What do you know, it’s time for another roundup of tabletop projects! I’ve got several games that I’m reviewing this month already (see my reviews of Tiny Epic Game of Thrones and One-Hit Heroes as a start), but it seems it’s the season for lots of projects again—every week there are several games that I’ve heard about or wanted to check out. As a reminder, these are games I haven’t gotten to play myself, so caveat emptor: they just caught my attention!
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Power Vacuum from Keen Bean Studio
Alas, I wasn’t able to secure a prototype of this trick-taking game prior to launch, but I’m taken with the punny title and the visual of household appliances vying for supremacy. Losing a trick lets you manipulate the control board, and the real goal is to fulfill your secret agendas so you can gain points and build a statue to your own greatness!
GameLib Pocket from Grammes Edition
This project is from Grammes Edition, which has run a few other “pay what you want” campaigns already—it’s a pocket board game library, with a deck of cards, wooden cubes, meeples, and dice. After it’s produced and delivered, backers will receive PDFs of rules for games, once a week for a year—and of course you can also come up with your own games (or play many other existing traditional card games with it). I like the concept! The suggested pledge is $13, but you can pledge as little as €1 (about $2) plus a small shipping fee.
Oscacomp’s Item Shop from NextLevelBanana
There’s a weird English grammar phenomenon about the way we order adjectives—so we say things like “five old blue broken-down cars” but it sounds weird if we rearrange it to “broken-down old five blue cars.” This game plays with that notion: you’re all selling various items from the shop and take turns adding adjectives to it, but they have to be placed in “increasing” order. Last person who succeeds in placing an adjective earns a commission! This looks pretty cute and a little silly.
Aqua ROVE from Button Shy
Button Shy, home of the wallet games, has a campaign for ROVE, a little solo puzzle game that was first released in 2021. This one adds two stand-alone games in the series: Aqua ROVE, which puts you underwater exploring the oceans, and ROVE Jr., a simpler, friendlier version of the game. Plus you can get the original base game if you missed it, and some free expansions.
Bloomchasers from Very Special Games
This is one that I just saw in an ad, and the 3D tree reminded me of building LEGO trees with the little flowers. It’s actually something of an area-control game—you add branches every turn, and use the weather cards to add buds to the branches. Get the right pattern of buds, and you can grow flowers for points!
Millennium Blades … Again! from Level 99 Games
Millennium Blades is a “CCG simulator”—it simulates playing a collectible card game, from buying booster packs to trading cards with other players to building collections to competing in tournaments. It’s a hilarious concept and a fascinating game (you can read my review of it here). Well, now that it’s been out in the wild for 8 years, Level 99 Games is running a campaign to reprint everything—this is your chance to fill in your collection, whether you missed out entirely or you just want to pick up a couple of the expansions. And if you’ve already gotten all the previous MB content, there’s a small tier for a small collection of new cards and one new character.
Super Squad High from Nerdy Pup Games
This cooperative game is about high school superheroes, working together to save the city … and still trying to pass their classes and make friends! I’m intrigued by how everything fits together—doing your homework and learning what your friends are into will help you unmask the villain for the final showdown.
The Eternaut from Pendragon Games
I have not read the sci-fi comic that this game is based on, but it sounds fascinating—a mysterious deadly snowfall in Buenos Aires—and also like the perfect setting for a board game. It does give me some Dead of Winter vibes, but instead of zombies the entire environment is a threat. (Though there are hints that there will be creatures as well.) The game follows its own storyline so it doesn’t spoil the plot of the book, but there are some intersections with the book as well—I’m planning to go check out the book myself now, and keeping an eye on this game in the meantime.
2025 Board Game Mosaic Calendar from Katia Howatson
Katia Howatson makes amazing mosaics out of board game components, and this is her fifth year making calendars featuring her artwork. The calendars also have some fun features like spaces to record games you’ve played, as well as the 10×10 challenge if that’s something your gaming group participates in.
