Gen Con 2021 Recap: Surreal Edition – Part 6 – What Comes Next

by Ryan LaFlamme
October 18, 2021 | Posted in Critical Hits

No matter how many new games are unveiled at a convention, even the most shiny and attractive ones to dazzle and captivate you, there are always a contingent of gamers who can’t help but continually look straight past them and on to the Next Big Thing. The next title, the next announcement, the next opportunity.

Constantly watching for What Comes Next can trap you into an increasingly maddening cycle of buying into the hype churn and not letting you fully enjoy the things in front of you at the moment, but seeing which games are on the horizon comes with its own level of electricity and excitement too.

(Key to the Kingdom, Restoration Games)

This is especially true with games that are very much still in development or haven’t yet entered production, as you get to peer behind the curtain, however briefly, and catch a glimpse at a future game in the works from your favorite publisher, designer, or artist. Or perhaps you get to spy some relatively unknown game that’s sporting a specific mechanic or theme that catches your attention.

Whatever the case may be, those who like to keep at least one eye on new gaming prospects had no shortage of options to look at here. Even with a much reduced volume of titles compared to previous years, a lack of forthcoming titles there was not. Part of that was due to the oft-referenced shipping issues, but much of that was also simply a matter of enticing audiences with something else to look forward to down the line.

Which brings us to the final section of our Gen Con 2021 Recap: Surreal Edition, with Part 6, What Comes Next, divided into two parts.

The first is a series of upcoming titles, listed (mostly) alphabetically.

The second is a list of most of the Kickstarters & Gamefound campaigns that where being shown off at the convention launching between now and Q1 2022.

As with any such endeavor, these lists are far from a complete account of every single booth at Gen Con. But…it’s still a respectable amount given, well, everything. We hope you find it useful, so give it a look!

 

Upcoming Games

As has already been established, at Gen Con 2021 there were almost as many games being shown off that weren’t there as those that were. So many of what publishers were particularly excited about (aside from the brand new stuff) were games due out in the next 1-3 months – though as usual there were plenty of future releases being teased in various fashions as well. (It was Gen Con after all). This first part recaps many – but hardly all – of these upcoming games. Listed by game, it mentions anything releasing after September 2021 (basically anything more than a few weeks after the convention ended), and roughly when those games should be hitting US shores.

Why only focus on those from October onward? For one, due to a variety of reasons, this final segment has gone out much later than we planned. But also if we were to try to include everything it’d be as long as the BGG Preview List itself. And I’m neither that altruistic or masochistic.

Here we go!

 

1941: Race to Moscow by Ares Games. A World War II era wargame in which players command various divisions of the German army marching towards the Soviet front and must painstakingly plan not only combat moves must logistics management against the highly entrenched forces waiting there. Alternatively, gamers can venture back to ancient times with PHALANX’s other title – both due in December – with the Fourth Edition of the highly regarded wargame Successors, which focuses on the death of Alexander the Great and the rush to claim his empire and boasts new generals, new scenarios, and better components.

2Can by AMIGO Games. A casual and lightweight card game where players trade cards of varying unknown values in an effort to end up with the lowest score. It is planned to release this month alongside two other small AMIGO titles: Flip-Pix, a real-time speed playing card game where players try to associate letters with images using double-sided cards, and CLACK! Thwack!, a card based version of the original CLACK!, swapping magnetic disks for individual sticks with suction cups they need to hit based on dice rolls.

The Adventures of Robin Hood by Thames & Kosmos. KOSMOS didn’t have a booth at Gen Con, but they did have a demo station, where they were able to show off several new titles. The two that got the most attention were The Crew: Mission Deep Sea, the sequel to the massive co-op trick-taking hit The Crew, and Anno 1800, an industrialization-themed Euro game about procuring and producing luxury goods for your populace. These have released as of October 1st. This cooperative scenario-driven game based around the Robin Hood mythos, however, has not quite landed at the same pace – though its arrival is expected anytime between now and the next few weeks.

Aeon’s End: Legacy of Gravehold by Indie Game Studios. The second legacy title in the expansive Aeon’s End series, complete with a bevy of new narrative content, upgrade choices, and foes to fight. This one should be arriving sometime in Q1 of 2022.

Agents of SMERSH: Epic Edition by Everything Epic. A massive new edition of the original classic spy-themed cooperative narrative game Agents of SMERSH offers streamlined mechanics, a graphical update, and a bunch of new content to further deepen the experience. It is hoping to be available by the end of 2021, but may end up being early 2022 instead.

Almanac: The Crystal Peaks by Matagot. A followup sequel to the often overlooked Almanac: The Dragon Road, which cleverly combines storybook-style elements with a worker placement core. This new title, due out sometime in 2022, adds new twists and encounters to that model.

Azul: Queen’s Garden by Next Move Games. The fourth title in the Azul series, this latest version tasks players with drafting hexagonal tiles against a modular layout backdrop to craft the most desirable garden for the Queen within the confines of the placement requirements. Officially, the game plan currently is to officially release at Essen, with wider distribution by the end of the year.

