Happy Halloween!
over 6 years ago – Mon, Oct 30, 2017 at 01:11:48 AM

Hey!

I hope that you're having a spooktacular Halloween season. I bought my first ever pumpkin the other day:

I'll post another pic when it's carved!

Shipping status!

Packages are still arriving! It's hard to tell exactly, but it seems like the majority of people have their games by now. The four test shipments we sent out (one to me, Tom, Tania, and Nicole) haven't arrived yet, so if your game still hasn't landed: don't worry!

Until our copies arrive, it's very unlikely that yours has been lost in the mail. No need to fret!

Conventions

PAX Australia just wrapped up. I wasn't able to make it this year, but Tom and Tania were both there (playtesting our upcoming game Village Pillage!) and had a rad time, by all accounts.

This coming weekend is Metatopia! Nicole and I will both be there, playtesting basically the entirety of next year's Jellybean line-up: Show and Tile, Village Pillage, and more! 

If you're going to be at Metatopia, come say hi! Nicole is blonde and full of business, and I'll be the only blue-bearded Australian there*.

*probably

Tracking numbers

A few people paid extra during the Backerkit to add tracking to their shipment: I emailed out all the tracking numbers a few weeks ago, but I learned today that the site stops updating once the package leaves China.

If your tracking number hasn't been updated recently, just search for it on the tracking services for your country! It picks up where the China tracking leaves off. If you don't know which one to use, I've had luck using http://www.track-trace.com/post - this should give you an up-to-date idea of where your parcel is! :)

That's all for this week! If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us, and: happy Halloween!

Thank you so much for your support,
-Peter C. Hayward
This year's costume: an anglerfish!

P.S. In each of these updates, I like to link to a currently-running Kickstarter I think you might enjoy. This week, it's the Tabletop Talisman: gorgeous aluminum jewelry for gamers!

 

How to Play videos!
over 6 years ago – Thu, Oct 19, 2017 at 09:22:39 PM

Hey!

Based on the messages we've been getting, it seems that games are arriving thick and fast! Don’t worry if yours hasn’t landed yet; people are still getting their Dracula’s Feast shipment every day. (Literally! We get an email, tweet, or comment every day from someone whose copy has just arrived.)

Nicole, Tania, Tom, and myself are still waiting for our copies - as soon as those have arrived, I’ll let you know, and that’s the point to start being concerned. But for now - don’t panic! Your game is likely due to arrive at any minute.

My husband also ordered a copy of Dracula’s Feast (3, actually - he’s a sweetie!) and his arrived last week, so I thought I’d put together some how to play videos!

The first video runs through the basic rules of the game - what comes in the box, how to win, how a turn works. The second video is an overview of the 9 base-game characters. Lastly, the Advanced video covers the promo guests - Bride of Dracula, Captain Bluebeard, Magic Mirror, and Swamp Thing - as well as how to play the Extra Mystery variant.

Fun fact: For a very long time, “Swamp Thing” was called “The Creature From the Black Lagoon”. I thought it was funny how small the text had to be for the character’s full name to fit on the card.

Tom and Tania, thankfully, overruled me on that one.

The videos are mostly just me reiterating what the rulebook says, but if you’re more of an aural learner, or your copy hasn’t arrived yet, I hope you find them helpful! And I said in the videos - if you have any questions about how to play the game, feel free to ask in the comments!

Thanks so much for your support,
-Peter C. Hayward
The Creator of the Game Featuring a Monster Formally Known As The Creature From The Black Lagoon

P.S. In each of these updates, I like to link to a currently-running Kickstarter I think you might enjoy. This week, it’s Haunt the House, a spooktacular game of outghosting your friends! Check it out! 

All games have been sent!
over 6 years ago – Fri, Oct 06, 2017 at 12:39:29 AM

Hey!

I am excited to announce that all games have been sent out! That’s right, your game is either in your hands or on its way.

Woo hoo!

China has just gone on a week-long holiday, but as soon as they return, we’re going to send four more copies of the game out - one to me in Toronto, one to Nicole in Florida, one to Tom in Melbourne, and one to Tania in Tasmania.

