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By: Jesse Stanley

  • Age Rating 7+ * (Note there is a NSFW edition that should not be played with children due to language and adult content)
  • Players: 2 – 5* (Can be played with up to nine people by adding a second deck)
  • 15 Minutes
  • Competitive
  • Buy Exploding Kittens here on Amazon

Exploding Kittens exploded into our lives in early 2015. The game became the most-funded project in Kickstarter history at that time, backed by the most people ever. More than 219,000 people showed their support to make this happen. The popularity of Matthew Inman and The Oatmeal certainly helped.

With all the buildup the expectations for this game have been rather high. When the announcement that the game had shipped came it wasn’t too long thereafter that people were posting photos of their spoils online, it was here, but was it good?

The Game

There are fifty-six cards in the deck. The artwork is exactly what you may have come to expect from The Oatmeal. Characters such as Tacocat and Beard Cat make an appearance alongside original artwork on each card. The gameplay is quite simple; the box claims it takes two minutes to learn. They weren’t kidding.

You can play as many cards as you like and you end your turn by drawing a card. If the card is an exploding kitten and you cannot defuse it you are out of the game. The last person standing wins. That’s it. The game really is that simple.

There are a variety of cards that make the game move along and add a layer of strategy to the game. You can use cards to skip your turn or force others to take two turns in a row. There are cards that allow you to steal card or peek at the deck. There are even some that allow you to reshuffle the deck. If you don’t like a card that your opponent has just played you can counter it with a Nope card, though if they respond by playing their own it becomes a Yup!

If you are unfortunate enough to draw an exploding kitten the only thing that can save you is a defuse card. After that is played you put the explosive feline back into the deck anywhere you like. You can do this in front of everyone or even bring the deck under the table to place it. One rather mean strategy is to place it right on top for the next player to draw.

The design is such that you never need to reshuffle the discard pile into the deck. There will always be a winner by the time the cards run out. This feature makes games pretty quick and it was quite refreshing to know that the games were short and sweet.

Family Game Assessment

After playing the game several times now, it was a lot more fun than anticipated. The concept is rather simple, but the execution was nice. It is by no means a game with deep strategy, but that is what makes it so fun. It’s a game about exploding kittens. It isn’t meant to be serious, and the humorous nature of the cards really adds an air level of levity to the gaming table.

During the games it wasn’t uncommon for everyone at the table to cheer and laugh as kittens were revealed and either placed back in the deck in a clever way or took a player out. Overall this game is a good time and comes with a good recommendation so long as you aren’t taking it too seriously.

Expansions and Spin off Games

The team at Exploding kittens has been busy since the Kickstarter of the original Exploding Kittens hit the board game scene. Below are just some of the games and expansions they have put out since then. There are even more outside of the Exploding Kittens theme too!

The ease of the game makes it a great game for the age ranges that are indicated on the box and it plays well for groups of adults as well. The real test will be how much replay value it has. Given the short nature of the game it is a nice way to cleanse the palate between other longer more involved games.

  • Exploding Kittens Party Pack
  • Exploding Kittens Recipes for Disaster
  • Zombie Kittens
  • Exploding Minions
  • Exploding Kittens NSFW (Not Safe for Work)
  • Barking Kittens (expansion)
  • Imploding Kittens (expansion)
  • Streaking Kittens (expansion)

Conclusion

For some reason, this game is a lot more fun than one might think it would be. It plays very quickly and is very easy to learn. Pick it up for something additional to do during a night of gaming. It probably couldn’t support a game night on its own, but it is a fine addition to throw in while someone is running to grab and set up something else.

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There are times when game recommendations come from unexpected sources. I was quite surprised to hear about a game going to Kickstarter through a fan page for the small company Svaha

Frya is a card stacking game abstract strategy game with 68 cards which funded on Kickstarter in 2021.

Game Overview

  • 1-4 players
  • Ages 4 and up
  • Playtime 5-25 minutes

Gameplay

In Fyra, each player selects a “team” color. The goal of the game is to be the player with the least of your color showing when you run out of cards. Each card has four corners. The corners may be the same or different colors in the four colors: purple, yellow, blue, red.

