Kabula

2025 wrap up and wishes
3 months ago – Tue, Dec 30, 2025 at 03:39:11 AM

Best wishes all,

I could not let you end the year without one last update from us :) Hope you are all doing great and enjoying some time off!

Here is our 2025 wrap up/2026 plans:

• The Team;
• That Kabula-Scarab Sands cross expansion;
• Scarab Sands;
• Dark Waters;
• Kabula 2026.

The Team

in 2025 we changed from an Italian company to a Belgian, individually-owned business (by Antonio, myself). I will make the effort to use "I" though I still think in terms of "We".
Truth is, all former members of Stranger Games Studio are still helping out.

We are well and wish you an amazing 2026!

Scarab Mob: Gangs of Kabularbor

With the previous update we teased the possibility of a Kabula expansion using Scarab Sands' minis.

According to the overall interest and the discussion in the comments, it looks like including this expansion during the Scarab Sands campaign is not a good option.
We will run the Scarab Sands campaign on its own, and then focus on another one for Kabula.

This should avoid anybody feeling left out if they do not wish to back Scarab Sands, and we can also get a proper storage option for all Kabula material. Do you agree with this option?

Scarab Sands

The Kickstarter campaign is launching in 2 weeks!
This is it, I keep it short as you know already of this project.

If you want to read something more and participate in surveys for the color of dice and language choice, please check this. 

Dark Waters

Ages ago we teased a co-op campaign we were working on. Progress on that game is almost non-existent (sorry, I am doing the best I can!) but two chapters of a comics based on that World are now available, and more are sure to follow!

Writing and drawing comics is of course new to me, but I hope you'll enjoy it and follow along as I improve!

Kabula 2026

In the current plan, the main expansion will be one that makes the game co-op. This will include revised versions of the heroes with equipment and abilities that reward cooperation, and a new type of Blue action that allows multiple heroes to combo their attacks. We need to work on new cards and mechanics for Guardians to create scenarios with meaningful choices. Of course, we want to make it a great game experience :)
We also aim at including more material/mechanics for the standard PvP version, of course.

A separate Kickstarter for Kabula will have to wait until the dust of Scarab Sands settles, there are a few busy months ahead of us. We will send you surveys to test our ideas when we have something more concrete. Sorry to always make you wait!

Thanks for following along!

Our best wishes for 2026, may you be strong and act to fulfill your goals, whether you want to build an empire (please don't) or be kinder to your dear ones (Who are you, mother Teresa?).

You helped starting all of this, thanks again for your support, the messages and for following along <3

Antonio

Tiny expansion
4 months ago – Mon, Dec 08, 2025 at 07:10:10 AM

Hello Kabula people,
We hope this finds you in great shape and spirit!

You haven't heard much of us recently, we have been focusing mostly on Scarab Sands and we don't want to use this channel for non-Kabula messages. Nonetheless, the time has come to pick your brain!

mini Kabula expansion

In far January, we teased the possibility to use the scarab miniatures in Scarab Sands as monsters, for a small expansion for Kabula.

This raised the fair criticism that players would need to get up and open the box of Scarab Sands every time those monsters show up, so having a small separate box would be appropriate.

Having a separate box would increase costs in production and logistics though, and we wanted to offer the expansion either for free, or for a symbolic price (e.g. 1 EUR, to make sure only those interested get it).

We thought of a separate option which 1) bypasses the issues and 2) gives even better value for Kabula players.
Let's see what you think of it, no need to be shy, we want your unfiltered opinion!

Scarab Mob: Gangs of Kabularbor

The island is overrun by a criminal organization of scarabs which bribed the Monks to control access to the Kabula. The scarabs work both as Guardian and allies for the heroes. This creates a nice dynamic since you want them to be strong until the Kabula is stolen, but the stronger they are, the harder the end game.

Each player (or automa), starts with three scarabs, one basic, one flying and one armored. Once per round, only one type per player MUST activate. They do not require spending parts.

