Queen Of Spies - WW1 Solo Game - Kickstarter Critique Review
Transcript
for another Kickstarter critique where I take a look at a different Kickstarter tabletop game project every weekday at 1:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. I've been off the last uh roughly month for Christmas holidays, but we'll be back more regularly. And apologies, I was going to start yesterday, but I fell asleep in a tent with my daughter cuz she's like, "Can you nap with me a little bit?" I was like, "Yeah, sure." And then I So today though, I am actually excited because I enjoy solo games to be checking out Queen of Spies. Also, there's not a lot of content that is currently crowdfunding on Kickstarter and Game Founder Kit. It is It is a barren wasteland, so it's nice to see a couple that are doing well. This one has 1.4,400 people who backed it. Queen Despise is a solo storydriven board game of espionage and daring mission set occupied Belgium during the First World War. The theme really intrigued me. Uh, artwork, very unique style here. I'd love to know a little bit more. like this text right here. You can't even read it or see what it says. So, it be nice if that was a little bit more functional. Maybe point out uh I don't know something. We'll figure it out as we go through. That artwork does really pop though. As always with with the video, I'm thinking three things. Do I want it? Can you do it? How much is it? Convince people of that. You will get their money. Let's go.
Salt Pepper Games presents you. 108 seconds. All right. People have done stuff. I don't know what that stuff was. World War I Belgium. A woman, a network, a chance to change the course of the war. Queen of spies, a solo board game. Take on the role of Alice and build the best spy network for the resistance. Recruit the best agents and train them to improve their skills. Each scenario will pose a different challenge for your team.
Follow these steps to overcome it. I'd love to see the text on those cards. Sign your agent. Send your agents to carry out missions. There we go. Back alley. Use their abilities and add the time needed to prepare the heist. Remove the time. Discard one timeer from each location and check whether your agents have completed their task. Resolve assignments. Draw tokens to the bag for you. This is I feel like a a voice over would have been very much appreciated on this one. Resolve assignments. Each success will be a small step forward that brings you closer to completing the task cuz I want to read the text in the cards too. Like I want to know like oh what's this meat about? Move one and you succeed mission. Move one pigeon marker for this block. God dang it. But be careful with your steps.
Avoid being captured at all costs. Oh, there's a jail. Cool. Oh, you have to test your metal by submitting to harsh interrogations. Yeah, that looks cool. Craft the most useful items and make good use of your agents to overcome the scenarios and lead the resistance to victory. That looks fun. as as like a as a total gamer like who loves just the meteor the meteor of a game. I would love to see some characters that had a little bit more meat to them than just the symbols. But I imagine that's the stuff that's coming in the future or maybe unlock stretch goals after video. Do I want it? Yes, I do. As a solo gamer, I thought that did enough to convince me. The official trailer. Is this a different thing? 78 seconds. Okay.
Oh, what's that? Oh, that's the back of the card. Yeah, that's nice. Yeah, I definitely think the other video is uh better than this one. Oh, that's cool. I didn't notice that stuff.
Yeah, I think uh that other video is a step in the right direction. I still feel like another step would have been nice as well, but maybe we'll get there with the next project because this one has raised $41,000. It is happening. Fantastic. Uh what have they done before? Salt and pepper. More info. So after the video, do I want it? Yes, I do. Is a solo gamer. Can you do it? Not sure. We'll check it out here. So what have they done? They've done the Voyic puzzle. They have the Glascow train robbery. I love the battle of the divas. Oo, historically themed stuff. Okay. Brand loyalty. Wait, they didn't do that. Did they do the witchcraft? Then somebody brought it over. Wow, they've done a lot. Holy Toledo. Okay. Yeah. So, I definitely feel like at the beginning of the video when you mention them, oh, resist. I think I like that one. I enjoyed that one a lot. Uh, the void. I don't know why I clicked on all of them. We're not going to need to see all of them.
It's because I'm I'm rusty. I haven't done this for a couple weeks. All right. Uh, any chance of more copies being available in Australia? This is getting so annoy. I received a pre-alert email four weeks ago. There's still no change in the delivery stat based in Germany. Yep. Same. Still still waiting since four weeks. Are they sending one package a day in the distribution hub? Uh, so shipping outside of the United States of America looks like having issues. Previously, I've backed the Voy Puzzle 3 back at the battle of Divas expansion. I paid for the shipping for both those projects separately. And what happened? You ship them together in one package. Obviously, that shipping shipment must have been cheaper than shipping separately. For example, this Troy Games has a campaign of things. So, uh, I'm not happy. Uh, I've just received the unpleasant news from shipping company that my parcel is damaged. I received a copy yesterday. It's beautiful. I need to take time to study and learn all the rules. Okay, so that one is out, but some backhand shipping issues. Let's make sure people got this one.
