Mantic Attacks… & Grows Up

It’s here: Mars Attacks!

Mantic Games’ 5th Kickstarter (including Loka, which – though published by Mantic – was as much Alessio Cavatore’s pet project), and their first Kickstarter for a licensed Intellectual Property.

By every possible benchmark, this is Mantic’s most professional and slickest Kickstarter yet. It’s flawlessly build and took off like a rocket on its first day. Mantic Games have clearly come long ways since their first Kickstarter campaign last summer.

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Mantic Games Kickstarters Thus Far

Mantic Games did 5 Kickstarters so far and – with the exception of the chess-variant Loka – each Kickstarter surpassed the one before.

I had my doubts about Mars Attacks. Seeing how it took off on the first day (and sitting at nearly ~ 200.000,- US$ some 30 hours after the launch), it seems likely it will end up north of Deadzone.

Perhaps an even more striking example of the professionalization of Mantic as a “Kickstarter-company” are the videos of their first and most recent Kickstarter. Have a look!

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From “Build Big Armies” to Kickstarter Board-Games

While Mars Attacks isn’t the first thing on my mind when I think on “things I’d love to have as a miniatures game“, Mantic’s skills in building pre-launch excitement didn’t leave me cold either.

Being on two of their Kickstarter and their mailing list makes me easy prey, I suppose, and once again, Mantic’s Kickstarter looks to be exceptionally good value.

The only curveball Mantic has thrown so far is the material of the miniatures they’ve introduced with the Mars Attacks Kickstarter.

I am very happy with Mantic Games new-and-improved Restic mixture that came with the most recent DreadBall shipment.

And yet, Mantic Games decides to go down new routes once again? Oh well…

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Mantic Games – The Grown-Up Kickstarter-Company

Either way, I am really interested in seeing where they go with Mars Attacks. Including “academically”, if that makes sense.

Mars Attacks in an impressively crafted Kickstarter-drive. Yet, to the same degree that Mantic Games perfected the art of running a Kickstarter-campaign, the focus on Kickstarter-launches seems to have changed the product-line Mantic Games offering.

Mantic Games originally started out hoping to offer larger Fantasy and Sci-Fi Wargames. Their tagline, after all, was (is?) “Build Big Armies“.

But – arguably because these work better on Kickstarter – Mantic seems to have moved towards producing smaller “hobby-heavy” board-games (DreadBall), “board-game-like” hybrid-games (Deadzone) and variants of their “miniature-game-template” on a license (Mars Attacks).

As Mantic Games got better at doing Kickstarter-campaigns over the past year-and-a-half, it drifted towards making games that work well in that particular format.

Are You Backing Mars Attacks?

• Are you backing Mantic’s Mars Attacks?
• Have you backed earlier Mantic Games Kickstarters?
• How do you think Mars Attack compares to Mantic’s previous offers?

Leave a comment and let me know what you think!

Z.