To begin the game, two cards are placed in the middle next to each other face up. Each player receives three cards. On their turn each player puts down only one card. The must match what is under it exactly. If a portion of their card (one, two or three corners) match what is under it they draw a card at the end of their turn. Part of the card may hang off the end, and the pile grows outward with each turn.

If a player is able to match all four corners of their card they do not need to draw a card. If there are no matches at all the player puts their card adjasent to the cards and must draw two cards. When a player runs out of cards they are out of the game.

To scorce, the player who has run out of cards counts the number of corners with their team color showing at that point of the game. Play continues until only one player remains with cards.

Family Game Assessment and Final Thoughts

Fyra is a game with a wide appeal and wide accessibility, playable by children ages 4 and up. That said, it has enough strategy for grown-ups. With no text to read and only colors to match Fyra is approachable by every level of gamer. An additional feature is the distinctive designs on each color to accommodate players with color blindness or play in poor lighting. The rules are very easy to learn. The game teaches in just a matter of minutes at a rough minutes. Even with the easy rules, the strategy is challenging. This is a game that is easy to learn and hard to master.

Where to Find Fyra


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Kickstarters can be a great launching point for a new endeavor. For Willy Yonkers, with his new endeavor the first step is by launching Fyra! I stumbled upon his Kickstarter in an unexpected place, on the fan Facebook page of the apparel company Svahausa.com where it was shared into the group. I was immediately intrigued and wanted to learn more!


Can you give us a “Tale of the Tape” for your game? The title, genre, playtime, age ranges, etc. 

Fyra is a pattern matching card game which takes 5-25 minutes to play. It is for ages four and up.

What is the elevator pitch? 

Fyra is a new card game about matching and stacking. Players are rewarded for matching more of the colored corners on cards from their hands and stacking up their team colors.

When is your Kickstarter live?

The Kickstarter launched on April 1, 2021 and ends May 1, 2021.

Where are you in production/development? How close are you to complete? 

Completely done! I just need funds to make my minimum order quantity and people to sell to.

Are there any other games that you think are comparable to your game? 

Fyra is somewhat similar to dominoes except you can overlap the pieces and move in more than 2 directions.

You’re a game designer. You could have made any game you wanted. Why did you make THIS game? 

I like math and pattern puzzles, so it appeals to that aspect of my brain. It’s also very simple with shades of strategy at higher play levels with more advanced players. I wanted to run a crowdfunding campaign on something easy to produce and cheap to buy to build trust with my customers.

What was your design process like? 

There were many steps along the way:

  • Reviewing existing products
  • Finding opportunities for improvement and gaps in a product line
  • Simple, functional mockups
  • Play and rule exploration
  • Playtesting
  • Market and styling research
  • Manufacturing and shipping estimates
  • Feasibility and sales estimates
  • Working with a ‘real’ graphic designer
  • Polishing the verbiage of the rules

What is the number one reason why a family MUST purchase this game?

Pretty much anyone can play no matter their age or skill level. The only requirement is that you be observant of patterns on the playing field. If you’re some kind of card-counting super-shark you can plan a few steps ahead, but most players won’t reach that level.

How long has this game been in development? 

I have been working on Fyra for 3 years off and on. I was planning on launching in October of 2020 but it would have been really tight to meet Christmas holiday gift delivery expectations.

What obstacles did you encounter making this game? 

Finding a good name was tough. Making the card backs and packaging front look professional was also difficult for me as I’m not a graphic designer. The game itself could have been too simple without the team and scoring aspects that were added after preliminary play testing.

What did your first prototype look like? 

Just squares cut out of paper with 4 color corners printed on them I had made at Kinkos while I was moving from Chicago to Rochester and had most of my crafting supplies in boxes.

Why did you get into making games? 

Games are fun to play and coming up with new ideas is a great challenge. My first exposure to toy and game design was while working at ThinkGeek on their in-house product design team. ThinkGeek had a wonderful ‘Peter Pan’ attitude towards life and work – nobody wanted to be grown-up and boring. Appealing to the kid inside of everyone was an awesome experience.

Tactile Edition

What other information do you want us to know about you, your company, and/or your game?

There’s a Tactile Edition for visually impaired players in the works. It will be hand made in Rochester so the quantities are pretty limited.