The three units have 1 hp, so you don't need to track it, and offer different actions. This may change, but the idea so far is that

• Basic scarabs mug other players;
• Flying scarabs steal item cards from Wild Monsters;
• Armored scarabs create area of effect damage.

Every time a scarab type is used, one Part is placed on its card. When N+1 parts are on the card, the card is swapped with the upgraded version (each unit has 3 power levels) (N=number of heroes in the game)

The current idea for the end game would be that you win if you kill all scarabs from other heroes. Another option would be that even your own scarabs turn against you. There is still a lot of playtesting and polishing we need to do :) 

What are your thoughts?

Is this of interest? Can you comment or at least like this update, if it is? 
We are happy to do this work basically for free, if 10-20 people like the idea.

Speak to you soon

Like we did last year, we will send a Best wishes/Year wrap-up e-mail at the end of December, showing everything we have been up to.
You can subscribe to our newsletter if you want more frequent updates.

If you are interested, Scarab Sands is launching on January 13th, this is the new project page (we had to create a new one after becoming legally Belgian). 

Thanks for reading, speak to you in the comments!
Antonio

2025 the year of the Dark Scarab
about 1 year ago – Thu, Jan 02, 2025 at 06:23:12 AM

Hello everyone, and welcome to our first update of 2025!

We hope you are having a great holiday time and enjoying some time with your dear ones! 

Today we have a big update on Scarab Sands (with a Kabula cameo), Dark Waters and some legal updates for Stranger Games Studio. We look forward to a busy year ahead!

Scarab Sands

The Kickstarter campaign for our second game will launch in March 2025!

Compete as dead souls inside a pyramid, to be the only one that makes it to the Afterlife!

Gameplay: 2-4 players, very fast paced, competitive, area control. Imagine Risk, but no downtime, all players are engaged the whole time and you are done in less than 1 hour. Truth be told, it's more complex and less random than Risk (and mechanics have nothing to do with it) but the teach still takes about 5 minutes. So far, playtesters are loving it and we are just left to fine tune the map for optimal balance.

In the game you will send your scarab troops, which look something like this:

To fight for the control of rooms inside a pyramid.

All of your actions will be planned secretly on a player mat hidden by screens, like this:

This is a preview, in January we'll start our marketing efforts and as soon as we have the final art from Blanka, we'll print prototypes to send to reviewers. Very exciting!

So, what does this have to do with Kabula?

Wouldn't it be cool to use the the scarab minis as extra monsters in Kabula?

Adding these monsters requires only a few cards, so they’ll be included free in every box. And for those who don’t plan to support Scarab Sands, we’ll share the files for you to print your own cards. The 3D sculpts will also be added to the Kabula STL bundle.

Anybody interested in playtesting these monsters before they are released? Let us know!

Dark Waters

While everybody is making millions off existing IPs, we're creating our own stories :)

The game is still in development, but we'll soon release a Dark Waters comics set years before the events of the upcoming co-op campaign. 

We'll start releasing the issues after the campaign for Scarab Sands, but if you want to check occasional updates and you don't want to join our newsletter, you can check DarkWaters on Instagram.

Comics and board games are different mediums, but both let us share stories with you. We hope you will join us in this new adventure!

Company update

Since the very start, Stranger Games Studio has mostly been managed by Antonio, with the other guys supporting in various ways. As of 2025, Stranger Games Studio will cease being a S.r.l. (Ltd.) and will instead be a sole trader handled by Antonio. The other guys will still support in various ways, e.g. Miguel is a co-designer on Scarab Sands, Kyriakos handles Cyprus Comic Con etc.

Nothing will change in how we run the company or the quality of our work, we'll simply be running a leaner and more effective business :)

Have an amazing 2025!

We hope you'll keep striving for your goals and celebrating your progresses. If we have made it this far (with a little help, wink wink), you can too!

Also please make sure to play Kabula responsibly, it's important to eat and exercise regularly in-between games.

