I was going to say Awkward Guests, but that seems to be available in the UK now, so I’m not so bothered!
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Havering over it. Soloable only with app, I believe?
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I think I’ve got enough games under my belt to address this (the first snip) with you. On first blush I was bothered by this tuning as well. Here we have a solo game in which 3 other players can join in, and yet the bag is clearly tuned for 4P as the default.
You might have noticed that the game addresses this and has suggestions to modify the bag contents for other player counts. This also bothered me on first blush, as it seemed like it was going to be worth doing, but also a giant pain in the ass.
I’m a good dozen or so games deep with Calico, and I never sort the tiles; They’re all in there, shifted probabilities be damned, and I’m not bothered by it one bit. I feel like there’s still a pleasing balance between what you’d like to do and what you’re forced to do, and unless I end up playing the game to a very high skill level, I can’t see the probability shift being perceptible enough to warrant the hassle of sorting the bag.
As for the second part of the snip, I’m not sure how to read that. Are you taking issue with the use of cat imagery to draw potential buyers into connecting with its premise/mechanics? Or are you suggesting that the use of cats somehow shuts down critical analysis and discourse?
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I’ve seen a few posts regarding the randomness of the tiles at lower player counts, but we’ve never had an issue with that.
There is an optional “low luck” variation in the rule book for 2 players, but we’ve never bothered as we enjoy the puzzle of trying to make the best of what you get.
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I do have the standard version for Dwellings on pre-order, but I fully plan to slowly replace the standees with aftermarket minis (I’m just not a fan of standees).
As far as the hotness, I know when the Dice Tower did their Top 10 of 2020 all 4 of the main “hosts” had it on their list. Mike Dilisio has commented a few times that it just does a lot of things right for him, and hybrids are generally a popular genre.
I think the production and accessibly have really helped it catch people’s attention, also the fact that it works at all, lol.
I doubt it’s objectively the “best game ever” but I’m far more interested in something like that than say,. Lacerda or an 18xx.
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I know I saw it and I was like „What?“ especially when Zee had it so high or even at all. Mike likes pretty productions so that was no surprise. The huge production may cloud people’s minds I think, it surely clouds mine but with opposite effect. I guess I have to go back and get over my disappointment of the game not being my next Spirit Island…
And it does work. Just didn’t feel complex enough. My copy of On Mars should be arriving soon 
…(I have never played a Lacerda game so …)
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Mike really does enjoy a pretty production, something I can relate too.
I can understand if you were looking/expecting a crunchier game, it may have fallen short. That said, I think the fact that it’s less complex than it looks is partially why it was so high for them.
I know I’m much more interested in it in part due to the weight and playtime, but I also lean towards the lighter side.
Spirit Island sounds interesting, and I love the theme, but I’ve seen enough people refer to it as “upkeep the board game” that I’m hesitant if I would actually enjoy it. I would like to try it one day.
The only “heavy” games that really speak to me are from Mindclash, but I’ve also heard many say that at their core the games are fairly straightforward (which is probably part of the reason they do appeal to me). On the other end, a Lacerda seems to require far too much planning and foresight due to the layers and layers of mechanisms for me to enjoy it.
TL;DR - I can see the production vs weight being a put off for some, but that’s exactly why it appeals to me. 
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Apparently Slay the Spire is coming to the tabletop via Kickstarter. Not much to go on beyond a “spring” launch and a 1-4 player cooperative experience. I’m not sure if this was announced, as much as hinted at and reported upon, but it still feels like scant little info for such a high profile IP.
In the absence of information, my inner cynic gets to hang out with my outer cynic for a while. I have no doubt it’ll be a blockbuster campaign when it hits, but I’m at a bit of a loss in terms of what they hope to achieve with it.
Slay the Spire is a ruthlessly lean, pure deckbuilding game, with an iterative progression structure and Roguelite sensibilities. Put simply: it is a perfect marriage of card and computer game, and it was conceived and executed as a digital product. The sheer amount of shuffling and sorting of your own deck, to say nothing about the overhead of managing dozens upon dozens of enemy decks and attacks (often in mobs) would be obscene for a fast-playing game like this.
I have to guess (hope!) they aren’t going for a straight translation of the gameplay, but then, what is it? Slay the Spire is focused enough in its design that it barely even has the hint of a world or setting going for it; you can probably argue it could easily be (yet another) big, dungeon crawling campaign game, but then, where’s the hook?
Wait and see, etc. but I’m a bit baffled here.
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Gloomhaven + Deck building.
Job done, everyone can go home.
I can’t see how they can replicate the deck building style. It’s going to have to be more of a Clank or Tyrants of the Underdark level. A poison deck is not going to be much fun to calculate.
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The closer the videogame is to a tabletop game to begin with, the less I understand why it’s being adapted. Personally I’m usually the guy that wants it the other way - take some of the fiddliest tabletop games and abstract away the management to the computer so I can focus on the fun bits.
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I agree. Slay the Spire is so good at creating digital systems to allow for card game effects that are far more complex than you would usually have to deal with. It does all the busywork for you, which is what allows for the ridiculous combinations that are manageable with a nice ui but would be impossible to manage with tokens and remembering all the active effects. Curious to see what they try to do.
One of the fun things about Slay the Spire is the ability to riff through a dozen games in hour and accidentally stumbling on a killer combo. I have no idea how you implement that into a physical game without making the whole thing labourious.
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I got the speedrun achievement exactly once. Before and after those sprints, I think my average time for one run is about an hour!
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Yeah, a run is certainly long enough that if I nearly made it to the end I wouldn’t have the will power to play it all over again immediately.
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I’m expecting a fairly straightforward co-op deck builder, maybe with some rogue like experience (in the same way One Deck Dungeon does it).
I’ll check it out either way.
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So Darwin’s Journey was a game I fully expected to pass on without blinking, but after watching a few previews, and checking out the campaign, I’m definitely going to be watching it.
Besides the fairly unique theme and gorgeous artwork, the game looks like a fun worker placement that apparently scales really well.
Going to try and watch a full playthrough before the campaign ends.
As an aside, I also want to try and grab Iwari from the “bazaar” in the PM
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Oh no, now you’ve doomed me too!
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Is anyone backing Carnegie? I just saw some very good reviews of it, but it’s not on KS until next week.
I guess it goes into the list of Games I’m Not Buying or Backing in 2021.
Carnegie is on my list to watch when it starts hitting backers
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Well, there was a game called Origin Of The Species published just last year that was themed around the same voyage, but yes, I’m into the theme already.
I’m also into the designers and the artwork.
I’m not so much into the publishers and I think their Nov 2021 delivery date is a gross underestimate, given they’re soliciting backers for ideas for card illustrations right now. Also, I’ve followed most of their previous projects and they’re consistently very late — which isn’t necessarily a red flag, but they never estimate properly in the first place and each update gives another unrealistic ETA. I can’t explain why this behaviour annoys me so much, but it does. I never care how late a project ships — stuff happens, especially 2020. But when the creators can’t be forthright and honest about their timelines and delays…
</ rant>
Anyhoo, though I’d like to play the game, and perhaps own it, I might end up waiting until retail or a math trade down the road.
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