Fyra is just the first step I’m hoping to make towards starting a product development company called CubeFire. I wanted to prove myself and gain the trust of the crowdfunding community before moving on to more complicated projects. I’m going to expand the product offerings beyond games but will absolutely keep the ThinkGeek spirit alive.

For more information check out

https://www.fyragame.com/

https://www.facebook.com/CubeFireFyra


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Bad Guy Nonsense is a strategic family card game by Marc Rienzo. It is live on Kickstarter and ends July 21st. The project is funded and you can back the game for $28. Check out the Kickstarter page here.

Can you give us a “Tale of the Tape” for your game? The title, genre, playtime, age ranges, etc

Bounty Hunters compete to capture fantastical characters in a strategic family CARD GAME for 2-4 players. It takes only 4 minutes to learn and is about 20- minutes to play.

What is the elevator pitch? 

An UNSPEAKABLE MONSTER has unleashed a wave of DARK NONSENSE matter across the cosmos… infecting countless life forms with a NONSENSE plague. As a member of The BOUNTY HUNTER collective, you must compete to capture the infected. But be wary of BURGLARS, BANDITS, HEROES, and the cosmic WITCH along the way… they’re infected too.

When is your Kickstarter going live?

It’s already live! ending very soon on July 21

Where are you in production/development? How close are you to complete? 

The game is complete, we just need backers!

Are there any other games that you think are comparable to your game? 

Not that I am aware of

You’re a game designer. You could have made any game you wanted. Why did you make THIS game? 

Comic Book films these days are all PG-13 or R Rated. As a father and film VFX professional, I found it frustrating many of these films were inappropriate to my young kids. So I created my own family-friendly comic book universe for like-minded parents & gamers to enjoy with their kids.

What was your design process like? 

It all began with index cards to figure out the gameplay, and then wet erase cards. The artwork and character design evolved as the gameplay evolved. At numerous points, the games was considered finished, but we really wanted it to be the best it could be so we’d rework every detail that we were not 100% on.

What is the number one reason why a family MUST purchase this game?

It’s popculture rich, yet family friendly with a sense of humor while also easy to learn and play!

How long has this game been in development? 

2 + years

What obstacles did you encounter making this game? 

COVID19

What did your first prototype look like? 

The first prototype was hideous, but so were the second and third! All in there were nearly a dozen prototypes before I was happy with the print quality and overall design & layout.

Why did you get into making games? 

I’ve always had a love for card games, and Bad Guy Nonsense was initially only intended for my family. But when I saw how much all their friends loved playing it too, and parent after parent started asking for copies… I knew I had something special to share.

What other information do you want us to know about you, your company, and/or your game?

Marc Rienzo is a VFX Supervisor, Artist, & Father with a love for Card Games, Comic Books and Star Wars. 20+ years of VFX experience including Marvel Studios, Disney, Bad Robot, ILM, Bruckheimer Films, Weta Digital, Digital Domain, Sony Imageworks, PDI Dreamworks, & many more.

You can find out more about Bad Guy Nonsense at:

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The team at Runaway Parade Games has taken their hit game Fire Tower and created an expansion with more fire spreading and fire fighting components. They incorporated Firehawks into the game, added new cards, added events, as well as expanded the Shadow in the Wood card. Click here to see the preview of the base game Fire Tower.

Expansion Components

  • 27 Core Expansion Cards (these include a hawk symbol in the bottom right corner to distinguish them)
  • 18 Fire Hawks
  • 1 Shadow Power Card
  • 1 Shadow Die
  • 4 Heavy Wind Cards
  • 4 Lookout Cards
  • 3 New Event Cards
  • 4 Lightning Meeples

Gameplay

The basic gameplay follows most of the original rules with the following changes in the expansion;

  • The starting hand size increases from five to six cards
  • New cards included: Rolling firebrand, A Crown fire, Creeping fires, Helitack’s, Backburns, Northwest, Southwest, Northeast, Southeast
  • Firehawks and special Firehawk cards
  • New events
  • New abilities
  • Expanded The Shadow in the Wood role in games with three or four players
  • Solo mode

Firehawks

Based on the Australian birds, the real life birds carry burning branches to areas not burned trying to flush out prey. In the game, Fire hawks start in a vacant space in the players quadrant of the board. If a fire gem lands on the same spaces of a Firehawk, that Firehawk is activated. The player of the activated Firehawk immediately moves the fire gem to any vacant space on the board adjacent to a pre existing fire gem.

