Backerkit and the art for the new whisper cards!
over 7 years ago – Sat, Dec 03, 2016 at 10:40:07 PM

Hey!

I have some new art to show off! Tania has finished the new whisper cards (the ones unlocked for the Cthulhu and Friends expansion!) and they look so goooood. Behold!

I love 'em! Anyone who gets a copy of Cthulhu and Friends will be getting these 10 new whisper cards that they can swap out with Dracula's Feast's. My preferred way to play: shuffle them all into a pile in the middle, and everyone draws new ones after each accusation. 

Backerkit

For those who aren't aware, this project is going to be using Backerkit - a Kickstarter fulfillment site that lets you adjust your address as needed and add extra items to your pledge.

Within the next 48 hours, you'll get an email from Backerkit - this is where you can enter your address information and purchase additional copies of Dracula's Feast, Cthulhu and Friends, and - I'm excited to announce - Scuttle! and its expansions.

(For those who aren't aware - Scuttle! is the first game Jellybean Games released. You can find more details - including the print-and-play - at http://www.scuttlegame.com) 

 

Important note: Addresses will not be finalized until February 20th! At that point, I'll be asking for everyone to lock down their delivery address. Final addresses will not be required until then, so if you move between now and then, it's very easy to log in and update that!

Also worth noting is that anything you add to your order will ship at the same time as Dracula's Feast. Otherwise I would have to charge you double postage, and no one wants that!

(If you do want that, get in touch and we'll see what we can work out!)

So let's have a look at what's going to be in the Backerkit:

Dracula's Feast: The game that we all came together to fund! Extra copies of this will be available on the Backerkit at $14.95 - the price that the game will sell for at retail.

Cthulhu and Friends: The expansion, now featuring the awesome Yes/No tokens above. This introduces a whole new way to play and a whole deck of cool game-breaking Artifact cards to be played with Cthulhu. Extra copies of this will also be available at retail price - $8.95

The Dracula's Feast Promo Pack: These are the cards that we unlocked during the campaign - Captain Bluebeard, Bride of Dracula, Magic Mirror, Village Children, Swamp Thing, The Mirror of the Serpent People, J'lyeh Beans, and Cthulhu's own Rubber Ducky! These came free with every pledge on Kickstarter, but additional copies of the set will cost $3.95 each. All the character cards (in all the games) are going to be Tarot-sized! Woo hoo!

Shipping Tracking: The shipping for this Kickstarter won't have tracking by default, but I learned from Scuttle! that some people need it to make sure their packages come in safely. For just $2.00, you can add tracking to any pledge level!

ALUCARD - Get a personal thanks in the video! Sometime in the coming months, I'll be doing a thank you video like the one I did for Scuttle! Adding $1 to your pledge level means that you'll be thanked by name in the vid!

Scuttle! As mentioned, this is the first game released by Jellybean Games. We only have a limited number of copies left in China*, so if you want a copy to come with your Dracula's Feast order, get in fast! This is available at retail price, $9.95.

*the rest of the copies are on a boat on their way to the US, and will be going out to retailers and to replace any copies which got lost in the mail.

The Curse of Black Jack and Scurvy! These are the two expansions to Scuttle! - they both retail for $4.95, but due to the way the Scuttle! campaign was run, we have a bunch of extra copies of The Curse of Black Jack in the warehouse, so I'm offering it at 20% off. Again, limited copies - get in fast!

The Scuttle! promo pack - a collection of 7 cards which were unlocked during the Scuttle! campaign. Only $2.95 for the set! (Again: limited copies. We haven't decided if these are ever going to be reprinted, so this might be your only chance to get them!)

That's everything! If you have any questions about the process, feel free to contact me. I'm going to lock down the survey at the end of the year (to make sure that we have accurate numbers for printing), so you have until New Year's Eve to fill it out.

The email address that Backerkit uses is the one you have registered on Kickstarter, so make sure that's up to date. (And to check your spam filter.) Like I said, it'll be approved and sent out within the next 48 hours.

