Seal of the Republic

Spreading the word to others about games we like is one of the more rewarding aspects of the hobby. This is great – if you already have a finished product. It’s a lot easier to talk about games in finished terms since this is how most of us experience them. But it takes a lot of effort to get them to that point. Only a small percentage of games become the final product you see on shelves, complete with their meeples & minis, dice, blocks, and a whole lot of cardboard. Game designers may have testers needed to fine-tune their game, but they traditionally lacked one vital component to take their dream from prototype to a box in your hands: funding. With the rise of crowdfunding sites such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo, it’s opened new doors for designers to raise the money they need.

Here at The Cardboard Republic, we take special interest in the independent game developers. You never know when one of them may be the next big hit, and even if they aren’t a runaway commercial success, they still may be a lot of fun. Sure, not all games that go through crowdfunding sites are winners, and it can be daunting to search blindly. It’s hard enough to spread the word on games that already exist in the marketplace; it’s entirely different when the game isn’t yet a reality.

We want to help bring attention to those that we feel are worth a look, but we cannot approach an unfinished game with the same criteria we do for our full reviews. Instead, we are providing a much shorter, more concise glance at ongoing or finished games that have earned the Seal of the Republic. These often will be on crowdfunding sites, but it is available to any independent game development in process. We think they are worth taking a look at, and maybe afterwards, you will too.

 

Seal of the Republic Recipients:

Previewing: FAZA

Despite being a subgenre that’s existed for several decades, co-op games have to occasionally re-prove themselves as to be somehow to be worthy of a player’s time. Part of this is because there is a small but vocal part of...
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Previewing: City of the Big Shoulders

Board games have a nearly boundless array of thematic options to choose from. They are, after all, an extension of generalized play, and play often intersects with imagination. A game can therefore take on any theme we deem worthwhile, from...
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Previewing: Western Legends

There are few things so fundamentally associated with the definition of an American than that of the Old West. Cowboys. Indians. Tall hats and showdowns at high noon. Brazen stagecoach robberies and drunken saloons. These are but a few of...
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Previewing: Cerebria

Are you a happy person? It’s a seemingly simple question on the surface. Yet the more you poke at it, the deeper and more complex it becomes. Is there an objective definition of happiness? Can anyone be happy all the time? Should...
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N/A

Previewing: Trickster: Champions of Time

Throughout the course of history nearly every society develops stories about the trickster. They are the consummate outsiders who openly question the current norms of their culture. The trickster feeds on upending the status quo, revels in breaking rules, and loves...
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Previewing: Wordsy

Word games are always a tricky genre to carve out unique space in. The reasons for this vary, but they usually boil down to two main issues. The first one is that so many such games tend to rely on...
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Previewing: Robit Riddle

Even as the board gaming world continues to evolve, we’ve yet to shake off the notion that children’s games must either be limited to rudimentary Candy Land style affairs with few choices or simple pattern-matching or dexterity games that don’t requite...
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Previewing: Barnyard Roundup

Old MacDonald had a farm E-I-E-I-O And on that farm he had a goat E-I-E-I-O With a cluck cluck here And a cluck cluck there Here a cluck, there a cluck Everywhere a cluck cluck Old MacDonald bilked again E-I-E-I-O   Alright,...
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Previewing: Crisis

Things are not looking good in the land of Axia. This once proud country is in the midst of a crippling and systemic economic depression, and you’re about to be dropped smack in the middle of it. Axia’s industry is...
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Previewing: Anachrony

Time travel. On the surface it’s a pretty simple concept: someone or something is transported forward or backwards in time and a memorable story ensues. The more you dive into the details of such a fantastical voyage, however, the more...
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