New Cards

The new cards add a few new ways to spread the fire, and a few new ways to put out the fire. What is so intriguing about the base game a fire tower as well as the expansion is that all the terminology is authentic firefighting terminology. The new cards include:

  • Rolling Firebrand is a rolling flaming log, and it allows the player to move any two orthogonality adjacent fire gems two spaces horizontally or vertically.
  • A Crown Fire is what occurs when the fire spreads across the treetops. With this card players can place two fire gems orthogonality adjacent to a fire gem on the board. This card has one special feature and if you have two of these cards you can play both and place up to four cards.
  • Creeping Fires a caused by bits of burning plant matter that spreads the fire to the surrounding trees. To play this card the players can add three gems to anyplace on the board that is adjacent to existing gems and are not orthogonality adjacent to each other.
  • Helitack’s use helicopters to transport in supplies or crews in to support fire fighting efforts. This card allows you to remove two adjacent gems and one other gem that can also be adjacent or separate.
  • Backburns is the strategy of intentionally burning an area in controlled manner to consume the fuel. Playing this card allows players to remove one fire gem and replace it with a firebreak token.
  • Northwest, Northeast, Southwest, Southeast wind cards allows the players to either change the wind direction in either cardinal direction, roll for a new wind direction, or place one gem in the direction on the card.

The Shadow

The Shadow of the Wood represents the vengeful spirits of eliminated towers. In the base game the Shadow exists as a single card and has a single time effect. In the expansion, the role of the shadow is expanded and re-imagined. Players can choose to add in The Shadow in a game with three or more players. Any eliminated player immediately becomes the shadow. The Shadow wins the game if all the towers in the forest are burned before the start of the next active towers turn. This feature removes the player elimination element from the game. Once a players tower burns their role merely shifts.

To add to the mayhem, the actions taken by the Shadow have a random element. On their turn the the player rolls a 6 sided die, and performing the action corresponding with that number on the Shadow Power card. Some of the actions the Shadow may take include: Activating a firehawk, place a fire gem, draw three cards and play two. The most interesting option provided a push your luck element. The Shadow players can roll as many times as they want. If the roll is under 5 the Shadow gains a fire gem, and can continue adding gems as long as their rolls are one through four. The player can stop rolling and place the accumulated gems at any time. However, if the player rolls a five or six before they stop, all the gems get discarded.

Ability Cards

Rising Flames adds two new abilities, and like the bucket card in the original game, these abilities have two sides to them. One is the Heavy Wind/ Light Breeze. This card allows the player the one time use of Heavy Wind where they can play as many wind cards as they want, and add fire gems as noted at the bottom of the card. The card is then flipped over and the player has the Light breeze ability for the rest of the game. The light breeze allows the player to play one additional; wind card on their turn and place a fire gem in that wind direction.

The other ability card is Look Out. This one time ability allows the player to draw three cards, play one of them and discard the other two. After using the Look Out ability, players flip the card and gain the Patrol ability. Patrol allows the player to discard on card from your hand without taking that action. Then draw two cards from the deck, play one and keep the other in hand.

Event Cards

Just as in the original game, new event cards go into effect as soon as they are drawn. Also, players have the flexibility to incorporated as many or few events as players want. This flexibility allows players to make the game more challenging.

The new events include:

  • Dry Storm, which is a weather event with lightning but no rain. At the beginning of the game four lightning bolts are placed on the board. These lightning bolts moved around over the course of the gameplay as fire moves into their spaces. Once the Dry Storm card comes up, the player rolls the wind die and adds fire gems in that direction off of each lightning bolt. The lightning strike four times, so this process is repeated three more times!
  • Kettle Flight has the group of Firehaws, move about the board. A group of firehawks is known as a Kettle . Each player in turn order starting with the players that drew the card, can active or add two firehawks, depending on the number of players. Players can also rearainge their firehawks.
  • Mobilization has the player who draws the card then draw one more card than the number of player. They then pick and play one card, and passes the cards to the next player who picks an plays a card. Each player picks a card from these drawn card, and the one extra is discarded.