Exciting times!

Thanks so much for your support. I'm so excited to get this whole process moving!

Cheers,
-Peter C. Hayward
10 days (and counting) without getting in any car accidents.

P.S. In each of these updates, I like to link to a currently-running Kickstarter that I think my backers might be interested in. This week, it's Dwar7's Fall - a worker placement/area control game for 1-7 players. They've already knocked their goal out of the water, but they have 2 hours to go, so check it out fast!

A car accident and the Halloween Contest results!
over 7 years ago – Fri, Nov 25, 2016 at 11:50:41 PM

Hey!

I'm going to start with the most exciting (but least project-relevant) piece of news: I was in a car accident on Wednesday!

I'm totally fine. Considering how dramatic the car accident was, it's sort of amazing that I'm so fine, but even when my car rolled and slammed into another car, there was never a point where I felt like I was in danger.

Basically the lesson I've learned from this experience is: I'm invincible!

On Wednesday morning, I was driving north from Detroit (on my way back home to Toronto) when I hit a patch of ice. As an Australian, I'm not super familiar with ice (except as a vital part of all refreshing beverages) and so I did a really dumb thing and slammed on my brakes.

This caused me to totally lose control of the car; I realized that I was involuntarily changing lanes, could see that my car was approaching another vehicle, was briefly upside-down, and then the next thing I knew, I was sitting in my car on the side of the road, calling out to the other car to make sure they were okay.

They were! Everyone was fine. Here's a photo of the damage to the car, and a photo of the damage to me:

As you can see, I was very very very very very very very very very very very very very very lucky.

My friends Kevin and Allysha (the couple who make up Dancing Giant Games) spent 13 hours on the road to come and pick me and all my stuff up. I am fortunate enough to have some amaaaaazing friends.

None of the above is going to affect Dracula's Feast in any way, but I thought I would share the story nonetheless. As you can imagine, it's sort of been on my mind lately!

In more relevant news: I'm excited to announce the results of the Halloween Costume Contest! There were a lot of great entries, and I've decided to give a copy of Scuttle! to my THREE favourite entries!

Surviving a car accident can sometimes put me in a generous mood, it seems.

First of all, there's this submission from Laurel:

Awesome stuff! Laurel did a great job of recreating Dracula's mask. Also, what a happy coincidence that she already had fangs!

Next, Graham dressed up as the promo card Magic Mirror:

It's rarely a compliment to call a photo of someone creepy, but in this case I can't think of a higher compliment to pay. What an awesome, creepy costume.

Lastly, Wes went above and beyond. He didn't just dress up as a character from the game...he dressed up as a card:

Everything about this is amazing.

Congratulations to our three contest winners: Laurel, Graham, and Wes! When they receive their copy of Dracula's Feast, they'll also be getting a copy of Scuttle! 

Exciting times!

In other contest news, Jellybean Games is running our very first Game Design Contest. If you have any interest in trying your hand at game design, check out jellybean-games.com/contest for more information - the prize is $250 USD, and you'll get an offer to have your design published!

That's all for this week - I'll be back on Friday with an update on how everything Dracula's Feast is progressing. As always, if you have any questions or comments, feel free to let me know in the comments or by directly messaging me.

Cheers,
Peter C. Hayward
Hoping to avoid getting into any car accidents before the next update.

P.S. In each update, I like to link to a Kickstarter project I'm excited about and think my supporters might enjoy. This week, it's Vast: Crystal Caverns. I learned about this game from my favourite board game review blog, and hot dang I am so excited to get onboard with the second printing. It's an incredibly asymmetrical game that honestly just sounds so dang cool. Check it out!

Survey results and the project's timeline!
over 7 years ago – Tue, Nov 22, 2016 at 10:51:28 PM

Hey!