Bang! The Great Train Robbery by dv Giochi. In 2022 Bang! will celebrate its 20th anniversary. Publisher dv Giochi intends on spending ample time highlighting that fact, including numerous convention events planned – though it will also include a new expansion with a train and has players decide on whether to stage a train robbery – or to stop those who attempt it.

BarBEARian Battlegrounds: Tales of BarBEARia by Greenbrier Games. The followup title to the original BarBEARian Battlegrounds and set in the same universe, BarBEARia keeps the same simultaneous action, dice rolling, and light take-that aspects and adds a tad more complexity and interactivity. If you can bear the wait, this one should be coming out tentatively as early as this week.

The Belgian Beers Race by Grand Gamers Guild. A medium-weight Euro game about racing around Belgium and trying to visit as many breweries as possible without over-imbibing. This one, along with several other titles by the same publisher, including the Greek god pantheon fighting game Mythalix, the escape room style micro-game The Pumpkin Problem, and the dice-driven cooperative resource management game Roll Camera! are all due out anytime within the next few weeks.

Bigfoot: Roll & Smash by XYZ Game Labs. A flavorful dice-driven programming game about monster trucks trying to navigate their way in, around, and over obstacles in an arena. This smashup exercise is slated to begin sometime Summer 2022.

Bitoku by Devir Games. A heavyweight and complex dice placement engine builder where players are nature spirits trying to become the next great spirit of the forest. This one is slated for a Q1 release. In the meantime, the aforementioned LUNA Capital should be releasing in December.

Bohnanza by AMIGO Games. The wildly popular Bohnanza itself is not remotely a new title. However, come the first half of 2022 AMIGO will be releasing a 25th Anniversary Edition in celebration that will come with 3 new expansions a brand new bean.

burncycle by Chip Theory Games. A thinky action-driven game about a group of robots looking to infiltrate evil corporations and put a stop to the subjugation of robot-kind while operating within the constraints of a series of randomly drawn programming sequences each round. This program should finish its QC testing and be available for release in the Spring of 2022. Boop.

Cape May by Thunderworks Games. A hand management and economic-driven city building game centered around building up Cape May, New Jersey, the oldest seaside resort towns in the country. At present, the timeline is for this one to release sometime in late November or early December.

Caper: Europe by Keymaster Games. Billed as a thematic sequel to the original Caper, this game is a 2-player card drafting and area majority game where each side dispatches their teams of thieves across Europe to steal precious goods and, ultimately, demonstrate who is the better mastermind. Gamers should be able to take flight for this caper sometime in Q1 of next year.

Cartographers Heroes by Thunderworks Games. A standalone expansion to the hit flip-and-write title Cartographers. The sequel incorporates new scoring opportunities, new maps, and new ways to explore the unknown lands. It should be arriving next month.

Chai: Tea for 2 by Steeped Games. A more complex 2-player standalone sequel to the tea-merchant themed Chai, Tea for 2 uses dice worker placement to pit two players against one another as they progress through the production and shipment of their growing tea companies. Should irony not raise its head regarding production or shipping, this one should be arriving sometime between December and January 2022.

Clash of Cultures: Monumental Edition by Wizkids. The well-renown and much beloved civilization game returns with a massively updated new edition, which not only combines the core game with the original expansion, but also boasts new artwork, updated miniatures and production quality, and extensive cleanup of the rules. It officially released less than two weeks ago.

Corrosion by Capstone Games. This moderately complex industrial themed puzzler, which mixes balancing the need to play cards for effects with managing your production engines before components rust out, is currently slated for a Summer 2022 release.

Crescent City Cargo by Stronghold Games and Spielworxx. A thematic sequel to Captains of the Gulf, in this pick-up-and-deliver game players are logistics companies trying to complete valuable shipping contracts by moving goods to and from warehouses and moving shipping containers by way of rail freight and ocean liner. Ironically, unlike the fate of many other games mentioned here, this all-too-prescient title is available as of now.

Cultivate by Pops & Bejou Games. This humorous and satirical tile, wherein each player is the leader of a cult, utilizes take-that and pattern-building elements to recruit their own followers while hampering the efforts of the other leaders. People should be able to sign up for their free counseling courses on the game as early as later this month.

Cyberpunk Red: Combat Zone by Monster Fight Club. A highly detailed tabletop miniatures skirmish game set within the tabletop RPG world of Cyberpunk Red in which players are rival street gangs fighting for territory and power. This futuristic game fittingly aims to arrive sometime in Q2 of 2022.

Décorum by Floodgate Games. A cooperative hidden information logic game where players are presented with a series of requirements over how they want their shared apartment decorated, but since they cannot overtly state their specific desires they must indirectly work with one another to solve the layout puzzle in a way that satisfies everyone before time runs out. You should be able to pick up this decorative piece sometime in January 2022.

Dog Lover by AEG. A lightweight set collection and tableau manipulation card game about caring and loving your rescue dogs. A spiritual sequel to AEG’s Cat Lady, this one is due out in November.

Dreadful Circus by Portal Games. A lightweight set collection game revolving around blind bidding to acquire cards and possessing gothic-style circus flavoring that is officially debuting at Essen but should also arrive for everyone else as early as this week.

