Casual Game Crowdfunding: Japan, Cowboys, and Monsters

Oni (Treesharp Games) – Each player is a legendary Japanese creature and has their own secret objective to knock down a particular set of characters. Character cards are dealt face down in a circle and each turn this circle rotates. On your turn you may peek at another player's objective, reveal the characters in front of you, swap characters with each other and eventually start knocking them down. When a character is knocked down, whichever player had them as an objective, earns gold. Gameplay is made more unpredictable by cards that grant special actions, which players draw each round.

D6 Shooter (Epic Scale Games) – In this press-your-luck dice game, players are bounty hunters chasing down wanted outlaws. A successful bounty hunter will be hired to keep law and order, moving up through the ranks, first as deputy and then as sheriff. The first player to be promoted to marshal wins the game. Outlaws are caught by rolling dice and matching the symbols on the dice to those on the outlaw's card. Perk cards bought at the general store will make catching the outlaws easier or help outlaws escape from other players. We recently had the chance to play this game – read our full preview here.

Mint Tin Mini Apocalypse (David Miller) – In this two player game, there is a monster loose in the city and players are trying to get their meeples into a fallout shelter. This is complicated by the fact that there isn't room for everyone inside. Players roll their dice simultaneously and as quickly as they can, trying to roll 7's. Almost every action they can take (moving their meeples into the shelter, kicking out the other player's meeples, fetching much needed supplies) requires a 7 to be rolled. Once you have supplies and four meeples inside the shelter you can close the door (on the roll of another 7 of course) and end the game. As the game progresses, the monster comes closer and closer to breaking into the shelter, destroying humanity and winning the game, so players have to move quickly and sometimes even sacrifice a meeple to the monster for the good of all meeple-kind.

Button Shy Wallet Game Series - 3 Micro Games (Button Shy Games) – This campaign is for three micro games, each made up of 18 cards or less. In Smoke and Mirrors, players are magicians trying to perform the best magical act. At the start of the game the start player will play a card face down, which they claim has a value of one. Each subsequent player will then play cards which they claim are of a steadily increasing value. If you don't believe what the magician claims to be playing, you can call them out and either you or they will be knocked out of the round. During Fever Chill players are medical students trying to remain healthy while making other players ill, while in North, South, East and Quest, players are trying to complete an adventure. One player provides information as to who they are and what they need, while the other players take turns telling the story of where they went to complete the quest and what happened to them along the way, using their specific cards to guide the plot.

All Fathomed Out (Daniel Marthaler) – Players are scientific explorers, attempting to discover the most new and exciting oceanic species back in 1878. The ocean is explored by laying out hexagonal tiles. Each tile you explore gives you a different set of cards. Some are event cards which could make it difficult for you to return to the ship, some can be played against other players to impede their progress, and some could be the very fish specimens you are looking for.

Time Jockeys (Baksha Games) – In this game players are traveling through time, trying to earn money. Players are trying to complete time-traveling contracts such as bringing back a video of the Colossus of Rhodes. Some contracts have multiple ways to be fulfilled: do you want to buy a Viking ship or steal it in the dead of night? You can also hire specialists to help increase your chances of a successful trip back into time and earn you more money. Contracts and Specialists are bid on by all players and dice rolls are used to determine the success of your trips back in time, trips which can sometimes even be fatal.

CatTube Famous (CatTube Famous) – Players are attempting to release the most popular cat videos and win over the most subscribers in this card game for two to six players. Each turn you and your opponents play video cards, trying to play ones which make the best matches with the trend cards that are played at the start of each turn. If your videos match up with the current trends you will earn more subscribers and the player who gains the most subscribers in a round, wins the current trend cards. At the end of the game, whoever has the most trend, wins.