4 Days Left - BackerKit, Victory Points, Solo Rules and Metal Dice!
almost 10 years ago – Fri, Jun 10, 2016 at 05:17:12 PM

It's been busy and it's going to get even busier with 4 days left on the campaign. Let's jump right into the cool stuff shall we?

Victory Points Variant

This is an exciting addition to the game that I want to focus on a little more. The regular rules are fantastic, but if you want a quicker more fluid game then you will love the Victory Point rules.

So what's the big difference? Your ships re-spawn, and you're playing for points rather than battling it out in order to be the last player standing. This creates so many great options for big attacks, small quick pushes and an even bigger focus on capturing (and keeping!) planets. 

Are the games any quicker? Yes! We finished a 3 player game in 55 minutes. It was crazy how many things happened in that time, and it was a lot of fun. The goal was 10 victory points but the VP cards are double-sided and go up to 20 points which will be needed for any games larger than 3 people. I'm so excited to be able to add this in, as it makes Mothership much more versatile and will really appeal to both types of gamers.

For a rough draft of the VP rules you can check them out here.

Solo Variant

It's finally here for all those who have been waiting for it! I'm calling it Challenge Mode and it involves defeating an NPC fleet before they destroy your Colony Station. The difficulty ramps up from easy to near impossible so it should keep you busy for a while. The great part is that it leverages everything that makes Mothership unique, and there are very few rule changes. 

For a rough draft of the Solo rules you can check them out here.

BackerKit

I'm excited to announce that we will be using BackerKit to send out surveys and manage add-ons. What does this mean for you? It means greater flexibility after the campaign has ended to change your details, add more to your pledge or purchase other add-ons created after next Tuesday.

Because we can continue to sell copies and generate funds after the campaign ends we may still be able to hit some stretch goals later or provide some goals as add-ons. Let me assure you that I will do my best to get what everyone wants in the game and to help achieve this I will be using BackerKit.

I will also allow everyone to vote on the stretch goals after the campaign ends to get an idea of what is more popular. This may not change the current order (due to costs of some goals) but will help me to focus on what to put in the game going forward.

Stretch Goal #6: Linen Card Stock

Sitting at number six is something that everyone appreciates, a bump in the card quality with a fantastic linen finish. It'll feel so good in your hands that you won't want to hold anything else ever again! (this might be a slight exaggeration).

Stretch Goal #7: Metal Dice

 

This is the coolest, most expensive stretch goal of the campaign...but boy will it be awesome. Nothing says science fiction more than electric blue on metal. That's what the great team at Easy Roller Dice will be helping us out with if we reach 64k. They will take the custom Mothership design of the Premium Edition dice and forge them out of metal! Not to be forgotten, the Standard Edition also gets a dice upgrade similar to the set seen above (keep in mind it'll be d4, d6, d8, d10 and d12). 

Reddit AMA

I'll be doing a reddit 'Ask Me Anything' session on Monday, 13 June at 4PM PDT over at r/boardgames under the user name hatless_harry. As you know you can all 'ask me anything' here but the r/boardgames community is huge and it'll be a great opportunity to get the word out. You're more than welcome to get involved and spur on the discussion with your excitement :D

Now with all of the stretch goals revealed and over 110% funding, Mothership is on it's way to a great finish. Let's keep up the social goals and make Mothership the best game it can be!

Again, thank you to everyone who has backed Mothership and welcome to all the new backers reading this that have jumped on board over the last few days!

Peter

Mothership has Been Funded!
almost 10 years ago – Tue, Jun 07, 2016 at 05:51:31 PM

We did it! It's all happening thanks to you awesome people, Mothership is going to be produced!

This entire campaign has blown away my expectations, words don't describe how cool you all are!

So, let's get cracking on some stretch goals shall we? :D

Double-Sided Board

I thought I'd give everyone a few more details on the new boards. To answer a question that I've been getting a lot, yes the 6 player board will be double-sided regardless of whether we make this goal or not. What this stretch goal can buy is another piece of awesome space artwork for the other side. 

Check out this picture for a comparison. Please keep in mind the blue space artwork is just a place holder image at the moment, the production artwork will come after the stretch goal is achieved.

 As you can see the 20" board's other side will be the 4 player size with the new artwork.

Stretch Goal #5 - New Capture Markers

The next goal is one that I'm excited about, a new plastic piece, the capture marker! At the moment when you capture a planet you place a little hex token underneath the stand. The new capture markers are moulded pieces and will be plastic just like the ships, they feel great in comparison to the hexagon tokens. 

Added components: Standard edition - 5x capture makers for each colour (20 in total), Premium edition - 7x capture markers for each colour (42 in total)

Rule Variants

Victory Points System - Mothership will have official variant rules for a Victory Points System. This is a fun new option for those who don't like the elimination based game play currently available. It changes the dynamics of the game as it introduces re-spawning units. I know all of you are going to have a lot of fun with this one! 

Check back later through the week for the updated rules to go with this.

Solo Rules - I haven't forgotten! I'm trying to get a draft up on the project page, stay tuned for updates.

That's all for now guys, with 8 days to go I'm sure we can easily get some of these goals!

Peter

Day 21 - Planetary Exploration, interviews and more stretch goals
almost 10 years ago – Tue, Jun 07, 2016 at 05:48:01 PM

Oh boy oh boy! 90% is VERY close. Are you excited? The anticipation is unbearable! It's so fantastic that Mothership is so close to being funded with about 9 days to go, because that means we have the potential to reach some:

Stretch Goals!

