IDW Games will launch its games division with Kill Shakespeare, which will simultaneously be solicited to fans via a Kickstarter and to the comics and game trade through distribution.  The game will ship in May. 

IDW first announced its new division and its partnership with game publisher Pandasaurus last October (see "IDW Games"). 

Kill Shakespeare will be a semi-cooperative area control game, in which players band together to liberate the lands of the Bard from the control of Richard III and Lady Macbeth.  It’s designed by Wolf Plancke and Thomas Vande Ginste, who previously designed Yedo, a samurai worker placement game.

The cover art, which was originally announced as by Dave Dorman (see "J.K. Woodward and Dave Dorman"), will be by Glenn Fabry.  The card art is by J.K. Woodward.

The big box, $59.99 game, will be for 2-4 players, and play in 120-180 minutes. 

The Kickstarter, which launches today, will include a retailer tier, for five copies of the game including all stretch goals.  The trade version will also include the stretch goals. 

Pandasauras has previously run four successful Kickstarter projects, including New Amsterdam and The Great Fire of London (see "'New Amsterdam' and 'Great Fire of London'"), Lost Valley, and Tammany Hall.  Tammany Hall, at $151,483, was the largest; New Amsterdam, at $34,743, the smallest. 

IDW will be bringing Tammany Hall, Pandasaurus’ top Kickstarter, back into print in June. 

We spoke to IDW CEO Ted Adams about the launch (see "IDW CEO Ted Adams on IDW Games").