Dinoniche: The Accurate Dinosaur Minis Game

Build your collection of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals from the Hell Creek Formation, 66 million years ago. Your dinosaurs will eat, drink, hunt, defend, challenge for carcasses, pack, herd, and reproduce, all in an effort to earn stars by fulfilling their niches in the environment. Manage hunger and thirst, engage in epic dice battles, and paint your models in the ultimate scientifically inspired dinosaur miniatures game.

🦖 Exquisite Models

Dinoniche's models are to scale at 1:48 and scientifically accurate. That makes for some large models including a 9.5" T. rex and a 10 inch Edmontosaurus. Most models are sculpted by the well known artist DinoandDog. 

🎨 Paintable Models

The models are PVC like most standard minis games, meaning you can use the same paints you are used to. Paint your models to provide an even more immersive Hell Creek experience. 

🖌️ World's Best Paleoart

Dinoniche is proud to feature 2D art from 25 of the world's best Paleoartists including Raul Martin, Emily Willoughby, Rudolf Hima, Sergey Krasovskiy, Chris DiPiazza, Steve White, Beth Zaiken, and Mauricio Antón. 

🐊 Accurate Species Abilities

Each species' card provides its stats and keywords, all of which are inspired by scientific understanding. Everything from how far it can move to its assortment of keywords make each species' gameplay unique, immersive, and accurate. 

📋 Assemble Your Custom Team

Unlike most miniatures games that give you lots of arbitrary list-building rules, Dinoniche gives you the freedom to assemble whatever team you see fit. The list builder on our website can help you do so quickly while ensuring you stay within the few list-building rules: https://dinoniche.com/ListBuilder

🎲 Simple Strategic Gameplay

Though species' abilities are in depth, the rules are simple. 3 rounds each with 12 turns. On a players turn, they may perform any two actions and any free actions from among those listed in the How to Play section. 

🎁 Reward Tiers

➕ Add Ons

🔐 Stretch Goals

Don't worry, if the campaign does not reach $300,000, you can expect the Pterosaur add on to show up in a future Kickstarter. It's price is still tbd, although it will be the cheapest of the miniature add ons offered in this campaign, and will stay discounted at 30% off MSRP throughout the duration of the pledge manager. I am not able to automatically include this item in any of the reward tiers.   

🏬 Retail Tier

Retailers please email dinoniche@ritzergaming.com or message me here on Kickstarter providing your address, business email, and any other information that could help verify your business. Once verified, you may purchase any of the available items for 50% off MSRP value. Email or message me with the quantity of each item you would like. There is no minimum order quantity. I will then contact you with the cost, or you may calculate it yourself (use the small crossed out numbers). Pledge this amount under the Pledge without a reward section. I will then manually assign the products to your pledge in the pledge manager after the campaign ends. 

I will also add any retailers that pledge to a new Retails section at the end of the Kickstarter page along with a graphic of their choice and a short description. This will give the retailer extra publicity, and will allow the Dinoniche community to see where Dinoniche products will be available near them. 

🎯 Retail Challenge

1. After you contact a retailer, post a comment saying "Retail Challenge: [Vendor's Name]."
2. I will post every retailer that ends up backing at the bottom of the Kickstarter page. If the vendor you contacted ends up backing, you will be gifted a free Edmontosaurus add on in the pledge manager after the campaign ends! 

Here are some rules: 

1. You must be a backer to be eligible (but being a backer could mean pledging $1 under the pledge without a reward section) 
2. A retailer is defined as a business that sells unaltered boxes to consumers. A business that sells painted models or sells models individually is not considered a retailer. 
3. You must post that you contacted the retailer before I post that they placed their order. 
4. If you convince multiple retailers, you will get the Edmontosaurus add on for your first, and any add on of your choice for each retailer after that.
5. If multiple people contact the same retailer I cannot guarantee Edmontosaurus, but I guarantee that you will all get something. I will choose your reward based on the size of the order and the number of people that contacted that venue. 

🤿 Dive Deeper

Enhance up to four T. rexes by assigning them personalities, each of which grants its rex an in game bonus. 

I would not recommend this add on as a complement to the Core Set if these models and the Core Set models will be the only models used in the game. The player with the Edmontosaurus would almost certainly win. This set would pair well with any other product or combo of products.   

The Hell Creek River add on allows you to be the troll under the bridge, controlling who crosses and who does not. The River is an excellent complement to both the Core Set and Deluxe Set. 

This set builds very well on both the Core Set and Deluxe Set, turning your collections of these dinos into large packs and herds that can attack and defend against the giant dinos like T. rex, Triceratops, and Edmontosaurus.  

This set is an excellent complement to the Deluxe Set. I would recommend it as a complement to the Core Set if paired with the T. rex Personality Pack which would buff the T. rex against the giant herbivores that would outnumber it.  

This set can complement both the Core Set and Deluxe Set, although the baby T. rex and Triceratops models cannot be used without at least two adults being in the game. Adult T. rexes and Triceratops are currently only featured in the Deluxe Set (2x each) and the Brawlers add on (1x each).     

🚀 First Time on Kickstarter?

