The Crowdfunding Thread

I saw this and backed away but the concept/visuals and presentation was damn tempting!

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Looks to me like a game following the simulationist design dogmas from the '80s and eschewing (either intentionally or naively) the modern approaches to game design that have been iterated and honed over the last 30+ years.

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ObAirshipFan: Yeah. But airships, man!

(And many people like U-Boot and Leaving Earth.)

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Perhaps most telling is the credentials of the people who they bothered to list opinions and quotes:

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Yeah, gotta love the opening lines: ā€œWe design real aircraft. We design airship books.ā€ We don’t design games! Apparently they aren’t particularly excited by the game itself, as they specifically avoid disclosing the full rules… Also they don’t seem to understand kickstarter (to be expected from their inexperience in that regard), and so bizarrely made this pledge level of a $100 increase for a lot of things you might get. And apparently there are two expansions, that they tell you nothing about, and you can only get if you were on that mysterious ā€œAll-Inā€ pledge and the rather ambitious stretch goal is met. All rather dubious, but…

THE AIRSHIPS, MAN, THE AIRSHIPS. Seriously though, the theme and graphic design here is stunning. You can tell they made books, not games. A lot of game designs could use more of this skill, though.

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They arrived!

Less than two weeks from buying from the PM to receipt. Take that, Kickstarter!

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Anyone know anything about Canopy? I haven’t seen any reviews. Ā£16 seems very reasonable, and the deluxe doesn’t look essential.

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This is the first I’ve seen of it, but oh my, it has so many things I love - trees, Tableau-building, card-drafting, Vincent Dutrait artwork, shrubbery, adorable and poisonous animals, and a kinkajou token. I almost don’t care if it turns out to be a bad game.

I think they got me. Thank you for that! :grin:

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I have Eisner’s March of the Ants and it is unplayed. Other than that, I dont know any of his. I saw Tidal Blades but passed on it. Will pass on this too

Canopy looks really nice. Though the only game I’ve played by the designer is Grimm Forest and it was kinda dull :confused: (and overproduced, but that’s not a gameplay issue).

Since I backed March of the Ants, I was updated about this game; but there just so many games about trees, I wish there were more original themes. Space orks, or something.

But, but, but… kinkajous and poisonous frogs…

I recognize some of the channels they have featured on the Kickstarter project page, but I’m not familiar with them enough to look to their opinions about it.

I’ll be honest: it looks run-of-the-mill to me but if the theme appeals, it’s probably worth a second look

I am incredibly easy to manipulate with plants or nature themes and beautiful art. I tend to be far more likely to be taken with something I find charming than cool. I haven’t played any of Tim Eisner’s games, but the consensus seems to be that they’re just fine and definitely games, but nothing gripping.

Plant themes just make me a sucker.

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I just looked at the poisonous frog effect and saw that it seemed to have no connection to the animal that I could determine.

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My interest is purely theme. I’m not interested in it because of anything game play related, but for the fact that I love Vincent Dutrait’s art and flora and fauna. We all have our weaknesses. Dutrait, Sobel, and Moriya will draw me to anything.

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Well, for me, that poisonous frog effect is central to the theme, or rather the lack of it.

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I can understand that.

That reminds me of one of the podcasts from SHUX last year, when Quinn’s discussed the difference between Setting and Theme.

That was when I realized I’m often more concerned about Setting, than theme, as thematic integration isn’t overly important to me in most cases, but artwork always is.

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I remember that. Bigney had some thoughts on SVWAG a bit back as well. I go back and forth because sometimes I think theme is about the story you tell and the affective aspect of the game but other times about mechanics. But that’s a whole other long thread. :grimacing:

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