Eager tabletop gamers have been keeping an eye on the next Stonemaier Games project as “Codename Sand” progressed through playtesting and other pre-production steps. It’s been jumping through all the necessary hoops, but now we know what’s on the horizon.

Pendulum is designed by Travis Jones, with art by Robert Leask, and it will be available for preorders and early shipping in August. The game is described as a “competitive, turnless, asymmetric worker placement, time-optimization game.”

That’s a really interesting combination of descriptors and its gameplay has been likened to some of the resource and time management in Tzolkin: The Mayan Calendar and the simultaneous player actions of 7 Wonders. Also, it’s apparently achieved the highest prototype rating ever during the Stonemaier Games Design Day.

One to five players can expect to spend 60 to 90 minutes playing this board game.

Here’s the description:

In Pendulum, each player is a powerful, unique noble vying to succeed the Timeless King as the true ruler of Dünya. Players command their workers, execute stratagems, and expand the provinces in their domain in real-time to gain resources and move up the 4 victory tracks: power, prestige, popularity, and legendary achievement.

Players must use actual time as a resource in managing their strategy to best their opponents, using time on different action types and balancing it with time spent planning and analyzing. The winner will be the player who manages and invests their time most effectively and who builds the best engine, not the player who acts the quickest.

Sound interesting?

I really enjoy Scythe, and while I am in a small minority of players who did not think Wingspan was amazing, I do think that Stonemaier Games publishes some fantastic games.

So I’m hopeful that Pendulum will be a thrilling tabletop experience.

More product details are expected in the coming weeks, so stay tuned for more information on this new game and on tabletop news from GameTyrant.