Downtown, Escar-GO, and Matchbox

Downtown

Build your bag, draw your tiles, and shape the town in this shared city builder.

2-4 Players

60-90 Minutes

Escar-GO!

Push-your-luck and bump other snails to win this rowdy snail race!

2-6 Players

30 Minutes

Matchbox

Cooperate with the other team to overcome increasingly tricky deduction and memory challenges!

2-10+ Players

30 Minutes

$4 US Shipping

*contiguous

$9 EU, UK, Canada shipping

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 Stretch Goals

Downtown Landmark: Museum

Downtown Landmark: Stock Exchange

Downtown Landmark: Bridge

Downtown Landmark: Stadium

Downtown Landmark: Zoo
 

Pledge Levels

Downtown- $59 $68

• Free More Landmarks Promo Pack

Save $9

Escar-GO! - $19

Matchbox - $29 $37

• Free More Cards Promo Pack

Save $8

Downtown: Deluxe Bundle - $89 $104

• Free More Landmarks Promo Pack
• Deluxe Acryliscope Tiles

Save $15

Escar-GO! Deluxe Bundle - $39 $47

• Aslimetric Expansion
• Deluxe Snail Travel Case

Save $8

3-Game Standard Bundle - $107 $138

Downtown

• Free More Landmarks Promo Pack

Escar-GO!

• Free Aslimetric Expansion

Matchbox

• Free More Cards Promo Pack

Save $31

3-Game Deluxe Bundle - $149 $188

Downtown

• Free More Landmarks Promo Pack
• Deluxe Acryliscope Tiles

Escar-GO!

• Free Aslimetric Expansion
• Deluxe Snail Travel Case

Matchbox

• Free More Cards Promo Pack

Save $39

Don’t Forget the Add-Ons

Downtown: Deluxe Acryliscope Tiles - $36 Discounted in the Deluxe Bundles

Behold, the Acryliscope tile! This specially designed acrylic tile is printed in layers to produce a 3D parallax effect between the foreground and background images. Upgrade all punchboard tiles and tokens (191 total) to Acryliscope tiles!

Escar-GO: Aslimetric Expansion - $14 Free in the 3-Game Bundles

This expansion doubles the number of snail characters AND gives all 12 racers a powerful asymmetric ability!

Escar-GO: Deluxe Snail Travel Case - $14 Discounted in the Deluxe Bundles

Transforms your copy of Escar-GO into a travel-friendly and stylish game! Includes a study carabiner attachment. Can fit all base game and expansion components.

Why Back Now?

FREE GIFTS | Enjoy free gifts including promo packs for Downtown and Matchbox and an Escar-GO expansion*  — a $31 value!

*Escar-GO expansion is only free in the 3-Game Bundles

KICKSTARTER PRICING | Save up to $39 by backing a Kickstarter bundle!

EXCLUSIVE DELUXE UPGRADES:  Enjoy deluxe upgrades not available in retail stores including Acryliscope tiles and a Snail Travel Pack!

What is Downtown

Build your bag, draw your tiles, and shape the town in this shared city builder!

Welcome to Downtown, a game about creating a metropolis from nothing but sweat, tears, and hexes! You know the saying "Rome wasn't built in a day"? That's just because the Romans weren't trying hard enough. 

In Downtown, players compete for victory as they build a new town together. The game is played over a series of rounds, called visits, where you take turns placing buildings with different abilities on a shared board. 

You’ll juggle many priorities including residential dominance, park popularity, business location optimization, and transportation convenience. Meanwhile, you’ll try to get an edge by bidding for turn order and drafting the perfect special tiles and landmarks for your strategy. 

Can you prove yourself the most savvy city planner?

How to Play

Draw city features from your bag. Take turns placing them in the active zone — timing is key! Each building features a unique ability:

• Compete for neighborhood majority with your houses
• Gain popularity by positioning parks near neighborhoods
• Position your businesses and banks where they’ll make you the most money
• Transport citizens to their desired destination with stations

Gain income from your largest cluster of tiles in the active zone — but you have to take it as all money or all points!

Use your money to bid for turn order and purchase powerful landmarks!

Draft advanced tiles to add to your bag!

Compete for the most points to prove yourself the most savvy city planner!

