Fireball Island - 80's Board Game, Reignited and Restored

Business in the Front, Party in the Back - Cards and Sleeves!
over 6 years ago – Tue, Apr 17, 2018 at 01:53:03 AM

Let's jump right in: We've got card backs and card sleeves to show off, and yet again, Jason proves why he's one of the best in the business. He knows how to take obstacles and constraints and turn them into advantages and invention.

We have different decks among the various cards in the game. In addition to the main action deck, there is of course the souvenir deck. But we've also got some other separate decks in the Treasure Trove, such as the Injury cards. So we knew we needed different backs to make it easy for players to know which decks to draw from. Jason has a strong artistic vision for the game, which includes grounding the components in a more realistic design. So he eschewed simple graphical backs or minor logo treatments. Rather, the card backs are both realistic and evocative of the cards on which they appear. Take a look:

When it came to sleeve design, we didn't want to cover up the great card backs. On the other hand, we didn't want to just do redundant images on the sleeves, which would have been both boring and more expensive since that would have required different images for different sets of sleeves. What to do? Jason came up with an incredibly cool idea that again grounds the components in a realistic look while reinforcing the theme:

Using partial printing on the sleeve to evoke a texture effect is not something I've ever seen anyone do before. We're happy to bring this special option to our backers.

Reminder: If you are interested in the sleeves, all you need to do is manually add $15 to your pledge level (or you can do it later in the pledge manager after the campaign is over). Each order comes with 200 sleeves, enough to protect all of the cards from the base game and all the expansions including the Treasure Trove with some left over just in case.

We hope you enjoy the direction we've gone on these and will continue to have more content to share as we move forward.

If you're looking for additional information, Rob Daviau was recently interviewed by Alex Goldsmith of the Dukes of Dice, which you can catch here:

Meanwhile, JR was interviewed on the What Did You Play This Week? podcast, which you can find HERE.

Thanks for all the continued support. Like a fireball, let's keep rolling along.

How the Magic Is Made!
over 6 years ago – Sat, Apr 14, 2018 at 01:26:39 AM

I've said many places: Fireball Island is a truly unique game. A large part of that uniqueness, of course, comes from the components themselves. And because the components are so unusual, I'm sure it will come as no surprise that the development process is unlike any other game on your shelf. We wanted to give you a little peek behind the scenes as to some of the stuff that goes on to bring you this classic.

For starters, I can't say enough about our manufacturing partner, Longshore Ltd. They have been an absolute pleasure to work with. You can see the professionalism and experience in how they operate. (Special shout-out to Jon, our direct contact, who stays at work "late" for our weekly "early-morning" calls.) They were kind enough to send us some video of their team working on the design and production of the components.

Here's a Longshore artist fine-tuning our old buddy, Vul-Kar to make it from an image into something that can be constructed and assembled:

Look at these giant machines they use to 3D print and produce the molds for the island trays:

 And now they can use those molds to vacuum-form the plastic to make the trays:

Now  Jason can work with the 3D file to get the art right for the trays:

We hope you enjoyed this glimpse into the design and production process. There's obviously quite a bit more to it than that, and we'll post some more videos down the road.

Speaking of down the road, $1.5m is right around the corner. I know. It's seems unbelievable. But the fact is that everyone who tries out the game comes away impressed. We've seen lots of backers post comments with their experiences -- and thank you for that! Today, Punch Board Media posted an article detailing their experience with the game demo. 

Can we get to $1.5m over the weekend? To help things along, we'll be posting an updated stretch goal list soon. As usual, some nice additions to what is already an amazing game, and also some fun stuff just for kicks. We'll have some more stuff to show off too, including some glimpses of the final board art and those cards sleeves we already unlocked.

I know what you're thinking: Why should I get excited about card sleeves? Because the sleeves Jason came up with are really pretty amazing -- I mean they're on fire -- and honestly unlike any sleeves I've seen before. They're really just perfect. Can't wait to show 'em to you.

So, like a fireball, let's keep rolling along.

Ain't No Party Like a Vul-Kar Party!
over 6 years ago – Wed, Apr 11, 2018 at 01:56:23 AM

We’ve broken $1.3 million, which -- let’s be honest -- is ridiculous. Truly amazing. We’re only a week into this thing, folks. We’re entering that middle stretch of the campaign. Things tend to slow down a bit. But we look at that as an opportunity to have a bit of fun and have some stuff planned that’s all about that.