Once all four of those games have landed, we’ll know that every backer's copy should have arrived. At that point I’ll post another update and we’ll start sending replacements to anyone who hasn't received their games.

Until then, do not panic! People are receiving games literally every day. The order in which China has sent them out wasn’t alphabetical or by region, so just because your similarly-named neighbor has received a game doesn’t mean you should be worried. :)

We’ve had some recurring questions and comments, which I’m going to address here:

Where are the 9 main guest cards?

In the envelopes! We thought it would be cute if they arrived pre-packaged in the envelopes. Turns out this was super confusing, and not something we’ll be doing again.

Check inside the envelopes before being worried that you’re missing something!

What do the envelopes do?

One of the main actions in the game is dancing - you hand your card to another player and they hand you theirs.

This can be done by sliding the cards across a table, but if you want to play in an environment where that’s going to be difficult, you can just pop your card in an envelope and pass the whole thing to the other player.

I believe Secret Hitler (another social deduction game) uses envelopes in a similar way.

The box says 4-8, the game came with 13 characters, and there are only 9 envelopes!

That’s right! We think the game plays best 4-8, but in case you want to play it with 9, we threw in a spare envelope. This can also be used as a replacement if one of your envelopes gets damaged.

If you want to play it with 10 (which we really don’t recommend, unless you have an entire group of experienced players with amazing memories), just play without envelopes. 

(Or, buy a second copy of the game! ;)

The expansion says it plays up to 10, but didn’t come with another envelope!

True! The expansion adds the capacity for 9 and 10 players, but you’ll notice that it recommends adding 1-2 VIPs if you do.

VIPs are played face-up, and cannot dance. Thus: no need for additional envelopes!

I'm missing a different component, or something got damaged in transit.

Send us an email - [email protected] - with your address and the missing component, we’ll get it out to you as soon as our replacement stock arrives!

We played a 4-player game and it went really really quickly.

If you’re playing with 4-players and want a longer game, I strongly recommend the Double Mystery Guest variant. It should make the game substantially longer!

Certain combinations of guests can also extend a 4-player game, but I'll let you work those combinations out for yourself. ;)

---

If you have any questions or issues that aren’t addressed above, let us know! You can post a comment or email [email protected], and we’ll get to you ASAP.

It’s so great to see people receiving their games! Remember, you can use the hashtag #draculasfeast on social media to share pictures of your game:

And, of course, giving the game an honest rating on BoardGameGeek is incredibly helpful to a small company like ours. Let us know what you think of Dracula's Feast!

We’re in the home stretch now! It’s been a bumpy ride, but seeing people enjoying the game has made it all worthwhile.

Thank you so much for your support,
-Peter C. Hayward
So proud that his game-baby is out in the world, all grown up.

P.S. In each of these updates, I like to link to a currently-running Kickstarter that I think you might enjoy! This week, it’s Guardian’s Call from Druid City Games. It’s a fantasy bluffing game from the team who brought you The Grimm Forest. Check it out!

Dracula's Feast is on its way!
over 6 years ago – Tue, Sep 19, 2017 at 07:39:22 PM

Hey!

I have exciting news - the majority of the games are on their way! That’s right - they’ve been shipped from China, and will be arriving any day now.

In fact, some people have already started receiving theirs! People have been commenting and emailing that they're received their games in the UK, Canada, Singapore, Japan, the US, and I think in Australia as well!

Not all the games have been mailed yet, but the last few are being processed now. I’ll post another update when every game has been sent. (We keep running into a weird zip code export error, so we have to manually enter the zip codes into the system. It's time-consuming, but we're getting there!)

If your game arrives, let us know! You can post in the comments here, tag us on Twitter or Instagram (we’re @PlayJellybean on both), or use the hashtag #draculasfeast!

If your game hasn’t arrived yet, don’t fret! Once the final game has been mailed out, we’re going to send 3 copies - one to me in Canada, one to Nicole in Florida, and one to Tom in Melbourne. Once all those have arrived, we’ll have a good idea of whether anything has been lost in the mail.

Our first project, Scuttle!, only had something like 2 or 3 percent of packages not arrive. This is pretty standard for a mail-out of this size (although it can be annoying if you're in that 2%!) - I can promise you, though, you will get your game, even if it doesn't arrive in this first batch.

