Inside Up Games has done it again. Earth Express and Behind the Lens, the two standalone follow-ups to Conor McGoey's 2023 hit Earth, blew past their funding goal in 23 minutes when the campaign launched on Earth Day (22 April). With over a week still to run, the project is sitting at $254,902 CAD from 2,296 backers, which is roughly 730% of the $34,900 CAD goal.
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Find events near youThe headline draw for Earth fans is who's making these. Earth Express is designed by Maxime Tardif, who designed the original Earth and has watched it stay near the top of the BGG Hotness since launch. Behind the Lens comes from Danielle Reynolds and turns nature photography into a sliding puzzle, where you reposition tiles on a shifting landscape to line up the perfect shot.
Earth Express is the pitch most groups will care about, though. It takes Earth's plant-themed tableau builder and shrinks it from a 45 to 90-minute multi-card engine into a 1 to 8 player simultaneous draft that wraps up in around half an hour. You're still building a 3x3 grid of plants and terrain, but the action selection is faster and the player count balloons to fit a full game-night table. The shared artwork and ecosystem flavour from the original Earth carries through, just trimmed for groups that don't want to commit a full evening.
Run game nights? Backseat Gamer handles RSVPs, waitlists, date polling, and game voting so you can focus on playing.
Start organising for freeBoth games are standalone. You don't need the original Earth to play either, and the campaign is offering them separately or as a bundle. The Kickstarter wraps on 8 May.
If your Tuesday gaming night has been craving something quick that scales up to eight players, this is the launch to watch. Find a board game group near you and pencil in a learn-to-play once your copies arrive.
Sources: Kickstarter campaign | Kicktraq | One Board Family preview | Zatu Games | Meeple University
