This pocket game is like Game Pass for board games, giving you something new to play every week.

In recent years, board game boxes have tended to become enormous in size. Gloomhaven, Frosthaven, and Descent are at the more absurd end of the bell curve, but many of the projects funded by Gamefound don’t stray too far from their size. That’s why a project like Gamelib Pocket is so intriguing: it apparently packs enough components to play dozens of games into a backpack-friendly cube.

Billed as a board game library, Gamelib Pocket is the brainchild of Léandre Proust and Grammes Edition, a French board game studio responsible for Clash of Decks and Acrylogic. Perhaps more surprising than the sale (more on that shortly) is that Proust is funding the project on a sliding scale. The team suggests paying $13 and shipping will cost backers about $4 more, but you can get a copy for the price of a cup of coffee, if you're on a budget.

“Concerned about the current state of our environment and the growing concerns of tabletop gamers about the compatibility of their favorite pastime with the protection of our planet, I wanted to design a kit that was as versatile as possible; capable of playing an unrivaled number of games, both traditional and new, with a minimal number of components so that it could still be easily transported,” writes Proust on the campaign page.

The trick to Gamelib Pocket’s density of possibilities on the table comes down to the design of the components. Each box contains four six-sided dice in two colors (black and red), two wooden meeples and 40 wooden cubes with a similar color split, and a deck of 54 cards with some odd designs accompanying their numbers and suits. Designed by artist Hervine Galliou, the cards use a system of parallel lines on the numbers, crisscrossing lines on the face cards, and a symbol on the aces that allow them to be used for a number of different purposes in other games.

Speaking of which, those who back the project will begin receiving digital PDF instructions in November of this year, one per week, for a full calendar year. Like a quaint tabletop version of Xbox Game Pass, GameLib Pocket’s list of capabilities will gradually expand to include games from around the world and throughout time (though not the Royal Game of Ur). The campaign includes all eventual additions, including Backgammon, Apit-sodok, Fox and the Hounds, Go, 9 Men’s Morris, La Dara, Mu Torere, Puluc, Seega, Senet, Tchuka Ruma, and the humble Tic Tac Toe. Obviously, anything that only requires a standard deck of cards is automatically included in any exhaustive list.

“Traditional games are part of human history,” wrote Proust. “I discovered the unexpected depth of these games 10 years ago, while training as a game librarian. It seemed important to me to preserve their legacy and spread them as widely as possible. With Gamelib Pocket, we take you on a journey through time to discover the games our ancestors played.”

Gamelib Pocket’s Kickstarter campaign runs until May 9 and has surpassed its initial goal of producing physical copies and the weekly rules of the game. Backers should receive their boxes in October this year and their one-year subscription to Grammes Edition’s weekly updates a month later.