped the Kickstarter Weekly to today. This one is Dragon Whisperer, a game from Albino Dragon Games and the famous designer Richard Borg—whose credits include Memoir '44, Liar's Dice, and RoboRally. This is a fantasy themed trick-taking game for 3-6 players. I checked out the rules, and it looks interesting: It seems to follow fairly standard trick-taking rules, but depending on the numbered card you play, you'll get to take different, extra actions and benefits. It launched Wednesday, and they've already hit their goal! The campaign is no-frills: 25 bucks gets you the game. My (Firestone) game group really likes trick-taking games, so I'm definitely looking forward to trying this one. Head on over to their Kickstarter page and check out the campaign for yourself!

Compounded—Kickstarter Weekly

Well if you were here yesterday, you know a little bit about this week's featured Kickstarter campaign. The folks at Dice Hate Me have found another diamond in the rough and they are in the midst of yet another successful campaign. Compounded boasts "better gaming through chemistry"—it's a game of gathering elements, and compounding them to create...well, compounds. Players are scientists who are sharing a lab, and a limited amount of resources, elements, and lab tools, as they try to finish more compounds and score more points. For more about Compounded the game, you can check out our interview with designer Darrell Louder by clicking this underlined text.

Compounded is already funded and has blown past the first stretch goal! You can do your part and pitch in $8 for a couple of snazzy buttons to add to your flair. Or for $42 you can get yourself a copy of the game and all the applicable stretch goals. You can check out the campaign right here.

Thanks for reading, and as always you can find and even "Like" us on Facebook. And over on Twitter too!

A Last-Minute Plea for Formula E!

A few weeks ago we told you about a racing game from Game Salute and Clever Mojo games called Formula E. Well, with 6 hours to go on the Kickstarter campaign, they're only $3000 away from funding the game! "You've got games about car races, boat races, bicycle races, sled dog races, and even ostrich races, but there's one type of racing that's missing–Elephant Races! Formula E is here to fill that gap. FORMULA E has a double sided game board–one track is for 3 & 4 players, and the other is for 5 & 6 players. There are six colorful Elephant Meeples included with colors that 'should' be tinted correctly for colorblind friendliness. There are ten Holy Cow Meeples that start the game scattered around the track but can be moved to create obstacles for your competitors. Then there is the Mouse Meeple, which you can use to scare elephants into backing up. As you might guess, there's a lot of 'screwage' potential in a game of FORMULA E–and I haven't even mentioned the Cobras and Monkey's yet!"

So if you're on the fence, make up your mind and consider hopping on board. It looks like a fun little racing game—and racing games are great choices for nongamers and families.