Fully updated look and play. A highly interactive game of press-your-luck, card play, and set collection -- but mostly GIANT FIREBALLS.
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
Well, that didn't take long. Doesn't matter where we put the bar, you all fly over it. I'm just going to say it: Our backers are the best! Anyone who disagrees can take it up with Old Vulkie.
First things first, we figured you'd like to get a peek at what the 3D bling will look like. Jason's been working on it, but it's not final of course.
And some detail shots of the Maw and the Hello-Copter:
And we also blew through the $2,557,374 stretch goal, which gets everyone an exclusive discount at our upcoming merchandise store and on Broken Token Fireball Island items. We're still finalizing these, but if you like Jason's work, just imagine what he's going to do when we set him loose on the t-shirts and tote bags. A little more on that in the next few weeks.
Finally, we know a lot of you want more stretch goals. Honestly -- shhhhhh -- we do have one more. Here's the thing. We didn't want to put it out there just to grab some last minute pledges. It's a thank-you to the backers, so we're setting it at whatever number this campaign ends up at. It's not a big thing. No, it's not a marble bag. And it's definitely not a tiki cow.
It's a special thing. And we can't wait to show it to you.
We're headed downhill and pickin' up steam. We've reached two more stretch goals, so let's have a look.
At $2.3m, we unlocked some additional cards for the Wreck of the Crimson Cutlass expansion that'll put some wind in your sails. Some folks have asked why you should get this expansion. I think there are two main reasons.
First, it offers a new location with new physics engines. We wanted to see how players would take to using the cave system to visit other locations. As we move forward with the franchise, alternate locations connected through the caves opens up some exciting design space for us. We wanted to explore different ways we could physically use the marbles, which the jolly roger and crow's nest offer.
Second, because the expansion was bigger and more expensive, we thought it should also impact how the game feels. We thought it appropriate that a pirate-themed expansion encourage players to play more, well, cutthroat and to give them the mechanics to support that style of play. So the treasures can be used for scoring but also as a resource. The action cards allow players to steal treasures without having to knock anyone over. But we were excited to go further with it.
So, for breaking the $2.3m stretch goal, we're adding in Sinister Motive cards and a new souvenir, the Black Spot. Sinister motives provide each player with a secret objective. This means that players will have to keep a closer eye on their opponents to see if they can discern the motive and maybe even thwart them from achieving it. Likewise, players might need to give up easier, obvious benefits to try and achieve the long-term but highly lucrative future goal.
In designing the cards, Jason wanted to highlight the cutthroat aspect and reinforce the pirate theme by giving them a more sinister look.
With these additions, the Wreck of the Crimson Cutlass now offers a new location, two new marble apparatuses, a new snapshot location, a new kind of treasure, a souvenir that acts as a wild treasure, action cards that let you steal treasures, a souvenir that acts as a penalty, and hidden scoring objectives. In short, this expansion ramps up the strategy and player interaction from the base game quite a bit.
But, frankly, we got tired of doing all that work. Fortunately, at $2.4m, you all unlocked the Maker Kit optional buy. This is a separate box that includes a clear set of island trays, a blank set of scrims, and an extra Vul-Kar. Now you can unleash your inner artist and truly make this game your own. Put in landmarks from your hometown? Turn it into a bobsled track? Add some flocking? Rig up a smoke machine? Replace Vul-Kar's eyes with LEDs? With real rubies?
What will you do with it? We can't wait to see. In fact, I'd be shocked if we didn't have a contest at some point to find the coolest custom islands.
A couple of important notes:
This is an optional buy. It is separately priced at $40. It is not included in any of the pledge levels. To get the Maker Kit, you can either add it to your current pledge (click "Manage your pledge" and add the $40) or you can add it in the pledge manager after the campaign is over. You do not need to add any extra shipping.
This is not a playable game. It does not come with trees, bridges, the ladder, cards, or player figures. Likewise, you cannot order just the Maker Kit but, rather, must add it on to a valid pledge.
And this is your friendly reminder that we've got another stretch goal coming up at $2.5m. You'll get a nice discount on merchandise in our upcoming webstore and on Fireball Island storage solutions from the incomparable Broken Token.
So, like a fireball, let's keep rolling along.
We are quickly approaching the end of this amazing journey. We want to thank you. You didn't just join us for the ride. You made it happen. Yes, you! The final couple of days can be a wild, fun time. So soak it up.
The campaign officially ends at 11:59 PM EDT on Thursday, May 3rd.
