Button Shy's 2024 Preview

Hello everyone and welcome to our 2024 preview! This has been a long time coming, especially since we never released the 2023 preview. A lot has changed since then - we upped the staff, reduced the complexity of the club, and fine tuned our focus. I think all of that is going to lead to a really special 2024. But that’s not up to us, it’s up to all of you! Let us know what you think of this preview.

There are a whole bunch of games previewed here, and it’s honestly still not everything. We have our 12 games per year, plus a few extras that we release in creative ways that are still to be announced, and then we have Black Friday which is always a big release date. We saved one or two slots for things that might come up in the year. And as always, all of these could shift, bumping something into 2025.

Let’s take a look at the new games, starting with some that you might recognize.

WARNING: YOU ARE SEEING WORKS IN PROGRESS, SOME VERY EARLY. ANY/ALL OF THIS MAY CHANGE.

OLD GAMES THAT ARE BACK

Casinopolis - 1-4 players

What?!? Is this where you expected Sprawlopolis to go next? Nope. Me neither. And I love it. Let me explain a little bit about it. And keep in mind this is all very early and any/all can change. I probably should repeat that through this whole update, but I won’t.

The new concepts here are really cool. Thematically it’s a casino setting with blocks of all of the regular types, Rome, Egypt, and Medieval. The roads have slot machine icons and getting a jackpoint (3+ of an icon in a row) will get you positive points to offset the negative points that roads normally provide. Instead of getting points for your largest group of each block type on the map, now it needs to be your largest block type on the strip, which is your longest road. And finally the card backs have a betting element where you arrange the 3 cards in the order you would like, and they pay off based on how well you performed. (See the multiple X options that depend on the positioning of the scoring card). That is going to take a lot of work to pull off, but we’ll start testing it in our testing server soon enough!

Circle The Wagons: Second Shot - 2 players (1 with expansion?)

Another little surprise has emerged, and it’s more Circle The Wagons. Second Shot is 18 more scoring cards (with map cards on the opposite side, just like Circle The Wagons). It can be played alone or combined together for a new two act game, called Newfangled Mode. In this game you’ll play 18 cards and score, then play the second 18, building off of the same map and score again. It’s wild!

Q: Are there Lone Cowboy cards planned? Not yet, but it’s a great idea.

Aqua ROVE - 1 player

ROVE is back and wetter than ever! Sorry, but seriously. Instead of crawling the planet’s surface, ROVE is now diving deep into its seas. This is a standalone ROVE game that uses the basic system of aligning modules to complete a card pattern, but changes up the way some things worked the first time around. 

One little twist is that the modules do not have specific movement patterns, but instead the movement cards provide the patterns. Another twist is just visual but it’s amazing. ROVE goes from top to bottom in a vertical column instead of left to right as the original did.

ROVE Jr - 1 player

If one new ROVE game isn’t enough, there are two! This one is quite different though. It’s a much simpler version of ROVE for a younger audience, entry level solo players, or for anyone that wants just a taste of the ROVE gameplay. .

Module movement is so simple, just move a module any number of spaces in any direction. The movement cards are simple, they tell you which module you can move this turn. Sometimes there are a few to choose from. Patterns are simpler (4 cards instead of 6). And it’s STRAIGHT UP ADORABLE. The artwork for this is so good

Death Valley: Highs & Lows - 1-2 players

This started out as 3 mini expansions and shaped its way into a full standalone game, that can be cut up into parts and added into the original, or randomized to make a full new set of 18 cards. 

It explores some great new abilities and ramps up the press your luck aspect of the game.

Battlecrest Deadrock - 2 players (1-4 with expansions)

Year 3 of Battlecrest will start in late 2024 taking us from the Fellwoods forests and the city of Metronn to a new dusty, desolate, and savage planet named Deadrock. Expect a new map, lots of new heroes, and some new special abilities, pushing the number of unique Battlecrest matches way up there. 

We should hit 21 heroes by the end of Year 3, and here’s a little visual tease of what’s coming.

NEW BUT FAMILIAR GAMES

This category is great for the Scott Almes Simply Solos. They are all new, but they are also a running series. We have two setup for 2024 and one already in place for very early 2025 but that one is still a secret.

The Last Lighthouse

This is the darkest of the line and fittingly has the most going on, but it’s still very simple. You are working a lighthouse and dealing with nightmares. Are they real? We don’t know yet. But you are going to play tool cards to offset and hopefully take down the nightmares before they take down the lighthouse. The difficulty can ramp up in traditional simply solo style. 

The Last Lighthouse is our first game of 2024 with the Kickstarter launching on January 2nd. We aren't wasting any time! We'll have full details for how club members can get their copy closer to the launch, but if you want to save the launch page, it's here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/239309591/the-last-lighthouse

A Nice Cuppa

And now for the most relaxing game in the Simpy Solo line. You will take the steps to make a cup of tea, but deal with everyday worries along the way. 

Try to eliminate worries and enjoy your tea without missing a step along the way.