We're Sorry!
over 6 years ago – Mon, Apr 09, 2018 at 01:06:13 PM

No, not about breaking the one million dollar mark. We’re unbelievably ecstatic about that. Really proud. And, of course, immeasurably grateful for our backers, who got us here. We are now one of only a few dozen tabletop games to hit that magical figure. It is truly an honor. And, it bears reminding, we’re only 3 days into our campaign. We’re going to keep climbing up that list, and we can’t wait to see where we end up.

We’re certainly not sorry about the Fireball Island Road Trip officially starting today. J.R. Honeycutt, our Tinker-in-Chief is at PAX East along with Lindsay and Rob Daviau, showing the game off in public for the first time. If you are at PAX East, be sure to check him out in the First Look area in Open Play. And follow along as he wends his away across the eastern half of the United States (and Canada). You can subscribe to our YouTube channel for regular updates from the road, including actual play footage.

Let’s take a look at stretch goals: We’re obviously not sorry for unlocking the legendary artifact, Excalibur. (I keep picturing Saul using it to slash his way through the jungle. (“You could be sipping pina coladas at the condo, Saul, but, no, you had to come to Fireball Island.”) And we unlocked the big million-dollar stretch goal, an entirely new mode of play. The real-time “Fun Run”, which will feature randomized events and tons of mayhem.

No, what I’m really sorry about is the $998.382 stretch goal. Yeah, I know. You didn’t even know there was a $998.382 stretch goal. My fault. Mea culpa. When we were setting up the stretch goal banner, I inadvertently set the font size at .06 instead of 60. So you were seeing this:

You can kinda make it out right? See that little speck above the $1 million stretch goal? No? Let me zoom in.

That’s right, everybody, we also unlocked our $998,382 stretch goal of new island art featuring raging rivers now coursing through the island. In all seriousness, one of our backers, Wes, made this suggestion early on and even went so far as to do a mock up of how the water might look. I passed it around the team, and we were all in agreement: it looked great. Of course, then we had to check with our manufacturing partner and make sure we could update the art without it impacting our delivery date. We could. And Jason had to get to work on the actual art. He did. And it’s amazing:

We think the pop of blue really works on the board. We also like how the rushing water lets us show some movement with the spray climbing up the rocks, as you can see in the detail shots. We even like how the river flowing down below Vul-Kar implies a discoverable space beneath him. (Did we mention we have ideas for future expansions to work on after the game is released?)

I’ll say it again: Our backers are the best. We are listening. We can’t always pull off the things you’re suggesting. But sometimes, every once in awhile, we can. And that’s magical.

Like a fireball, let’s keep rolling along.

Live, from PAX East, It's Fireball Island!
over 6 years ago – Mon, Apr 09, 2018 at 11:42:40 AM

Another great day in the books. You all are continuing to blow us away. I want to give a special shout-out to our backers who are being so active in the comments and helping to answer questions from other folks. It's exciting for me to dive into the comments section and see that a lot of the questions have already been answered. That's a huge help for us.

Today, we officially unlocked our first optional buy: painted minis. There have been lots of questions about them, so I want to try and answer some here.

What do they look like? We are working on getting more shots of them, but the image on the stretch goal graphic is a rendered image of the actual painted figures. They will look fairly close to that.

How do I add them? If you want the minis (or any other unlocked optional buys), all you have to do is click the green "Manage your pledge" button at the top right of the page. Then you can click on "Change your pledge" and manually add the cost of the optional buy -- in this case, $10.

Do they replace the regular minis? No. These painted minis will come in a separate blister pack, which will come in addition to the minis that come with the base game and the Last Adventurer expansion. If you have all of that, you will end up with 10 minis. (Yes, we are looking at play modes or scenarios that could use all 10 minis.)

If I get the minis, will it delay my shipment? No. They will be produced along with regular components, so no delay.

Team Restoration had another amazing day at PAX East. JR is running the game non-stop, and people are lining up to play. Unsurprisingly, when it's all set up, it really draws a crowd. We're keeping a running tally of some important Tour statistics. For example, he's already run up 14 games and 56 player-hours (along with 8 Dr. Peppers). We're confident that this Tour will put to rest any concerns about the game's durability.

But, of course, we know what you really want to see: actual play. We were fortunate to be joined today by the Board Game Replay folks, who recorded their demo game. Same caveats apply: It's a hand-painted prototype board. However, despite it being done on the road with a handheld device, it's very well done. We think you'll get a good initial look at what's heading your way. You can see how sturdy the playing surface, some of the interesting choices players are forced to make, and some of the epic marble mayhem. So, without further ado:

Like a Marvel movie, make sure you stay until the end so you can see JR's epic tiger shot.