Tiny artisan dragons make coffee and cake in Flamecraft board game
This idea has wings!
Entice little dragons to create beautiful things in Flamecraft, an upcoming board game about artisanal winged-reptiles.
As a flamekeeper, players have the ability to converse with the tiny but talented dragons that live in the world of Flamecraft. Each of the different dragons have a wondrous creative gift that enables them to craft things - from delicious barista coffee to sparkling jewelry - but they require the kind of leadership that a flamekeeper can provide. Throughout the game, the players will be responsible for providing the various dragons with their ideal homes and coaxing them into doing what they do best: make things.
A worker-placement board game for two to five people, Flamecraft sees players taking turns to visit the many shops spread across the town in order to collect the products created there. When visiting a shop, the active player can choose to place one of their artisanal dragons into an empty slot, doing so can net them one of several different benefits - including the all important resource of reputation - as long as the dragon they’re put there matches the required symbol. Players can also choose to activate one of the powers of the dragons in the shop - including those of other players - or use the shop’s ability.
Once they’ve completed their visit to the shop of their choice, then players can select an enchantment card that matches that shop and pay the resources needed to cast it. Using enchantments gains players certain benefits and allows them to activate all the dragons within that current shop - leading to a bountiful return on items and benefits. Should the shop that the player visited be filled up at the end of their turn, then a new shop is placed in town.
This continues until the last card of the artisan dragon deck or enchantment is pulled, with each player getting one last turn before tallying up their scores. Whichever player has collected the most reputation by the end of the game is named the winner.
Flamecraft was created by Manny Vega, the designer behind the party card game Sparkle Kitty - a game that has players attempting to save themselves from the towers they’re trapped in - and the adult-themed spin-off title Sparkle Kitty Knights. The artwork for the game was made by Sandara Tang Sin Yun, an artist who has previously created illustrations for titles such as the Second Edition of Descent: Journeys in the Dark and The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game.
Cardboard Alchemy is the studio responsible for releasing Flamecraft, with its only previously published game being this year’s Mission Catastrophe, a co-op game about aliens attempting to save themselves from an incoming crash.
The Kickstarter campaign for Flamecraft is live until September 2nd, with a pledge of $39 (£29) getting backers a copy of the game in July 2022.