This summer, Inside Up Games will release a trio of games to launch its Twisted Realm series, releasing in stores globally on July 31, coinciding with the first day of Gen Con. The company is also celebrating Earth Day 2027 with a pair of stand-alone games based on its hit title Earth which are planned for next April.
Twisted Realm will be a series of games set in a shared universe, with three games included in the line’s launch this summer. The shared universe it the brain-child of Inside Up’s CEO Conor McGoey.
The first, Crits & Tricks, was recently awarded “Dice Game of the Year” at the UK Games Expo. This game combines a trick-taking card game with polyhedral dice. Like traditional trick-taking games, players play card into tricks hoping to achieve the current quest, but the cards themselves do not have values. Instead, the players must roll dice to determine their card value. Inside Up’s Watcher on the Wall Patrick Day described the game to ICv2 at ACD Expo, saying: “It is a trick-taking game, but where the cards do not have numeric values on the cards. Instead, when you play your trick card, you roll a die. That die is the numeric value of the card. It’s pretty fun. Because if you’re going for high, for example, you may roll a D20 assuming you’re going to win that trick, but the 20 rolls a 3. The D6 rolls a 6. Then they win the trick. There’s a lot going on.”
Crits & Tricks comes with four player screens, 117 cards, nine wooden tokens, 66 cardboard tokens, and 24 polyhedral dice. It is intended for one to four players, ages ten and up, and plays in about half an hour.
Thieves of Eldris is a hidden identity game in which players use their dice-based abilities to influence a shifting tableau of townsfolk so they can steal the greatest haul without being caught. The goal is to be the first player to acquire eight coins. The game includes 48 cards, 49 cardboard tokens, 28 wooden tokens, six player aids, and three dice. Designed for one to six players, ages ten and up. Plays in about half an hour.
Tug of Roar is a deck-building game built on a blind-bidding mechanic. Players recruit warbands and send them to five different locations to skirmish with their opponents, earning bonuses and abilities by using recruits with matching classes and special ROAR tokens that can be used to block their opponents. The player who can earn the most flags wins the game. The game features a neoprene playing mat, 50 cards, and 28 tokens. Four two players, ages ten and up. Plays in around half an hour.
Earth Express offers a faster-paced, quicker version of Earth playable with up to eight players. It combines resource management and tabeleau-building mechanics. Players draft and “plant” cards into a three-by-three grid each round to trigger special abilities and earn points by completing goals. The game includes more than 300 cards for greater variety of combos. Intended for ages fourteen and up and from one to eight players, Earth Express takes only about fifteen minutes to play. Includes 360 cards, eight player aids, three tiles, three small boards, 540 tokens, 24 tracks, and 72 cubes.
Inspired by nature photography, Behind the Lens challenges players with in-game puzzles and multi-use cards as they compete to capture the perfect images. Each round, players draft action cards for immediate benefits and single-use abilities that can be used immediately or saved for later. Then they adjust their sliding-tile style puzzle board to arrange their camera settings to take their picture. For one to four players, ages fourteen and up. This game takes a little under an hour to play. Comes with a game board with tracker token, 240 cards, four camera puzzle boards, four journal boards, and 190 wooden tokens.
Day also offered an update on the previous-announced Kalypso (see “Surviving in a World of Water with ‘Kalypso’”), which will have a global retail launch scheduled for the opening day of this October’s SPIEL convention in Germany.Source: ICV2
