Dreams of Yesterday
The future has fallen. There’s more than one idea on how to fix time and the Curators believe the way to salvation can be found by learning from the past.
A delightful set collection game where players are moving around a circle of cards, similar to Morels, and taking resource cards or paying for Artifacts using their collected resources. There’s some really interesting things here, such as having artifacts covering up any powers to their left, so each of your two rows will have at most one active ability. The game plays fast, but provides some rich decisions and a challenging solo mode to play against for those lacking an opponent to play against head-to-head.
Dice Dodgems
Players control Dodgems as they bump and dodge around the arena.
If you enjoy bumper cars, you won’t want to miss out on Dice Dodgems. Your dice will help dictate the directions you can move, as you position around the arena to try and bump the other players in order to gain their dice. Use the arena to your advantage, bumping your own car into a direction you couldn’t move otherwise, or leveraging the walls to snipe multiple dice from your opponent if you manage to corner them just right. A game that is easy to learn, and bound to elicit some laughter as you play, sit back and enjoy the light-hearted fun of Dice Dodgems.
Orchard: Recipes Expansion
A small 14-card expansion to be used in conjunction with Orchard: A 9 card solitaire game. This provides a target scoring number to use as a win/loss condition when playing, as well as a condition to work toward for some added point potential to assist you in getting there. A nice, easy expansion to integrate into your gameplay to add extra layers, and some variety in approaches, to your games of Orchard.
Kingdoms of the Deep
While the battle for the five kingdoms rages above the ground, there is also unrest and conflict happening below the surface. In Kingdoms of the Deep, you control six underwater factions and vie to control the most underwater territories, while gaining the most influence to call yourself ruler of the Underwater Realms.
Select your actions and gain extra bonuses if no one else chose the same. Vie for dominance in the underwater region in order to gain points. With 6 different factions to choose from, you have something that should interest everyone to play. The rules are fairly easy to learn, and the six actions should provide some interesting decisions along the way - especially when trying to consider the timing of which action to use based upon what your opponents are working toward. After all, you get a little more oomph for your own action if you happen to be the only person selecting a specific action.
Way Too Many Cats
Some might say, how could there be too many cats? Well, you’re in charge of a cat shelter and it’s your job to show each cat off in their best light so they can all get adopted! However, sometimes there are more cats than you anticipate, especially when it comes to the kittens… Do you have what it takes to wrangle some cats and show them off without getting overrun by kittens?
What would you do if you were faced with the problem of having too many cats and a need to rehome as many of them as you can? Well, now you can find out in this clever drafting game that features a bit of set collection, as well as some spatial decisions on the placement of your cats within the shelter. Boasting a very short set of rules, this cute cat game is bound to please with its multiple layers of decisions as you try to squeeze out more points from your efforts than your opponents. Just don’t let the kittens fool you with their cuteness, as an unmanaged bunch of them could lead to some lost points by the end.
Way Too Many Gray Cats
An expansion to the Way Too Many Cats game experience, this adds in a new type of cat who really wants to be around one type of cat. This might sound like a simple expansion, and it is, but it adds a wealth of new cards and tokens into your experience. So not only will this benefit you by granting even more to consider during gameplay, but will also add more variety in what you pull from the token bag or draw from the deck. So if you really like expansions that maintain the previous gameplay, but add more variability, you won’t want to miss out on adding these gray cats into the mix.
Motley
Draw cards, pick your category, arrange a pattern, and see who can guess it first! Be warned, this motley collection of cards may leave you itching for more clues.
An interesting little game of piecing cards together to form visual clues to the other players. With each card having a variety of colors and patterns, it might be a little more challenging than it sounds, but will certainly engage your creative endeavors as you try to make a masterpiece with what you’re given. If you enjoy games like Pictionary but have no talent for drawing things yourself, this might be a way to scratch a similar itch. Yet half the fun in a game like that is hearing the wild, wrong guesses being tossed around by players, and the nature of this game should allow for plenty of that as well.
Small Time Heroes
The once-peaceful community we call home has fallen under the shadow of an evil force, and the courageous protectors who defended our town have set off on their own pursuits of fame and fortune. In their place, a band of unlikely heroes have emerged - the Small-Time Heroes. These are not your typical heroes, with bulging biceps and chiseled jawlines. No, these heroes are more like the underdogs with quirky personalities and oddball skills. In this cooperative deck builder, you’ll take on the role of one of the Small-Time Heroes and work together to defend the town. With each battle, you’ll build up your deck of cards, choosing from a variety of cards that represent your hero’s unique abilities. Can the Small-Time Heroes band together and defeat the evil enemies to save the town from destruction?
