The Antibyss Remark – No. 012

Prototypes/Crowdfunding Projects to keep an eye on:

Pack and Paddle (Kids Table BG) – this project is live on Kickstarter until May 28th! This game is from the same designers of Fromage and Search for Planet X both of which I’m a big fan of. This is a family friendly game  of canoeing in the outdoors and having the best camping experience, and I’m already having fun just looking at it.

Flockers (Odd Bird Games) – this project is live on Gamefound until June 5th! This game has fun art, and it looks like there will be little down time as there are only two actions you can take. So go check it out, find your flock, and get into a crisp V formation.

Fall Dawn (Dustiny Games) – this project goes live on May 19th! I’m jumping the gun a little bit on this one since the Gamefound page is in preview mode, so if you want to actually get details about the game you’ll have to go to their website or socials. It looks like a fun take on a competitive card based dungeon crawler, and I’m interested to learn more as it launches!

Games we were playing this month:

Forest Shuffle (Lookout Games) – This was a game we played for the first time at Dice Tower West, and immediately found ourselves with a copy. The game is very quick to teach and get into, but the constant cycling of cards from your hand, to the clearing, and potentially back to your hand is extremely satisfying.

Sushi Go Party! (Gamewright) – I love this variation of the original game because it adds a lot of variety and extends the player count up to 8 players. The game is quick even with 8 players, and sometimes when your trying to pick a longer game Sushi Go comes off the shelf while you’re trying to make that decision.

Cryptid: Urban Legends (Osprey Games) – With our newfound addition of Cryptid to our library, my wife and I dusted off our copy of this 2 player push and pull asymmetric game. I originally got this game back in 2024, and it has been fun to break this game back out and bring it with us on our picnics again.

Project Aleutian Art Update (May 2026)

Time for another peek at the artwork for Project Aleutian! Things are starting to get locked in, but there are still a few aspects of the graphic design that continues to be tweaked based on feedback. We are getting close with the artwork with the artwork for less than 10 cards left and less than 20 total identified art pieces left. We are on a good pace to meet our goal from December of having all of the card art done in June. The next update in June will be another revision to the timeline and longer-term projections.

The Antibyss Remark – No. 011

Prototypes/Crowdfunding Projects to keep an eye on:

Yotei – Deluxe Edition (Mighty Boards) – this project is live on Kickstarter until May 5th! I love the art on this and the gameplay looks very accessible.  The word “charming” is used a lot by others to describe this game, and I don’t think I could agree more.

Oakspire (Lucky Duck Games) – this project is live on Kickstarter until April 28th! I’ve talked about a lot of critter based games, but this one also appeals to my love of production style games. The interesting twist on that style of games are the community actions that are shaped by player choices during the game.

Pantheauction (Out Standing Games) – this project is live on Kickstarter until April 20th (tomorrow)! This looks like a fun auction and bidding game from a small passionate team. The thing that grabbed my attention was the fun blending of art deco visuals with the traditional Greek pantheon into one unified and fun theme.

Games we were playing this month:

Cryptid (Osprey Games) – I just traded for this game (my first trade not at a convention) and we’ve already played it a few times. It is very fast to setup and fast to teach, and as a deduction game really pushes you to that great brain blast feeling as you cross a bunch of things off. Unfortunately, if one person accidentally screws up about their logic rule the whole game breaks.

Calico (Alderac Entertainment Group) – I first played this game a few years back, but just acquired a copy. This one has quickly become one of my wife’s favorites and the cozy theme of cats and quilts seems to appeal to a lot of people. Another one with relatively simple gameplay, but it can really break your brain as you try to make the perfect quilt.

Bohnanza (Rio Grande Games) – I actually found this game when reading “Hobby Games: The 100 Best” back in 2018. The art is just plain fun, and my wife and I mostly play the 2 player variant. There is a fun risk and reward feel in variant that isn’t in the normal version. We also enjoy the normal version that involves trading too, but it a totally different feel.

Die Cutter

I had some updates a while back to some of the hardware I have around the house for making new prototypes of Project Aleutian that I thought would be worth sharing (for those interested in making prototype games themselves).

A month or so ago I ended up purchasing a used AccuCut GrandeMARK 2 die cutter. My main requirement for a die cutter was that I could fit a die large enough to cut out all of the cards on an 8.5”x11” (letter) size piece of paper. This does limit the options some, others I was looking at were the AccuCut MARK 4, AccuCut MARK 5, and Sizzix Big Shot Plus. They were big enough and it took some diligent searching to find a good deal, and I got really lucky finding one for a couple hundred dollars.

