Old games = bad. New = good. Iwari performed well without the name drop.
3 Likes
Huh. I knew what Iwari was, and never noticed that they refrained from naming any of its ancestors.
In fulfillment news⌠this week is going crazy. I have shipping notifications for 4 game kickstarters (3 of which had been massively delayedânope not Frosthaven), 1 non-game kickstarter and 1 SPIEL 2022 preorder Iâve been waiting for. There are up to 3 more campaigns currently fulfilling or close to fulfilling, that I have not received notice on. But as things are going Frosthaven is probably going to arrive on TOP of everything else (crushing the rest in the process).
5 Likes
Okay. Technically if we had a no-competition-clause, this would be âbadâ to post here, but:
I have⌠concerns?
First off, the guy says something in the pitch like âIf this doesnât happen now, it may never happenâ (emphasis mine) and that immediately sent up red flags.
Why would you say that? Just because you donât do it doesnât mean nobody will do it.
Secondly, they want $200K and they havenât produced anything yet. Donât get me wrong, the crew look fantastic and I know (of) a few of them through previous works (Surena Marie, Becca Scott, Carlos Luna)⌠but yeah.
I mean⌠thereâs a certain degree of either willful obliviousness (the idea that there arenât already, like, a billion ways to get board game news⌠SU&SD, Dice Tower, NPI, etc⌠etc⌠and hey, I donât like Dice Tower, but to pretend they donât even exist is âa choiceâ) or staggering arrogance included here.
That stated⌠it would be cool. But ugh. So much cringe. But hopefully, maybe? Or, at the very least, this will result in smarter people doing something similar?Or even these (probably very smart!) people doing it better? I dunno.
You decide, I guess?
Well, this forum is independent of SU&SD - they have a link on the front page pointing people to us, which is great, but they donât send us any money, and they are not to blame for anything that happens here. 
Iâve seen Becca Scott in some of the post-Tabletop G&S productions and sheâs⌠meh, fine I guess, but she always comes over to me as a presenter whoâs working from a script rather than as an enthusiastic gamer.
I was reading dicebreaker for a while, but they put out a lot of stuff that was of no interest to me. If I wanted a source of board game news beyond Solitaire Times and the BGG feed, Iâd go back to that, in text that I can search through, rather than in video.
5 Likes
These media channels always reek to me of corporate strategy. You can visualise âTARGET DEMOGRAPHICâ, âMISSION STATEMENTâ, âVISIONâ, âVALUESâ scrawled on a whiteboard.
Dicebreaker have definitely been the worst offender for this. When they started, each individual seemed genuinely passionate about boardgames, and none of it came out on the screen. Just a bunch of dull sponsored infomercials. The written articles poorly rephrase the publisherâs copy. Between the lines it seemed like the eurogamer overlordâs were making a lot of demands and only really funded it as some odd side project in the broom cupboard.
Aiming at some nebulous core audience that doesnât exist is always a mistake IMO. Be yourself and everything else will slot into place. Boardgaming could maybe do with an EDGE style magazine with strong editorial voices, but itâs impossible to pull off.
Even SUSD does it these days. Quinnsâ Dune review was the first time in so long that there was true passion there. At the end when he basically said he loved it for all itâs jankiness but could never recommend it encapsulated it all. There are a lot of games that SUSD wonât cover because theyâre scared of recommending a niche game that people will buy en masse and not enjoy. So interest they aim for crowd pleasers, or warning people away from games they think will draw a lot of attention, like a band who will only play the greatest hits.
6 Likes
Man this looks so greasy.
Firstly maybe Iâm just old but the level of production quality to all the images makes it look incredibly disingenuous and fake. I canât exactly explain but this just reads to me as already super corporatized despite their assertions of the opposite.
