Steal Garbage, Collect Pigeons, and Search for Treasure in Minecraft

by W. Eric Martin

• I covered some of Ravensburger’s 2024 game releases in Germany in a November 2023 post, but now a few additional titles have come to light, such as Minecraft Explorers, a 1-6 player co-operative card game from Matthew Dunstan that hits the market in June 2024:

In Minecraft Explorers, players explore the blocky landscape together looking for hidden treasure.

On your turn, you have action points to spend as you wish. You can explore different landscapes to discover what’s on the back of a tile. Pickaxes and swords make some explorations easier, so perhaps you want to get them. Try to uncover the treasure you need to win.

Ideally you can avoid monsters such as Zombies, Creepers, and Endermen because at the end of each turn, you must reveal a monster card, and if this monster is already in play, your group will be overrun and more monsters will appear. Face the horde bravely because as soon as the monster cards are used up, you lose the game. Do you best to fill your chests with treasure before that happens.

• In May 2024, Ravensburger will release Garten-Gauner in Germany, this being a 2-4 player game from Fabrice Chazal and Anthony Perone that pits mammals against one another in a very Squid Game-y way:

In Garten-Gauner, all players but one are raccoons who want to scurry through the garden and reach the garbage cans at the side of the farmer’s house where they are sure to find goodies to eat.

However, the last player is the gardener who watches over both the garden and those garbage cans, but they can’t watch everything all the time, with the raccoons having several rounds in which to move and advance toward the house, possibly stealing food from the garden on the way there.

The gardener scores by discovering raccoons behind the correct hiding place, and once the gardener has collected five tiles or the raccoons have reached the garbage cans, the roles change, with someone else playing the gardener.

• Star Wars Villainous: Scum and Villainy will appear in a German edition in 2024 under the name Star Wars Villainous: Abschaum und Verkommenheit, which sounds far more menacing than the English-language edition.

• Now turning to the U.S. side of Ravensburger, the company will release Garten-Gauner in the U.S. in June 2024 under the name Garden Heist, which is a good choice because few people in this country know what “Garten-Gauner” means.

That’s Not a Hat: Pop Culture, Kasper Lapp‘s standalone sequel to 2023’s That’s Not a Hat, will debut in the U.S. in June 2024 following a January 2024 debut in Europe.

And in August 2024, the U.S. branch of Ravensburger will release Oh My Pigeons!, a 2-5 player game bearing this short description:

In Oh My Pigeons!, a ridiculous party game of fowl play, players fill their benches with adorable pigeon miniatures to prove they rule the roost.

On your turn, use your cards to tempt pigeons with snacks, steal pigeons from your neighbors, or leave it up to fate when you roll – or flick?! — the die. Can you outwit, outplay, and out-pigeon your friends?

• Finally, the puzzle company ThinkFun, which is owned by Ravensburger, will release Christopher Chaffee‘s co-operative game Math Path Monster in February 2024:

Teamwork and math skills equal victory in the co-operative game Math Path Monster. Deep in the mountains, players stumble upon the Math Monster’s lair and must beat him in an epic race to the cave entrance.

Kids develop teamwork and collaboration as they unite to outsmart the Math Monster by using addition and subtraction. Can you and your team outwit the monster before it catches up?