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

Cards? Cards!
over 6 years ago – Tue, Jun 05, 2018 at 01:35:06 AM

We've been focusing a lot on the pledge manager lately. (And, if you haven't filled out your survey in BackerKit, please  get on that.) I thought it would be fun to just show off a bunch of the cards that we've got done. Lindsay, Jason, and the rest of the team are working double-time to finalize the files for Longshore. Here is some of that handiwork.

Backer Kit 101
over 6 years ago – Wed, May 23, 2018 at 02:36:32 AM

All of the BackerKit surveys are now rolling out. Keep in mind, they don't blast them all at once. It takes time for them to work their way through the servers. If you don't get your email by Thursday, first things first, check your spam folder, make sure you're checking the right email account, etc. If you don't see it, feel free to message me, and we'll get it sorted out.

When you're ready to do your survey, it's pretty straightforward and easy to use. There are just a few things that seem to be tripping people up, so I want to cover those here.

You do not need to add your pledged items to your order. BackerKit takes the items included in your pledge and automatically adds them to your cart. Likewise, the money you pledge in Kickstarter is already added to your account. If you didn't want any add-ons, such as sleeves or painted minis, you should be able to just check out as is. Importantly, if you're thinking to yourself, "Why do I need to pay again, I already paid in Kickstarter," this is probably what's happened.

Your base game pledge does include all the freebies. Each copy of the base game for any backer comes with all of the free stuff in it: the Deluxe Marble set, the Treasure Trove, and the "Thank You" Map. You do not need to manually add these items. Only the base game will show up in your list. However, if you click on it, it will show you the full description, which includes these items. The marbles and Treasure Trove are only listed as add-ons in case folks want an extra copy for some reason.

You can upgrade your pledge in BackerKit. If you backed at $0 (or any amount without a reward), you should go ahead and upgrade your pledge to one of the other basic pledges. There are two ways to do this. First, you can click on the small link right at the beginning of the survey. Second, you can do it on the add-ons page. If you look at the top of your survey, you will see your current pledge level in blue. This is a link. If you click on it, it will open a pop-up. One of the options on that pop-up is to upgrade your pledge. Click on that and select the new pledge level you want. Likewise, this method also works if you backed at Feel the Burn and want to upgrade to Full Vul-Kar. (Screenshots below.)

We will lock down surveys some time in June. This is not set in stone yet. When the manufacturer needs to know exactly how many copies we want to manufacture, that is when we will need to lock it down. Right now, this is "mid-June". As we get closer, we will give you a heads-up when we have an exact date.

Until we lock down surveys, you can make changes. You can always go back into your survey and make changes until we lock them down. You can add or remove items, update your address, or change your payment method.

You will still be able to change your address. We need to lock down surveys in June because we need to know how many to print. But we don't need to confirm your address until we are getting ready to ship. Even after we lock down the surveys for the items ordered, you will continue to be able to update your address. We will lock down shipping info some time in October most likely. As we get closer, we will give you a heads-up when we have an exact date.

If you have any questions, please let me know.

BackerKit "Smoke Test" Launched!
over 6 years ago – Sat, May 19, 2018 at 01:24:23 AM

Given the complexity of our pledge manager and the sheer number of backers we have, we are launching a "smoke test" for BackerKit. This is what others might refer to as a "dry run". In this case, surveys for the pledge managers are sent to 5% of the backers at random.

Importantly, 95% of you will not receive a survey. So don't panic if you see someone mention that they have completed their survey.

If you received the survey, please try and complete it before the weekend is up so we have as much feedback as possible. If you have problems or questions or something is confusing, that's why we're running the test. So please communicate any issue to BackerKit or us via any appropriate channel. There is support on BackerKit itself, and you can always message me here or reach me via email.

If the smoke test goes well, we expect to launch the full pledge manager on Monday.

