Every year the hobby drowns in new releases, and most publishers respond by chasing the safe bet: another cosy tableau-builder, another licensed box. Valor Mountain Games is betting the other way, and its owner is putting his own money on the line to prove there is an audience for the odd ones out.
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Find events near youIn an interview with BoardGameWire, Christopher High laid out the plan. Having taken sole ownership of the studio in May, he wants to grow it from a side project into a proper business shipping five or six games a year, filled with exactly the kind of unusual designs he reckons bigger publishers are too cautious to touch. With thousands of titles fighting for shelf space, he argues, the safe money wins and a pile of characterful games gets left on the table, along with designers who never get a look in.
He points to the adventurous outfits he admires, from the wargame-focused Hollandspiele to party-game specialists CMYK, and says he wants to take chances on the designs and designers other companies overlook, including under-represented creators. That is the sort of ethos that quietly produces the games people are still recommending years later.
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See how it worksHis list already leans that way, running from the dice-drafting medieval euro Monasterium to Pilgrims: Curious Adventures, a whimsical movement-puzzle game from the video game studio Amanita Design. Whether the gamble pays off is anyone's guess, but a publisher happy to back the weird and the overlooked is worth watching.
Spotted a hidden gem your group would love? That is exactly the sort of thing worth organising a game night around.
Sources: BoardGameWire | Valor Mountain Games