Thanks for everything and speak to you soon!

Scarab Sands Prelaunch page is up!
over 1 year ago – Wed, Nov 20, 2024 at 06:40:36 AM

Hello guys, hope you are all doing great!

We have a couple of announcements today, and since we are here it's nice to take the excuse to make sure you are all still having fun with Kabula :)

Announcement n1

The prelaunch page for Scarab Sands is up! This will be our second game and we are very excited for it.
If you are interested, or simply want to support us, you can click the Notify me on launch button!

Scarab Sands is a very fast paced, area control board game with scarabs fighting inside a Pyramid to grant their owners a place in the Afterlife. More info in the Prelaunch page or on BGG, but feel free to shoot any question here as well :)

Announcement n2

On November 30th, our UK team (which is Miguel and some good souls helping him) will be presenting Kabula at Dragonmeet in London.

It will be a very cool event and we love meeting backers, if you are in the area, please come and say hi!

Enough with the shameless self promotion!

How is everybody doing? Have you had any exciting game night recently?

Some months ago we teased the possibility of a Kabula co-op expansion, but aside from playtesting a couple of new mechanics we haven't had the time to really work on it yet. 

On the other hand we kept playing the game almost non-stop, with friends who were requesting it and at events too.

This is our Central Europe team (which is Antonio and some good souls helping him) at Brussels Comic Con at the end of October:

Very nice event and we are still having a lot of fun with the game :) What about you? Is Kabula standing the test of time? Anything more you'd like to see in our upcoming endeavors?

We'll send more info on our plans for next year with a late December update, hope you'll be happy to read it!

Let us know how you are doing and have a great rest of your week!

To Kabula or not to Kabula...is this even a question?
almost 2 years ago – Mon, Jun 03, 2024 at 08:18:41 AM

Long time no see, Kabula people, 
Hope you are doing amazing!

This is mostly for checking in and making sure you are having a smooth experience with Kabula. 
At the end we also share some ideas on the future of Kabula, your feedback is always very appreciated :)
 

About us:

Of late, we have been around showing off Kabula. 
Needless to say, everybody loved it.

These are some pics from FACTS comic con in Gent:

We also started monthly Kabula gathering at Demo-Spel in Leuven (Belgium). It has been pretty cool for now, next one will be on June 27th!

Game development wise, we are working on two projects, playtesting, drawing and writing lore:

• Scarab Sands, Egyptian-themed, fast paced PvP, which will be announced officially pretty soon. 
• Dark Waters, dark fantasy co-op campaign. This will take still some time but comics release will ease the wait for the game.

We will keep this channel Kabula focused and will only share here official announcements. If you want sneak peeks on art/development etc, our newsletter is running once a month. If you want to playtest (online), we have weekly playtests through our discord. Every help is more than appreciated and you need no specific skill to join :)

About you

Thanks again for supporting a weird project from a small company with no proven track record. 
If more people can enjoy Kabula today, is just because of you! So let us know how you are doing :)

• Have you played Kabula already? How did you like it? 
• Any great moment you want to share?
• Do you need any support from us?
• (Or tell us about your day, that's OK too)

If you have a BGG account, it would be great if you would rate us, Brass: Birmingham is still above us.

The future of Kabula

Imagine there was a parasite taking on the brain of the guardians to make them steal the Kabula...the heroes would have no choice but to gang up together to defeat them!

The idea is an expansion which turns the game into a co-op adventure. New hero cards with asymmetric powers that favor interaction and combos, new items and new guardian cards that shape the scenario through tough decisions and progressively harder challenges.   

Since you'd need the Kabula core game to play it and we do not want to go through a full reprint (right now), 
this would be a very limited print run and won't really make us rich, but we'd really like to keep offering you more Kabula content (and also want the content for ourselves...)

So what do you think, does this sound interesting?  

Thanks to those who already gave feedback through our survey, extremely appreciated!

Goodbye

Thanks for reading this far, have a great week ahead and see you in the comment section!