Thursday, April 12, 2012

Ogre Dwarfs The Competition On Kickstarter

Steve Jackson Games (you may know him as the creator of Munchkin) launched a monster of a Kickstarter campaign yesterday for the reprint of their 35 year old robot tank wargame, Ogre. It's a massive game in both physical size and popularity, and in less than one day, it's breaking all kinds of records on Kickstarter.

So.... will Ogre become the Double Fine Adventure of board games on Kickstarter? It really already has. It launched about 17 hours ago, and has already done the following:

-Received 502 backers
-Passed it's goal of $20,000
-Passed it's first stretch goal of $40,000 (unlocking the "build your own Ogres" crafty fun)
-Made it's way into the top 10 highest funded board game kickstarter projects, ever.
-Currently sitting at $68,199

...and did I mention that the game is $100, and will not ship outside of the US? There is a lot going against this game, but it seems to be going just fine.

For those who haven't played Ogre, click through the jump for a little history on the game. And for everyone else, here's a question. Place your bets now. How high do you think this will go on Kickstarter? I'm going to guess $238,033.
Ogre is a board wargame first released in 1977 as the first Metagaming Concepts Microgame, designed by Steve Jackson. Its basic premise is that it is an asymmetric-forces game set in the late 21st century. One player has a single giant robot tank (called an "Ogre") pitted against a second player's headquarters, defended by a mixture of conventional tanks, infantry, and artillery. The concept was strongly influenced by Keith Laumer's novel Bolo (1976), and Colin Kapp's short story "Gottlos" (1969).

Does that make sense to you? Because I'm already lost. Maybe some pictures will help.

Previous Edition

Kickstarter Edition

It gets even more confusing because the original game had a ton of sequels/expansions and was often customized by the players.

Here's the new Kickstarter video by Steve Jackson, which does very little to explain what the game is actually all about.

So, this mysterious Ogre is destroying Kickstarter, and I still know very little about it. I might just have to buy it and see what it's really all about.

1 comment:

  1. Ogre is a 35 year old tabletop war game that has evolved over the years. Its SJs lovechild and is pretty awesome. It also weighs more than at least 2 of your kids combined