Dungeon Drop: Dropped Too Deep by Phase Shift Games. An expansion to the cube-based spatial game Dungeon Drop that adds a bunch of new variables to the core experience. It, as well as its spinoff sequel title utilizing set collection and mild bluffing, Tavern Tales, are both going to backers as we speak.

Dungeon Party by Forbidden Games. A portable and quick-playing RPG-themed dungeon crawler utilizing coaster-like tiles. Best described as a semi-cooperative Munchkin, both Dungeon Party and the larger Lizard Wizard are due out sometime in Q4.

Dungeons & Dragons: Dungeon Scrawlers by Wizkids. A real-time line drawing game in which players must quickly navigate through a series of increasingly challenging mazes to collect treasure, defeat monsters, cast spells, and defeat the dungeon boss all without picking up your pencil. If schedules hold this title, along with two of Wizkid’s other games – the grid movement game Zombie Princess and the Enchanted Maze, about trying to escape from a hedge mage before the zombie princess finds you, and the nautical racing game with push your luck elements Greece Lightning are all due out by the end of this month.

Dune: A Game of Conquest and Diplomacy by Gale Force Nine. As mentioned in a previous segment, this trimmed down iteration of the classic Dune title, aimed more at 2 players, along with the similarly themed social deduction game Dune: Betrayal are due out anytime now. Dune: CHOAM & Richese, the second expansion to the Dune reboot, will take slightly longer and is slated to release sometime around Q2 of 2022.

Dune: House Secrets by Portal Games. Utilizing the same story-driven system found in their Detective series, this mission-based cooperative adventure game has players exploring and trying to survive within the harsh and highly dangerous world of Arrakis. As so the spice must flow, so too will this Dune title, like those before it, and it should be arriving for gamers anytime between now and November.

Everdell: The Complete Collection by Starling Games. An aggregate title, which combines the core Everdell with all of the existing expansions today alongside two brand new ones, a wooden Everdell tree, and a storage solution for everything included. This big box product is aiming to arrive fittingly sometime in mid spring 2022.

For the King (and Me) by IELLO. This thematic reboot of the beloved card game Biblios, which is due to arrive sometime in December, keeps the core rules the same but trades monks maintaining a treasured library for royal advisors attempting to take on governing duties to maneuver themselves into the best political position under an ailing king.

Foundations of Rome by Arcane Wonders. Though it comes with an ample supply of high quality production pieces, this fairly straightforward title is largely a grid placement city building game where you are competing with others to place buildings in specific patterns to generate the most money and glory. While it was on display, it will not officially be available until sometime in Q1 of next year, and even then it will not be going into retail distribution. On the other hand, Arcane had plenty other titles to show off that will be arriving between now and the end of the year, including the previously mentioned placement game Picture Perfect, the set collection and tower-manipulation game Four Gardens, the latest Onitama expansion in Onitama: Light & Shadow, and a reskinned version of the surprise hit Air, Land & Sea with a more irreverent flavor take called Critters at War.

Free Radicals by Wizkids A highly ambitious asymmetric game whereby each player is one of ten different factions whose mechanics are wildly different than one another but all maintain the central goal of trying to control a bunch of mysterious objects that have suddenly appeared around the globe. By contrast, expect this one to not-so-mysteriously appear in February.

Freedom Five: A Sentinel Comics Board Game by Arcane Wonders and Greater Than Games. 22 In addition to Auf Ausch reprint due around Gen Con next year, in the latter half of 2022 we potentially can expect a new 2 player Lovecraftian game called From Beyond, more Rwby content, the next Dice Tower Essentials title (still to be announced), and likely more Air, Land, & Sea.

The Goonies: Under the Goondocks by Funko Games. This expansion to The Goonies: Never Say Die adds three new adventures to explore, each offering up new enemies, treasure, and characters. Players should be able to take on these new escapades at some point over the next two months.

The Guild of Merchant Explorers by AEG. An ambitious but still highly accessible flip-and-write game where each player starts off with a similar terrain map but your choices over what to do compared to your opponents increasingly deviates as the game processes and different players unlock abilities and effects that alter their strategic decisions. It is being aimed for a summer 2022 (possibly even Gen Con) release. That will be followed by Q3 2022 release with a new Peter McPherson game called Wormholes, to which little is known at this time. Finally, keep a note pinned as next fall will be the 10th anniversary of Smash Up, and there will be a new release centered around then celebrating that.

Holly Jolly by 25th Century Games. As previously mentioned, the publisher is really hoping this Christmas-themed set collection card game will arrive in time for the actual holidays. However, if it doesn’t, the game will only be available on their website for several months and won’t enter distribution until around this time next year.

Hoplomachus: Victorum by Chip Theory Games. A solo player only campaign style game based around gladiatorial combat ordered by the gods (for Reasons) and utilizing many of the same mechanics as other titles in the Hoplomachus line. this single player campaign begins sometime in Summer ’22.

The Hunger by Renegade Game Studios. As previously mentioned, The Hunger is a push-your-luck style deckbuilder, where players are hungry vampires who venture down into the countryside from their mountain home to sate their unholy bloodlust and must return before the sun rises. Feasting on humans provides endgame VP but take up valuable real estate in your deck, and only by venturing to certain locations – further and further away from the castle – can you cull them from your deck. This fittingly dark themed title was on hand at Gen Con ahead of its release this month.