Family Game Assessment

The base game of Fire Tower is a wonderful family game. Rising Flames add rich gameplay and enhances the game experience. Both the base and the expansion list the age as 14 and up, but it is a great game for much younger players. The prerequisite for accessibility of this game is reading ability, once a player can proficiently read the different cards then they can play the game. The readability needed is typically approachable by children about age seven or eight. A precocious reader who is experience in board games and strategy could be even younger and successfully play. I played with my whole family and my youngest just turned eight, and he needed little help with reading the cards, but still was able to play with little support.

What makes they perfect for the family is there are so many ways to pick and choose different elements in the game to make it easier or harder. Players can pick and choose the event cards they include in the game. For younger players, they can skip the events altogether.

The other element that adds a huge family friendly component is the Shadow in the Woods. This removes the player elimination from the game. With children, it can be very frustrating when their tower burns and they is only a chance the will get to effect the game again. With the expanded Shadow roll now there is no elimination, only a change in roll. This makes the game a better fit for more families.

One final feature that is noteworthy is the firehawk meeples. Fire Tower has a beautiful board that looks more amazing as it fills with fire gems. The fire hawk meeple adds another amazing visual effect to the board.

Conclusion

If you have a copy of Fire Tower it is a must to get the expansion Rising Flames. If you have not played Fire Tower it is a great addition to your game collection, and Rising Flames adds such wonderful new elements, and it is a must buy! For more information you can click here to sign up for the mailing list or get more information.

FCC disclosure: a preview copy of Rising Flame was provided for review.


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Kickstarter is a great place to find interesting ideas. It is full of brilliant creators looking for a market for their projects. The team at Move38 is among them now. They launched their campaign for the Blinks Game system today and I think it is definitely worth checking out!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/move38/blinks-game-system-20-new-smart-tabletop-games?ref=discovery&term=blinks
Blinks Game System: 20 New Games
Games with living pieces that think for themselves.

I have to admit. When Move38 reached out to me a few weeks ago. I was perplexed. I hadn’t seen anything like Blinks before. But, as I dug into their YouTube channel, and their posts on Instagram is all became clear. Blinks is a gadget that bridges the gap between video games and board games (and a pretty cool one at that).

“Blinks are intelligent game pieces that respond to touch, communicate with each other, and think for themselves. … Blinks were designed with the hand in mind and with modular board arrangements for endless possibilities.”

Move38

In a nutshell, each Blinks hex-piece is both a game piece, a portion of a potential game board, AND a virtual “cartridge” with a game on it. Connecting multiple Blinks hex-pieces together will allow them to “learn” to play games on the different hexes. This is a fascinating concept that have a lot of cool options. As of right now there are 20 different games available on the system.

The Blinks pieces are also programs using the Arduino platform. This is a simple coding language that is used in some of the most popular STEM kits. This means that budding game designers can pick these things up and use them to build their own games! In fact, four of the twelve games launching with the system were made during short term game jams.

The price to back the campaign and receive a 6-pack of the blinks pieces (and six games) is $79 US. That includes a super cool “Sushi-Roll” carrying case. That is relatively expensive compared to most video games or board games, but this is an innovative product that is definitely worth a look for tech enthusiasts.


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CMON and Spin Master Games are currently are currently using Kickstarter to fund and generate hype for an adorable cooperative card game set in the Marvel Universe.

Marvel United is a 2-4 player fully cooperative game designed by Eric M. Lang and Andrea Chiarvesio where players each choose a marvel superhero and work together to thwart a villains master plan. The base game was set to include five heroes (Captain America, Hulk, Iron Man, Captain Marvel, and Black Widow), but the stretch goals that have been met through crowdfunding have added thirty one additional heroes and seven new villains to the base game.

The stretch goals have also unlocked six additional expansions that can be purchases add-ons. Each of them includes thematically appropriate heroes and villains as well as new gameplay scenarios. They are:

  • Tales of Asgard
  • Guardians of the Galaxy Remix
  • Rise of the Black Panther
  • Enter the Spider-Verse
  • The Infinity Gauntlet

How Do You Play?

This is a great how to play video that explains provides an overview of gameplay.

Our Thoughts

We haven’t seen this game in action yet outside of some videos and previews around the web, but Eric Lang and Andrea Chiarvesio are talented game designers. Eric in particular has never let us down before.