Secondly they want to start a business/news channel but also want it to be one of the top ones right out of the gate? Isnât that like an incredibly arrogant thing to ask for? Their acting like there are no other news sources while also asserting that if they do it theyâll be the best as if no one else is trying or good at it. I kinda hate Kickstarter for new YouTube channels because your not making anything youâre just asking people to bank roll your business idea. Also how is Kickstarter going to magically grant this for you?
Thirdly maaaaann do not say your passionate but also ask for money to make the thing you want to do âpossibleâ. If you were actually passionate you would take the financial risk yourselves and just start doing the thing. And then if the thing you were making is good it will become successful but this is just asking others to take the risk for you.
Woof this rubs me the wrong way.
4 Likes
I get all my games news from here.
Thatâs why I occasionally send @RogerBW money.
12 Likes
It looks like a parody of a pop-culture youtube channel. Full of irritating voices, bad haircuts, and insincere smiles.
4 Likes
3 different Kickstarters fulfilled today. Random Oink game for reference. Sadly, after a 2 year wait and a 1.5 year wait and a 1 year wait I was a bit less excited for all 3 than such big boxes should warrant.
Although now that I have looked at them I am quite eager to try out Distilled first, then Darwinâs Journey. Moonrakers⌠sigh. Why did I? But the box looks lovely.
Another new rule for me: stop buying games as âcuriosâ. Moonrakers originally was a case of FOMO for me and this extended to the expansions. I thought this was such an interesting new take on deck building⌠I would like to think these days I am able to wait for the general verdict before jumping on the 2nd KS.
So I am off to have a closer look at Distilled.
6 Likes
In fairness, I believe that is literally the purpose of crowdfunding.
3 Likes
Was Darwinâs journey a KS? Just bought it at Airecon from Travelling Man, thought it was direct to retail.
1 Like
Darwinâs Journey was a long overdue KS from 2 years ago. it was sooo much delayed there was a point where I thought it was never going to happen. It might be that the KS was âjust the CEâ I donât quite remember.
On a different note, I have had that a âlookâ at Distilled (lost my first solo) and I am pleasantly surprised that the game is actually ⌠good? I really only backed because of the theme and didnât expect much but an overblown KS filled with too much stuff⌠Iâll write a little more when I am more awake
(During the pandemic I fell for a bunch of KS campaigns that I donât think I would back these days, that is why I am so hesitant about todayâs arrivals)
3 Likes
Ah! Just discovered I bought âIn the Footsteps Of Darwinâ instead! In the Footsteps of Darwin | Board Game | BoardGameGeek not Darwin's Journey | Board Game | BoardGameGeek
Bloody hell! Although apparently âfootstepsâ is very good.
3 Likes
Iâm at least curious about this, although havenât looked at it properlyâŚ
Recognisably the same artist who illustrated Resist!
3 Likes
There will be campaigns againâat some pointâthat I will back. I am reasonably sure. But right now between Galactic Renaissance costing 75⏠+ 16⏠+ 19% VAT and the reinvention of the blink tag here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bellowsintent/an-age-contrived and the walls of youtube videos⌠⌠right now I have hopes that maybe I am might be able to reduce my crowdfunding backlog 
4 Likes
I bought Inis for ÂŁ40 back in the day. I was happy to buy Kemet 2.0 but end up selling it in the end. No, thanks. Not keen on this one.
When you are making the OG âminis in a bucketâ kickstarter Cthulhu Wars seems reasonably priced nowadays, youâre doing it wrong.
4 Likes
I mean, Cthulhu Wars came out before a whole lot of things made boardgames more expensive. Iâm sure it would be a very different proposition today.
Thatâs what I first thought, but I can still get the base game at over ÂŁ100. Still a great benchmark for a ÂŁ100-ish budget.
MSRP is over $200 I believe. And I am betting would be higher if it were being produced for the first time today. Also they barely exist as a company anymore and it will be a miracle if they manage to fulfill their several outstanding projects so while pricing probably isnât the main reason for that I do wonder if it contributed.
1 Like