“Jurassic World Legacy” by Funko Games. Very little is known about this Prospero Hall fueled Funko title. Not even its official name has been revealed yet. All that is currently known is that it is a legacy game that progresses through the entire timeline of the movie series from Jurassic Park up to and past Jurassic World. Like most gamers, we too will naturally be chomping at the bit to learn more info about this one ahead of a planned Summer 2022 unveiling.

King of Tokyo: Monster Box by IELLO. The long and beloved King of Tokyo got a new edition a few years back with some minor updates. This big box edition contains that new core edition alongside the Second Editions of the Power Up! and Halloween expansions, as well as some new cards and material exclusive to this title – which is hoping to be here in time for the holidays.

Kites by Floodgate Games. A 2-6 player real-time co-op game in which players must play cards to flip different colored sand timers (representing airborne kites) in the hopes of playing out all their cards before any one timer runs out. There isn’t a definitive release timeline for this one yet, but the hope is sometime in the middle to back half of 2022.

Lava Land by Hobby World. This family-weight real-time dice rolling game about people trying to escape from a (soon to be former) island resort paradise while saving as many of the island’s important relics as possible should arrive sometime in 2022. Precisely when is very much in flux as they are still deciding on whether to release it directly or find a US publishing partner.

The Librarians by Everything Epic. A thematic scenario-driven and fully cooperative card and dice game based around the TV show of the same name, in which a group of intelligent subject matter experts seek out, rescue, and store magical artifacts and stop nefarious actors from causing global havoc. It is expected to arrive sometime by the end of the year, though it may too be pushed into early Q1 of 2022. Luckily there’s no late fees should that happen.

Lost Ones by Greenbrier Games. A fully cooperative Choose Your Own Adventure style tile placement and exploration game, in which a group of kids who have been transported to the land of the Fae try to escape and find their way home before time runs out. There is a strong push to have this one available by the end of 2021, but it is looking more and more like an earlyish Q1 release instead.

Lost Ruins of Arnak: Expedition Leaders by Czech Games Edition. The first expansion to the adventure-themed deckbuilding and worker placement game Lost Ruins of Arnak, which adds new gameplay variety in the forms of new research tracks and asymmetric player setups by adding expedition leaders that come with unique skills, abilities, and even modified starting decks. Officially releasing now at Essen, it is aiming for a North American release sometime in either December or January 2022.

Magic Mountain by AMIGO Games. A cooperative children’s game where you roll a ball down a grooved board with multiple paths and see which characters it bumps into and thereby moves. The intent: get the game’s four sorcerers’ apprentices to the bottom of the board before the three witches do. This cute and simple title is due out later this month.

Maglev Metro by Bezier Games. Maglev Metro isn’t a new game for Gen Con as it released at the tail end of 2020 or early 2021 based on where you were, but it was revealed that new maps for this urban route building pick-up-and-deliver game are due out sometime next year.

Meeples & Monsters by AEG. This bag building worker placement game with an irreverent theme about a band of adventurers trying to build up their town while staving off waves of monster attacks is on track to be released in the first few months of 2022. AEG will follow up this release shortly afterwards in Q2 with a new expansion for Space Base called Terra Proxima, though little info is out there yet on exactly what that will add to the game.

Mix Tape by Talon Strikes Studios. A lightweight card-based tableau game about crafting the perfect mix tape playlist for your crush. Both this title and the similarly light card game Top Pop, a set collection and territory control game about soda makers trying to corner the cola market of various cities, are optimistically due out at some point in 2022.

Now or Never by Red Raven Games. The third title in the Above and Below style series, Now or Never is a competitive storybook-style game where players are competing against one another to rebuild a destroyed village, fight off monsters trying to attack those efforts, and explore the land around them to uncover new technology and secrets. Tentatively it is planned to come out in February 22, though the publisher couched that it may also be bumped out slightly.

Paladins of the West Kingdom: City of Crowns by Renegade Game Studios and Garphill Games. An expansion to the popular West Kingdom series of Euro games, City of Crowns adds a new diplomacy attribute to focus on and new actions towards that end as the kingdom tries to negotiate aid from nobles of neighboring kingdoms. This is expansion is slated for release in November. It was also hardly the only expansion Renegade has in store for Q4. Gamers can also expect Power Rangers: Heroes of the Grid – Rangers United, an expansion to the Power Rangers fighting game, due out in late November, the new modular Clank! In Space! expansion Adventures: Pulsarcade later this month, and a new Vampire: The Masquerade Rivals expansion called The Wolf & The Rat, which adds two new clans to the fight and is also due out in November.

PinPoint by Nauvoo Games. A party game where players choose from among three different game modes, though each of them center around making comparative choices about questions involving specific items, people, or the players themselves. This familiar-yet-affable title should be appearing in December. Nauvoo will then follow that up in Q1 with The Reckoners: Steelslayer, a new modular expansion to the superhero-themed core game.