If you head to the project page you'll notice that the stretch goal section has been updated with funding levels for up to seven stretch goals. I'm going to reveal one a day, so that way by the time we get to the final week everyone will know what could be packed into the game (with a couple more up my sleeve just in case we go past these seven). I'm especially excited about the last one...but you're going to have to wait to find out :D

For today though, let me introduce you to:

Planetary Exploration

You will now be able to explore the planets you capture! At the cost of 2 resources you can choose to send an away party down to the planet to uncover an ancient alien artifact which may help improve your fleet. These are randomly assigned at the start of the game and you won't know the hidden value of your planet until you start exploring.

Be careful! The relic is tied to the planet it's discovered on. If another player captures your planet the item (and it's improvement) will be transferred to the new owner.

Added components: 10x Artifact cards, 10x numbered hex tokens

If you want to hear me talk more about this exciting new element you can listen to this episode of The Final Roll (thanks Mark!) and this episode of Game On at 11:35 (thanks Bill!).

Community Suggestions

Solo play - I'm trying to get out a draft version of the solo play variant before the campaign ends so all those hanging out for that, stay tuned! 

Double-sided board - So it's officially happening for the 6 player version, still working on the graphics but expect a gap around the 4 player side (a nice gap of course).

BGG Forums - If you want to talk about the game on Board Game Geek check out the Mothership forums here.

Development

Here's a picture from the very early stages of development for Mothership. The ships in this photo are little generic ones off of ebay and the planets are giant LEGO spheres from some of the Star Wars sets. Oh how far we've come!

Thanks to everyone chatting in the comments sections and via messages, it's great to hear all of your excitement. Feel free to message me and keep checking the stretch goals section for updates over the next few days.

- Peter

Day 10 - Plastic Tray, double-sided 6 player board and more!
almost 10 years ago – Fri, May 27, 2016 at 04:00:04 PM

Hey guys!

We just smashed $20k and over 300 backers! The campaign is going VERY well, of course this is all thanks to you awesome people. I'd like to update you on a few things, the most exciting being: 

Stretch goal #2 - Plastic Tray Insert

I've moved this one to #2 because I personally love this tray and want it included. It features a two-tier design with the bottom tray being for all the game pieces and the top tray being for all the printed components. 

The top tray also splits off to form a card holder for use during the game. It will keep the discard, action and resource cards in place (this will replace the card mat).

Double-sided Premium 6 Player Board

Great news for all those with the premium edition, the board is now double-sided! I don't have graphics for you at the moment, but the other side will be the same artwork and hex-count as the 4 player board with a gap around the edge. More updates to follow with final pictures as well.

Thanks to all those who suggested it, it was a great idea!

Community Suggestions

• We've added a higher-res picture of the Technology Tree which you can view on the project page (click on it for a larger image). 
• You can now add on extra planets to your pledge level.
• Solo rules are still being worked on. Just to reiterate these won't be ready until after the campaign ends as I would like it to have lots of play-testing.

We're not even half way through the campaign and already 70% funded! This is so crazy exciting for me to see my game so close to being published, thanks everyone :)

Just a reminded to all those living in sunny Melbourne Australia (it's freezing right now) I'll be at Gate Keeper Games tonight with Mothership. Come along for a drink, see how it plays and say hi!

- Peter

Day 5 update - 50% funded!
almost 10 years ago – Sun, May 22, 2016 at 10:22:53 PM

It's only been a week and we're already 50% funded. That is incredible! Thank you all again (I've been saying thank you a lot this week, but seriously this is pretty cool). 

I've also enjoyed messaging everyone. It's nice to chat with some of you about why you backed, what caught your eye and answer any questions you have. 

Second Stretch Goal

The second goal has been partially revealed as a plastic tray insert for the box! This is one goal that I personally would love to have because like you, I like my board games to be organised. I'll be posting some pictures of the tray as the campaign continues.

Community Suggestions

PnP: David over in the comments section suggested including the STL files in the PnP version so you can 3D print the game pieces. I thought that was a great idea, so that's now included. Also the PnP is now offered to all those who have bought the physical copies. 

Solo rules: These are being developed as a 'challenge mode.' Your fleet starts out at the opposite end to the NPC who is already next to your Colony station. You have a limited amount of moves to upgrade and make your way to the enemy before you're destroyed. Levels ramp up in difficulty and will really test you out!

These rules probably won't be ready by the end of the campaign as I'm fairly obsessive and would prefer to playtest it to death before publishing anything. If any of you have suggestions to add please feel free to message me.

Premium board: It's looking like the board will be double-sided, which is great news! More updates on this to follow (like what the two sides will look like).

Development

I thought I'd share a photo showing the development of the game pieces. I struggled a lot initially with the game pieces. First I was going to use generic ships (left), which ended up being way too big (and not very nice to look at). My second idea was to have little cards on stands to represent the ships (middle), but it was hard for the player to differentiate between pieces at a glance. So then I settled with designing my own ships (on the right). 

I don't know about you guys, but as the creator I am SO excited by the thought of my miniatures being professionally produced and finally with transparent stands!

That's all for now! Keep up the social goals and message me if you have any questions. Mothership related questions of course...for all other questions use Google. Well you could ask me but I might give you the wrong answer...

- Peter