Silicon Valley, a game from Scott Almes (Tiny Epic Galaxies, Heroes of Land, Air & Sea), will be released by Australian publisher Grail Games in Q4 this year.

In Silicon Valley, the players are entrepreneurs running tech start-ups, hoping to be the first to reach a billion dollars in valuation.  They design products using the game’s polyominoes to create patterns.  They must also hire staff to produce the goods and market them to gain income while avoiding bankruptcy.  But, the players can also poach staff and copy each other’s products to steal market share.  The first start-up to reach a billion wins.

The game is intended for up to four players, ages 14 and up, and takes between one and two hours to play.  It also includes a solo variant.  It features artwork by Kerri Aitken (Tichu, Boomerang:  Australia) and includes 1 game board, 1 solo board, 4 player screens, 4 player boards, 4 R&D mats, 159 cards, 140 polyomino tiles, 48 tiles, 96 bank notes, and 4 punchboards with tokens.

Funding for the production of Silicon Valley was raised through a Kickstarter campaign in April that attracted AU$37,942 (about $26,378 U.S.) from 524 backers (an average of AU$72.41 or $50.34 U.S. per backer).

Grail Games also plans to release The Gardens later this year (see “Stroll Through Sydney’s Royal Botanic Garden in ‘The Gardens’”).