The Red Dragon Inn 8: Pub Crawl by Slugfest Games. A standalone expansion to the long-running Red Dragon Inn series, this title offers new characters and taverns to partake in as players roam around to new bars to meet new characters and grab a pint or six. It wasn’t available by closing time, but it should be out in December.

Return to Dark Tower by Restoration Games. Arguably one of the most asked about games in terms of timeline at Gen Con was Restoration’s massively ambitious revival of the classic 80’s title, in which players are working to partake in quests and fight off monsters in the land before attempting to storm the Dark Tower itself in a final showdown with the electronic tower itself. If all goes well, this one should be starting to head to backers next month, with some purchase options appearing in 2022. Right on its heels in early(ish) 2022 we should also see the new rendition of the competitive folding-board-as-portals adventure game Key to the Kingdom.

Riftforce by Capstone Games. This 2-player card drafting and head-to-head dueling game pits players against one another as they pull cards from various elemental-themed guilds and combine them in different ways, all with the intent of destroying their opponent and gaining power. It made its first appearance at Gen Con and should be available as of this posting. This will be followed up in November with their next new release, the hefty train-themed economic and pick-up-and-deliver Euro game Imperial Steam.

Roll Player Adventures by Thunderworks Games. This massive co-op storybook narrative game set in the Roll Player universe (and capable of incorporating those rolled characters) tasks players with continuing their heroic duties with new challenges to face and decisions to make across nearly a dozen different adventures. If all goes well, the production portion of this adventure is finally coming to a close, with the hopes of people being able to obtain it as early as November. Not resting on that, though, more Roll Player Adventures material is already slated for later in 2022.  On the other hand, the catacombs-centered expansion Lockup: Breakout won’t be arriving until at least March.

Shadow Network by Talon Strikes Studios. The first of two planned worker placement titles for 2022, this game, set for summer 2022, focuses around Cold War era spy agencies traveling around the world attempting to gather and leverage intel towards building up their agency’s influence in the spy game. The second worker placement game, Night Market, revolves around players trying serve customers and build up the reputation of their business amid the famous Taiwanese night food markets. That one will be a bit longer, as it isn’t planned on making an appearance (day or night) until Q4 of 2022.

Star Scrappers: Orbital by Ares Games. An updated and streamlined reimplementation of the 2011 game Space Station, now set in the Star Scrappers theme. In this card-driven space station building game, players are attempting to build and expand various station modules in order to utilize their abilities and gain VP in a worker placement style fashion. This one should be entering distribution orbit sometime next month.

Steamwatchers by Mythic Games. A scenario-based area majority skirmish game based around nomadic tribes fighting over geothermal resources in a future ice age era Europe. This one was supposed to be out as of Gen Con but was delayed until the first week or so in October. However, the new Enchanters expansion, Enchanters: Darklands, still won’t be here until sometime in the first few months of next year.

Studies in Sorcery by Weird Giraffe Games. A lightweight card drafting and engine building game where players are trying to complete their arcane studies in particular fields of a wizarding school, this one should be magically appearing anytime around now. This will be followed up in January with the super lightweight but visually appealing commodity speculation card game Gift of Tulips (designed by one of our own former writers no less!).

Super-Skill Pinball: Ramp it Up! by Wizkids. This standalone sequel follow-up to the massively popular solo-capable roll-and-write game Super-Skill Pinball: 4-Cade presents four new pinball tables, each offering their own brand new challenges. It, alongside the “I Cut, You Choose” style Bequest, about a group of henchmen fighting over the deceased assets of their former mad scientist boss, are both due out next month.

Suspects by Hachette Games. A fully cooperative Agatha Christie style murder mystery deduction game whose focus is, naturally, about trying to track down the kills among three different scenarios.  This title should arrive sometime between now and the end of the year. This same goes with several of Hachette’s other 2021 releases, including the co-op scenario game Oltréé about knights trying to protect a fallen kingdom, and a reprint of the highly underrated Edo-based Euro game Iki with new art. Meanwhile, the North American localization of In the Palm of your Hand, a miming-based party game, may take slightly longer and into early next year.

Sword & Sorcery – Ancient Chronicles by Ares Games. A new standalone but cross-compatible title within the well-received scenario-driven co-op dungeon crawler Sword & Sorcery. This latest title, whose story takes place as a prequel, offers a ton of new monsters, loot, and locations to explore as players try to once again vanquish evil forces. Campaign backers of the game should hopefully receive the title by the end of the year, and it’s slated to enter retail in Q1 of 2022. In the meantime, gamers can get their fix of the dark and evil with a number of other Ares titles, including the Revised Edition of the slasher-themed hidden movement game Last Friday, the devilish Inferno expansion to the massive deckbuilding-based fighting game Black Rose Wars, where players fight their way through locations in Dante’s Inferno, or the team-based hidden movement game Diabolik: Heists and Investigations, where one side are master thieves trying to pull off heists and the other side are the police trying to stop them – first secretly and then eventually in a full out chase. All of these are due out any day now. Alternatively, you could wait until November and try the super fast, super light dice chucking game Last One Alive in November, where your goal is to outlast the other players in a zombie onslaught, or partake in a mini-expansion in the massive Lord of the Rings themed skirmish game War of the Ring with The Fate of Erebor, which provides an alternate timeline (and altered gameplay challenges) in which the Free Peoples did not win the Battle of the Five Armies at the end of The Hobbit and that portion of Middle-Earth fell to Shadow forces instead. Dark tidings all around!

