The Button Shy 2022 Preview

It's hard to believe that is already in sight. But we have some big changes in the last few months and we are more prepared than ever. We know almost the entire year's Wallet Games, plus our postcard game, 9 cards, and even more for Patreon. Almost all of next year's releases are already planned and in development. We have SO MANY new games to tease today so let's just get right into it.

Let’s start with the year long game. We've done a few year long games here on Patreon. Starting with Chain Mail, then Personal Space and The Final Lightyear. The Final Lightyear goes until Feb 2022 because of two months of COVID delays in early 2021. So the new game will start in March. But it isn't a year long game. It's around a half year. Why? We want to try out two shorter games and see how they go. Slightly smaller, slightly more manageable. Still super variable in format. The first of these will be Hush.

FOR ALL BGOTMC LEVELS - Hush (March 2022 through August 2022) 

In the land of Earthshine, the evil spirits come out at night. They’ll ravage anything in sight, as they feed on chaos and destruction. But you thrive for survival. Survival of yourself, your people, and your property. You work hard to survive and you will not let the undead get in the way.

In Hush, 1+ players will work together to manage a group of commoners that are trying to survive the dangers of each passing night, and ultimately, protect the nocturnal creatures that live on the land. By day they will build resources, shelter, and develop techniques, and by night they will protect each other from the evil spirits that pass through. The goal is survival. How many nights can you make it before the spirits bring you down?

Now let's get to some of the smaller games and expansions to expect. 

FOR ALL BGOTMC LEVELS - Flipuzzles

Flipuzzles are really cool little puzzles that you play with a single card. We plan to release one each month (starting in March as well). There will be lots of variety and fun themes. 

$10 LEVEL AND UP  - Expansions and Small Games

In the $10 level and up, we will see a handful of expansions (Agropolis: Seasons, and ROVE: Icy Incidents  are some of the big ones planned early in the year), but we will also see some new games. 

AdvanceQuest - A few more chapters in the AdvanceQuest story are coming. 

Am I The Unicorn? - A very silly large player count game where you spend 15 seconds second, third and fourth guessing yourself.

Deadeye Dinah - A winner in the Board Game Geek 9 card design challenge 

And hopefully a handful of others by the time the year goes on. 

$20 LEVEL AND UP - The Wallet Line

And that just leaves us with the Wallet Line. And this is going to be a real strong year for the Wallet Line. We have a LOT of returning designers, as well as a few newcomers. If you are part of our playlets server, you may recognize a few of these. Let's just dive into them.  

Fishing Lessons

The first of two Scott Almes Simply Solo games. Following our previous three releases (Food Chain Island, Ugly Gryphon Inn and Unsurmountable), we plan to keep it going in 2022. Fishing Lessons is a programmed movement fishing game with a sweet theme of an older man passing on his wisdom to his family. 

The Royal Limited

The second of the Scott Almes Simply Solo games is The Royal Limited, a hand management game of placing fancy train cars, loading them up with fancy passengers, and trying to leave on time. It'll also be our second Wes Anderson influenced game, if you couldn't already tell from the title and the logo. 

River Wild

The first of two Steven Aramini solo games. You'll know Steven from Sprawlopolis, but this is the first Button Shy game where he is not with the rest of the Sprawl team. You'll build a river, populating the lands in between and trying to maximize your score. It's real puzzly, and we plan to go all out with the artwork to match the flashy wallet.

Ancient Realm

The second of two Steven Aramini solos. This is a civilization game in just 18 cards. It's been a bucket list item here, and one we considered for a future design contest. Steven decided to eliminate the need by sending us a great little game.

ROVE: Expansion Collection

Our expansion collection Kickstarters in 2021 went over really well, and the next candidate snuck up quickly. ROVE was released on Black Friday and was like 95% sold out by the next Monday. It's super puzzly, which always makes for great expansions. Dustin and Milan have been hard at work and sent over the next 4(!). We'll release one in early 2022 and then by mid-year we'll do a full expansion collection Kickstarter with a special wallet to hold them all. 

Exploring Galapagos

Are you looking for something to play with lots of people? So are we, but COVID really seemed to put a hold on higher player counts. The rest of the games on here are 2 players (and some more), but this is the one that goes above and beyond in the player count. Exploring Galapagos is a drafting, bidding, and set collection game for 2-5 players, but we've been testing it as high as 7, and we expect it to hit 7 with expansions. The art is amazing, and this is by an all new design team Corinne and Matt Yeager. 

Squabblin Goblins

Another designer that is new to Button Shy (yet a long time friend of ours) is Emma Larkins. Emma's game Heartcatchers caught our eye so many years ago. It was only 21 cards, just outside of our wallet limits. But Emma took the core game and cut it down to 18 cards and changed the adorable hearts into adorable goblins. This one plays 2, and it is quite the competitive little game of sneakily messing with each other.

Moving Pictures: Dinosaur Outbreak

Moving Pictures quietly worked its way out last year, yet it's back again with a sequel. When we made the game I really wanted to see this become a series instead of a single game. The core game is really strong (without taking, 2 players arrange the movie scenes in order while dealing with all of the special abilities that help/hurt you along the way). With this new standalone sequel, you will work with Reshoots (new cards that have effects after they are played), a whole new story about dinosaurs on the loose in the city, and the ability to combine both games for a whole bunch of variety.

