The Game Kitchen, developers behind action-platformer Blasphemous (2019), launched a Kickstarter last week that promises to let you play any board game in VR. Now, only a week in, the studio has pushed past its initial funding goal and revealed more licensed board games coming to the platform.
Update (July 20th, 2022): All on Board! is officially funded, pushing past its $25,000 funding goal. At the time of this writing the campaign has garnered around $35,000.
TO celebrate, The Game Kitchen announced All On Board! is getting a non-VR Guest Mode, which will include an application for flat-screen devices that users will be able to download for free. Non-VR guests won’t have customizable avatars, however they will have voice chat and be able to see and interact with the game board so you can play along both in VR and out.
The studio also revealed two new licensed games coming to All on Board!: SteamWatchers and Hamlet: The Village Building Game.
Hamlet is a medium-weight competitive village builder for 1-4 players where you are communally turning a Hamlet into a bustling little town. In this tile placing game, players construct buildings that everyone can use to create materials, refine resources, earn money and make important deliveries to construct the Hamlet’s big landmark – the Church.
SteamWatchers, by Mythic Games, is a highly competitive area control game for 2-5 players set in icebound Europa, where rival clans battle to control of heat columns. Danger lurks however, as getting too close to the steam blights the troops with a mysterious illness, the Bane.
There’s still four more games to be revealed. Follow along with the Kickstarter updates here.
Original Article (July 14th, 2022): Called All on Board!, the game presents a unique licensing structure that lets you buy full board games and play them in VR. Only one user needs to have a game license, just like playing a physical version of the game.
For now, the studio has revealed six games that backers can choose from: Nova Aetas Black Rose Wars, Escape the Dark Castle, Rallyman GT, Sword & Sorcery, Infinity Defiance, and Istanbul. There’s also another six games yet to be revealed.
Players will be able to support the project starting from $20, which gives access to the platform, exclusive accessories, and a backer role on the official Discord. By contributing $40, players will be granted access to Backerpass Basic, a tier that includes three licensed board games of their choice. Backers of the Kickstarter campaign can also buy the Complete – Early Bird tier that will grant access to 12 games for $80.
The game, which is slated to support SteamVR and Meta Quest, also boasts a robust modding system so you can make and share a library of user-created board games, playing spaces and accessories. That means you could play essentially anything you or other players are willing to make, which The Game Kitchen says can be done without writing a single line of code.
All on Board! is said to include direct private play, a matchmaking system, and cross-play across all supported platforms. The studio says it will eventually also support other standalone devices such as Pico Neo 3 and upcoming devices like Meta Cambria.
The first beta version of All On Board! is said to arrive this Holiday season, available exclusively for Kickstarter backers. You can check out the Kickstarter here.
Founded in 2010, The Game Kitchen are known for their point-and-click adventure The Last Door (2013) and critically-acclaimed indie title Blasphemous (2019), both of which were successfully funded through Kickstarter campaigns. As it develops All on Board!, the studio is also working on a sequel to Blasphemous for launch sometime in 2023, as well as “several undisclosed projects” soon to be revealed.
At the time of this writing this studio has already managed to garner $22,000, bringing it close to surpassing its initial $25,000 funding goal.