The battle of demons play. I don't care about that. That's not that. I received a copy yesterday here in Portugal. This was uh two weeks ago along with void puzzle. It's a very nice game. I love the details and explanations of each card booklet. So, my cop is here. So, people got got their stuff. We'll go one more, but other than that, I'm feeling pretty good here. And then, yeah, $100,000. I think the rest of these could We don't need to go that far. Plus, I know I've played one of those. The the witchcraft hunt and I think the the one with the dog. I got the Gabe. However, one type of card seems to be Spanish, those double-sided. I have the Okay. Um, okay. So, can you do it? Yeah, I'm not too worried about that. Looks like they've got a pretty well established track record. And they're they're making 40 plus thousands. What is it? 25 something like that to make this solo game, which yeah, 41,000 bucks, which doesn't look like a technically impressive game to manufacture, right? Like none of these components like oh that's going to be expensive. Uh what's in the box? 56 cards like the breakdown, the 30 success bag tokens, 62 mortgage. Just send me the price. Oh, it's right there. 27.65.
I'm in. Done. Boom. How much is it? Very, very solid price. I'm done. So, do I want it? Yes. How much is it? Yes. I just needed to go to the shipping and uh can you do it? Feels good too. I would spotlight that a little bit more because I imagine um some of those have definitely Yeah, here it is. Mechanics rapid detail art and graphics foundry on board the versatile visual graphics squad that has previously worked on the art of operation barlay and take a seat. So yeah. Yeah, this is what I'm talking about. So, this was the respect that I feel like they should have put a little bit more on their name in that video where they're like from this same team and I was like, "Oh, what have they made?" Just you showcasing these to me, even if I've never played them, I think goes a long way. Like, okay, they've done numerous games of this ilk. Like, we're not talking about like, yeah, they made an adult party game. Uh, there's a lot of fun strategic options and Queen of Spies. Decisions and pretty tense and interesting are pretty intense. No decisions and pretty tense and interesting especially with chaining. Is that grammatically correct? There's a lot of fun strategic options in Queen of Spies. Decisions and pretty tense and interesting. I think it's supposed to be R. Decisions are pretty tense and interesting especially I imagine that's supposed to be especially uh when chaining of actions together.
That was okay. That's the leading quote though. So it's like if Yeah, I'm sure there's something wrong with that quote. I would go back and and fix whatever it is. Uh, small nitpick, but yeah, it's it definitely makes your brain stop and go like, "What? What were they saying?" Queen of Spice is very novel, clever, and creative mechanics, and everything flows very nicely. I really like this one. Okay, the bag building system. There we go. It's such a clever solo puzzle. You're not just drawing tokens. You're shading the entire difficulty curve with your story. Every alert you add feels like you accidentally nudge history in the wrong direction. Now, that quote is the winner. Ding, ding, ding, ding. Compreh gets a cookie. And you made it clickable to their video. Why yes, that good on you. Boom. Subbed. All right, here we go. Uh, why back now? Get a free exclusive expansion, a worthy successor, and unique price. Save 25% of the total MSRP. Oh, free exclusive expansion. Okay, with more stuff on them. Cool. That's what I was looking for. So, this is the overview, how to play. It's all good. Like every like the big business has been taken care of. The do I want it, the can you do it, the how much is it, we're done. Everything else here is just Oh, how to select how to solo. That's great. Awesome.
Uh, you got videos 27 bucks, threeack. So, what's this expansion you're talking about? I guess that's my only question here. You want to get a six-ack? Nice. Six of them. Good deal. Uh, a new spy, Liz. Cool. Exchange for Liz on the expansion. A worthy successor. A worthy successor. Okay, so here it is. Uh, this small expansion get any game of Queen of Spies with it. You can trade Alice's successor, Sophie. Doing so will give you a second spy master to play with in case something should happen to Alice. You get extra points in the game. Cool. Very neat. And hopefully they continue to add to this. Um, just like a little pack on the side. And that's that's great. So 21 to 20. So it goes up to 23,000 bucks. Exchange Sophie for Liz on the expansion. So this is one extra card for 23,000 bucks. Okay. I mean, it's there.
