So… it’s been a *very* long time since I last posted. About four months, it seems. I guess it’s time to get back onto that particular wagon. Things have been very busy since my last post. Here’s is a rundown of what’s been going on:
In case you haven’t been watching, Manaforge funded on Kickstarter! It was looking very uncertain there for a while; the slump in the middle of the campaign was brutal, with a couple of days where the campaign’s dollar pledge amount went down due to a rush of cancellations. (I think that was about the time that a couple of other high-profile campaigns launched.) But due to some advice by Kickstarter expert Daniel Zayas and lots of hard work from my graphic designer Justin Lynch, we managed to give my campaign a makeover and get it back on track. In the end, it was a huge push in the last 48 hours of the campaign that got it over the finish line. It was close; we only overfunded by a few hundred dollars. But that was enough.
On to manufacturing! Since the end of the campaign, I’ve been working with MeiJia, the Chinese company that will be printing 1000 copies of Manaforge. It’s been a lot of back-and-forth with them, trying to get the game asset files formatted correctly for their production process. That work was also hindered by some last-minute changes to a couple of the game’s cards, with accompanying changes to the rulebook. However, as of about a week ago, everything has been submitted and accepted, and we’re just waiting for our turn on the production line. At a maximum, the manufacturing will be completed by the end of August, though I expect it should be done well before that.
In other news, Dice Tower Convention 2017 was last weekend. Five days of non-stop board games! This was my second year attending this particular convention, and it was even better than last year. Last year was a flurry of meeting new people and trying to hold demos of Manaforge. This year I decided to take it easy; just reconnecting with old friends, meeting new ones, and playing lots of new games. I did a few Manaforge demos as well, but only to people that specifically asked for it; I didn’t have a dedicated demo space or anything. Still, I got to show the game off to a lot of people, and I think I scored a couple of extra pre-orders in the process.
Finally, with Manaforge on auto-pilot at the moment, I’ve had time some free time to myself, catching up on several other projects that I’ve had to put on hold due to the Kickstarter and accompanying flurry of activity. One of those projects just happens to be the next game in my queue, Suicidal Cabbages. After a break from thinking about it, I’ve come up with a couple of ideas as to how the game could be improved. In its current incarnation, the game is okay but not great; it will need quite a bit of work before it’s ready to be released upon the world. But at least I have a path forward now.
That’s it for the moment. I know I need to get back into the habit of posting; my goal is to post here once a week. Here’s hoping. :)
In case you haven’t been watching, Manaforge funded on Kickstarter! It was looking very uncertain there for a while; the slump in the middle of the campaign was brutal, with a couple of days where the campaign’s dollar pledge amount went down due to a rush of cancellations. (I think that was about the time that a couple of other high-profile campaigns launched.) But due to some advice by Kickstarter expert Daniel Zayas and lots of hard work from my graphic designer Justin Lynch, we managed to give my campaign a makeover and get it back on track. In the end, it was a huge push in the last 48 hours of the campaign that got it over the finish line. It was close; we only overfunded by a few hundred dollars. But that was enough.
On to manufacturing! Since the end of the campaign, I’ve been working with MeiJia, the Chinese company that will be printing 1000 copies of Manaforge. It’s been a lot of back-and-forth with them, trying to get the game asset files formatted correctly for their production process. That work was also hindered by some last-minute changes to a couple of the game’s cards, with accompanying changes to the rulebook. However, as of about a week ago, everything has been submitted and accepted, and we’re just waiting for our turn on the production line. At a maximum, the manufacturing will be completed by the end of August, though I expect it should be done well before that.
In other news, Dice Tower Convention 2017 was last weekend. Five days of non-stop board games! This was my second year attending this particular convention, and it was even better than last year. Last year was a flurry of meeting new people and trying to hold demos of Manaforge. This year I decided to take it easy; just reconnecting with old friends, meeting new ones, and playing lots of new games. I did a few Manaforge demos as well, but only to people that specifically asked for it; I didn’t have a dedicated demo space or anything. Still, I got to show the game off to a lot of people, and I think I scored a couple of extra pre-orders in the process.
Finally, with Manaforge on auto-pilot at the moment, I’ve had time some free time to myself, catching up on several other projects that I’ve had to put on hold due to the Kickstarter and accompanying flurry of activity. One of those projects just happens to be the next game in my queue, Suicidal Cabbages. After a break from thinking about it, I’ve come up with a couple of ideas as to how the game could be improved. In its current incarnation, the game is okay but not great; it will need quite a bit of work before it’s ready to be released upon the world. But at least I have a path forward now.
That’s it for the moment. I know I need to get back into the habit of posting; my goal is to post here once a week. Here’s hoping. :)
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