At a game session this week, I had a sour experience playing One Mind, a co-operative game from Sophia Wagner and Schmidt Spiele that's akin to The Mind in how you're trying to get in sync with other players. One person does not like co-operative games and played randomly, choosing answers for their own amusement; if they had not been at the table, we would have had a pleasantly stressful game in which we managed to win in the final round...but they were at the table, so that didn't happen.
Anyway, I've been thinking about the nature of co-operative play, which included a look at my review of The Crew: Mission Deep Sea, and that got me looking at new co-operative games coming to market:
▪️ Shadow Brume is a 1-6 player game from Utah publisher Binary Cocoa, which I had not heard of previously and thought was a new publisher — but then I looked at its website and found ten other games, so this is just another case of me discovering that I don't know everything.
Shadow Brume, which is being crowdfunded for release in Q2 2027, features a familiar setting, with players trapped inside a house from which they must escape.
Each player is a character from some point in human history — or the future! — with three unique ability cards. On a turn, you take three actions — move, collect items, use items, awaken your abilities, wonder about past behavior that led to you being stuck in this house — then you act for the house, rolling dice to determine what happens to the lights around you.
If you ever find yourself in the dark, the house consumes you and the game ends. If all players have awakened their abilities, then you can try to destroy the house...a word that I would write in blue if I had the ability to do so.
▪️ While researching Shadow Brume, I ran across prototype pics of that design from 2022. Another co-operative game that's been in the works an equally long time is Xorakus, with designer Martin Cline founding his company, Positive Space Games, in 2022 and crowdfunding his design now for release in early 2027. Aspiring self-publishers, keep that five-year window in mind while making plans!
Like Shadow Brume, Xorakus has a familiar setting: You've crash landed on a planet, and now you must explore this world, find resources, repair your ship, and escape. Each player controls a character with unique powers (check!), and you can further customize your character thanks to your personal improvement deck; when you access this, you draw three cards at a time and choose one to add to your deck. If only college were this easy...
You'll encounter natives on the planet, and they act differently depending on how many of them are present — or whether they're escorting a prisoner. You can negotiate and trade with them, but you might end up attacking them as well, and the more you kill, the fewer options you'll have for communication, which is understandable.
Escape the planet before the movement deck runs out because after that point, you'll just stand around staring at one another until Xorakus' star goes out.
▪️ Another co-operative game that will enter crowdfunding as the two above are leaving is Alpha Team Mechanized Battle Force Go!, which sounds like a 1980s cartoon I would have loved on a triple bill with Battle of the Planets and Voltron.
In this 2-5 player game, which is designed by Quentin Burleson and published by How to Steam Broccoli, each player controls a GRWL, that is, a giant robot with lasers, with GRWL having a unique set of seven cards, a special ability, and a "surge" power. (Disclosure: How to Steam Broccoli is an advertiser on Board Game Beat.)
To set up, choose one of eight monsters, then shuffle its cards together with all of the GRWL cards being used. In a round, each player gets a hand of seven cards, then they draft six cards; when drafting, a player can choose a card only from the left or right side of their hand — which constrains what you can choose — then you all reveal your choice simultaneously before passing cards to the left — which lets you know which cards others are taking and what you might want to leave for someone else. The final card in each hand goes to the city that players must protect.
To resolve cards, first handle all tactical abilities on chosen cards, then see which monster cards in the city cause damage to city blocks, then resolve monster cards in player collections that might damage GRWLs, then resolve player attacks on the monster, each of which has special abilities.
If all city blocks are removed or a player hits zero health, the game is lost.
I backed HTSB's first release, Tether, in 2023 and loved it (review), so I'm curious to see how this turns out — and I know who won't be at the table when I play it.