Until that time, you have an opportunity to change your pledge. If your pledge is fine the way it is, don't do a thing. Pull up a chair and enjoy the show. If you need to change your pledge for any reason, it's very simple. Here's how that works.
You might want to increase your pledge to add an expansion or an optional buy. For example, if you decide you want to get the card sleeves, you would manually increase the amount of your pledge by $15. If you previously pledged for only the base game, you can change to the Full Vul-Kar pledge level on that page. If we hit $2.4 million, we'll unlock the Maker Kit. If you want to add that to your pledge, use this method to manually increase your pledge level by $40.
On the other hand, you might need to reduce your pledge level if, for example, you've had some unexpected expenses pop up. You can use this method to do that as well. If you do, we recommend that you stay as a backer and manually pledge even $1. That will give you access to the backer section of the pledge manager. You might find that your circumstances have changed for the better by the time the pledge manager rolls around. And, this way, you'll still be able to get all of the free stuff for the backers.
And if you just showed up and you're all, like, that's great, Justin, but I just want ALL THE THINGS, I got you covered:
As always, if you have any questions, don't hesitate to send me a message. And, like a fireball, let's keep rolling along.
We're gearing up for the home stretch. We'll be tweaking the campaign page and ramping up the buzz. You all have been great, and anything you can do to help spread the word in these final few days is greatly appreciated. I wanted to take a quick moment to look back before we push forward.
We've said many times, Fireball Island was the number one requested game for us to bring back. Rob and I were a little too old for the game when it came out. Honestly, we didn't know what all the fuss was about. But as we took our first spin with it, when we started to get into the design, when we announced the deal to bring it back ... well ... we quickly got the idea. There's simply no way around it: Fireball Island is special.
It's not the first board game with verticality. By my reckoning, it shares some DNA with an old, long-forgotten game called King of the Hill from the 1950s.
But you can see right away that it looks a bit bland. Is it the lack of theme? Lack of Vul-Kar? (Here's a bit of trivia from our Restoration Guru: The name "Vul-Kar" was their riff off the word "Vulcan", unsurprising given the popularity of Star Trek at the time.) The marbles fall into the holes, but they don't roll down the chutes. There's no kinetic element to it.
Six years before Fireball Island would come out, Milton Bradley would release Oh What a Mountain!, which added a fun theme but again wasted the motion and energy that its height could have provided.
Shortly after, Chuck Kennedy developed a prototype of what would ultimately become the Fireball Island you know today.
This beast is ceramic, 30" square, and far too tall to put in a box made for retail. And here are the original prototype player figures:
If those mustaches don't scream 80s, I don't know what does.
From there, you can see that a lot of development went into making it a viable game with a sky-high toy factor. For that, they brought in Bruce Lund. Bruce got his start as an inventor with the legendary Marvin Glass (whose enterprise brought us everything from Lite Brite to Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots). When he went off on his own, his first published invention was Fireball Island.
It was only in recent years that folks started of dreaming up ways to bring the game back. You might have seen the "Island Hopper" pitch video from a few years back.
The only problem there was that it would have required shrinking the base game board down to make it at all viable. When Longshore acquired the rights and looked into making a smaller game, they even prepared a prototype. We got a chance to look at it after we signed on to do the new version.
It was one fateful day in Mike Gray's basement (where all great things happen), that he brainstormed the idea that would change everything: those stacking island trays.
We are so thrilled to be a part of the lineage of this historic game. There is something truly special about it that captured the hearts of so many kids in the 80s and is doing the same thing in this new go around. There aren't many games that have "superfans". But Fireball Island does. Meet Daniel Lee.
When we first announced we were bringing it back, Daniel reached out to us and immediately exhibited the zeal epitomized by Fireball Island fandom. Not gonna lie, I was a little taken aback at first. For starters, we knew were going to take it in a little different direction. Would he and the other Fireball Island fans accept such a twist? But our concern was short-lived. It quickly became obvious that what these folks really wanted was for others to experience the magic they did from this game.
We wanted to try and convey some of that passion to others, who might not be familiar with it. Maybe you're just stumbling on this Kickstarter for the first time and it's the first you've ever heard of this "Vul-Kar". We couldn't think of a better way to do that than to let Daniel show you himself. We asked the Brothers Murph to bring their own brand of bing-bong madness and take a trip down to visit with Daniel and find out just what makes Fireball Island so special. Daniel, you see, throws regular Fireball Island parties and, well, just watch (and keep an eye out for Island Hopper idea man, Jay Huddy).
(P.S. - Daniel has a very cool book coming out soon.)