Firstly, I'd like to apologize for the delay in getting this update together! Since my last post, I've driven from New Jersey to Dallas to Saint Louis AND attended BGG Con. That much driving + gaming ended up sucking up more time* than I expected, and so I fell behind a bit.

*one could say I was CON-sumed. Get it? Get it??

But never fear, we're all caught up! And the survey results are IN:

The winner (by a whisker) is new Yes/No whisper cards for the Cthulhu and Friends expansion! I'm super super excited about these - they're gonna be gorrrrgeous. Tania is working on them now, and we should have them ready to show off by the next update!

There was some confusion in the comments - the new Yes/No cards don't affect gameplay, it just means that the expansion will come with a whole new set (10 yes, 10 no) which you can switch out with the bat Yes/No cards that came with Dracula's Feast.

Since every game in the Unmasked series is going to come with a new set, I'm glad that Cthulhu and Friends doesn't miss out. Thanks to everyone who voted!

If you were a backer of my previous game, Scuttle!, you'll know that I try to be as transparent about every part of the process as possible. To that end, I've put a timeline graphic together for the fulfillment of this Kickstarter!

Keep in mind that the above is the best-case scenario. If anything goes wrong (and a dozen tiny things are sure to!) then we can be pushed back by weeks, months, or days.

The estimated date for this Kickstarter was June 2017. That's because I learned from Scuttle! that tiny little things can (and will) go wrong. We're going to do everything we can to avoid that and fulfill early, but I'm completely confident that - at worst - you'll get your game by the estimated date!

Let's briefly go through what's coming up:

On the 30th of November (just 8 days away), I'm going to open the Backerkit. At that point, you'll be able to order additional copies of Dracula's Feast and Cthulhu and Friends - and, if you missed Scuttle!, you'll be able to grab a copy of that as well.

(We're already starting to run out of copies of Scuttle! and the expansions, so those will be available on a first-come-first-served basis!)

At the end of the year, on December 30th, everything will have been sent off for printing! This gives us about a month to finalize art, finetune the new rulings, and get a sample of everything from our manufacturer. At that point, I'll probably bump the Kickstarter down to updates every two weeks (instead of weekly), because at that point it's all happening in China, where I'm not.

It generally takes 30-45 days to print, so I've estimated (and at this point, it really is guesswork!) February 15th for the printing to be finished. At that point, they pack it all up and sent it to my shipping agent.

My previous project was fulfilled using a company called Send From China (SFC) - of the 3600 copies delivered, I only received about half a dozen damage reports, so I'm looking to use them again!

You'll see that February 20th is when I've asked that you submit your final, final addresses. After that date, you will not be able to update your address. I want to give you lots and lots of warning about this, because that's when I'll be sending the full list to SFC and I will not be able to make changes.

If you give me the wrong address, move house, or need your address updated for any reason, you gotta let me know before then. It might sound like I'm harping on, but you'd be amazed how many people want to change their address after the packages are on their way!

On February 28th (again, this is an estimate) they're going to start shipping out your games! SFC generally send it in waves, so some people will receive their games sooner than others. Once the final wave has been mailed out, I'm going to send another copy to myself - as soon as that arrives to me in Toronto, I'll know that everyone's games should have arrived!

(At least, that's the plan!)

Let me know if any of that doesn't make sense, or if you have any questions about the process! Again, I'll be keeping everyone updated every step of the way, and I'm always happy to respond to messages from my awesome backers*.

*that's you!

This is now my second time going through this process - everything went fairly smoothly the first time, and I'm hoping to apply what I learned.

Result? MAXIMUM SMOOTHNESS.

Seriously, I'm confident that everything will go well! I am so excited to get these games into your houses and into your hands, so you can play a billion games.

As I was writing this, Tania sent me one of the Artifacts from Cthulhu and Friends! Check it out: the Necronomicon:

Hot dang this game gonna look so pretty.

If you have any questions about anything, please let me know!

I'll be back on Friday, with the Halloween Costume Results! We got some amaaaazing entries, and I'm hella looking forward to showing them off.

