Industry vet and SOCOM lead tools designer Greg Chudecke recently founded his own indie game company, Caffeinated Games, and today announced his first project, a PC card and board game titled Farmlands.

It sounds a little bit like Monopoly, but with farms, as the game's primary object is to raise your net worth by building farms and planting crops on the board, collecting tolls from players who land there, and battling for control of the amber waves of grain with other farmers through slot machine minigames. There also looks to be a supernatural element to it too, though, with spirits and creatures afoot.

The cards, featuring items and seeds and stuff like that, are used to plant crops or add stat boosts during combat. You build your deck up by completing maps. The cool bit is that there's also a story behind the gameplay, with its own single-player mode, featuring the siblings William and Ruby and some strange dreams they start having when their mother falls ill. Dreams about cornfields, maybe?

No ship dates yet - Chudecke says on the game's official site that he's hoping for a year-end release, but that Farmlands will drop "when it's done." Full announcement and screens after the jump.

Caffeinated Games is Proud to Announce Farmlands(TM)

A Next Generation Board and Collectible Card Game.

Randle, WA ? June 18th, 2008. Announcing Farmlands the first title by Caffeinated Games. Farmlands is a Board and Collectible Card Game currently slated for the PC.

In Farmlands you build farms, plant crops, and battle for control of land. The goal of farmlands is straight forward....Increase your net worth to meet the goal of the map or have the largest net worth when time runs out. Players move around the outside of the board building farms and planting crops. If a player lands on your farm they will have to pay a toll equal to the value of the farm and its connected crops. It gets interesting when you start connect multiple farms together to combine their values. To prevent other players from connecting farms a player can initiate a battle by placing one of their crops on an opponents square. The outcome of battles between players are determined by slot machine mini games.

The collectible aspect of the game comes in with the pack of cards you are drawing your items and seeds from. During your turn you will draw items or seeds from your pack to use in the game. Seeds are used to plant crops or boost your attack in combat. Items are used to modify the behavior of things in the game. At the end of any map in single or multi player the player will receive additional items or seeds which they can use to customize their pack.

For more information about Farmlands(TM) as well as screen shots, renders and wallpapers please check out www.farmlandsgame.com.

Caffeinated Games is an independent game company and social network focused on the creation of original AAA games. It is founded by the former Lead Tools Engineer of Zipper Interactive (SOCOM fame) Greg Chudecke who prior to Zipper worked on Backyard Skateboarding (Atari) and Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Black Label Games). For more information check out www.caffeinatedgames.com.