How to Play Video

Playthrough Video

Click to read the Rulebook

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Components

• rulebook
• double-sided game board
• double-sided side board
• 10 advanced cards
• 10 landmark cards and tokens
• 10 visit cards
• 9 trophies
• 6 stop sign tokens
• 35 park cards with unique art (forming a landscape scene!)
• 15 passengers
• 4 financial district tokens
• 12 player discs
• 4 player bags
• 4 player screens with aids
• 4 player trays and lids with 44 tiles each:
  • 7 basic houses, 7 basic banks, 6 basic stations, 6 basic parks
  • 2 each of 9 advanced tiles

Don’t Forget the Upgrades

More Landmarks Promo Pack - $9 Free with any Downtown pledge.

This promo pack features five additional landmark tokens and cards with powerful abilities!

Deluxe Acryliscope Tiles - $36 Discounted in the Deluxe Bundles

Behold, the acryliscope tile! This specially designed acrylic tile is printed in layers to produce a 3D parallax effect between the foreground and background images. Upgrade all punchboard tiles and tokens (191 total) to acryliscope tiles!

*All add-ons fit inside the base game box. Simply recycle the punchboard tokens that are replaced by deluxe upgrades.

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Why We Love It

• City Building Meets Bag Building
• Smooth Gameplay, Rich Decision Making
• Immense Replayability

• City Building Meets Bag Building: This innovative combination of city and bag building lets players captain their destiny! Downtown is quite unlike most city builders that have players construct their own personal city tableaus. Instead, you are contributing tiles and landmarks to the same city in ways that affect each other’s decisions. This game is also different from most bag builders which typically have players cycle through the same tiles/tokens over and over as you add more to your bag. With Downtown, your bag always stays the same size. Players’ bags will begin to diverge as they place and replenish unique tiles. Your strategy will evolve and pivot as you play across different zones of the city, and you’ll have to adapt to the tiles that enter your hand and the tiles that others play to the board. So the bag building is less about constructing an engine and more about steering your strategy.
• Smooth Gameplay, Rich Decision Making: Your turns are a simple as this: play one tile, resolve its effects. But the depth of decisions is enormous! Do you try to connect your tiles and grow your income, or do you pounce on the scoring opportunities scattered throughout each zone? Do you fill your bag with houses to compete in neighborhood majorities, or do you opt for stations and race to transport citizens before other players snatch them up? Which landmarks and advance tiles will help your strategy the most — and can you be the first to claim them? Enjoy one of our most tactically thrilling and strategically satisfying games yet in Downtown.
• Immense Replayability: Which zones and the order you play into them is randomized each game, keeping you always on your toes! Likewise you’ll have to adapt to the opportunities available in the landmark market and advance tile draft and you find the best bag-building strategy. Meanwhile, you’ll be wrestling your opponents for turn order, valuable lots, lucrative opportunities, and more!

QUOTES/PREVIEWS

Deluxe Components GIF

What is Escar-GO!

Glide right up for the greatest race of all slime! The fastest mollusks on the face of the Earth have gathered to prove their prowess in this ultimate snail race! On your marks, get set, Escar-GO!

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“This KILLS Can’t Stop”

• Tom Vasel, The Dice Tower

How to Play

1. Push your luck!

Roll your dice, and keep rerolling if you want a higher result, but don’t bust!

1. Knock off your opponents!

Place your dice on a log — higher logs are better but riskier. Knock off other players’ dice if they are on a higher log with a worse dice result!

1. Race to the finish line!

If your dice don’t get knocked off before your next turn, then advance your snail racer along the track. First to the finish line wins!

1. Compete on 2 unique race tracks!

Enjoy the short and simple racetrack or the epic and adventurous racetrack! Our team loves to play both back-to-back! 

How to Play Video

Rulebook Link/Header

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Components

Double-sided racetrack

Double-sided dice board

12 dice

6 snail tiles

6 snail figures

12 strawberries 

Don’t Forget the Upgrades

Escar-GO: Aslimetric Expansion - $14 Free in the 3-Game Bundles

This expansion doubles the number of snail characters AND gives all 12 racers a powerful asymmetric ability!

BIG GRAPHIC FEATURING ALL THE SNAILS AND ABILITIES

Escar-GO: Deluxe Snail Travel Case - $14 Discounted in the Deluxe Bundles

Transforms your copy of Escar-GO into a travel-friendly and stylish game! Includes a study carabiner attachment. Can fit all base game and expansion components.

Why We Love It

• Rowdy Racing Thrills
• Easy to Play with Anyone
• A Top-Tier Push Your Luck Game
• Rowdy Racing Thrills: You haven’t lived until you’ve screamed at a snail for not moving fast enough. Fans of rowdy racing games like Hot Streak, Magical Athlete, and Ready Set Bet are going to LOVE Escar-GO! 
• Easy to Play with Anyone: This compact box can be brought anywhere and will reel in EVERYONE. Your uncle who doesn’t like rules, your child who doesn’t know how to read yet, your cousin who acts too cool for board games. They’re all gonna love it because Escar-GO is incredibly easy to play and relentlessly captivating.
• A Top-Tier Push Your Luck Game: Push your luck is at its best when it lets players express their personalities and display their egos. It’s a thrilling spectator sport of surprising triumphs, hilarious failures, and gripping comebacks. Escar-GO delivers this in spades.

Ranked among the Top 10 Knizia Games (out of 800+) by The Dice Tower

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What is Matchbox

Behold: the Matchbox game you never knew you always wanted.

Matchbox is a cooperative deduction and memory (thinky party) game where you split into two teams and work together to take on increasingly trickier challenges! The game features nine matchboxes and over 200 cards with unique matchbox artwork.

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How to Play

1. Select nouns from your team’s hand that match the adjectives!
2. Cover the nouns that both teams chose with matchboxes. Then shuffle, flip, and uncover them so they are facing the other team!
3. Point at the noun you think the other team chose to match an adjective, then recall the noun that your team chose! If you’re wrong, lose a life!
4. Overcome dozens of unique challenge scenarios!

How to Play Video

Rulebook Link/Header

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Components

• 212 noun cards with unique art
• 40 adjective cards (30 basic, 10 advanced)
• 7 matches (not real matches, don't worry!)
• 9 card stands
• 9 matchboxes

Don’t Forget the Upgrades

More Cards Promo Pack - $8 Free with any Matchbox pledge.

This promo pack features 42 additional cards (21 nouns, 21 adjectives)!

Why We Love It

• Addicting Blend of Deduction and Memory
• Loads of Thrilling Challenges
• Matchboxes Galore
• Addicting Blend of Deduction and Memory: Which object would you consider the most smelly? Or the most hopeful? Or the most magical? What do you think the other team picked? Deducing the other team’s nouns is only half the fun! Your team also has to remember what nouns you picked for the same adjectives! Matchbox is the kind of party game that draws in passersby and gets them playing too!
• Loads of Thrilling Challenges: Any group we’ve shown this to is instantly hungry for MORE. More plays and more challenges. Matchbox delivers variety in spades thanks to the hundreds of cards and dozens of possible scenarios! Then game includes many optional modes call “Challenges” like Love Match (instead of drawing one adjective card each turn, draw two — teams must pick the noun that best fits both cards) and Match Up (pick a noun that most fits the adjective and a noun that least fits the adjective). 
• Matchboxes Galore:  The game comes in a matchbox feature vintage matchbox art. Inside that matchbox is 9 more matchboxes and some matches. Beside those matchboxes and matches are 212 more cards featuring unique matchbox art. This really is THE Matchbox game you never knew you always wanted.

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Shipping 

Shipping and taxes charts

• USA: Due to the unstable nature of tariffs, Bitewing Games reserves the right to charge an additional tariff fee depending on the situation at the time of importing. But even if tariffs return to the worst case scenario that we’ve seen in 2025, this would likely only result in a small charge of a few dollars per game. Thus far, Bitewing has been able to swallow all tariff fees and not charge any fees to our previous backers — we hope to be able to continue this way.
• EU: Your games will ship from Germany.
• UK: Your names will ship from within the UK.
• Canada: Your games will ship from within Canada.
• Australia and New Zealand: Your games will ship from Australia.
• Rest of the World: Your games will ship from China or USA. We realize the shipping price is high, but that reflects our costs.

Timeline

November 2026 | Kickstarter campaign

January 2027 | Production prototypes tested & finalized

May 2027 | Mass production complete

June 2027 | International freight from factory to fulfillment centers

August 2027 | Games are delivered to backers

The Team

Robert Hovakimyan

Game Design, Downtown

Ian O’Toole

Artwork & Graphic Design, Downtown

Reiner Knizia

Game Design, Escar-GO!

Thomas Wellmann

Artwork, Escar-GO!

Alex Cutler & Peter C. Hayward

Game Design, Matchbox

Andrew Kolb & Alexandra Preda

Artwork, Matchbox

Anca Gavril

Graphic Design, Escar-GO & Matchbox

Scott Darrington

Editing

Nick Murray

Co-Founder, Bitewing Games 

Kyle Spackman

Co-Founder, Bitewing Games