FantasyForm

This is another new but familiar game. Have you played SpaceShipped but wanted a fantasy theme? Me too. I asked for it and Lucas came back with a handful of fun twists on the game. Like how the enemies (the forms) that both help you and fight against you.

There are a lot of classic fantasy touches here, and the artwork turned out super cool.

ALL NEW GAMES

Glass Garden

We just worked with Roshni recently on Battlecrest, but happy to publish one of her first games, as everything we’ve seen is really solid. Whether it’s a contest entry, or a behind the scenes development project, it’s all been really impressive. 

Glass Garden is more of that. A solo-only game about maintaining resources to grow a terrarium of succulents while avoiding bugs.

RNSM

RNSM is a bit of a press your luck word game where each player will draw and contribute a consonant letter card to a growing word. But it might not be a word at all. When you play a letter it can go anywhere into the line of letters, and as you do so, you’ll think of a word. Players can bluff and players can challenge, so play with confidence (or at least with CNFDNC).

The Walking Dead: Surrounded

We launched this for pre-orders on Black Friday, but if you missed out here’s some information:

Each turn, the players reveal a new card and add it to the ever-growing map. One side of the card features a new Location, introducing a special rule or an opportunity to score as well as a location bonus to indicate valuable resources that survivors can gather there if they work together.  The flip side features a unique set of 4 faces. Some are Survivors, who earn points and help scavenge, while others are powerful Leaders that can make a big difference on the field…if they’re not struggling against each other for power. And of course there are the Walkers, capable of spreading across the map in the blink of an eye.

Place Locations and faces carefully to keep the Walkers in check and the Leaders in balance, all while maximizing the team’s limited resources and trying to fulfill your scenario’s goals. The survival of the human race depends on it.

This one is not coming to BGOTMC due to licensing agreements, but it’s available for discounted pre-order now (and you can use your coupon codes once it’s full price) at: https://buttonshygames.com/products/the-walking-dead-surrounded

Mysticana

Mysticana is what we are calling a Foundation Deck, which is a traditional playing card style deck with a few twists. 1) There are only 18 cards (well, maybe not - read on). 2) There are only 3 suits. 3) There is a rock paper scissors element to the cards. 4) It’s quite expandable.

This is our little multi-deck that has a growing library of games. Some games will use the base deck on its own, but each month we will release a new game that uses the deck plus an additional small set of up to 6 cards. 

The games vary wildly from trick taking to solo to everything else that you might expect and some you don’t expect at all. It’s a great little system that gets really big throughout the year, giving you a full library of games. Expect to hear a lot more about this as the year goes on.

Cortiça

This was a submission to our worker placement challenge a few years back and was on our short list of games to check out. It did the entire 18 card worker placement thing in a very simple way and had a really special and unique theme. But I believe it was quickly signed, went on to compete and win some awards, and then made its way back to us. 

Now back to that unique theme... players will plant cork oaks, extract their bark and process it into cork!

AND SOME EXPANSION COLLECTIONS

A quick note on these. Some of these will release throughout the year as individual expansions, a few months apart, with the final expansion coming with the empty expansion collection wallet. I think it’s better than always giving everything up front, so you can get the feel for the expansion before jumping into something new.

Skulls of Sedlec Expansion Collection #2

This one is coming to our next Reprint Campaign alongside a reprint of most of the Skulls of Sedlec missing parts. We’re currently testing 4 new skull types (Troubadors, Farmers, Archers and Plague Doctors) and 3 of them will end up in the collection. 

Ideally the 4th ends up kicking off another Skulls of Sedlec expansion collection. The new skulls were designed by Ian Howard and Roshni Patel.

Naturopolis Expansion Collection

Not much to say about this yet, but Naturopolis has barely seen any expansions. Looking to dive into the nature look thematically and calm nature feel mechanically.

Agropolis Expansion Collection

We’ve released some expansions for Agropolis but if we want to catch up with Sprawlopolis we have a little ways to go. Expect a few more that lean into what makes Agropolis different, those farm animals!

Ancient Realm Leaders Expansion Collection

Steven has gone deep into the Ancient Realm with some expansion ideas and the first to come to life is Leaders. We’ve been playing with the Leaders in the solo network at discord and they give some clear win/lose conditions that solo players always look for. 

The other side of the cards give some restrictions too, so you can choose to play a harder game.

Super Slopes Expansion Collection

Super Slopes came and went and is pretty much due back because everyone that was able to get their hands on it had a great time. It’s a great candidate for a reprint campaign, but in the meantime we’re developing a few expansions. 

The three we’ve been trying out are Park Rat, Snow Report and Black Diamond. Park Rat adds a terrain park that you get points for if you follow the right direction as you score. Snow Report adds weather cards to mess with things. And Black Diamond brings cards 19-24 into the draft with a new ability that lets you reserve cards. And if that isn’t enough, Ted has many more in the works.

That’s it for the 2024 preview! I'm sure I missed some stuff and there are a few more games in the works that need to find their release slots. And anything might shift if we sign something that is extremely timely. But for now, these are all expected to find their way out in 2024 if all goes well. Fingers crossed!

Let us know what you think!