Two new Christmas-themed games are coming to Kickstarter on 13 November. Back by 18 November (when the KS closes) and you’ll receive your games in time to use them THIS Christmas!

Gingerbread Towers is a card stacking game about sweets on gingerbread. Build a tower of gingerbread, and score for the different types of card you contribute. With 54 cards in a traditional tuck box, Gingerbread Towers makes an excellent stocking filler or Secret Santa gift. 

Snowball Slide is a game on the front of a Christmas card. That’s right — it’s a greetings card which you might send to any of your friends or relatives, AND the card itself is a fully playable game. It’s basically a print-n-play game in an envelope! 

Snowball Slide

Snowball Slide is a game which is also a Christmas card. On the front of the card is a picture, while on the back the rules are laid out neatly. Inside each is a small piece of card with eight counters to cut out and use with the game. It’s a two player game which takes around five minutes to play.

The aim of the game is to get as many snowballs as possible into your camp. One player is aiming for Camp Stripes, the other Camp Spots.  Players take turns at rolling two dice, and then use the results to move cogs or release snowballs. The snowball rolls down the slopes until it gets to a horizontal cog — or until it arrives in one of the two camps!

This is an easy to play and easy to understand game. It’s a greetings card first and a game second. It’s suitable for children and adults alike, and is played using counters included in the card. All you (or the lucky people to whom you send the card) need to find is some scissors and two standard six-side dice. If you don’t have any dice, it’s easy to roll a D6 online.

It’s a professional quality greetings card, printed on thick A5 card with a textured finish. Each card is blank inside, and comes with a gorgeous blue metallic envelope. These cards sell for £2.50 each at conventions and Christmas markets, but are cheaper in this Kickstarter. 

• Five Snowball Slide cards for £9
• Ten Snowball Slide cards for £15
• PDF for £1. You can use these to print your own at home, or to take to a professional printer where you live. Backers of physical cards will also get a link where they can download PDFs in both A4 and Letter format. 

Both Gingerbread Towers and Snowball Slide are also available as add-ons in the Kickstarter, so you can pick exactly the mix you want. 

Sign up on the Kickstarter pre-launch page, and you’ll get an email on 13 November. The Kickstarter closes on 18 November, and copies of Snowball Slide will be in the post by 1 December.

Gingerbread Towers

Gingerbread Towers is a quick, card-stacking game for 2-4 players. It’s more strategic than it looks — each player scores the cards they contribute to the tower. Knock any cards down, and those points are deducted from your score tally!

The aim of the game is to contribute the most to the gingerbread tower. Each card features one, two, or three sweets. There are six different types of sweet in the game, and each player will be scoring on three of those types. Every turn you place a card on the tower, scoring for any types of sweet on your score cards. But cards on the same layer mustn’t touch, and you mustn’t knock any off!

As well as doing your best not to knock over the tower, you are also trying to pick up the highest-scoring cards and prevent your opponents from getting cards which benefit them. It’s quick, it’s Christmassy, and it’s simple enough that you can still play it after a couple of glasses of port. 

Gingerbread Towers has a co-operative mode too, for playing with younger children. Scoring works best from age 6 and up, and smaller children can have great fun simply building (and demolishing) the tower together.

The cards are 320gsm with a linen finish. These are thick, very decent cards, and fold without breaking. They’re printed in the UK. Each game contains 54 cards including rules etc and comes in a printed tuck box. 

• One copy of Gingerbread Towers for £11
• Extra copies of Gingerbread Towers or when bought with cards for £10

Sign up on the Kickstarter pre-launch page, and you’ll get an email on 13 November. The Kickstarter closes on 18 November, and copies of Gingerbread Towers will be in the post by 1 December.