the extra ships strech goal has been unlocked .theses are kickstarter exclusive and next up is improved map art for the board
allso update on the kickstarter page
Hello Kickstarters!
I'd like to start off with a massive Thank You!!!!!! to everyone for their support, all the kind messages and because we achieved all our funding in just 12 days!! Now we need you all to keep doing what you have been doing and tell your friends, your work colleagues, Tweet and Facebook everyone who you think would be interested - let's make these stretch goals a reality!
Ok, that's probably enough of the motivational speaking because I can imagine it would get dull after a while, so I thought instead that you might like to know a bit more about the stretch goals (I realised last night that I hadn't really given any details...) and also what I've been up to over the last few days.
Stretch Goal Detail
£15,000 = Extra Ships = KICKSTARTER EXCLUSIVE
As you know, the ships that you get to use in Cornish Smuggler are different shapes and sizes. What this will unlock are all the rest of the ships that we've been testing with, which will in turn unlock more reward levels where backers can name ships as this has proved very popular. I'll give you all advance warning of when this reward level will come online so you'll have the best chance to change your reward (should you wish to), also I'll make sure this happens at a time that fits with as many timezones as possible.
£17,500 = Upgraded board illustration
I've been talking with Donald, Rachel and Sam about ways to approach the game board illustration. The prime concern that we all have is that the board remains clear and functional as a game component, but also we feel that there are a number things that can be done to improve how it looks and how it feels. I will post more on this in a separate post, but essentially we are looking at a mix between: the gameboard you see on the project page, the sort of illustrated map quality that you see in a game like 'Pillars of the Earth' (e.g.
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/1683121) and the sort of historical detail that was picked up by Duchamp; basically the Constable and Townsend collections held at Exeter Uni. For now, some examples which can be viewed at:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~genmaps/genfiles/COU_Pages/ENG_pages/corn.htm
£20,000 = 5 player upgrade
This HAS to happen. Basically, I couldn't get the maths to work adding the components for a 5 player game whilst keeping the RRP as low as it is. So, I thought the way to go about this is to put it as a stretch goal instead=) Cornish Smuggler can take 5 players. It gets better
£22,500 = Bigger cards with bigger text on them
We increase the cards from standard 'Bridge' size cards (56x83mm) to standard 'Poker' size cards (62x88mm). This will allow us to (amongst other things) increase the text size on the cards which will increase the accessibility of Cornish Smuggler and the quality of the cards themselves.
£25,000 = 7 Extra Cards
Bigger cards means different sized print sheets so we are going to add more cards to the game. These extra cards will add even more strategic depth to Cornish Smuggler as well as opening up some more spaces for character cards which we will open up as Illustrated Smugglers.
£27,500 = Another 7 cards!
More cards = more strategy and more stories that we want to include into Cornish Smuggler.
£30,000 = Upgraded ship counters KICKSTARTER EXCLUSIVE
We've been playing around with some different manufacturing options for the ships and I'm very confident that you will like what we've come up with. Just for you guys.
£32,500 = Even more cards!!
The cards are what really makes Cornish Smuggler special and allows the whole game to come to life as well as allowing players so much more scope to bend their strategies around the game. We know how much of a difference these will make. You want these.
£35,000 = Even, even more cards!!!
Have I put too much of an emphasis on cards? (if so I'm very open to feedback) This will bring the total number of cards in the game up to 128 and is certainly the maximum that I'd be willing to include at this point but also by this point we are using the card sheets at maximum efficiency also and we will have a very nice game on our hands.
£37,500 = Bigger Influence Counters
While we've been playtesting Cornish Smuggler, quite early on we started experimenting with a number of different components, most of which were shamelessly pinched from our modest MNGG collection (only ~50 games). One of the things that made a surprisingly big difference to the feel of the game (apart from metal coins
was that the influence counters were just a tiny bit too small. Rather than 8mm cubes being used for the Influence counters, this will increase the size up to 10mm.
£37,500 for an extra 2 cubic millimetres of wood I hear you cry! Remember that there 60 of these in the game and when you put that over all the copies...that's a lot of wood.
£40,000 = Doublesided Game Board
A doublesided Game Board board that will dramatically increase the replay value of Cornish Smuggler. Both sides will be using the 'upgraded' artwork and we will make this second side as beautiful and as interesting as we can this making your copy of Cornish Smuggler EVEN better and even more desirable. I'd seriously love to see this happen and I absolutely believe we can do it.
£50,000 = Upgraded Cardstock
ALL the card = better, thicker and with a better feel. I'll post more details on this closer to the time, but it's essentially a mass upgrade for the whole game.
Local Press
I've been putting the word out on the street by phoning up all of the local newspapers, magazines, radio stations and TV spots. Over the last two days I've spent a total of 5 hours on the phone talking to reporters and promoting our Cornish Smuggler. We are going to be featured in the Cornishman - distribution ~ 15,000 people, which is a newspaper based in West Cornwall and coming out tomorrow and I am confident that we should get some inches in 4 other publications, although I haven't had this confirmed yet.
One of the problems that we face with Kickstarter is that the vast majority of the population is unfamiliar with the concept of crowdfunding so I'm not sure how much pick up we will get from this, but the press seems very enthused by the concept of Cornish Smuggler so I'm optimistic that we should get some good traction from this at any rate.
Golowan Game
About 4 months ago, I wrote a game for the biggest local festival that happens in West Cornwall. [Golowan: attendance ~20,000 people, takes place on last weekend in June in Penzance] to help publicise Cornish Smuggler. This game is free to play, consists of a single A5 sheet and has a cash prize associated with it...I think realistically we should be able to get somewhere between 7 ,000 - 16,000 players
At the beginning of April, I proposed this game to the festival organisers who...after a little bit of negotiation and some slightly confused faces, accepted the proposal.
So, this week (to tie in with the local press spread) I also started spreading the word amongst independent traders as one of the things that I'd love to do is have a couple of these guys involved in the game.
Also, Golowan does just so happen to be a payable card in Cornish Smuggler
I'm hoping that this will allow Cornish Smuggler to reach an entirely new audience and will help give the Kickstarter a nice boost...will release more details as we get closer to the time.
Manufacturing Update
One of the things that I had quite a problem with at the start of this campaign was actually getting manufacturers to return quotes for Cornish Smuggler, so after our amazing Sunday, I really wanted to re-submit some of the quotes that 'disappeared' and to send out requests to any that I didn't get a chance to. The reason for this is that the more manufacturers we get quotes from, the more options we have for production and the better position we are in to negotiate the highest quality game we can get and THAT is my focus.
ah!....1400 words - I'll try and keep the next update smaller :]
