⌛ Relics & Ruins
5 unique campaigns, a look at recent successes and a peek into the SPIEL ESSEN weekend.
What’s Inside: This issue spans cyberpunk apocalypses and ancient civilizations, cursed artifacts and crumbling worlds. Whether your taste runs to dungeon-crawling or tableau-building, survival horror or strategic empire management, you’ll find something worth backing.
1. RADIO DREAD
Live Page | Hymns From The Grave
Drekas & Plank (Jack Monnaf (@jacktheplank) and Drekas (@drekas.art)), the duo behind Radio Dead, previously worked on the successfully funded Hard Cheese. Their latest offering is an action-packed cyberpunk comic series set amid a zombie apocalypse. It chronicles the adventures of a human-zombie hybrid venturing across undead-ridden America in search of answers surrounding the death of his bandmate. With a proven track record, beautiful artwork, an enticing concept and a £5 price tag for a printed copy of issue #1, it’s a no-brainer.
2. DURF Expanded
Live Page | Accessible dungeoneering
Created by Emiel Boven back in 2021, DURF’s free version has been available for years and it’s now back with an expanded update. Famed for being a quick and accessible TTRPG, DURF Expanded offers a 200 page hardcover book for a definitive version. Its cost is around £53.00 on Kickstarter and promises “a simple dungeon-fantasy core with more streamlined procedures for dungeoncrawling, overland travel, and magic.”
Rules-light with enough depth to support longer campaigns.
Quick character creation lets you roll up replacements in seconds.
Unique HD system replaces static Hit Points with combat dice rolls, keeping everyone on their toes.
Light Dice mechanic creates tension by tracking torch depletion and monster surprise through a shared die pool.
3. Tunnel Story
Upcoming Page | Hadouken!
Tunnel Story bills itself as a “Street Fighter-Infused JRPG Co-Op Adventure.” While its Kickstarter page offers limited details, the game’s official website reveals some intriguing mechanics that set it apart from traditional games. One to watch.
Players embody the Relic - cursed weapons passed down through generations, rather than a traditional hero.
Defeated monsters become hostages that can be deployed for immediate gains or long-term strategic goals.
Players can sacrifice accumulated levels for instant, powerful heroic effects.
4. The Day Everything Changed
Live Page | An apocalyptic comic adaptation
Based off the amazing audio series, The Day Everything Changed has just gone live on Kickstarter. With a goal of just over $3,000, fans of the series can expect new scenes, new dialogue and new action as they witness the complete visualization of the audio story.
John and Sarah, a former journalist and his teenage daughter, travel through Northeastern United States a number of years after the events of The Blast altered every aspect of life. In their dreadful journey to find a safe haven, they encounter another broken family, deadly scavengers who want nothing more than to survive at all costs and, as a result of The Blast, the most dangerous threat — “Sick.”
Set across 118 pages and split into 4 issues, the team is hoping to run four Kickstarters to fund each, unless they can reach their stretch goals. The one catch? It’s only available for folks in the United States or Argentina. Ouch.
5. Bronze Island
Upcoming Page | A taste of the Bronze age
This one caught my eye for its straight-forward pitch and the simplicity of its presentation. Bronze Island is a tableau-builder where you’ll need to expand, endure disasters, and outmanoeuvre rivals. Gameplay is modified with random events and resources are contested to directly affect your survival.
Minimalist artstyle
Supports up to 4 players
Play time of 90 minutes
You can grab a discount on the game if you follow the campaign early
SPIEL ESSEN
I’m at SPIEL Essen this week, where the doors have just opened for what looks set to be a packed weekend. Since Thursday, I’ve been chatting with designers and creators, and over the next few weeks I’ll be pushing out a special series of newsletters featuring exclusive interviews and my take on standout games. There’s some incredible stuff here…
Campaign Check-in
Of all the projects we’ve recently covered, how are those that went live doing? Here’s a quick run down from our first three issues.
✅ Scorched Basin - Fully funded (£58,000 with a goal of £7,500)
✅ Vampire The Masquerade - Palermo Conspiricies - Fully funded with 20 days remaining (€314,000 with a goal of €50,000
✅ Erebus Mythos: Vampyr - Fully funded with 10 days remaining (£6682 with a goal of £1700)
✅ Shred of Redemption - Fully funded ($43,000 with a goal of $5,000)
✅ The Coil - Fully funded (¥676,812 with a goal of ¥4,000)
✅ Danse Macabre - Fully funded with 13 days remaining (£15,709 with a goal of £11,256)
✅ ALTIPLANO - Fully funded (£20,876 with a goal of £7,000).
⏱️ The Pawn’s Gambit - Funding with 29 days remaining (€653 with a goal of €10,000)
✅ Sewer Sanctuary - Fully funded (€4,395 with a goal of €750)
✅ Turn It Off - Fully funded (C$3,382 with a goal of C$500)
✅ You Will Die In This Place - Fully funded (£12,745 with a goal of £1,000)
✅ I Need Your Skin - Fully funded (£2,343 with a goal of £751)
Final Turn
Dice Commandos has moved into late pledges on Gamefound. This tactical dice puzzle game puts you in command of an elite squad, using stealth, combat, and strategic abilities to complete your missions. Available for $25.00, it comes from solo designer Gabe-Barrett, whose Shred of Redemption we recently featured. If you enjoyed that, Dice Commandos looks set to offer a solid experience from the same creator. Assemble your team and venture into the jungle, where you’ll face boss battles and a unique set of enemies - including dinosaurs and ghosts. It’s all very 80’s action hero, but looks fun and you can find a playthrough here.
As always thanks for reading 🙏