It is also hard to argue with the aesthetic for families. The Chibi art style looks great when applied to Marvel heroes and villains.

The giant stack of heroes that have been added to the original five is also a great boon. A base purchase of $60 plus shipping gives you more than 30 heroes to choose from. If you elect to go “all in” at $190, then the number almost doubles.

Another advantage to backing this campaign is that there is, quit literally, no risk. CMON has a great track record of delivering Kickstarter projects on time and with gusto. You can back this without hesitation if it sounds interesting to you!

What do you think? Are you backing this one? Sound off in the comments and let us know your thoughts!

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On the floor of New York Toy Fair I had the pleasure to meet the Ok2 Win team. They showed off their newest game, DOOM ON YOU that is currently live on Kickstarter, and shared the creative process.

Can you give us a “Tale of the Tape” for your game? The title, genre, playtime, age ranges, etc.

DOOM ON YOU is a friendly game of strategy, bribery, and destruction. It is a light to medium-weighted game that can be played by kids 8+, while still being fun for gamers of all ages and interests. It takes about 30-40 minutes to play, though the first round may take a little longer as everyone learns the rhythm.

What is the elevator pitch?

The world is ending and there are some surprisingly powerful animals that are battling for each other’s food. Natural disasters, food fights, and destruction await you at every turn. In order to survive and win, you will need some strategy, luck, and maybe even a little bit of bribery.

When is your Kickstarter going live?

The DOOM ON YOU is currently live and runs until March 12th. You can link too the Kickstarter page here.

Where are you in production/development? How close are you to complete?

The base game is complete and nearly ready for production . We just have to make a few modifications to the box design and create a pre-production sample with our printer. There is still some work to do to finish the design for the expansion packs, but we are confident that the game and expansions will be delivered as promised for June 2020.

Are there any other games that you think are comparable to your game?

It has a mix of Unstable Unicorns with the battles, a mix of Exploding Unicorns with the destructive DOOM cards, as well as some unique mechanics that we think really make it fun.

You’re a game designer. You could have made any game you wanted. Why did you make THIS game?

We’ve had the idea to build a game around this name for years. We met a great game designer who had a concept that we loved, and it all just came together.

What was your design process like?

This was a team effort. Ray Nelson, our game designer, presented us with the concept and we quickly fell in love with it. Our artist, Carrie Pine, helped shape the vision of which animals to use and how they should look; she also added some great elements to the game play. I have done my best to guide the process and help all of the great ideas of others come together.

What is the number one reason why a family MUST purchase this game?

If you want a light-hearted way to battle each other and really get the competitive juices flowing, DOOM ON YOU is it. Kids can quickly pick up on the strategy and they learn that they can work together to win a battle, though sometimes they can do it on their own.

How long has this game been in development?

Ray has been working on his idea for years, so it’s definitely been tested.

What obstacles did you encounter making this game?

For every game I create, I do my best to make a high-quality and quick demo video. I still need to create the demo video for this game; and, with some of the nuanced rules and strategies, I want to make sure that I include everything that should be included in that official video. That’s the biggest project that remains, and I’ll be sure it’s completed by the time the rewards ship.

What did your first prototype look like?

Cut out pieces of paper with ink sloppily written all over the place.

Why did you get into making games?

I had worked for years in public accounting; however, I decided that I wanted to do something that brought a smile to people’s faces. Creating games is a great way to do that.

What other information do you want us to know about you, your company, and/or your game?

Company name is Ok2Win. Check out the website here.

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Empty Space is a set collection card game about exploring the vastness of space and, ultimately, landing a rocket on an exoplanet.

It is currently live on Kickstarter. The campaign is asking for less than $2,000 US. That is a very modest goal, and one that they should meet. This is a very cool game.

Empty Space doesn’t have a board. Instead, you deal out an array of cards from the deck in whatever shape you want. It is best to start with a 4 x 6 grid with 4 exoplanet cards on one side, but you (or your kids!) can get wild with it and create all kinds of cool shapes.

On their turn, each player has a choice to either research or explore.

  • Researching consists of drawing cards from a deck blindly or choosing from a pair of revealed cards (similarly to Ticket to Ride).
  • Exploring consists of attempting to move your probe or rocket onto and across the various cards that on the array you created at the beginning of the game.