So, it's better than not being there. But it doesn't feel great. And it makes me wonder what the next one is. I feel like a tease would have been nicer, right? Because we've hit this one. No, we're we're nearly there. A nice little tease, I think, could really bump that up. Like, oh, yeah, another car, another spy. Uh or or just component-wise, right? Fig talk to your manufacturer like, "Hey, is there anything we could approve? What's the cheapest thing we could approve?" They'd be like, "Yeah, we'll give you a list. Here you go. Uh here we go. USA 1422. That's what I was worried about. But end of the day, still in and out around $53ish dollars, you know. Doesn't feel great, but this feels like a boutique game. This feels like a game found game. And shipping if you're not from the United States, Spain, pretty good.
France, one unit. Oh, that's three units. Cool. So, 14. Okay, even better. So, like, yeah, 45ish. Yeah, I'm in. Can you do it? How much is it? Looks like a good stuff. I definitely feel like they should be putting some more respect on their name though. So, I want to go see how I would do that because I feel like it's so easy. It just boggles my mind when people don't do it. Unless all these games are just, you know, not Yeah. Holy crap. Oh my god. Is that Is that what these are the games they've released? 182 531 772 1088 1160 1228 1346 1365 1380 1400 1411 1427 1541 1964 1995 2417 2993 3285 3397 3616 I'm going to keep going until I get unimpressed 410 4205 42 24 451 5162 that's where I say I'll cut it off but that's like if you're in that range those are generally games that people have way more hits than misses. And if we're talking just bang, straight up bangers, wow. Now, I know these aren't the people that made this game, like the actual designers, but you as a publisher absolutely should be making something similar to the Awakened Realms graphic that showcases your games and then the numerous numerous numerous compilation
of awards that they have been nominated for, right? Like that is wowzers. I feel like that is definitely a missed opportunity. Let's check out Liz Davis Davidson and David the people that made it. Uh is this their Okay, so first published game quote unquote maybe not. I don't know. I thought they were like a Oh wow. Okay. Holy snikes. 1781 570 738 1073. Oh 1165. Yeah. By the way, War Chest is fantastic. If you're looking for the quote unquote new chess, like someone said put a gun in my head and said, "Hey, what's the new chest?" It's say war chest. It's fantastic on Deep Normandy. Like, wow, good stuff. Um, yeah. So, that's what I'm talking about. Like, I would put some more respect on their names and like your publishers names and also your designers names. And I think it's going to help like just be like, "Wow, okay." Because you showed those games and that's great. But there's so many games that come out on Kickstarter GameFound that like show me the awards they were nominated for. Like quotes are great, awards are those are money. Like that's one question considering the story of your game on top of this project says it's about a mission in Belgium during World War I.
But a bit lower it says it's happening in St. Francois Des which is a village somewhere in the south half of France which is quite far from Belgium. Maybe pick a Belgian town for the story or change the country to France. Uh okay cool. Yeah. Somebody complained about the shipping which wants to get to United States of America. Not great but like it is what it is. I didn't feel like it was terrible at the same time. Let's unlock the final Queen of Spies stretch goal. We're so close to unlocking the final stretch goal. Special card featuring the game's authors. A small but meaningful bonus to celebrate the people behind the mission. Okay, final grade. Good one. Do I want it? Yes, I do. I want to play Queen of Spies. And more importantly, I I want to play more of their games. Like they feel like they're very highly rated. And this particular game designer as well, David Thompson. Look at that. Whoa. Now, a lot of these are the unded undaunted series, but still, you know, hitting in the top 3,000 for a lot of historically the stuff.
Cool. Uh, so I want to guess, can you do it? Yes, you've done a lot of stuff. How much is it? Feels fine. Shipping's not great, but it feels fine. Organization of the page, pretty well done. We're in and out in 15 minutes. Like, I knew the important information. I need to relatively quickly. The main image catches your eye. I still feel like it could have a little bit more. Maybe tease the stretch goals. I don't know. Uh, but end of the day, I'm going to go with a B+. I think that video I definitely feel like could have been better, but I definitely think it is better than the other video they have. And yeah, I think B+ seems reasonable. Nice way to start the new year with Queen of Spies. Let me know in the comments below what's your final grade for Queen of Spice. Also, if you have an upcoming game you'd like to see covered or a game that's on Kickstarter right now that you'd like to see covered, because there's not a whole heck of a lot. Be sure to leave it in the comments below. Also, quick shout out to something in the future. There's going to be uh I'm I'm going to run a Kickstarter again this year, so be on the lookout for that. I don't know how I'm going to do it, but I'm going to try and I don't know. I don't know. Any suggestions on how I could open up the channel and the behind the scenes of running a Kickstarter, please let me know because I'm trying to do something different with it. Not quite sure what it's going to end up looking like. So, any feedback is good. Have yourself a good one. Bye-bye.
[clears throat]