Sometimes we’re not too kind to our future selves. When we get lazy or just don’t want to deal with something now, we’ll say, “eh, that’s future Chaos and Confetti’s problem.” Those poor souls, with all we put them through. What’s worse is when we become those poor souls. Stupid forward momenteum of time!
To balance the scales, we try to treat our future selves as well. That comes in the form of planning a date night ahead of time or eating a salad now, so we don’t keel over later. One of our favorite “here’s to you future Chaos and Confetti” strategies is backing projects on Kickstarter (and sometimes Gamefound or Indiegogo). It’s fun to follow the campaigns now, but the real joy comes whenever the project actually gets to us.
We know the risks of backing projects since technically nothing is guaranteed, but so far, we haven’t had any issues eventually getting what we were promised. We go in with the mindset that there will be delays and pushbacks. Deliveries may take months and years, but we knew this wasn’t two-day shipping. We understand, we’ll get our purchase when we get it and mostly forget about it except for a quick oh-yeah from time-to-time. That saves stress and eventually future-us gets to come home to an unexpected package on our doorstep. “Thanks past Chaos and Confetti!”
Seriously, a book Confetti backed three years ago for Chaos showed up this week and it was a pleasant surprise of “oh yeah, I did buy that.”
With all that said, here’s a sneak peek at what we’ve purchased for our future selves:
Active Campaigns:
Surprise! Four Secret Books by Brandon Sanderson (Ends 03/31)
This is the biggest Kickstarter of all-time, so is it really surprising that we backed it too? Seriously though, Sanderson is a great author who has continually pumped out fantastic novels, one after the other. We haven’t read a book by him we don’t like, so the chance to get four new novels was hard to pass up, especially since they seemed like a passion project for Sanderson. Confetti can be a little more hesitant about fantasy, but may she’ll give these books a try too.
The Book of Dreams – A Puzzle Anthology (Ends 04/15)
The Book of Dreams is a new puzzle book. This is a collaboration between a bunch of different puzzle designers for charity – 100% of the proceeds from the campaign will be donated to Doctors Without Borders. Every chapter of the book is done by a different puzzle company, so no two chapters will be the same. The list of participants is quite impressive and we’re looking forward to enjoying the book when it arrives.
Waiting on Fulfillment:
Frosthaven (late pledge through Kickstarter)
We actually missed the Kickstarter for this, because we didn’t start playing Gloomhaven until after it was over. Thankfully, we were able to make a late pledge to avoid missing out. If you haven’t heard of Gloomhaven or Frosthaven, let us help you rectify that immediately! Gloomhaven is a dungeon crawling, euro campaign game with a unique card-driven combat system that ranks #1 on BoardGameGeek. Gloomhaven has an expansion called Gloomhaven: Forgotten Circles and a prequel, Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion. Frosthaven is the highly anticipated sequel to Gloomhaven.
This one of the few Kickstarters that we read every update for because Gloomhaven was one of our favorite gaming experiences of all time. The delays haven’t bothered us as much because Yeti would make getting Frosthaven to the table a bit of a challenge. The more delayed it is, the older Yeti will be, thus increasing our chances of getting him on a regular schedule so we can fit some Frosthaven time in during his naps.
ILLITERATI (Kickstarter)
Illiterati is the second game from Gap Closer Games. We backed their first game, Rival Restaurants, during its second Kickstarter printing with an expansion. Confetti was notified about the new Kickstarter from the Gap Closer Games newsletter and she immediately knew it would be of interest to Chaos. Iliterati is a cooperative word game, “where spelling is only half the battle”. We both love word games and Chaos is a terrible speller, so this seemed perfect for us.
Confetti backed the Deluxe edition, which includes the game and some nice upgraded components. Confetti hasn’t followed the campaign too closely since backing it, but we’re really looking forward to playing once the game arrives.
Kalinasu: Immersive Adventure Escape Game (Kickstarter)
This is the newest game offering from Key Enigma, a company that designs Escape Box experiences that mixes puzzles, technology, and narrative. We have not played any of their other games, but they are highly rated in the Puzzle People facebook group. This Kickstarter offered an all-in option that would allow us to get all of their currently released games at a discounted price. We’re looking forward to having some new Escape Games to play when everything ships.
