Alderac Entertainment Group is producing an upgraded version of Tom Cleaver’s Valley of the Kings game, which will release in Q4, and is offering retailers who agree not to sell it online an early release through its “Kick it Here” program.

Released in 2014, Valley of the Kings is a deck building game in which players take on the role of nobles in ancient Egypt competing to gather the goods they’ll need for their tombs (see “‘Valley of the Kings’ Deck-Building Game”).  The game spawned two expansions:  Afterlife in 2015 (see “Alderac Returns to ‘Valley of the Kings’”) and Last Rites in 2016 (see “‘Yeti’ and ‘Valley of the Kings:  Last Rites’”).

The Valley of the Kings Premium Edition gathers all three sets together in a single package, featuring a deluxe box and upgraded tarot-sized linen-finish cards.  It will also include 10 new Pharaoh cards, 6 new Artifact cards, and a set of 20 randomizer cards.  The box will be large enough to hold the game’s 300+ cards even when using the 350 tarot-sized card sleeves that are also included and comes with 39 card dividers to help organize them.

This edition includes the solitaire rules from Afterlife, allowing games from 1 to 6 players.  It is intended for ages 14 and up, and plays in about 45 minutes.  MSRP is $65.00.

Alderac is funding the production of the Valley of the Kings Premium Edition through a Kickstarter campaign that is part of the company’s “Kick it Here” program for brick-and-mortar retailers.  Qualifying retail stores can pre-order six copies of the game with a deposit, and will receive their copies along with other campaign backers in August, roughly two months before the game releases into normal distribution.  Games released as part of the “Kick it Here” program cannot be resold online, and AEG reserves the right to disqualify backers who violate the terms of the program.  As of this writing, the campaign has attracted $54,769 in pledges from 1,126 backers (an average of $48.64 per backer), easily exceeding the $10,000 campaign goal.

This summer, the company will release the art-themed games Atelier and Walking in Burano (see “Art-inspired Games from Alderac this Summer”).