Tenpenny Parks by Thunderworks Games. A light to medium weight worker placement game where players spend their efforts buying up property, building up their theme parks, and enticing visitors into their venues in a competition for vaunted VP. Prepare for a bit of a wait for this attraction, though, as it’s not due to open till March 2022. (Which, if we’re being fair isn’t quite as bad as Thunderworks’ still-unannounced sci-fi game which will likely take much longer.)

That Time You Killed Me by Pandasaurus Games. A quick and endearing 2-player abstract game involving dueling time travelers trying to undo each other’s existence featuring an excellent implementation of the butterfly effect across timelines and displaying designer Peter Hayward’s irreverent sense of humor. Barring any time paradoxes, we should see it for the first time by the end of the year. In the meantime, the numerical-based roll-and-write Trek 12, about alpine climbing, should be arriving next month.

There’s Been a Murder by Golaith. This aforementioned tiny card game and sleeper hit of the con has players working cooperatively but nonverbally in order to correctly place the Detective and Murderer together into a single player’s hand before time runs out, thereby solving a recent grisly murder in the community. Though it made its first appearance at Gen Con, it was released around the beginning of October and is available now.

The Three Little Wolves by Renegade Game Studios. A quick and competitive card game where players are a trio of wolves demonstrating their architect prowess by trying to build the tallest building in the city, which is accomplished by playing cards in ascending values and, ultimately, trying to avoid having your house knocked down by the Big Bad Pig. Both this card game, as well as the latest iteration of Love Letter using the Princess Ever After comic series, are expected out next month. A little ironically, the holiday-themed reskinned of the super light trick-taking game
Gudetama: The Tricky Egg Card Game will be out this month, however.

Transformers Deck-building Game by Renegade Game Studios. The Transformers deckbuilder made its first appearance at Gen Con and offers players the option to play cooperatively or competitively as the mighty Autobots looking to stop the evil Decepticons, which is done by gathering allies and technologies to that end. Transformers, which is due out in November, is one of three deckbuilders with built-in thematic elements shown off at the convention, which also included the competitive standalone Power Rangers expansion Power Rangers: Deck-Building Game – Zeo: Stronger Than Before, due out this month, and the G.I. JOE Deck-Building Game out in December, wherein players must stop Cobra Commander. And if that weren’t enough, they’ve already let slip that a Transformers expansion with playable Decepticons is already in the works.

Tyrants of the Underdark: Board Game by Gale Force Nine. A slightly modified new edition of the 2016 deckbuilding and area control game about various Drow elf forces trying to take assert dominance over the Underdark. This new edition, which is supposed to release this month, offers up a smaller box, a cheaper price point than its predecessor, and includes the sole expansion, Aberrations & Undead. In exchange, it swaps the first edition’s plastic miniatures with cardboard tokens.

Unmatched: Battle of Legends, Volume Two by Restoration Games & Mondo Games. This next “core” release of the highly popular 2 player mash-up style tactical fighting game, which pits various characters against one another with special and unique powers, will unleash four new characters into the ever-growing pantheon of fighters, including Achilles, Bloody Mary, Sun Wukong, and Yennenga. Volume Two should drop by the end of 2021 if all goes well, and it will quickly be followed at some point in Q1 of 2022 with three more Marvel based Unleashed titles: Unmatched: Redemption Row, Unmatched: Hell’s Kitchen, and Unmatched: Deadpool.

Unsettled by Orange Nebula Games. A massive cooperative sci-fi sandbox game where players are a crew of intrepid explorers lost in deep space who must try to solve a litany of continually changing tasks over the course of your adventure in order to survive and make your way home. A small allotment of the game made a surprise appearance at Gen Con, though fulfillment to US backers of the crowdfunded campaign is only just beginning in recent days. Due to a litany of issues, including the ever-present global logistics bottlenecks and shipping surcharges, it is very likely there won’t be enough copies for the initial run to enter distribution, and a second Kickstarter is likely planned for sometime in 2022. In the meantime, the reprint and expansion of their initial game, Vindication Chronicles, is optimistically slated for January – but it too may end up facing delays as a result.

Vinyl by Talon Strikes Studios. The new edition of the thematic 2019 title about vintage music collectors browsing shops to add sought-after records to their collection, which made its appearance at Gen Con, sports a new slimmed and more approachable offering as it spins off its numerous music genre focused expansions into their own individual boxes. Most of these individual boxes, such as British Invasion or Totally Awesome 80’s will become available individually in the first couple months of 2022. If you don’t want to wait that long for your audio fix, though, a holiday themed Seasons Greetings expansion is slated to make its debut at Pax Unplugged.