A game of survival and skill, in Small-Time Heroes you will be attempting to battle through waves of enemies and defeat the boss before you run out of health. With a fairly simple flow of gameplay, you’ll be able to upgrade your deck along the way through some of your rewards for defeating the enemies, making you better-prepared for the challenges ahead. With two heroes, a slew of enemies, and a challenging boss to take down, there’s no time like now to step forward and take up the mantle of hero.
Dungeon Pages: Eli, Talented Thief
Eli caught the attention of the Elders for his innate desire to only rob from the corrupt and vile. This trait combined with the young man’s natural skill at pilfering made him a popular choice amongst applicants at the school admission trials.i
Welcome to Graveland, the delightful dungeon to explore. Visit the Jugger’s Toss, the Rug Vendor, and make your way (eventually) to the Crumbling Fair Grounds, where a fierce challenge awaits you in the form of the Triplet Dragons. That’s right, you have three bosses to beat down, and the final one will be the hardest to hit and defeat. Hunting Guardians await you to try and drop your Good Dice in value, and the Shallow Grave traps want to deal you damage as you explore. Fear not, adventurer! Eli has a few tricks up his sleeve with his Forgery ability, letting you wrap dice around to boost - or deflate - a key die in the pool.
Janky Blades
A delightful little roll-and-write game from a modern master of the genre, this game has you crafting blades based upon your die rolls. Piece together shapes, fill in various grain styles, and form the jankiest blade of them all to maximize your scoring potential. If you like order and perfection and symmetry as you play games, you’ll have a constant itch while crafting your own janky blade, as those things aren’t really desirable in this. Let your mind run free from the usual constraints on how a blade should look and see how high you can score.
Paper Putt
Get ready to roll some dice and play some mini-golf! From the creative mind behind Paper Pinball comes the next roll-and-write version of a favorite pastime for many of us! Use the dice to move along the path as you try to get to the end of each of the nine holes in the fewest strokes possible. With plenty of things to consider, including needing the sum of the numbers to be a certain value (over or under, and sometimes equal to), or for it to be even or odd to go down a certain route, there are a lot of little decisions to make on the course as you enjoy the themed holes. Grab your putter pencil and start swinging.
Picky Pixie
Pixies – those diminutive winged creatures from fairy tales – are a rare sight in our world. Who knew they had so many dietary restrictions? Befriend one by figuring out its favorite foods!
For those who delight in puzzling out clues, you won’t want to miss this little game. Each player will get to be the Pixie, setting the rules for what they will or will not eat - whether based on number of flowers, even or odd numbering, color, or type (as examples). Then players get to try and gain more information with their cards, and can guess…but each wrong guess scores points for the Pixie player. Balance between guessing too early and waiting too long - since if you guess right you score based on cards left in the deck - and try to figure out what that Picky Pixie is hungry for!
Apropos: Of Movies
Think you’re an expert in movies? Work together to find titles that match an ever-growing list of restrictions and find out if you really know as much as you think!
This game will not only give you a challenge to test your movie knowledge, but can also lead to watching a movie! Over the course of 5 rounds, you’ll increasingly narrow down the possibilities as you name movies that have certain traits but not others, adding a new word (such as Explosions) each round. As a bonus, you can all watch the last movie chosen regardless of whether you make it to the end or not - at the very least, you’ll have narrowed it down to 1-5 movies to go binge-watch on the cold, winter days that are looming right around the corner.
River Mild
Every year in the realm of Mild, the lengthening days bring new life to the land and the animals who inhabit it. High atop the tallest hills, the sun has melted the fallen snow, creating a rushing river that threatens to flood the land below. Carve out the most harmonious land possible, plotting the river’s course to create space for the local wildlife to thrive.
This is exactly the sort of solo game experience you’d expect from the hit designer of games like Circle the Wagons and Sprawlopolis, although completely different from either of them which makes it an unique experience. It is, however, similar in approach to River Wild, so if you enjoy that then you are bound to enjoy this lush version full of growth and wildlife. There’s a delightful puzzle aspect here as you’re building onto two branches of a river, trying to make Protected Lands in between while maximizing their point values. If you’re a fan of a tactile experience where you build out a map as you go, then you won’t want to miss this wallet game.
The River Mild: Mildscapes Expansion
The land of Mild is full of surprises: new shores to explore, new threats to avoid, and new wonders to discover in each Protected Land. How far will your river flow?
A fun little expansion to an enjoyable solitaire game. This one gives you a new deck of 6 cards, and you flip one every time you make a Protected Land along the way. These cards are all different, ranging from additional scoring possibilities (some could be negative!), ways to make an unprotected land gain Protected status, get more animals, and more. This is sure to spice up the game a bit for those who already are enjoying The River Mild, and for the rest of you who might be trying it for the first time, this expansion is easy enough to integrate into the experience and can just as easily be pulled out if it ruins your experience.
Pick up all the new games here: