Tabletop
Leder Games Shifts Gears
The sudden studio split left fans wondering what would happen to the publisher behind Root and Oath. A look at their frantic new racing game provides our first glimpse into the company's future.
When we finally got a copy of Root, I was blown away by the sheer ambition inherent in its design. Here was a fully asymmetric war game with some of the cutest critter art defining the look and feel of the woodlands. It remains a very difficult game to get to the table, but I’m always happy when we are able to go to war again. As shorthand, that put Leder Games on the map for me, but I eventually refined this notion to be an appreciation for designer and Leder Games Creative Director Cole Wehrle and artist Kyle Ferrin. This had me going through the Leder Games catalog in an effort to pick up past games and pretty much automatically sign up for any Kickstarter projects they launched.
In January 2026, Cole Wehrle announced that he was leaving Leder Games to form a new company, Buried Giant Studios, together with Kyle Ferrin. The custody of the IP was split: Oath and Arcs moved to Buried Giant, whereas the likes of Root and Vast remained at Leder Games. This split was rather jarring, and it happened in the middle of Kickstarter projects for both Root and Oath, with an expansion for Arcs just around the corner. This has all been a largely abstract change, as it hasn’t directly impacted any games - I even received my copy of Root: The Homeland Expansion earlier this year without issue. But now Leder Games has an active crowdfunding campaign for Kart, their first new release since the split. So naturally, I’ve been weighing whether or not it’s something I want to invest in.
Kart is a go-kart racing game for 2-4 players designed by Alita Robinson with art by Kyle Armstrong. They’re still following the same 4-letter game name as other Leder titles, and it looks like a pretty solid game. Unlike games like Heat, where managing speed is a key focus of the game, Kart centers around an inverse relationship between speed and control - and speed automatically increases as the race progresses because you are going downhill. Speed is important, as it determines how many steps you get to move. Control is important, as it determines which cards you can activate during your turn. The modular board uses lanes to define paths, and racers will need to dodge different obstacles or make the most of unique terrain features.
There’s still a degree of asymmetry, as the different karts have different powers and such. But the degree of uniqueness feels closer to the likes of Fort, as you all ultimately have a single path to victory. The different upgrade cards allow you to modify your vehicle as the race continues on, but that again ties back to having the needed Control to actually activate these designated card stacks on your player board. You can tell that the actual races will have a lot of chaotic moments, and a lot of the fun will hinge on how much players enjoy pushing their luck during those high-risk, high-reward moments.
Asymmetry is something that Leder Games is well known for. They really went all-in with their first big game, Vast: The Crystal Caverns, and later Vast: The Mysterious Manor as fully asymmetric experiences with unique roles, each with unique win conditions and play styles. Root became the really big asymmetric game line for them and is probably what most people associate with Leder Games.
Kart is not a game of such scale despite the unique go-kart abilities defining the initial part of the race. In terms of level of complexity and game mechanics, it’s definitely more like Fort, even if the in-game characters are probably a little older than the Fort kids. It’s still asymmetric, but not to the degree that the initial teach needs to involve essentially 4 different games. It’s really meant to be a medium-weight game, especially with its projected 45-75min playtime.
This is a tricky question, as we’ve seen a number of really good racing games out in the market in recent years. But this is not meant to be a big-box racing experience like Heat: Pedal to the Metal, as it has a much simpler core game loop instead of Heat’s deck-building focus. Initially, it reminded me of Crazy Karts by Portal Games, save for the fact that it’s not a team game, so players have more control… until their speed says otherwise. This looks to be a fair medium-weight racing game that should fit as modest filler gaming in between larger games but remains a step up versus family-friendly games like Wacky Races. It promises a lot of crazy game moments as karts navigate the course and inevitably incur damage, which is a role Steampunk Rally performs for us. So it boils down to what kind of a racing board game experience you’re looking for in terms of complexity and play style.
Because we already have a fair number of racing games in our collection, I don’t think we’re going for this campaign. At the same time, it’s not quite what I expect from Leder Games - but I’m not quite sure if it’s fair to continue to think about the company in that sense given the exit of Cole Wehrle. Additionally, I'm not sure if Buried Giant’s upcoming campaign for An Infamous Traffic is what I’m looking for as well. I think the two companies are still finding their “voice” moving forward, and we’ll need to see how their future releases play out and what sorts of games they’ll bring to the market.
