Mothership Update - Surveys Locked
over 9 years ago – Thu, Aug 04, 2016 at 12:17:42 AM

Just quick update to let everyone know the survey responses have been locked down and, if you spent over your pledge amount, your credit card has been charged.

You can still change your address right up until the fulfillment period. I'll send out notices when I'm about to lock address changes. 

Ship Colour Results

Want to know which ship colours won in the survey? Black and Teal.

Black had the overwhelming majority against the other colours and was the first choice for many people. Teal and pearl gold were mostly tied but in the end, teal won.

I will finish this print run first before getting stuck into a second, but I hope to be able to offer these alternative colours in future campaigns or on my website. There are so many things that wanted to put into Mothership this time around that missed out. It's exciting to think about growing the community first and then offering more when everyone has had a chance to play.

What am I up to?

As I mentioned last week, all pre-production is finished. I'm enjoying a well earned mental break and getting stuck into some games I haven't had a chance to play in the last 6 months. For tabletop games that includes a lot of cards, Monopoly Deal and Catan. For video games, Star Craft, Awesomenauts, LEGO Avengers and Star Wars ep7. Oh and I have a few boxes of LEGO that have yet to be built including the Millennium Falcon which I'm eager to get started on.

WinGO is hard at work making the initial samples for me to approve. I'll post pictures as soon as I have some.

Thanks again everyone!

Peter

Pre-production finished! Final box revealed.
over 9 years ago – Wed, Jul 27, 2016 at 09:32:56 PM

This is an exciting week for me as all of the material for Mothership has been completed and sent to WinGo. Finally after three years of development, Mothership is done! 

Final Box

So the outside of the box hasn't really changed since the mock-up you saw during the campaign.

Fun fact: every board game Kickstarter leaves the back of the box until last (this may not be a fact).

 Here's a close up for you:

Another fun fact - The game was originally titled: Space Disagreement

The retail version will feature the same design on the back but the the box lid will be different. It'll probably have some sort of colourful space artwork with ships blowing each other up similar to the original box art.

Rulebook

The rulebook has been finished and a ton of sections clarified, fixed up and re-worked. I know there's inevitably going to be more questions afterwards so please feel free to message me if you need anything cleared up.

A big thank you goes out to Ben Martell in sunny New Zealand who helped revise and proof-read the entire rulebook multiple times. You rock Ben! Also thanks to my wife Alkria and the tallest person I know Nathan for proof-reading too. It's not the most fun job, but someone has to do it!

Three Days Left to Answer Surveys

There's still a few of you left! To those who ordered only the PnP's: if you miss out on your survey, that won't be a big deal as I can send out the emails whenever. As for the physical copies, I have to put the final orders in to WinGo in August and if you haven't answered I won't be able to fulfill your order. You'll have to grab a copy separately when it hits stores. 

So you have until the 1st of August (upside-down Australia time) to respond. Also for everyone else, your credit cards will be charged on the 1st so if you want to change add-ons, do it now.

Updates will get a little sparse over the next few months as I won't have as much to show you. As soon as I get sample photos I'll post those. I'll try to check in at least every three weeks just to let you know I haven't forgotten about you ;)

To all those going to GenCon without me, HAVE FUN. I know WinGo will have a booth there so rock up and say hi and tell them your looking forward to playing Mothership! 

Peter

Plastic Masters Arrive, New Action Cards
over 9 years ago – Wed, Jul 20, 2016 at 11:52:06 PM

The plastic masters used to create the miniatures have already arrived on my doorstep and forwarded to WinGo. But I took some photos first! And they look incredible:

My phone's camera really doesn't do them justice. The detail on these are really impressive for 3D printing. It's the highest quality print available at Shapeways. 

All of the production material is moving along at a very quick pace. Over the last week the Tech Tree / Control Panel's and cards have been finalized, proof read and sent off. I even added a few more different resource cards in there too! The game comes with 30 cards and now there are 15 different resources.

New Action Cards

These two new cards were added via social goals. 

Thanks to my friend Bianca for coming up with the idea for the Forced Update card!

Asteroid Tiles

The Asteroid tiles have been finished and the final die cut sheet for the standard version can be seen below. Keep in mind the red line is the shape that will be cut and won't show on the final version.

The sheet also includes the tokens for planetary exploration. You'll get two of these sheets (with different numbers on the second one).

Now this also brings me to the first change since the campaign. Originally I said there would be 12x asteroid tiles in the game. Unfortunately due to space constraints I had to reduce it to 10. The ones that were removed where actually duplicates however so you'll still be getting the same shapes.

