The Boston Festival of Independent Games is nearly upon us. Engaged Family Gaming will be on the scene with a big team and will be taking in as many games as we can. We’ve always enjoyed their Tabletop Showcase and this year doesn’t look to be any different. There are nearly fifty games in the showcase this year, but there are six of them that immediately stood out to us as games we wanted to check out.
Druid Dice by Geek Fever Games
Druid Dice combines match-three puzzle mechanics with dice to create a strategy game. Each player’s army is a grid of dice that they manipulate, move, and swap to gain power and attack their enemies. This is an interesting combination of mechanics so I’m excited to see how it plays out.
We love dice games at our house. The more dice we get to roll the better. So here’s hoping this one scratches that itch.
Battlecats: A Compound Deckbuilding Game by Gary Chavez
Battlecats is a card combat game where players compete using a shared deck. The goal of the game is to take turns using standard deck building mechanics to “buy” cards from their own colored decks and add them to a common deck. Each turn twelve cards are laid out and both the turn order and the available actions are determined by the order that the cards are dealt. More of a given player’s color being dealt means they get more actions and the potential for more victory points.
I think that sounds like an interesting concept to play around with. I’ve never played a game like it before.
Fire Tower by Runaway Parade
We actually played Fire Tower already at the CT Festival of Independent Games. But, it was so good that we can’t wait to play it again. This is a game where players compete to be the last player standing as a wildfire rages in a forest area between four fire towers. Players use a spinner to determine the direction that fire will spread and use cards to help protect themselves and attack their opponents.
The gameplay was great when we first got our hands on the game, but our favorite part was the game board. It was a hand-painted, watercolor painting of a forest on a black background. It was an awesome board to play on and the fact that the art was darker added to the experience.
Cake Duel by Sizigi Studios
Cake Duel is a card combat game that includes a strong bluffing mechanic. It seems like it plays like a hybrid between Sheriff of Nottingham and War. I assume that is a bit reductive, but it is a simple game. I also really liked the cartoonish art style.
I have to admit that I’m terrible at bluffing games so this might be a complete bust for me. But, it’s definitely worth a look to see if my sheepie battle skills are worth anything.
Re-Chord by Yanaguana Games
Re-Chord is another game that we got our hands on at CTFIG. It is a guitar-themed strategy game where players place colored guitar pics on a game board and try to score points based on playing different chords. This is a unique concept that plays well. We know that Yanaguana has been hard at work improving the game since we last saw it, so this will be interesting to check out.
Re-Chord will be launching on Kickstarter on September 27th so this will definitely be an important show for them.
Rainbow Octopus by Cray Cray Games
The website for Rainbow Octopus declared that it was a game that all ages could enjoy, but that featured scalable mechanics to allows players of mixed skill levels to play together. That sounds right up our alley. It didn’t hurt that our youngest thought the octagonal, Octopus game board for each player was super cute.
This is just a list of games that have us pumped though. You can read the full list of tabletop games here and make your own decisions. Sound off in the comments!