Breaking Games’s catalog is diverse, with abstracts, Euros, and party games. For me, the highlight of the bunch at NY Toy Fair was We’re Doomed ($35, March), a game that combines resource collection with a kind-of social bluffing or auction mechanism. The idea is that the players must work together to build a rocket to escape a doomed planet. They must cooperate and contribute the necessary resources to get a functioning rocket but at the same time, they compete with influence to claim available seats. Also factors in the game are a 15 minute time limit and unique abilities for each player, representing a certain type of government.
Another title, It Dies With Me ($25) has one player writing a personal secret on a slip of rice paper. Then on every turn, each player chooses a number on a die and hides it under a coffin. When all are revealed, the player with the highest unique number gets to move their token one space up the board and the player with the lowest number draws a card. The first to claim four cards or move to the end of the board claims the secret, which they get to read but then have to eat.
Trellis ($25), a more casual game. has players laying hexagonal tiles, and for each pair of matching-colored vines, one of their own flower tokens. The first to put out all of their flowers is the winner.
Hypo Thetically Fun ($20) is mostly a deck of conversation-starter cards in five categories: ponder, silly, story, imagination, and you.
Carl Spies ($15) is a set of cards with pre-set I Spy game conditions.