This also affects all those who ordered extra asteroids in silver as it uses the same sheet pattern as above. Keep in mind too that 10 tiles is still more than enough to fill up the 6 player board.

12 Days left to Answer Surveys!

There's still a few of you left to respond, please don't forget. I'd hate for you to miss out on getting a copy of Mothership so please answer your survey asap. Remember if you've lost your email you can recover it here.

I should have the final version of the box ready to show in the next update. Everything else has been sent to WinGo and they're working hard on getting some samples ready. 

See you next week!

Peter 

New board revealed, 18 days left to answer surveys
over 9 years ago – Fri, Jul 15, 2016 at 12:07:22 AM

Time for another update! Some big news this week, so lets get straight into it:

Second Board Design

Here's the new artwork on other side of the game board:

I wanted a cool / warm contrast between both artworks which should give you some nice variety. 

So you can still have 4 player games on the 6 sided board I have included a border around the relevant spaces seen below.

There was much debate over the style the border would take. I didn't want it to detract from the artwork but at the same time you still need to be able to see it so I hope you agree with the middle ground I eventually took.

It might seem too subtle at first, but once you setup your game and everyone is aware of the border it works well during play.

New Manufacturer

Throughout the campaign I mentioned that the awesome team at QPC Games were going to make Mothership. I can now announce that we've changed to another, very well known company, WinGo Games. Let me assure you this has in no way impacted on our timeline and in some ways makes our schedule easier to adhere to as WinGo and I are on the same timezone. 

Please also note that the change is not a reflection on QPC or their service as they have been nothing but fantastic during the time I've spent with them. Some very specific components were required and WinGo were the best company to provide exactly what Mothership needed.

Surveys Close 1st of August

Just a reminder to the handful of people who have yet to answer their BackerKit surveys, please do so asap as the cut off is the 1st of August. Without final numbers we may not be able to fulfill your order, so please get it done! If you've lost your survey email you can recover it from here.

Rulebook Feedback

Thank you to everyone that has messaged me about suggested changes to the rulebook. I've got a huge list that I'll get through over the next few weeks and those changes will be updated straight away through the current link on the website. 

On my to-do list this week is finalizing all the material for printing. I've also sent off to get miniature-masters printed by Shapeways and I'll post pictures as soon as I get them.

I want also do another shout-out to Mike and Stan from Outer Limit Games for their help during this process. What knowledge they acquired through months of researching has been passed onto me within a few emails and has been invaluable during pre-production. Go check out their game if you haven't already!

That's all for this week! 

Peter 

Rulebook finished, Surveys close August 1st
over 9 years ago – Thu, Jul 07, 2016 at 11:50:28 PM

I'm hurtling towards having all of the materials finished to send off to the printer. The card list has been finalised, the rulebook done and the second board art completed.

New Rulebook

The rulebook has been refreshed with a new look, new pictures and I've added in all the new rules. You can check it out here.

Have a look through it and send me a message if anything doesn't make sense or you need anything clarified. I can continue to make changes over the next month so hopefully everyone is covered.

Please keep in mind the Premium custom dice and silver asteroids will not be shown in the rulebook. 

New Board 

You can see a sneak peak of the board art on the front page of Twitter, Facebook and the Kickstarter spotlight page. I'm not 100% ready to show it in full as I'm yet to settle on a way to display the 4 player side of the larger board. That should be ready for the next update.

BackerKit Surveys

Similar to how Kickstarter waits until the end of the campaign to charge your cards, BackerKit waits until I close the surveys to charge your cards too (that's if you purchased above your pledge amount). 

The lock down date for surveys will be August 1st. So you have a month to answer the BackerKit emails and tell me what you've pledged for. Around this time I have to start finalising orders with the manufacturer so if you miss out I may not be able to fulfill your order.

Also, the lock down will not prevent you from changing your address. You can continue to manage your postal address right up until the fulfillment period at the end of the year.

Funding update: So there was just over a $1K that dropped from Kickstarter after the campaign ended due to failed cards etc. In BackerKit we've raised a further $2.5K. It's fantastic that we've been able to get a little extra funding. 

New Cards

Here's four new cards added in from the social goals:

 I've had a lot of fun creating resource cards. Originally they were all one kind of resource but I felt that was way too boring. Even though they are purely cosmetic, having the different types adds that little bit of flavour to the game. It also gave me an opportunity to reference most of my favourite sci-fi universes.

That's all for this week! See you in another 7-ish days.

- Peter