You’re trying to do a number of things by choosing between those steps and you need to balance them carefully.

  • All of the cards in the array start face down, with the exception of a few that are chosen at the beginning of the game. Players discard non-matched pairs of cards to peek at the cards or flip them over.
  • Building a probe for exploration and a rocket to eventually fly to the exoplanet you discovered requires discarding sets of four matching colored cards.
  • You can “shape the universe” and block your opponent or help yourself by discarding three matched cards. This is, in my opinion, one of the hardest decisions you’ll make as a player. You really have to be careful messing with your opponents because it can bit you in the end by making your own path more complicated.

Our whole family enjoyed Empty Space for different reasons. My oldest enjoyed the map variety and has suggested a whole bunch of differently shaped arrays. My youngest likes the ease of exploration (and messing with her brothers by putting black holes in their path). I just like a simple game that all of us can play together without any real difficulty.

Our friends at the Stay at Home Gamersgot their hands on Empty Space as well! I was able to watch their family of four play the game on a live stream. Their experience confirmed my thoughts. Their kids loved the experience and were chattering the whole time.

I love how easy it is to modify the difficulty of Empty Space. We can make it a little easier when playing with the kids and increase the difficulty when playing with only adults.

Darcy – Stay at Home Gamers

I agree with Darcy on this one. One of Empty Space’s strengths is that is plays well among different age groups. Younger kids can play it together and enjoy it without much intervention from parents or older siblings. Families with mixed skill levels can enjoy it as well.

The campaign will be live on Kickstarter for a little while longer and is definitely worth a look. Head on over!

What do you think? Sound off in the comments and let us know your thoughts!

Make sure to keep your eyes on Engaged Family Gaming for all of the latest news and reviews you need to Get Your Family Game On!

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I’m known as one of the family gaming guys. So, naturally, I’m sent and shown a lot of games that purport to be family friendly and accessible to younger gamers.

A lot of the games we see attempt to take complex game types like dungeon crawlers, RPGs, dexterity games, etc and eschew some of the mechanics or components to simplify the experience. This approach works wonders because most kids love to play games and just need a few obstacles cleared out of their way in order to really enjoy themselves.

The Game!

Dungeon Drop achieves this simplicity in an elegant and clever way: it skips the entire concept of a game board.Look. I know what you’re saying. How, exactly, do they do that?

Honestly, the answer is so simple you are going to be embarrassed that you didn’t think of it on your own. (I know I am!) – They skip the board part entirely.

This is an animated gif illustrating the rules of the game.
This is literally the entire game.

The titular “Dungeon” in Dungeon Drop is created by dropping an assortment of colored cubes onto the play surface. Each colored cube represents a different object ranging from grey pillars (which help form the rooms) to orange keys, and green Boblins. (No. I didn’t spell that wrong.)

On their turn, each player sprinkles a few more cubes into the playing field to mix the dungeon up a bit, uses a player power based on their race or class, and “loots a room” by choosing three grey pillars in the play area and collecting all of the cubes inside the triangle that creates.

This simple gameplay loop can be taught in a few minutes and gameplay is fast. My first demo with a member of the Phase Shift Games staff took place between ordering our sandwiches at a restaurant and those sandwiches arriving. Experienced players will cruise through a game in ten minutes.

Don’t let that simplicity concern you though. The race/class combinations are enough to add variety to a game with a fixed board. The fact that the “board” changes every game based on how the cubes bounce is a bonus!

The Downside

Dungeon Drop was a fun game to play, but there is one unavoidable pitfall that you encounter when playing it with kids. Building the dungeon required dropping a bunch of tiny pieces onto the playing surface. One miscalculation when a younger player does the initial drop can lead to a HUGE dungeon, a big mess (as cubes go flying everywhere), and a challenging play experience without a yardstick.

The rules give you guidance on how to avoid it, but the risk is there regardless. I highly recommend that families add the additional house rule that oldest player at the table do the initial drop. (Trust me.)

The Bottom Line

Dungeon Drop’s asking price on Kickstarter is $16 (with a $22 deluxe edition). That’s a very good price when you take into account the amount of game in this tiny package. It’s definitely worth a look.

FCC Disclosure: A prototype copy of Dungeon Drop was provided for the purposes of this review.

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