The Final 48 - All Goals Met!
almost 7 years ago – Sun, Jul 16, 2017 at 12:56:21 AM

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With only 42 hours left to go (as of me writing this), we've achieved everything we've set out to do.

We hit our initial goal and then smashed through every subsequent Stretch Goal like it was nothing. It has been a thrilling ride, and we're right up to that final magical 48 hour period before the campaign ends and we slide right into What Comes Next Mode.

In a previous update, I detailed what I felt were the best Stretch Goals a campaign can have - ones that can add value and quality to our game. 

At this point, we've managed to do everything I can think of to make a beautiful, well-illustrated, luxe tile game. The components are going to feel great in your hands, the custom meeples are going to be adorable, and the variety in art is going to entertain every time you pick up the game. 

I'm worried that now that we've cracked open every Stretch Goal we could reasonably manage, the pressure is on to add on more, and suddenly we're in a position to make stupid decisions. Many of you are familiar with other campaigns on Kickstarter, and have probably seen it before - creators go crazy adding rewards and add-ons, expanding their scope in ways they haven't fully planned out... I'm not interested in making this any more complicated than it absolutely needs to be. 

All of this is to say: we're not doing any more stretch goals. From here on out, funds past this point will help us create the final version of the game with more security and more flexibility. It'll go toward any extra pieces of art our artist manages to have time for - cute rabbit comics in the rule book, anyone? It'll go toward con costs next year, so we can get the game on tables in an area maybe near some of you. So on, and so forth.

That's our plan from here on out - the game exists, the pieces are all there, waiting for their final design and printing, waiting to get into your hands to be played. It isn't a real game, after all, until people are playing it!

Hopefully that sounds as good to you as it does to us, and we'll see you right there at the finish line, cheering as the campaign ends in style. Thank you all, so much! <3

Pledge Manager Backer Goal in motion~
almost 7 years ago – Fri, Jul 14, 2017 at 09:29:16 PM

Today I had the pleasure of talking to a representative from BackerKit, a pledge manager many of you may have run into at the conclusion of other campaigns.

I've had more than one of you ask about whether or not we were going to use a pledge manager, and I've been on the fence about it for a little while now. Taking a look at our numbers, though, I finally feel confident that if we can hit 500 backers, then there will be more than enough reason to bring them on board.

What is BackerKit?

BackerKit, at its core, is a data management service. They help creators like me collect information from Backers and handily create different formats in which I can access that information - this can help me streamline the fulfillment process, which helps everyone.

However, in the last couple years, BackerKit also has found a niche in helping creators sell product during the survey period (so those of you who have pledged $1 can increase your pledge then), and also post-campaign as a pre-order store front.

What will I have to do?

After the campaign is finished, you'll get a survey confirming your pledge amount, and providing you with the opportunity to increase your pledge by adding on product if you wish. Then, a short time before the game is ready to ship, you'll get another form to confirm your shipping information. That's it!

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All pledge levels count toward the 500 Backer Goal. So, please share the campaign! We're looking at you, Monday!

$18k and counting! 20 Extra pieces of card art ahead!
almost 7 years ago – Fri, Jul 14, 2017 at 08:24:33 PM

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We're headed into the weekend with plenty of wiggle room as to what we can accomplish by the end of the campaign on Monday. Kicktraq is still showing us trending toward a pretty big final total, which is awesome. 

I've started setting up the Trello Board for all of the game components that will need art, and it struck me that it would be a fairly easy thing to make a public Trello Board on which I can put pieces of art as they are finalized throughout the rest of the year. This would be a cool way of informing you all as to our progress in a more detailed manner than these updates necessarily allow. 

I'll update you more on this particular situation after the campaign's done and we've started in on the meat of the work, but I wanted to just clue you in at the onset. Here's an example of a public Trello Board for those of you who are unfamiliar with the service.

I don't want to ring the "Share This Campaign!" bell too loud, buuuuut.... DING DING DING! Let's race to the finish line this weekend! 

Thanks to everyone who's helping us fund our dream!

Custom Insert Achieved! 4 days to go, and so much art left to earn!
almost 7 years ago – Fri, Jul 14, 2017 at 01:45:51 AM

Oh yeah, custom plastic insert, here we go! Way to close out the night with a strong finish. :D

Now it's onward and upward to getting more art!

Remember: For every $500 past $17,000 - up to $3,000 total - we'll add an extra 10 pieces of card art to the game.  

We have been ROCKING the momentum up to these final 4 days of the campaign! Please remember to take a moment and share the link anywhere you think it might catch an interested eye! 

I've spent the last couple of hours updating the main page to hopefully catch new interest in people who have been keeping an eye on the campaign but haven't decided to pull the trigger yet. I'll also be posting updated links everywhere I can! We all can do our part to make sure we race across the finish line next Monday. 

Thank you all so much for making this a fun process so far, and I'm looking forward to the next 4 days!

Rockin' The 2nd Stretch Goal! 4th SG revealed!
almost 7 years ago – Thu, Jul 13, 2017 at 05:07:38 PM

It barely took us another 2 days to blast through our Player Board & Wooden Tracker Stretch Goal! We're working toward getting those mocked up so we can show them off, using the results of our Player Board poll and our most recent Victory Point Tracker poll (still live, chime in if you haven't yet)!

I need to note something about Stretch Goals in general - those of you who have backed a lot of Kickstarter campaigns probably already know the following, even if you've never seen someone talk about it directly - but Stretch Goals have the potential to ruin an otherwise solid product by adding too many hard-to-track extras, components that end up being too heavy (which can screw up already-budgeted shipping), or other issues. 

A Superbacker recently recommended that we use Stretch Goals to make existing components the very best they possibly could be (lookin' at you, Richard T.!), but we had already taken the steps to do that right out of the gate, as we detailed in an older Update. 

He's absolutely right that the best Stretch Goals are ones that add value and quality to the game, which is why we're working toward player boards (gameplay quality) and a plastic insert (product value). With that in mind...

...let's talk about art.

Right now, as you can see from our video & front-page graphics, the Action & Movement Cards are blank, and very dully formatted. There was enough pre-campaign money to get the Map Tiles redone, but not these decks. 

Right now, in our regular funding goal, we've budgeted for 16 pieces of art for Action Cards (one per individual type of Action Card) and 6 pieces of art for Movement Cards (one per movement, ranging between "Move 1 Space" to "Move 6 Spaces") - however, there are actually 27 Action Cards and 54 Movement Cards for a potential total of 81 pieces of individual card art. Minus the art we had already budgeted for, this means we can add 59 extra pieces of card art to the game. Imagine all the mischief our rabbits can get up to, with so much extra space to play!

For every $500 past $17,000 - up to $3,000 total - we'll add an extra 10 pieces of card art to the game. 

"What about that final piece?" you might be thinking. WELL! 

If we can hit $20,000, we'd like to add a first print-run exclusive card - a full-art Earthquake Card! This is the only card in the game that removes Building Tokens from your opponents' territories. Three Earthquakes are already included in the Action Card Deck, but if we can work without borders and text, we'd be able to make a really cool impression on the deck. 

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I like to believe that we can hit $20,000 and beyond! If we round in on $20k, I'll let you in on our next potential Stretch Goal - but let's focus on what we've got coming up, and hit our plastic insert goal just as hard as we did the last two!

Thanks, everyone!