First Time On Kickstarter? Click Here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YUPNnQ7fcTqN_ZikxhDcU2aKNy2784VP/view?usp=drive_link

🎲 How to Play

The object of Dinoniche is to gain as many points as possible by fulfilling your organisms' niches in the ecosystem. The game consists of three rounds each with twelve turns evenly divided among the players. Rounds begin with dice rolls to determine the conditions for the round (day/night, rain, wind). On each player's turn, they may conduct two actions and any number of free actions split between any of their organisms on the board. The following actions are available to players on their turn: 

💥 Extinction Cards

In the last round of the game, one of 13 extinction cards is drawn, each with an effect of the meteor that ended the dinosaur reign. This card's effect applies until the end of the game. 

For a closer look at the instructions, check out our website: https://dinoniche.com/Rules

The website also features a Polish translation of the instructions thanks to one of our backers, Łukasz Pyszny 🇵🇱

🎮 Gameplay Videos

Unfortunately our camera ran out of batteries at the end of the second round. Round three began with a draw of the Tsunami extinction card, which allowed Zach's Mosasaur to reek havoc on several of my size 3 dinosaurs. My dinos dealt damage along the way though, and eventually my Nanotyrannus finally dealt the final blow. The final score was 184 to 158. Zach won. 

Unfortunately Cameron and I only had time to make it through one round. It is very action packed and played a lot like how a first round would normally go. 

Tabletop Simulator

Explore our Tabletop Simulator by GhosarTKG: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3768248514

The following video was independently created by a third-party content creator and contains some AI-generated elements. These elements were created solely by the video’s creator and are not part of Dinoniche or its development. Dinoniche itself does not use AI-generated artwork, models, or other creative assets.

🎬 What are People Saying

👨‍🎨 Painting

Here is some amazing paintwork from Paint and Go Studios:

https://www.instagram.com/paintandgo_studios?stkn=MXZrczRxOTduZ25hMQ%3D%3D&utm_source=qr

New to painting? Check out this speed painting tutorial by Héctor Peña Manterola/Urban Speedpainter:

https://www.instagram.com/urban_speedpainter?stkn=MWhkNmpvcXo5YzlnMA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr

🎥 Teaser Videos

Animation and sound by https://www.instagram.com/wheja_sciart?stkn=cXdkNnVidzMzaHkz&utm_source=qr

🖼️ Gallery

📦 Shipping

Because shipping costs vary depending on your location and may shift overtime, your shipping costs will be calculated and collected after the end of our campaign and closer to our ship date. 

You will receive an email from Kickstarter's pledge manager soon after the campaign to confirm your pledge and add any additional items you would like. 

In the pledge manager, you will be able to confirm your pledge, add any additional items you would like to get, pay for shipping, pay sales tax, VAT tax, or other fees relevant to your location. 

Please be aware that the shipping rate estimates provided below are only approximations for our different pledge levels and that the prices mentioned do not include any add-ons you may have selected. Expect each of the box add ons to increase shipping price by $4-6. The T. rex Personality Pack is unlikely to increase your shipping cost. Final charges for shipping and sales tax or VAT (where applicable) will be determined based on actual shipping costs incurred.

The following graphic shows shipping costs for each pledge tier. These costs only include shipping. They do not include sales tax and VAT taxes. 

We regrettably are unable to ship to Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan. We would have difficulty shipping to many places in South America as well. If you are from a region not listed on the following graphics and are interested in backing the game, please reach out to dinoniche@ritzergaming.com and we will explore the possibility of getting you a game. 

Core Set

Estimated Delivery September 2027

Deluxe Set

Estimated Delivery September 2027

All In

Estimated Delivery September 2027

Our Story

Hi, I’m Joseph Ritzer, the dude in the middle of the photo and the creator of Dinoniche. Dinoniche really began with my interest in dinosaurs which started with shows like Walking with Dinosaurs, Chased by Dinosaurs, and Prehistoric Park. Anyone that has known me well can tell you there has always been some form of a dinosaur game going all the way back to my elementary school days. 

In 2022 I was working for my college biology department in the untouched wilderness of the Michigan Upper Peninsula when I ran into Star Wars Legion in a small town game store. I knew nothing about miniatures games but was so taken with the box that I bought it. After several scuffed but super fun games with fellow students, my thoughts turned to searching for a dinosaur game in the same genre. After a thorough search I concluded that there wasn’t one and resolved to change that. 

In February 2023 after discovering Dino and Dog on MyMiniFactory, I bought two 3D printers for my dorm and went to town printing models for playtesting. Over three years, Dinoniche developed from poorly processed PLA models on a dorm room table to a spectacular gaming experience with exquisitely painted models. My favorite part of the process has been seeing everyone else’s excitement about the product on email, social media, and our discord. Seeing people build the game on Tabletop Simulator, print proxy dinosaur tokens for playtesting at home, record videos reading through the instructions, and so on has been amazing to see. Along the way I was also very excited to meet my childhood hero Nigel Marvin, the actor from Chased by Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Park. Childhood me would be very stoked to see where my childhood passion ended up. 

I am very excited to share this project with the world! Dinosaurs have been gone far too long. 

Our Retailers 

Lublin, Poland

your local board game store in Lublin, Poland! We stock a wide range of board games, card games, and wargames - from family favourites to epic tabletop battles. Whether you're a casual player or a seasoned strategist, you'll find something to love.

Broomfield, Colorado

I am very pleased to announce that my local game store, Total Escape Games, has placed our first retail order!! Total escape is in Broomfield Colorado, and is a great place to go for card games, board games, RPGs, miniatures, and painting. I have been a frequent legion player there over the years, and am looking forward to being a familiar face again once Dinoniche settles down. 

Our Partners