Vivid Memories by Floodgate Games. A colorful abstract pattern building game with the premise of players needing to connect colored memory fragment pieces on their boards in specific ways to remember specific moments in time, gain new abilities, and raise their score. If memory (and a notebook) serves, gamers should see this one arrive in November. This will be followed up in December with the re-release of the thematic relationship game Fog of Love under the Floodgate banner. In addition to a reprint of the base game and all previous expansions, we will also be privy to a brand new expansion Fog of Love: Love on Lockdown, and down the line (tentatively) in 2022 with expansion focusing specifically on LGBTQ relationships.

The Warriors: Come Out to Play by Funko Games. A lightweight thematic card-driven co-op game that plays out the plot of the cult hit movie, The Warriors. In it, players are a street gang who have been framed for the murder of another gang leader and must make it back to Coney Island as a group while engaging in street brawls and fending off rival gang attacks. Luckily the wait won’t be too painful: everyone will be able to come out and play this one sometime in late January or early February 2022.

Wicked & Wise by Weird Giraffe Games. A flavorful asymmetric game with focus on obtaining the most loot, which is accomplished primarily via trick-taking. In it players are either dragons, who compete for gold and treasure by via trick-taking mechanics, or they are mice working in cahoots with a specific dragon to manipulate the tricks in their favor. Barring any mice trumping their plans, Weird Giraffe is aiming for this one to be available around July 2022.

Wonder Book by dv Giochi. Publisher dv Giochi had roughly 100 copies of Wonder Book available at Gen Con. If all goes to plan, this family-weight scenario-based game with a series of intricate pop-ups which serve as the game’s board should start popping to obtain in either late October or early November.

 

Upcoming Kickstarters

In this section you can find a sizable (but again hardly complete) list of all the games shown in some form at Gen Con 2032 that are headed to Kickstarter in the next few months…as well as a few which have launched in the couple weeks it’s taken to do this roundup. Unlike the above section, these are listed according to their exact or approximate launch dates (newest first), according to the publishers. That said, this year, as you will see, dates and plans more generally are MUCH more fluid and apt to change than in previous years.

Lost Empires by Kolossal Games. A quick and tactical card-driven head-to-head game of area control in which each player is a competing faction trying to assert control over a newfound planet. Your goal is to deploy enough forces to decimate the enemy and gather enough artifacts of the planet’s ancient inhabitants to build an interstellar gate and claim victory. It launched at the end of September and is currently live on Kickstarter now, with little time left.

Drop Drive by Phase Shift Games. Following up on the creative and inventive lightweight spatial game Dungeon Drop, Phase Shift has launched the next iteration of the idea with Drop Drive. Continuing the same idea of dropping cubes to create a unique abstract “board”, Drop Drive touts itself as a lightweight sandbox wherein players will use their spaceships to navigate this galactic map, exploring new worlds, upgrading their technology, selling cargo, and avoiding space pirates. It too launched at the end of September and is live now.

Tales from the Red Dragon Inn by Slugfest Games. A cooperative scenario-based dungeon crawling game set in the RDI universe, where, somewhat fittingly, players are able to play as one of the numerous characters from the Red Dragon Inn series and actually do what they’ve claimed to do the entire time: be heroic fighters. Throughout each scenario you must work together to explore dungeons, solve the various puzzles or objectives of the scenario, upgrade your characters, and face down all manner of monsters. The campaign for this one is up on Kickstarter now.

Too Many Bones: Unbreakable. A standalone expansion and the final title in the dice-driven RPG style adventure game series Too Many Bones. In this series, players are fantasy adventurers called Gearlocs, who use dice to fight monsters and upgrade their character’s abilities in unique ways before facing down a major foe. Unbreakable focuses on two new characters and their exploration of the vast network of caves beneath the land. This sendoff title is geared up for a launch on Gamefound October 19th.

Titania Ascending by XYZ Game Labs. An inventive and creative cooperative flip-and-write game that’s slated to appear on Kickstarter by the end of October. In this dual-phase game, players are loyal lieutenants of the Fae queen Titania who has decided to reclaim Gaia from humans. During the first part, players will populate their boards with units, allies, and resources for the assault, then utilize that map during the attack phase by shading in sections of that map to accomplish various objectives.

Star Fighters: Rapid Fire by Alley Cat Games. A concise and straightforward space-based combat game in which players utilize real-time dice rolling to allocate dice to various systems on their starships and then take turns using those dice to move, attack, and defend – all with the goal of being the first ship to blow the competition away. This one is ideally hoping to launch on Kickstarter by end of October, but it could also be slightly later than that.

Gartenbau by 25th Century Games. A lightweight tile-laying and pattern matching game where players are gardeners trying to be the first to place and grow numerous different flowers and plants for prestige while adhering to the specific placement/growing requirements of those flowers. This one had launched during this recap coverage but has since been canceled and is slated to relaunch on or around November 9th.

Borderlands: Mister Torgue’s Arena of Badassery by Monster Fight Club. A competitive miniatures-based combat game set in the Borderlands universe in which players are Vault Hunters forced together to fight a host of dangerous enemies while also trying to obtain various rewards and upgrades in the process. This one should enter the crowdfunding arena on Kickstarter sometime next month.

“Honey Buzz Expansion” by Elf Creek Games. The economic-driven worker placement game Honey Buzz (hidden beneath its production quality and appealing visage) is about expanding your hive and selling honey to other woodland creatures, and it certainly had its share of buzzy reception since when it arrived at the tail end of 2020. Building on that hive of interest, Elf Creek is aiming to launch an expansion for an unnamed expansion tentatively sometime in November.