For the die, I purchased a custom die from a local small business, Autobend Laser Steel Rule Dies, who were great to work with, reasonably priced, and had a super-fast turnaround. From when I confirmed the purchase to when it was at my door was less than a week. I couldn’t really believe it. The custom die also set me back a couple hundred dollars, and that seems to be mostly driven by the size.

Now that I have both the die and die cutter in hand I can now cut out a full page of mini euro cards (14) in a few seconds. My old method was using a guillotine cutter (Swingline) to cut out the cards individually and a corner punch (Sunstar Kadomaru Pro) to get the rounded edges.

For a full game of Project Aleutian (about 270 mini euro cards) I can cut the full set in <30min with the die cutter where my old method took a couple of hours. This has two main benefits. The first is obvious, the time savings. The second is that it makes me more willing to make big changes and print them out for testing. I didn’t realize how much I had started to dread making bigger changes because of the amount of work it would take to get it to the table and looking nice until I had the die cutter to make it so easy.

I really wish I had invested in one earlier, and I wanted to share my experience for those of you out there on the fence (or maybe you didn’t even know die cutting was an option). So far, I only have a custom die for my mini euro template, but I plan to eventually get custom dies for other card sizes.

Antibyss_Card_TemplatesDownload

I do have card templates for letter size paper that I like to use down below. They have the main card area and a 3mm bleed around each card that helps with alignment front to back. I primarily use Inkscape or Affinity Designer 2 for the card layouts, but any vector graphics software should be able to open an svg file. Also, here is the dxf file that I used to order the custom die. This goes with the MiniEuro_CardTemplate_45mmx68mm.svg template above.

Antibyss_MiniEuro_dxfDownload

The Antibyss Remark – No. 010

Prototypes/Crowdfunding Projects to keep an eye on:

Regicide Inferno and Regicide: Crown Duels (Badgers from Mars) – this project is live on Kickstarter until April 14th! I mentioned the original game last time and now they are funding two new games of the same style! Regicide Inferno adds a 5th suit and crown duel uses a traditional deck format so you can try before you buy.

The Old King’s Crown Second Printing & New Songs of Home Expansion (Eerie Idol Games) – this project is live on Gamefound until March 31st! This game was in the hot games section of Dice Tower West this year and it was so busy I didn’t get a chance to play it, but the hype is definitely there for this strategic game. So, if that is your thing, it is worth checking out their second printing!

Botany Floral Dragons (Dux Somnium) – this project is live on Kickstarter until April 2nd! This is a standalone game based on previous hit Botany that takes a more fantastical approach to the theme with some tweaks to gameplay.  As always, Dux Somnium has made another staggeringly beautiful game.

Games we were playing this month:

Mistwind (First Fish Games) – After finding Canals of Windcrest last month, I sought out Mistwind at the convention. It was a really fun network and transportation game. I really enjoyed the action token system it uses, but if you aren’t careful with your resources your transport whale might unfortunately get stuck in a corner for a while leaving you a little frustrated and determined never to let it happen again.

Galactic Cruise (Kinson Key Games) – This was one of my favorites from the convention because of both the theme and the gameplay were both fun and thought out. I will admit, this game was definitely a commitment timewise to learn and play through the first time, and we were lucky enough to have a teacher.

Fromage (R2I) – This game has been on my list to try for a while since I am a huge fan of Canvas from R2I. This game was just an absolute joy to play and just made me want to get a charcuterie board and give the game another spin. The only issue we had was that the convention tables weren’t flat which made spinning the board a little difficult, but that is just another thing that could be overcome.

Dice Tower West 2026

I just got home from another amazing year at Dice Tower West! It’s hard to believe this is the third-year demoing Project Aleutian at this convention. This year I had 5 time slots, and I had play testers for 4 of them! During the 5th timeslot I didn’t end up catching anyone as they walked by but I got to pick the brain the designer of Zeal who was demoing his game next to mine. There was a lot of encouragement from all of those who play tested Project Aleutian on everything from the mechanics to the artwork! Of course, there was also a lot of good feedback on a few things to tweak here and there, but all in all I came away very encouraged!

Beyond just playtesting Project Aleutian, Dice Tower West has become very special reunion of sorts with friends who live far away. We get to set aside our day jobs and meet up in Las Vegas and just have a great time enjoying this hobby that we all share together. We played several games and I plan to share a few of those during the Antibyss Remark next weekend!

