It's not a deck-building game. You just have a unique deck for every hero, villain and environment.

So you can't meta-'upgrade' your deck, like people typically do in MTG and Pokemon?

No. The decks are fixed and the cards are completely unique per character. The game is much more about making the right choices with the hand you have. And there are some pretty complex synergies within and between hero decks, so that's not always as simple as it sounds.

It's important to note that it's a co-operative game, so the absolute quality of a specific deck is less important: it's more about enjoying a fun challenge than winning, because you all win or lose together.

You can't buy single decks, you just get 10 hero decks with the main game, and two more in each expansion, so it's not like CCGs at all, purchase-wise. Everyone can play together with just one game, just like any other boardgame.

Also, the theme is great :D

Ah I see. Still not my cup of tea though. I prefer miniatures or counters. :P

Probably the only 'card' game I'm ever going to be interested in is Puzzle Strike. I've been playing it for the last few hours on Fantasy Strike.

Haha, I actually prefer cards over tokens and miniatures :P

And yes, puzzle strike is quite lovely!

There are people on BGG who fervently plug for Dominion. Is there a reason why it's so acclaimed? Would this appeal to non-card gamers?

Ah, dominion. The reason why it's so acclaimed is that it introduced (as far as I'm aware) a completely new mechanic (in-game deck building*) and made a tight game with it that can be played very casually, or pretty competitively, depending on the people you're playing it with. The theme is also very neutral, which extends the possible audience even further (it's easier to convince non-geeks to play). Add to that the relatively quick playing time (30-45 minutes) and the variability inherent to the game (each game only uses 10 different types of cards (randomly or manually picked) out of ~25 available per set/expansion), and you have a winner.

If you feel like trying a deck building game, but would like some more theme to it, Thunderstone is pretty good and has a nice fantasy theme interwoven in the game (it's more than just a Dominion reskin). If you really dislike cards but are still curious, you could try Quarriors, which is pretty much Dominion with dice instead of cards. It's a lot more random though, so it doesn't really offer a strong competitive aspect.

*on your turn, you can buy new cards, which go into your discard. When your deck runs out (it starts with 10 crap cards, and you draw a hand of 5 every turn, so that's pretty quickly) you shuffle your discard, which becomes your new deck. So you're slowly adding new cards to it. The cards have different effects to aid you into buying even better/more cards. In Dominion, the goal is to eventually race for the expensive victory cards which are worth points, but are useless during the game (they just clutter your hand).

Ah I see. Cool, thanks for explaining :)

How about a multi-perspective shooter whose inspiirations are Deus Ex and Syndicate?

http://www.indiegogo.com/signalops

Tortured Hearts should be added to the OP. It`s an traditional RPG that needs funding for the graphics.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1424869054/tortured-hearts-or-how-i-saved-the-universe-again

Tortured Hearts has managed to raise an extra 1000 USD in the last week, the odds of it getting funded at this point are pretty low (not out of the question, just very low). It's still under 4% of its funding goal. It's also been plagued with more drama and suspicion than can actually be good for the project.

This. And that's why I removed it from the OP. It was up there for a while until I got sick of seeing the developer on RPGCodex dismissing good advice as trolling.

Exactly! Talking to the developer was like talking to a brick wall. He was given pretty solid advise as well as being treated quite nice by Codex standards but he just would not listen. He has "delusions of grander" when it comes to his expectations not only for his game but what he thinks people will pledge for it.

Yes, it's immensely frustrating to read SubBassman's posts here and on RPGCodex. He doesn't seem to understand the severe problems with his project, and he also appears unable to deal with criticism in a constructive way. He actually seems to think that the only thing holding them back is a lack of exposure in the gaming media.

I was not in any way suggesting Tortured Hearts is worthy of funding. But anyways...