Casual Games on Kickstarter: From South America to the Mariana Trench

P'achakuna (Treecer) – In this two player game, the board is made up of hexagons. Each hexagon is divided into two halves. One half is an elevated mountain terrain, the other half represents valleys. One player controls the black llamas which can only travel on the mountains, and one player controls the while llamas which can only travel in the valleys. Players take turns rotating the tiles on the board in order to make paths for their llamas. There are seven villages on the board, each offering a different resource. Each resource can be delivered to the villages where it is in demand. The first player to gather all seven resources wins the game. You may spend extra resources to buy additional llamas or earn extra tile rotations.

The Mariana Trench (Bright Light Games) – In this one-to-two player competitive game, you are exploring the ocean in a submarine. There are four face-down cards between the research ship at the top and the trench floor at the bottom. At the start of the game you may move your submarine up to two cards at a time, while later in the game you can upgrade it to move farther. Once you have finished moving, you reveal the card you ended on. Each card shows both a sea creature and a submarine upgrade. You may choose to collect the creature (if you have enough room in your submarine) or take the upgrade (if you have not already collected that upgrade). In either case, you remove the card and it is replaced with another face-down card at the end of your turn. If you do neither, you must leave the card where it is on the table. Whenever you reach the trench floor, you earn a research token. Your submarine can only hold one at a time, and they are worth two points at the end of the game. When you return to the research ship, you offload any research token and any seas creatures you've captured. You score points at the end of the game for collecting different sets of creatures.

Wizards & Relics (Eternal Realms) – At the start of the game you draw seven cards from your thirty card deck. In the center of the table is the shrine deck. At the start of each round a shrine card is drawn and placed on the table. Each shrine gives bonuses for the round to different wizards based on wizard card color. Each player then secretly chooses a wizard and a relic card from their hand and places them face-down on the table. Wizard cards come in three different colors, and each color is stronger against one color and weaker against the other. Players then all reveal their wizards, applying any necessary abilities, and then they reveal their relic cards. The winning wizard is the one with the highest power total. Win a certain number of rounds and you win the game.

Four Humours (Adam's Apple Games) – You are a medieval pharmacist attempting to gain influence by healing people across the kingdom. On each card are a number of patients, each of which can be given two potion types. Players place these potions secretly. However, different potions will cure a patient based on different criteria. A choleric potion will cure someone if there is only one of its type on that character, there must be two or more sanguines on someone to cure them, for melancholics there must be exactly two, while the phlegmatic potions cures if none of the other potions have done so. Each character you heal belongs to a location on the kingdom map, which earns you influence at that location. Earn influence throughout the kingdom to meet certain card goals in order to win the game.

Rescuing Robin Hood (Castillo Games) – In this cooperative game, you use the cards from your deck to battle enemies and rescue villagers and ultimately save Robin Hood. The cards you draw give you wit, brawn, and stealth with which to fight. When attacking with wit, you reveal one enemy card at a time in the attack pile, deciding when you wish to stop. With stealth you may attack any card in the pile, but cannot reveal as you go, while with brawn you must attack every enemy in the pile (with any leftover brawn passing to the next player). Jolliness helps boost your attack, while scouting allows you to peek at cards in a pile, and prayer shifts cards from one attack pile to another. Once a pile is defeated you rescue a villager which is then added to your deck, making it stronger.

Crack The Code (Indie Boards and Cards) – Each player puts four marbles in their tray. A card set into your tray shows you what colors and patterns your marbles need to form while also blocking your marbles from your view. Players are all working together to attempt to get everyone's marbles in the correct pattern. At the start of the game, command cards are placed in the center of the table, equal to the number of players plus one. Players take turns picking a command card and activating its ability, moving marbles around as the card dictates. At the end of the round, the cards that were used are discarded and replaced.

WHY WHY WHY (Games For Humans) – In this simple, speedy little card game of vowels, players discard their cards in the order the vowels appear in the alphabet. If the vowel is uppercase you must shout it, lower case you whisper it, and when you play a Y card you must complete the challenge such as everyone taking turns naming something in a category chosen by the person who played it (first person who can't think of something must draw a card) or everyone must put both hands in the air (with the last person to do so drawing a card). First person to get rid of all their cards wins.