Interesting Kickstarters (Week of 10/1/2018)

This week, there are a few interesting-looking solo-playable games on Kickstarter to talk about, but I've still got my eye on mid-October. By the time the middle of the month hits, we'll be getting blasted by so many awesome-looking campaigns that I am legitimately worried I won't be able to back something I really want. Budget carefully, my friends. 

1. The Artemis Project

The Artemis Project is a game about colonizing Europa, one of Jupiter's moons. At its heart, this in engine building game, as players are trying to build the most powerful engine and thus the most successful colony. Europa is rich in resources if you know how to get at them. The main mechanic of Artemis Project is dice placement—place your dice cleverly, and you will yield the best results. The rules of this game are still subject to last-minute development/polishing, but Jeremy from Jambalaya Plays Games recently published an overview of the solo mode to YouTube. There are only about 4 days left in this campaign, so act fast if you want it! 

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2. Viceroy: Times of Darkness

Yet another Viceroy campaign is on Kickstarter, so if you're a fan of the game, rejoice! It hasn't pulled me in yet, but the art looks great, and it's clear this game is getting a lot of support from its publisher. This particular expansion is of note because it features revised rulesets for 1 and 2 players, so if you're into Viceroy and you're into solo gaming, it's clear you are being catered to in this campaign. 

3. Heroes of Tenefyr

Heroes of Tenefyr is a cooperative deck building game, one that claims it can be taught in about 5 minutes. In my opinion, that's usually a good thing for a board game. In Heroes of Tenefyr, players will enter dungeons and resolve combat situations using a push-your-luck combat system. As you defeat enemies and clear dungeons, you will acquire coveted loot. But as you keep drawing cards from your deck to favorably resolve combat, you'll get into situations where you need to rest and recover expended cards—a move that brings a big boss closer to attacking you. It seems like a flexible and potentially fun mashup of deck builder and dungeon crawl, and it's only about $20 (...plus $9 shipping to the U.S.). If you like to support first-time Kickstarter publishers, then this is your chance--Heroes of Tenefyr is Broken Mill's first KS project.

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