Normally we only do our CrowdFUNding Spotlights on a single campaign and only on Wednesdays. But it’s the holiday season, and if there’s one universal truth to the season, no matter if or how you observe them, is that time means less and less as December rolls along. I tripped across one of these campaigns on Hive Social, and that lead me to the other. Since both are small and both are done in less than a week, I’m going to look quickly at both of them right now.
First up, because it ends first, is SNOWPEOPLE.
Snowpeople is the first print-at-home game published by Twin City Games. You will dig through a field of snow as you uncover and collect objects to decorate your snowperson. Throughout the game you will use dice to choose paths to dig through the snow to uncover objects, as well as collect snow for the different body parts of your snowfolk’s body. Whoever has excavated the largest and diverse set of objects to decorate their snowperson by the end of the game will be declared Best in Snow! (from the campaign description.)
The game is less straightforward than some Print-and-Play games, but more complex than many others. Roll two dice, then choose one of the dice to assign one of two polynomial (Tetris) shapes and the other to determine what part of the snowperson you are gathering snow for (Head, Middle, Bottom). Draw the shape on page, and label it as the snow type. When you have surrounded an object on the paper you Dig it up and get points for how big it is. You’ll also work towards bonuses by surrounding objects with the different types of snow gathering.
Snow People is basically a holiday reskin of Joe Hout’s previous roll-and-write game, Paleontologist. The game is specifically designed to be as accessible as possible by using different colours, borders, and background patterns for the objects.
There’s only one pledge level, $4 (USD) for 16 unique PDF game sheets, in colour and print-friendly B&W. By next December, they hope to have a dynamic object generator to print out unique game sheets for people.
You can back Snowpeople on Kickstarter until December 14, 2022 and find Twin City Games online at twincitygames.com.
Our second Spotlight for the day is not on one game, but THREE! Train in Vain, Carnivorous, and Anastasia!
Carnivorous is for 1-4 players. Players work cooperatively to build a three-dimensional store out of dominos, that everyone will score. At the same time, they also work individually on their own greenhouse, also using dominos to determine actions as well as dice and meeple for other mechanics. Be careful though, the plants you are growing are Carnivorous and need to be fed. Audrey II gets cranky if they don’t get some tasty customers.
Anastasia is for one or two players. One player controls the White Army and is trying to save the supposed Princess Anastasia. while the other player controls the Red Army who wants to imprison this threat to their control. Players roll their dice to place polyomino shapes onto a map, trying to protect or capture “Anastasia” and she moves around.
Train in Vain: Christmas Map 2 is a standalone followup to the original Train in Vain game for as many players as you have supplies for. The original game came with two maps, while this is only one and plays a bit differently than the original.
Again, there’s only the single pledge level, and again it’s only $4. But this time you get the PnP files for all three of the games.
You can find Roll & Wright Revolution on Facebook at facebook.com/groups/478166523253874. Links to all of the designer, Benny Sperling’s previous games on Game Crafter are available at the end of the Kickstarter campaign below.
You can back Train in Vain, Carnivorous, and Anastasia on Kickstarter until December 19, 2022.
Don’t forget you can read all of our current and past holiday reviews at TheRatHole.ca/Christmas!