BARD Games are on Kickstarter right now looking to bring The Lost Worlds Of Josh Kirby to the tabletop with their new board game inspired by his impressive selection of retro artwork which takes you to Sci-Fi and Fantasy realms aplenty!

The game is a two-to-five player experience where you are looking to settle and/or conquer world cards which feature art by Josh Kirby. You will then be able to combine the powers of these worlds in order to tackle more of the galaxy and race to victory.

As well as that core version of the game you can also play what is called Space Opera mode where each of the decisions you make in your games will ripple through and affect each game you play after that!

Gameplay In The Lost Worlds

Gameplay-wise, here is a breakdown of how the game works! It certainly sounds like a really quick and easy game to get your head around with plenty of additional strategic options in the way you conquer your worlds and balance that mix of Good or Evil!

If you want to dive in and find out more about the game then you can explore the rulebook which has been added for you to read before you dive in HERE. It has a very snazzy layout even at this point and you can tell that they've already put a lot of effort into the production and playtesting of the game.

Obviously, one of the cool things they have added into the game is the wonderful artwork of Josh Kirby which adorns their cards. As you can see it features plenty of artwork which reminds me of those old movies, book covers and comic books that I used to spy on the shelf when I was younger!

I also mentioned Space Opera mode at the top of this section and it is certainly worth learning more about this. In this game mode, you play across several sessions in a legacy-style format using a galactic map. You will be able to chart worlds and gain additional asymmetrical powers which will change how each of the factions plays and gives you a very different play experience.

I am a big fan of asymmetry in my games and I think it's great that it has been included with The Lost Worlds Of Josh Kirby. I think this could well be the way that I play the game, even with different player groups so that everyone can feel like they are having an effect on the game to make it a living thing!

As I am always a big fan of artwork I thought it would be worth taking a peek at some of the factions that you'll be finding when you crack open the game. Josh Kirby managed to make the standard humans of this world look fantastic!

As I mentioned above, the factions and artwork from this game do that superb thing that I think all Fantasy/Sci-Fi art of the time did. It does a really nice job of blending both of the genres so that it appeals to both sides of the nerd coin! I love Sci-Fi where there are still swords and strange Fantasy-style monsters in the mix.

The Pledges & Stretch Goals

So, now you've seen more about the game and what makes it an interesting prospect, we can take a peek at the pledges.

The Core Set is looking rather fun indeed and offers up plenty of cool options for those who want to dive in and start playing the game. However, you can add more into the mix as part of the Kickstarter Bundle which has also been included as part of the campaign.

This new version of the game comes with the Space Opera Mode that we've talked about above, the colouring and puzzle book (woot!), and plenty of extra goodies which have been added into the mix through stretch goals during the running of the campaign.

The Silver Locust

One of the awesome stretch goals is the chance to get a brilliant 3D Dreadnought added into the campaign based on the Silver Locust from one of Kirby's covers.

It is a rather impressive looking miniature and has been based on the artwork which you can see below. I think they've done a pretty great job!

Here is more information from BARD Games on Kirby's collaborations with Bradbury...

"Kirby illustrated nine covers for the Corgi editions of Bradbury's books and they wrote back and forth about science fiction frequently. BARD Games and the Kirby estate are releasing a previously undiscovered letter from Ray Bradbury to Kirby as part of the campaign."

This is very cool and it would be awesome to find out more about how they worked together. Additionally, we also had word from the sculptor who worked on this...

"Bringing the 3rd dimension to a Josh Kirby piece was both rewarding and stressful; his work is timeless and I wanted to make sure I stayed true to his vision. I hope players feel I did it justice! Can't wait to see the painted ideas players come up with." - Joe Brogno

It's great that the team behind this game has been looking to put as much work as possible into the game to make it faithful to Kirby's work.

This does seem like a real celebration of Kirby's artwork and I'm sure all of you have your favourite pieces. If you do, drop them into the mix below.

Are you tempted to snap up this game?