Deluxe Marbles, Secret Cabal Promo Card, and the Pledge Manager!
over 6 years ago – Wed, May 16, 2018 at 01:28:42 AM

Let's not bury the lede: I am still working hard on the pledge manager to make it work and make it easy for everyone. We had a few final details to work out -- such as the stuff lower down on this page -- and now we are testing it for the user experience. I am hoping to launch on Friday. When we launch, we will post an update here, on our website, via our newsletter, and on social media. So there shouldn't be any problem finding out when it is live. We expect to keep it open for approximately one month.

Onto deluxe marbles. A little backstory on this. When we put that up as a stretch goal, we had serviceable marbles for the base game and wanted backers to have something a little special. We figured there were all kinds of neat marbles out there, and we'd just find something that worked. We also hadn't gotten too deep into our external playtesting with JR's road trip. A couple of things changed since we posted the stretch goal. On the positive side, we actually found some really nice marbles for the base game. They have a neat speckled appearance. On the other hand, we also determined that the really cool clear swirly marbles actually don't work so hot in the game. They're hard to see, basically camouflaged. So we had to go back to the drawing board again, which is why we only just finalized the Deluxe Marble set. Honestly, these are pretty expensive, but we think they're the perfect combination of cool and useful. We hope you like them:

And, finally, the Secret Cabal promo card. We've decided to make it available in the pledge manager. It will cost $6, of which $5 will be donated to the Secret Cabal. I don't want to rehash the reason for adding it to the pledge manager. If you backed the Secret Cabal Kickstarter campaign, thank you! Or, if you want to get it through them individually, it will be available from their webstore after they fulfill their Kickstarter, which should be roughly the same time as ours. And, again, if you haven't checked them out, do yourself a favor and download an episode of the podcast. They are among the most entertaining content creators in the business. Among other things, Jamie is a great graphic designer. So, when we went with the t-shirt motif for the player powers, we jumped at the chance to use one of their awesome designs:

And it's also a good time to take a look at the Player Power card backs that will show up in the Last Adventurer expansion:

Payments, Pledge Manager, and Pizza!
over 6 years ago – Wed, May 09, 2018 at 01:55:09 AM

Everybody recovered? Good. Us too. Now, back to work! The rules are going through a final edit. We'll send another link for those when they're done. Lindsay's started doing her arcane production magic. Jason's overseeing the art -- lots of it coming in every day now. (See below.) And I'm busy getting the pledge manager ready.

By now, all of you should have had your payments processed. If you had a problem with your payment, they will notify you by email, and there will be a large red banner at the top of the page when you visit Kickstarter.

If you have a problem with your payment, I cannot help you with that. Payment processing is all handled by Kickstarter. You will need to contact them or your credit card company to resolve the problem.

Additionally, you will have a final opportunity to resolve any payment issue in BackerKit when it goes live, which should be in about a week from now.

When BackerKit goes live, they will send you a link to complete your backer survey. This looks a lot like a regular webstore. You will "spend" the money you pledge in the campaign. If you choose to get additional stuff, you may do that as well, paying the difference between what you ended up getting and what you pledged for. Once you have picked out your stuff, you will verify your shipping information as well.

IMPORTANT: It is helpful to complete your survey as soon as you get it. This will help us make sure there are no problems with your pledge, give us a chance to answer any questions you might have, and start finalizing our manufacturing order. If you need to change your order later, including a change in your shipping address, you can always go back in and update your survey. So do not worry about completing it early.

If you want more information about how BackerKit works, these links might prove helpful:

• Animated gif of how the BackerKit survey works
• The FAQ page for backers

Also, let me answer a couple of questions I'm seeing a lot of right now.

If you missed the Kickstarter altogether, you will be able to do a late pledge through BackerKit. When BackerKit goes live, you will be able to use it as a preorder system to get the game and other items from the campaign even if you didn't back. Please note, however, that you will not get the Treasure Trove or Deluxe Marble set for free (though you may order them at the regular retail price). Additionally, you will not get the backer-only map. However, you will be part of the backer shipment, which should be prior to the official street date.

If you backed but decided you want to add something else to your pledge, you will be able to do add-ons in BackerKit.

And, finally, I thought we might show off some work Jason's been doing. Here's a look at the Hangry cards. (Not final of course.) We hope you ... enjoy?