Yucatan by Matagot. Coming from the chief designer of the highly regarded strategic conflict game Kemet, in Yucatan players are leaders of Mayan cities hoping to win the favor of the gods in part by building up your city’s prosperity and in part by fighting with other players to capture prisoners to use as sacrifices for reputation at the end of each round. Word has it that Matagot wishes to launch this one hopefully by the end of 2021, but at the current pacing it is likely to be early 2022 instead.

The Paradox Initiative by Elf Creek Games. A reimplementation of the 2016 game Paradox, Paradox Initiative streamlines and alters several aspects of the original while maintaining its core mechanics of card drafting, set collection, and its central use of Match-3 elements. One major change, however, is the premise: instead of scientists trying to piece together the timelines of various worlds affected by the unraveling of normal space-time, in this version players are the mad scientists causing it to happen. Unless anything else unravels on it, this title, which features artwork contributions of well over a dozen of board gaming’s biggest illustrators, should finally appear on Kickstarter January 11, 2022.

Thunder Road: Vendetta by Restoration Games. A revamped and rebooted version of the Mad Max themed 80’s board game Thunder Road, Vendetta seeks to capture the same frenetic and chaotic energy of the original game, complete with its central theme of a violent, over-the-top, post-apocalyptic highway chase. This new version will still have players commanding a team of cars and helicopter in a race for survival but will include new ways to mitigate damage, attack opponents, and ability to add a bevy of road hazards to the board. Its Kickstarter launched as originally scheduled last week but has since been canceled and postponed until January 2022.

ArchRavels: Magic Socks by XYZ Game Labs. An expansion to Arch Ravels, the light, bright, and quite charming card drafting and pattern matching game of competitive knitting. Little has been revealed yet on the full contents of the expansion or exactly what it will add or change to the base game, but we were able to confirm that they’re hoping to spin up the Kickstarter launch sometime in the first few months of 2022.

Rolling Heights by AEG. A city-building game with a creative central mechanism, in which players are competing contractors trying to erect buildings in a rapidly expanding city to earn prestige. The twist in Rolling Heights, however, is that players “roll” meeples to determine not only which actions they can take each round as well as the potency of those actions. Players are able to push their luck by re-rolling as often as they like but risk losing valuable resources as meeples on their side are not worth anything and cannot be re-rolled. This latest John Clair title should be tumbling onto Kickstarter sometime in the spring of 2022.

“Dead Reckoning: Saga 3” by AEG. The Caribbean-based narrative sandbox game Dead Reckoning is one of exploration, piracy, and territory control, all of which is principally driven via AEG’s Card Crafting system. As players progress through the game new story content can be added via “Sagas”, the first two of which (Deep Legends and Salt & Thunder) were add-ons to the original Kickstarter campaign. At some point after that campaign’s fulfillment (likely in early spring), a new Kickstarter will launch later in 2022 that will include the as of now untitled “Saga 3” content expansion.

Spirit Fire by Orange Nebula Games. Although publisher Orange Nebula is very excited about the prospects of their next title, going so far as to say that it will either make or break them as a company, little information is known at this time besides a few tidbits which were conveyed at Gen Con. Namely, that Spirit Fire is to be an open-ended RPG style exploration game (i.e. Skyrim), but in board game form, and that a vast majority of the items and encounters are unique in some way. It will also have a heavy emphasis on facets such as character development and item crafting but little to no focus on combat. It will be Orange Nebula’s largest and most ambitious title to date, and at the moment it’s expected to launch around sometime in mid summer 2022.

Punch Bowl by Runaway Parade Games. A light and humorous deck deconstruction game where players are one of four factions competing to add the most fruits of their preference to giant bowls of punch. No date is yet set for this to head to Kickstarter, but Runaway Parade is hopeful it will be sometime in summer 2022.

Salon de Paris by Talon Strikes Games. An hour(ish) length action selection game in which players are rising stars in the Parisian art scene and are trying to garner the most VP by the end. This is is done through a combination of obtaining the necessary products, interacting with critics and academics in the art world, and, ultimately, painting and displaying their various new masterpieces. With an extensive schedule on their canvas already, this one will be a bit of a wait, with plans for a Kickstarter exhibit sometime in Q3 of 2022.

Byline by Talon Strikes Games. A worker placement game based around a 1960’s era freelance newspaper reporter trying to raise their status in the industry as well as the outlets they’re working for. In it, players must research stories, validate leads, and submitting jobs before the printing deadlines using action spaces that each contain time components and therefore limit how much you can do in any given day. The news on this one though is that it won’t be coming to Kickstarter until around Q4 of next year.

 

And with that, we bring our coverage of Gen Con 2021 to a close. We hope that you found some of it enlightening, informative, and even a little exciting. With so much information being shared at one place in such a short amount of time, it can be tough trying to keep tabs on even a fraction of it, but we certainly tried to grab what we could over four days without killing ourselves and then shared the more pertinent parts with you here. Please let us know if you found it useful!