Thanks so much for your support,
-Peter C. Hayward
About to jump in a car and do MORE driving! (It's been a month of driving.)

P.S. In each of these updates , I like to point you towards a currently-running Kickstarter. This week, it's Doug Doug Goose Caboose - it's a quick little game that fits in your pocket. One of the pledge levels lets YOU be one of the Dougs in the game. Have you ever wanted to be a Doug? Now's your chance!

Wow! The end of the campaign, and what comes next.
over 7 years ago – Mon, Nov 14, 2016 at 11:26:28 PM

Hey!

On Friday, the Dracula's Feast Kickstarter campaign ended at $89,188.

That's more than 1100% of the original goal, and almost $2000 more than my previous campaign - Scuttle!

And it's all because of YOU.

We got so many pledges in those last 48 hours, because you shared the campaign, told people about it, and even increased your pledges so we could hit some of those last stretch goals - and we did it!

We unlocked the stretch goal that the whole team has been most excited about since we started working on the game - every character card is now going to be Tarot-sized, and holy heck this game is going to POP!

I'm going to say this one last time, and you better believe I mean it:

Wow.

This whole campaign has been amazing, and I want to thank you so much for your support, and for being such a fun and active community throughout the whole thing.

So...what comes next?

For the next month or two, you can expect weekly Kickstarter updates. Every Friday I'm going to post an update letting you know exactly what's happening, and what the next steps are. After that, we'll drop down to fortnightly updates, until every game has been delivered! 

I'm in the middle of fulfillment for Scuttle! right now, and boy howdy am I learning a lot. I'm hoping to be able to apply my learnings to this campaign so everything goes as smoothly as possible, but no matter what, I'm going to make sure to keep you updated every step of the way!

Tokens or stretch goals?

I have a question for you!

Some people have asked if we can replace the dance tokens (which are now unnecessary in the base game, and have been moved to the promo pack) with another one of the stretch goals. I've chatted to the printer, and confirmed that we can - but we need to decide what to replace them with, if anything.

Here's the thing - I don't want anyone to feel ripped off. So I've made a survey, which can be found here: 

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/FZ96DXL

It's just one question, and it shouldn't require a login: click through and vote for which option you'd rather receive - dance tokens, red foil on the box, Yes/No cards in Cthulhu and Friends, or a cloth bag.

If the dance tokens option receives more than 30% of the vote, we're not going to switch it out - you backed the project with the expectation that it would come with Tania's gorgeous dance tokens, and if people aren't overwhelmingly in favor of swapping those out, we're not going to change anything.

Here's that link again - https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/FZ96DXL - I'm going to leave it open until the next update on Friday, when I'll announce the results (and announce the winner of the costume contest as well!)

No matter what, I want to make sure everyone is totally satisfied with their game! It's on the main page of the Kickstarter, but I thought I'd mention it here as well - at any point, you can get a full refund on Dracula's Feast - no questions asked.

With that in mind, let's try to make this the game that you're most excited to receive. Head on over to the SurveyMonkey page and let me know - do you want to switch out the dance tokens? And if so, with what?

That's all for this week! Again, thanks so much for being a part of this campaign. If anyone has any questions (about anything!), let me know in the comments.

Cheers,
-Peter C. Hayward
Definitely not secretly a vampire

P.S. In each of these updates, I'm going to highlight a currently-running Kickstarter that I think you might enjoy checking out! This week, it's Cobras - this is an elegant little trick-taking game by Cardboard Edison. It only has 70 hours to go, and I can thoroughly recommend it. I played a game on Friday against Suzanne - one of the creators - and her 7-year old daughter, so I can personally vouch that it manages to contain both high-level strategy AND kid-friendliness. 

Check it out now!

Dracula's Feast is at $88k - we have 92 minutes to go, and have unlocked ALL BUT 3 STRETCH GOALS
over 7 years ago – Fri, Nov 11, 2016 at 10:25:41 PM

WOW!!!!