Artisans of Splendent Vale (Kickstarter)
We found out about the Artisans of Splendent Vale right before the Kickstarter closed from a Frosthaven update. We had to make a quick decision about whether we wanted to back it and ultimately decided that the game looked really promising even though we weren’t as familiar with Renegade Game Studios. Artisans of Splendent Vale is a cooperative adventure campaign game and is described as story-driven. The artisan characters in the game are inclusive and diverse, which is something not often seen in board games.
We backed for the core game and a recharge pack. They also had some adorable looking plushies that were super tempting to Confetti, but we passed on those just due to price. Confetti still questions the decision and will probably regret not buying the cute plushies in the future.
The Light in the Mist – A Tarot Puzzletale (Kickstarter)
Confetti is a PostCurious fangirl and reads their newsletter obsessively since playing Tales of Ord (an excellent at home puzzle game). The Light in the Mist was one of PostCurious’ newest projects, so Confetti backed it immediately. The Light in the Mist is a puzzle game experienced through a tarot deck. We backed at the basic level, receiving one copy of the game.
The Emerald Flame – A Narrative Puzzle Adventure (Kickstarter)
This was another PostCurious project, their follow up to Tales of Ord. Confetti can’t resist a narrative puzzle adventure or anything by PostCurious, so it was another instantly backed project. We backed this one at slightly higher than the base tier, getting an enamel pin and a puzzle postcard in addition to the game. We just got a shipping notice for The Emerald Flame, so hopefully we’ll have it in our possession soon.
THE 7th CITADEL – Explore. Build. YOU are the hero! (Kickstarter)
7th Citadel is the eagerly awaited sequel to 7th Continent, a cooperative exploration and adventure game. Chaos and Confetti put untold hours into 7th Continent and really enjoyed the experience. 7th Citadel launched in 2020 with an estimated delivery date of 2022, so we knew that we would be waiting a long time for this game. It’s since been delayed even from that, but like we mentioned at the top, we don’t really mind the delays so much.
We did go all in on this campaign because we had the classic edition of 7th Continent. We then spent a decent chunk of change getting all of the original 7th Continent Kickstarter components. We didn’t want to run into that issue with 7th Citadel, so it made sense to just get everything from the get-go. If the experience of 7th Citadel is even half as fun as 7th Continent, it’s going to be worth it (and from the 7th Citadel description, we think it might even be significantly more fun than 7th Continent).
Envelescape: Pop-Up Escape Room (Kickstarter)
We’re big fans of unique puzzle games, so a pop-up escape room told over the course of several chapters seemed like a no brainer. The samples from the campaign page look great and we really liked the cute but creepy art-style. We pledged enough to get all three chapters of both their first and second series. It’ll be nice to get the occasional pop-up puzzle showing up in the mail once orders start shipping out.
Marvel United: X-Men (Kickstarter)
Chaos is a big fan of Marvel, so he fully backed CMON’s original Marvel United campaign. We were extremely happy with the game and everything that came with it (even if it takes up way too much shelf space). The cooperative aspect is appealing to us and the level of difficulty scales well. Like Pandemic or Forbidden Island this is a game where players have to make the most of their turns to fulfill objectives while also managing the crises going on around the board.
With all the miniatures, Chaos even started dipping his toes into the mini-painting hobby.
The second season of Marvel United more heavily features the X-Men, but includes plenty of non-mutant characters as well. We look forward to more variety in terms of characters, villains, and game play modes. Unsurprisingly, Chaos went all in again. Now, we just need to make sure we have the shelf space for all these minis and expansions too.
Robinson Crusoe – Collector’s Edition (Gamefound)
If you love adventure and mystery, but also are okay with losing a lot, Robinson Crusoe is a great game. Confetti bought it for Chaos a while ago and he enjoyed it quite a bit. When the chance to upgrade his game and get some other cool components and expansions appeared, he went back and forth for a bit before eventually committing.
This is a game that will benefit greatly from a plethora of new scenarios. It also works really well as a cooperative game or as a solo-play. There is enough variety and variability to really fine-tune difficulty levels and to keep the game fresh. Chaos looks forward to losing a lot more. Confetti will have to deal.
Chaos & Confetti 