Once you get your hands on Dracula's Feast and you’ve had a chance to play it, let us know what you think! The boardgame ratings at boardgamegeek.com are super helpful for a small company like ours, so feel free to head over to the Dracula’s Feast page and give it an honest rating.

More than four years of work has been put into this game, so I'm excited to see what people think!

So far all the delivered copies we know of have been completely intact - no damage, no missing pieces. If you want a list to check against, here’s a list of all the components in the game:

Dracula’s Feast: 

• Box 
• 13 Tarot-sized guest cards (with envelopes) 
• 13 Bridge-sized accusation cards 
• 20 Tarot-sized reference cards 
• 20 Mini Euro-sized whisper cards (10 Yes, 10 No) 
• 1 rulebook

Cthulhu & Friends:

• Box 
• 1 Tarot-sized guest card 
• 1 Bridge-sized accusation card 
• 6 Tarot-sized VIP cards 
• 10 Tarot-sized reference cards 
• 12 Bridge-sized artifact cards 
• 20 Mini Euro-sized whisper cards (10 Yes, 10 No) 
• 1 rulebook

Characters in Dracula’s Feast: 

• Alucard
• Beelzebub
• Boogie Monster
• Doctor Jekyll
• Dracula
• Trickster
• Van Helsing
• Werewolf
• Zombie
• Bride of Dracula
• Captain Bluebeard
• Magic Mirror
• Swamp Thing

Characters in Cthulhu & Friends: 

• Angry Mob
• Cerberus
• Cthulhu
• Grim Reaper
• Investigator
• King Kong
• Village Children

Artifacts: 

• Ceremonial Dagger
• Dreamplate
• J’Lyeh Beans
• Jade Statue
• Lamp of Alhazred
• Rubber Ducky
• Shining Trapezohedron
• Silver Key
• The Hound Amulet
• The Necronomicon
• The Yellow Sign
• Mirror of the Serpent People

If anything is missing or damaged, don't hesitate to contact us - [email protected] - and we'll get a replacement to you as soon as we can! :)

That’s all for now! I’ll post another update when the last of the packages have been processed.

Thanks so much for your patience and support!
-Peter C. Hayward
Still a little jet-lagged

P.S. Nicole is fine! The hurricane took a turn at the last minute and avoided her house. She is completely safe!

She asked me to thank everyone for the kind words of support and well wishes, and to share some “fun hurricane facts” (her words, not mine):

• 70% of South Florida residents without power 
• Estimated 4.4 million people lost power in state of Florida 
• 13 counties ordered mandatory evacuations, affecting over 1.3 million people 
• Irma sustained 185 mph winds for more than 24 hours, which is a record for Atlantic hurricanes

Exciting times! I'm just glad she's okay. :)

Hurricane Irma
over 6 years ago – Sat, Sep 09, 2017 at 01:31:46 AM

Hey!

This is just a short update to explain why I’m not posting a longer update: Nicole, the business half of Jellybean Games, is based in Florida. As I’m sure you’re aware, Hurricane Irma is on her way for a visit.

Nicole has spent the majority of this week preparing her house (she was planning to fly north to safety, but her flight got canceled, so now she’s going to hang out with Irma for the week). I’ve spent most of this week jumping in and trying to get up to speed on the various parts of the business she takes care of, and it hasn’t left me with enough time to write one of the lengthy updates I like to write.

To top it all off, I’m jumping on a plane in a few days, flying back to Canada. I’m going to try to catch up on Kickstarter updates on the plane, so hopefully when I land (in about a week) I’ll be able to check in and let you know where everything’s at.

In short, though:

Shipping has begun, and more parcels are being sent out every day! M.B. of Lincoln Ct - you were our lucky first package sent! Keep an eye out for people receiving their packages; it should be any day now.

Sorry about the lack of loquaciousness in today’s missive - I’ll let you know once Irma has passed and we’re fully operational once more!

Thank you for your patience and support,
-Peter C. Hayward
Very glad there’s no enormous visitors heading towards where I live any time soon