Battlecrest

We have big plans for Battlecrest. It's a 2 (or 4 in teams) player cards-only tactical battle game with solo AI, and it's awesome. Everything feels huge, but somehow the game still fits in your pocket. When on the table you'll have the dynamic map (which can really drive the gameplay), unique characters, minions, lots of special moves, and ultimately the experience of a massive miniatures game with just a few cards. A single character is just a small 6 card deck. Being that small, we plan to release a whole bunch of characters to really mix things up.

Legacy Tales: Barataria

This one is still in the works, mostly on the art side of things (and the name is still temporary too). But we decided to make it our (now) annual Black Friday release. We will print the game, have it here and ready to go, and then release it on Black Friday. It's a fun new way to release games, and ROVE's huge release has proven that it can be successful too. But what is Legacy Tales: Barataria it all about? Well it's a narrative driven,18 card legacy game. 

Naturopolis

First there were cities, then there were farms, and next up is nature! This will be the third (and final?) game in the core Sprawlopolis series. Expect some new twists (there was one really fun one in early discussions that I hope makes it through), and expect new combopolis sets to combine Sprawlopolis/Naturopolis and Agropolis/Naturopolis. 

But wait there’s more! Introducing the Button Shy Role Playing wallet line.

It's time to shift gears and talk about our new line. We decided that we wanted to make 18 card role playing games. Not exactly like dungeons and dragons or anything like that, but to take some notes from the indie role playing community and mix it with a little bit of card play. Both staff members George and Marty are really into role playing, so they've taken the lead on this series. There's quite a variety in our first 4 games.

Each game requires up to 3 six-sided dice or a single set of polyhedral dice. Some games require a single play sheet that you will print for each session. It's kind of like buying a role playing book, then providing your own dice and character sheets.

It's also worth noting that all 4 of our initial games do not require a DM/GM player. There is no game master needed for these. They are all pretty easy to jump into with either experienced role players, or board gamers tip toeing over to the other side. 

And for those who need it, we will have a full rules sheet of story and setup prompts to get you going. Ian Howard will be our writer for the whole role playing line, helping get deeper into the stories for players of all levels. 

And finally, did you notice the wallets are sideways? :)

I Guess This Is It

We had such a good run. We were great together. Now we stand in front of each other, just minutes before our last goodbye. There’s so much to say. And so much we know will be left unsaid.

I Guess This Is It is a powerful, emotionally charged game about saying goodbye. It is about loss and reflection. Two players will form a path created by the bonds they shared as they try spend as much time together before the last goodbye. Players must decide the nature of their relationship; whether they are friends, lovers, rivals or something else. After deciding the location of their goodbye they will use cards with one word prompts on them. Barrier, clash, joy, passage. After discussing the memories attached to the prompts the players will find only a few cards remaining in their hands. These are the cards that are memories left unsaid. Perhaps your final card in hand is Fear. This card is for you to reflect on after the departure.  These are your final moments together, how will you say goodbye?

The Family Dinner

It's dinner time and you're spending it with family! Some of which you haven't seen in a long time. As we all know, big family dinners always bring chaos. Even the happiest of families get wacky during big gatherings.

In The Family Dinner you’ll be playing as a dysfunctional family, having dinner together for the first time in a while. Each player acts as a member of the family. Play takes place over a number of courses with Ingredient Cards being used to drive the conversation and to shape what food is served. As you play you will be drawing a family tree that includes all players and extended family. The family is all here, let's start eating! 

Time Travel Entertainment Inc.

Humanity just discovered how to send robots anywhere in time and space! What do you do with such technology? Well you use it for multimedia entertainment of course! And so, the Time Travel Entertainment Inc. was created. Oddly specific robots with even more specific abilities are sent across spacetime to bring you the finest entertainment.

In Time Travel Entertainment Inc. you will play as one of nine robots that are given a task to solve. Each setting is unique. to build a setting you just answer 3 questions: Where are they? When are they? and What are they trying to do? Using their three character cards players will solve the problem at hand limited only in scope by the players’ own imaginations to entertain the humans of the future.

Shades of Ink

After coming into possession of a stack of old psychological inkblot tests, you discover that the accompanying notes hint at something unnerving - they imply that the ink has power and that the blots hold trapped spirits that feed, somehow, on the viewer's psychic energy…

Shades of Ink is a solo role playing game where you will look at inkblots, note what you see, and then fight to destroy the shades that manifest from your visions. As you accumulate knowledge, the spirits' power also accumulates until it coalesces to form one final encounter.

As a patron, how will you get the role playing games? Well there are lots of options.

US PATRONS

• You can add $5 to your pledge here and every two months we will send a role playing game (this is on top of your standard wallet game and package). We have 6 planned for 2022, the 4 above and 2 additional that are unsigned at this time.
• You can swap out a monthly game for the role playing game (if we have enough to go around)
• You can use your discount to buy it at our site once released.

INT PATRONS

• You can swap out a monthly game for the role playing game (if we have enough to go around)
• You can use your discount to buy it at our site once released.

Unfortunately we cannot currently offer the additional $5 for international because it will quickly get eaten up in the additional shipping costs for another wallet game. I can say that we are actively looking for solutions to ship from outside of the US, but as of today we don't have anything setup. One day!

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So that is the year ahead, hope you are excited with what you see. Throughout the year more info will drop on each one of the releases.