Poker is popular, no question about it. How much is currently evident in the crowdfunding campaign for the board game Antematter, which the makers "BarkShark" designed as a kind of strategic poker game. The financing goal was reached after just two hours, and the targeted amount has now more than doubled. The price for a "poker game" is not even that low.
Poker is not a new invention, at least not in its basic form. "BardShark" has now set itself the task of modernizing the classic - not purely visually with pretty cards, but playfully. Poker also works as a strategic board game. Antematter is the name of the title that the makers are currently financing via Kickstarter and is extremely successful. Their financing goal of around 25.000 euros was reached after just under two hours, and crowdfunding is now heading for a tripling.
Antematter is the new kind of poker
"Antematter is the first and only poker strategy board game," believe BardShark, at least, as the creative minds behind the idea. There is even a story behind the poker variant: Players slip into the roles of space pirates or missionaries, fly through the galaxy and, of course, play poker. The course of the board game is divided into phases, presumably also in order to be able to accommodate the poker card game in a meaningful way in the overall concept.
In the first phase, players move their spaceships across the game board, only in phase two - the poker phase - do the cards fly. Basically, it's about collecting the stakes in the board game part, which are then used for betting in the poker part. Overall, the two phases seem to be rather loosely linked, the board game part serves more as preparation for a game of "Texas Hold'em in Space". The poker phase is based on the classic rules of Texas Hold'em. The cards themselves are clearly prettied up, but are based on an original poker deck. However, there are some new tricks: there are opening cards or con artist cards that can be used to add some strategy to the basic poker.
In the end, Antematter is more than "just" poker: There are also different illustrations for the different factions in the game. Image copyright: BardShark
Different factions bring another twist into play. Antematter includes six different crew decks, each with different strategic orientations - both in the board game part and in poker. At the end of the day, who wins is determined in the classic way: The space card professional with the most chips won wins.
The poker board game costs around 50 euros in the pledge, and is also available in two more expensive versions for 101 or even 168 euros. More than 550 supporters are currently participating. The financing amount has exceeded the mark of 60.000 euros, the target was around 25.000 euros. It can be assumed that the amount of crowdfunding will continue to rise Kickstarter campaign for Antematter namely runs until September 24th. There are still achievable stretch goals: the next one will be unlocked at 75.000 euros.