If you’ve never attended a board game convention I would highly encourage you to do so (even if you only do it once). It is a really fun and unique way to enjoy the hobby that, in my experience, always brings great memories and goes by too quickly.

I just want to give another big thank you to all of the players and designers I interacted with who made this weekend amazing!

DTW 2026 This Week

Just a quick final plug this week since we officially have our time slots for Dice Tower West this year! Project Aleutian playtest times are posted on cardboardevents.com and we have 5 time slots this year: Thursday (3/12, Table 7) for two time slots 10am, and 12pm, Friday (3/13) for two timeslots 12pm (Table 9) and 6pm (Table 8), and Saturday (3/14, Table 5) at 12pm. Excited to see you in the prototype area and give you an update of how the convention went next week!

The Antibyss Remark – No. 009

Prototypes/Crowdfunding Projects to keep an eye on:

For the gods (Mighty Boards) – this project is live on Kickstarter until March 10th! I love the visible style and the column stacking is both fun for the theme and as a mechanic. Plus, they also have lots of options for you to test it out before you back!

Forest Fellowship (Costavolcano Games) – this project is live on Kickstarter until March 4th! This game has a fun tableau of cards that you navigate through and the cool idea that it expanding they player count with each deck. They also have a bunch of cool painting time-lapses you can check out of the artwork.

Canals of Windcrest (First Fish Games) – this project is live on Kickstarter until March 12th! Flying whale taxis… what else do I need to say? Nothing, but it looks like it will be a great time delivering people and their goods where they need to go.

Games we were playing this month:

Regicide (Badgers from Mars) – I backed this game way back in 2020, and this is a game that usually comes with us travelling. The game is definitely a challenge and they dynamic changes with the number of players. I also definitely was inspired by sketchgoblin’s style for Project Aleutian.

The Blessed Dark (Nathan Mueunier) – This is another one that fits in a small form factor with a fun push your luck mechanic to cast spells and summon demons. I always enjoy talking about collecting blood and summoning demons in cafes.

The Search for the Lost Species (Renegade Game Studios) – This is the second game in “The Search for…” series of games that I’ve played, and I really enjoyed it. It was different enough and the way that you engaged with the board was a very fun change of pace after playing Search for Planet X so much!

We’re Going to DTW 2026

Antibyss will be at the Prototype Con at Dice Tower West again this year to showcase Project Aleutian! Project Aleutian playtest times will be posted on cardboardevents.com in the next couple of weeks. If you don’t have a badge already, online badge sales are still available but close on 2/13. As of 2/3 they were reporting that sales are 20% larger than last year and there is no guarantee tickets will be available at the door! If you are planning on going to the con, you can sign up for the prototype session in your my.cardboardevents portal once they are available (so keep your eyes peeled). I am excited to see you there and hope you’ll have a chance to try out Project Aleutian! That said, there is an exciting line up of other prototypes at the con this year and I encourage you to give them a try as well!

The Antibyss Remark – No. 008

Prototypes/Crowdfunding Projects to keep an eye on:

Medieval Madness (Mint Panda) – this project is live on Kickstarter until February 8th! This is a competitive trick taking game, which makes the rules familiar to most players, and it stands out amongst many co-op trick taking games out there right now.

Ants & Crumbles (Fried Potato Games) – this project is live on Kickstarter until February 19th! The theming of this game is just plain fun and it looks like it would be a fantastic 30 min start to a board game night that might lead to rematch after rematch when your ant colony crumbles and you need revenge.

Colt Express: The Complete Collection (Tycoon Games) – this project is live on Gamefound until January 29th! If you haven’t played Colt Express before I’d highly recommend it, and this campaign is for a complete collection of the base game and all of its expansions.

Games we were playing this month:

Everdell: New Leaf (Tycoon Games/Starling Games) – My wife and I keep coming back to Everdell, and I think New Leaf might be our favorite expansion. It adds several really fun mechanics to the base game not to mention several fun new cards.

It’s a Wonderful World (IAWW): Corruption and Ascension (Lucky Duck Games) – We talked about It’s a Wonderful World before, but this expansion found its way into our hands over the holidays. It adds a lot of fun changes to the base game and also expands the player cap up to 7!

Puerto Rico (Rio Grande Games Version, bgg) – I have a sentimental attachment to this game because it was the game that really got me into hobby gaming beyond Catan way back in high school. There is something just so refined about the gameplay that keeps me coming back with so many strategies and paths to victory. That said, whenever I bring this game to the table it also sparks a good and important discussion about the game’s themes of colonialism and how that theme was handled.