To somewhat coincide with Tokyo Game Market, which took place on October 29-30, 2022, Kickstarter is working with a number of Japanese designers to have them launch crowdfunding projects in late October and early November 2022. Here’s an overview of some of these projects:
• The Fashion Game is a 3-6 player design from Ryoko Yabuchi, best known for 2019’s Yura Yura Penguin. The game can be played two ways, with one being a “please the judge” mode familiar from many party games. The judge chooses a fashion theme for the round, say “mode” or “party”, and everyone else creates an outfit by using the pattern cutouts and layering them on top of the fabric swatch cards in whatever style they think the judge will like best.
In the other game mode, each player is secretly assigned a fashion theme, e.g. A = casual, B = celebrity, etc. and uses their pattern cutouts and fashion swatch cards to design a fashion that matches their secret theme. You score points for correctly matching outfits with themes and having other people correctly guess your outfit. (KS link)
• Gin Crafters is a 2-4 player game from designer Yu Miyazaki (ミヤザキユウ) and publisher JUGAME STUDIO, which always releases stylish games with 1950s-style graphics. (I covered Sakura Hunt in 2017.)
Game details are minimal, possibly because the Kickstarter project is currently in the “notify me” stage rather than live:
• In 2019, designer KONOMIST self-published BEVERAGE, and Japanese publisher Asobition plans to release a new edition (KS link) of the game, with the player count bumped from 3-4 to 3-5. Here’s an overview of the original release:
First edition components
Players decide on the price of their drinking water, which must be produced and shipped, taking into account market trends and other factors. Products will be judged by the market and bought based on their price! Each player then receives the revenue generated.
Starting with the first player who sold products, the company will use the funds earned to operate their company, including corporate activities to help to raise awareness of their company. However, the amount of tax to be paid by raising the level of awareness will gradually increase, and of course, it will be necessary to place the worker in charge of the chosen activity in the respective area in order to take the action.
Promotional image from Asobition
In addition, the players who issued stock during the course of corporate activity gain additional capital and the merits of additional recognition at the time when dividends are paid. However, if dividends are not paid, the player will have a disadvantage that can greatly reduce the reputation.
Upon completion of the stadium, the companies’ name recognition will be increased according to the amount of money invested in the stadium. The CEO of the most well-known company thanks to all these activities wins.
• Publisher itten is running a KS campaign for five of the seven titles in its Funbrick Series, which consists of small games in long, skinny boxes, specifically for these titles:
— 3 Second Try, by Daichi Chihara and Masayuki Ikegami, which challenges you to complete mental or physical tasks in less than three seconds.
— Judge Domino, by Tsukii Yosuke, which is kind of a bluffing game of whether all standing dominoes can be knocked over with a single push.
— Ninja Master, by Reiner Knizia, in which you roll dice to collect ninja-related offensive and defensive items.
— Stick Collection, by Yoshihisa Itsubaki, in which you bid for sticks of slightly different lengths without
— Viking See-Saw, by Reiner Knizia, in which you attempt to load cargo on a tiny teeter-totter ship.
I presented an overview of Viking See-Saw here, which was accompanied by this video:
