Wallpapers For All!
about 6 years ago – Sun, Apr 15, 2018 at 12:31:39 AM

Maybe you noticed that the art on our Kickstarter banner changed recently? Here's the full picture, a new landscape spread that's being used at the front of our rulebook:

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Isn't that GORGEOUS?? The rulebook is so excellent so far, y'all, I'm so excited.

So excited that I took a little time yesterday and made that new image available to everyone...

You're welcome! ;D
If I missed out on a size that you'd prefer for any reason, please just let me know and I'll whip it up!

There will be a more comprehensive update coming later this week - the printer has been a little slow to get back to me about a couple things that I thought would have been finished by now. Hopefully they'll be back on track early next week and I can spoil a few more things :)

Printing Timeline & Collapse! New Art
about 6 years ago – Fri, Mar 30, 2018 at 01:06:49 PM

Greetings from suddenly-it's-the-end-of-the-month! Time just flies when you're being productive. (And having fun, but it's the productivity part that I'm most concerned with.)

I was going to make a fancy image for the following information, but I realized how much extra time that was going to take, so here's the situation plain and easy: 

Printing Timeline 

The short and quick: The game will be in your hands up to two months later than my estimated delivery date (i.e., September instead of July). Let's break down why. 

 Note that the following time estimates are the MAX amount of time that each task will take. If we or the printer are ahead on anything on any particular point, then we'll end up ahead of schedule, which is obviously something we'd prefer! I just want to be very up front about what we expect, though. 

• Finish all art assets, including formatting & final pass for edits (1 month - April)
  I had been hoping that fewer Stretch Goals would mean fewer things slowing us down, but adding on extra illustrations was bound to take its toll at some point. We're in the final stretch, but I've padded this time with an extra week so we can absolutely make sure we're giving ourselves time to edit and nitpick the final designs. 
  
  
• Submit art files, get printer's approval (5 days - first week of May)
  This is also a padded estimate, but in case there's anything holding up communication from overseas, or if there's an issue with a file that needs to be fixed...better to overestimate. 
  
  
•  Printer will create both a digital proof and a physical "whitebox sample" (2 weeks - almost the rest of May)
   I'll get and share the digital proof with you right away!
  A "whitebox sample" is a mock-up of the final product, using material that hasn't been printed on. This allows us to get a very real idea of what the final game will look and feel like, as well as giving me the chance to tweak sizes, materials, etc. Once I approve these proofs~ 
  
  
•  Production starts! (2 months - June & July)
  The printer will pull the first couple copies off the press and send them to me so I can take a look at the final product, and so I can create the assembly instructions for the people packing the games. This will be our first full look at the final game, and I'll make sure to do a big unpacking video for you all! 
  
  
•  Freight to fulfillment companies (1 month - August)
  I've started a conversation with Quartermaster Logistics about doing our US & Canada fulfillment!
  This will also be the period of time that I close out the BackerKit addresses, so you still have time to update your addresses as needed! 
  
  
•  Allow 2-4 weeks for individual shipments (up to 1 month - September)
  Because we're having our games boxed right at the printer, that should cut down on the amount of time it takes for our games to be received and then turned around and sent out to you all. That being said, it's best to overestimate your wait and then be surprised if/when it comes early! 

If you have any questions or thoughts about the printing schedule, please let me know. I'm trying hard not to feel like rushing through the last of the art assets is an acceptable response to seeing the schedule laid out. The results of not rushing are so pleasant and awesome, though, and ultimately that's what we're in for, right? A pleasant and awesome game. 

 ~*~*~ 

Recently. we replaced "Earthquake" with "Collapse," and I wanted you to see the results. Big shout-out to Backer Maggie Cole for giving me the inspiration to think about natural disasters!

We went back and forth for a long time trying to figure out how to fit all of the art on these cards, and ultimately we decided to just remove the bulk of text altogether and just put a direction to look in the rule book - possibly this may change to checking the rules reference card that we're adding for each player.

The numbered spaces are for the Earthquake Counters...

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...which help you count down to the Collapse!

Full Rules Text: When you draw this card, immediately play it. If there are two or fewer years left on the Year Tracker, discard this Collapse! and draw another Action Card.  

• Countdown Timer: Put a Collapse counter on the first position of the countdown timer featured on the card. After you play a Movement Card during your Move Pawn step, move the counter down once.
                 * Short Game Exception: If this Action Card is drawn at the beginning of the Build Phase during a Short Game, the player will play it face-up, but will wait to place the Collapse Counter on the first position of the countdown timer until after their first Movement Card resolves. It continues to move down the timer as stated above. 
• Interaction With Action Cards: Collapse! cannot be affected by other Action Cards until it has been officially triggered by the counter being placed on the final position on the countdown timer (see next bullet point). After the action has been triggered, it cannot be cancelled (by cards such as Thwart! and Peace & Quiet), but it can otherwise be affected by other Interrupt Actions (such as Advance and Go Home!). 
• Collapse! Trigger & Effect: When the counter hits the final position on the countdown timer, you will remove the bottom Building Token from the Territory Tile your Rabbit is on. If there is only a single Building Token on the Territory Tile, then it is removed. This includes Building Tokens controlled by the player who plays Collapse! This can cause another player to gain control of this Territory Tile. If the Collapse! is triggered on a Territory Tile that has no Building Tokens on it, or an Event Tile, then nothing happens and the action is discarded.

~*~*~

I will be posting another update in about a week to talk about what art assets are left, more art spoilers, and whatever else comes to the surface.

I hope you've all had an excellent March, and that April starts smoothly!

Introducing Charm & Lacey! [Lots of New Art!] & General Update
about 6 years ago – Tue, Mar 06, 2018 at 11:44:54 PM

Lately I've been overrun with conversations - with the artists as we continue to finish the last of the components and cards; with the printer as we finalize our design specs and costs; with the accountants as we start to look at taxes in the wake of the crowdfunding campaign...

And finding a new fulfillment company for our US backers! FunAgain Games closed their warehouse recently, so I'm going to be shopping around for a new fulfillment company who can match their prices. I'm attending the GAMA Trade Show next week for the first time, and will have a chance to meet industry partners who may be able to fulfill that need. If you've had a particularly good experience with a Kickstarter product shipment, please let me know about it in the comments!

Moving on to some new art! One of my favorite parts of game development is developing a game's story and characters. When A.M. and I conceptualized the Action & Movement Cards, we quickly realized that we'd have to show more than just the 4 main characters to really give a good picture of the Island's day-to-day life.

Also, I've been playing around with the idea of finishing development on the Rabbit Island 5-6 player expansion set that we've got initial thoughts on, once the game has successfully printed & shipped to our backers. So, developing at least two new characters made a lot of sense to me, since we possibly will need two new Tribal Leaders in the near-ish future.

Introducing Charm & Lacey!

These two characters are portrayed as teenagers in this game, aspiring to be Tribal Leaders themselves one day!

You've actually already "met" at least Charm in a couple previously previewed cards - and Lacey is hiding in the background of one more!

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Charm is one of Russet's apprentices - as evidenced by his outfit - but his goal in life is to grow up and found a Jeweler Tribe. Lacey works with Acorn, and wants to found a Healer Tribe.

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Everyone needs a hand sometimes, and an Advance is a good way to help out a friend reach a new place on the board! (Advance is an Action Card that moves the active player forward one space on the board - if there's a split in the path, then the person playing the card can choose what direction to send the active player.)

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Sometimes the other rabbits call Charm & Lacey in to help on a project, and when you've got a couple of hungry workers to feed, you've got to be real about how much compensation to ask for! (Hungry Workers is an Action Card that doubles the Territory Cost for the active player.)

And, finally...

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When friends don't get along, sometimes their arguments must be thwarted! (Thwarted! is an Action Card that cancels the effect of another Action Card.)

Haha, I didn't realize that all three of these previews would also feature Russet until I was finished posting them. 

I'll be back in the middle of the month to update you on what our new fulfillment company will be, and hopefully we'll be even closer to being able to submit our files to the printer and getting the next step of producing the game underway! So excited! Hope you're all having a great March so far!

Meeple Debate Results & Game Components Update (with new art!)
about 6 years ago – Thu, Feb 22, 2018 at 11:15:12 PM

Hey there, everyone! I've definitely overshot the mid-February update, sorry about that. Dodging the flu and keeping up with babies and other responsibilities can get overwhelming sometimes.

Anyway, I'm excited to give you the results of our meeple question from earlier this month, and to show off some new awesome game component art that's come in!

Meeple vs standee? Let's do both!

I did the production math and our artist did the measuring - if we eliminate the wooden Tribal Emblem tokens (which were intended to be score tracker tokens), then we can afford to make both a character-accurate meeple and an art-forward character standee, and you and yours can choose which one to play with at any point! 

We can still have the Tribal Emblem tokens as punchboard components - ultimately our original plan was for them to be a wooden component with a sticker on top, which wasn't a very popular option in our poll anyway.

So I've been going back and forth with the printer about designs for the meeples - have to figure out radius limitations, machine vs laser cut thresholds, and whether or not there's any (financial) wiggle-room for painting simple lines on the meeples. Basically checking all our numbers, which will be continuing to happen until we're officially at the printer getting the game produced. Chinese New Year has slowed down our communication in the last couple weeks, but we'll get back on track soon!

Updated Game Components

We've been making fiddly little tweaks to these components even through today in order to prepare them for this post. I know it doesn't seem like it should be "that hard" to think this stuff up, but the style of each card/tile back, different tokens, etc., that are used in the game are really important in making the whole game feel cohesive and interesting. 

I hope you like the following!

Action Cards:

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That's just placeholder art on the Move 6 card, but isn't it pretty? :D

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 Map Tiles:

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We wanted a different back for the three main types of tile - Founder's Hill, Map Tiles, and Rabbit Holes - specifically so it's easy to pull those tiles out while shuffling. I love the way we used some of these design details in the Action & Movement Cards.

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Carrot Tokens:

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This way you always know what denomination your carrot token is, but it's got an individual look to each side! I'm also really pleased with how the triangle shape came out. We've been using standard circles for the tokens up until now, and I think these will be much easier to pick up off the table and move around in general.

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There are a few more to reveal, but this is already a long post and I want to leave a few things for next time! (Which is just a week away, so you won't be waiting long :D )

Note that there's still some wiggle room for change throughout here, but ultimately we're down to the final versions of each of these concepts. If you have any thoughts, questions, or suggestions, I'm definitely open to hearing them out!

I look forward to bringing you some new stuff next week, for my early-March update! <3

Let's Talk Meeples [poll] + a New Art Preview!
over 6 years ago – Wed, Jan 31, 2018 at 12:07:44 AM

As Action card art continues to be churned out, I've been busy working on other game components that need to be dealt with next - the different token designs, the score and year trackers, creative content, rulebook edits and tweaks - and our meeples!

During the campaign, you may remember the poll that asked whether or not we should have a character-accurate wooden meeple or a punch-out standee figure. The overwhelming response was that we should try and combine the the two and make a meeple with a character sticker, so we could get the best of both worlds.

Well, we've tried that, using the guidelines provided by the printer for both the meeples and the stickers. The biggest issue we had to work around was that the meeples are MUCH more permissive than the stickers. We've been stuck with strict sticker margins, and the all-important "no pointy shapes or closed angles." 

This basically means that the outside edge of the sticker has to be as bulbous and smooth as possible, to avoid tearing when removing the sticker from the backing. In order to make a meeple that accommodates this sort of sticker, we're stuck with kind of a blob meeple...

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While we technically could conform the meeple to match the edge of the sticker more strictly than we have here, we wanted to give enough of a margin around it that you could easily place the sticker into the center mass. 

It would be very easy to add extra copies of the stickers so you can replace them in the case of wear and tear, though that would mean an extra game component laying around in the box that may never be used (or could be lost, destroyed, etc.).

I started thinking about what else we could do, after reviewing the above image. One of the consistent things I hear at conventions and in playtesting sessions - at MAGFest, most recently - is how adorable our current rabbit meeples are. Those of you who have a prototype copy of Rabbit Island, or have ever played Dixit, can attest that they are awfully cute. 

However, they're not well-balanced meeples (I always get frustrated at how easy they are to tip over, even when handling them carefully), and they aren't great representations of our particular brand of rabbit. 

If we go with a rabbit-accurate design, though, we will lose our ability to place a sticker. Additionally, we will have pay extra to get new art made of the Rabbit Leaders, as their current designs aren't well-suited for going directly into meeple shapes. This would inherently add more time to our art production schedule, which creates a domino effect on other elements of production.

Finally, I've considered what it would take to do both types of meeples - for a total of 8 in the box - instead of having to make you all decide. It's a little fussy to have extra meeples just for the sake of not having to choose, though. This is another domino effect - it's not just the cost of making the extra meeples (both in art and manufacturing), but also the space it will take up in the insert, an extra set of components to quality-check, etc.

Help me out, everyone - 

Take the survey and let us know what you'd prefer!

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Woot, new art!

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Russet will get you moving right along, don't you worry!

With 5 Advance Cards in the deck, we really got to think outside the box to show how players interact. Advances can be used positively, negatively, and every shade in-between. Maybe you want to move someone off your property - or maybe you want to give them a little boost in the right direction!

I hope you enjoyed my first "February" update! I was happy to get it to you a little early, to make up for all those times I'm a few days late. I'll be back around mid-February to update you all on the results of the poll, a new art update (or three!), among other things. 

Thank you all for your support!