$85k stretch goal revealed, and Extra Tenant Reveal #2: Private Space Program
over 3 years ago – Sat, Oct 17, 2020 at 11:25:17 PM

We're past $60k and still going strong! Even though we're technically in the "trough of sadness" (the period of time between the big funding at the start and end of the campaign), we've actually been doing very well day-by-day. $100k is not out of reach!

And now that we're approaching the $75k stretch goal, let's look at the next goal, at $85k! I've decided to insert a new goal before the 100k goal; I think this one will be valuable to hit!

I've gotten some feedback that the rulebook and card/tile text could be clearer. I wasn't originally going to revise the rulebook, and my original plan for the Fix Kit was just cards and tiles.

However, part of the goal of this campaign is to take the game to the next level, and improving the rulebook would be a big part of that. So at $85k, we will have a really good editor revise the rulebook (I have a verbal agreement with one of the best; his name rhymes with "Baul Boban"), and we'll work to untangle some of the stickier wording on the tiles and cards as well.

This increases the scope of the Fix Kit by a bit, but it means that everybody pledging for the game is going to get something significantly better!

Extra Tenant Reveal #2 - Private Space Program

The Private Space Program is an East Gardens tenant similar in feel to the Media Conglomerate or the Retail Space. It consists of a tile and 4 cards, and allows you to gain a Corruption to forego your random draw when someone visits one of your buildings, and gain an UltraPlastic instead. If you have a Media Conglomerate or a Retail Space, those still fire as well. This is a really good way to gain UltraPlastic early in the round... if you can spare the Corruption!

AwSHUX happening RIGHT NOW

I'm showing my games at AwSHUX! You can play High Rise at 4 pm EDT on Saturday and Sunday. I'm also showing off my games The Rival Networks and Weird Stories (at 2 pm and 7 pm EDT on each day of the show, respectively). I'd love to meet you; swing by my booth!

That's all I have for now. More updates in a couple of days!

Funded!
over 3 years ago – Mon, Oct 12, 2020 at 03:15:28 AM

Last year, we hit $50k - our funding goal - six hours before the end of the campaign.

Today, I woke up to the news that we hit $50k - our funding goal - five days into the campaign. We did it - the UltraPlastic edition of High Rise is going to be made!

I want to thank each and every one of you for making this project a success. Because of you, I get to keep making games for another year or two. I will always be grateful for that!

Add-on BackerKit Credit

First: it looks like I made a mistake in setting the shipping costs of the Extra Tenants 2020 add-on. It was too pricey! The correct cost should be:

US, CN, TW, HK: $3

AU, CA, CH, EU, IS, JP, ML, NO, NZ, PH, SG, KR, TH, UK, VN: $4

Everywhere else (except BR & RU): $5

Second: Kickstarter's add-on feature looks really good, for the most part. But there's one glaring annoyance that we've been dealing with - it can't adjust shipping costs relative to what else you've ordered.

What that means is, backers who are ordering both the Extra Tenants 2020 and the Fancy Bits add-ons are being asked to pay full shipping for both. That's too much.

One possible solution would be to create a bundle with both. If those weren't limited-quantity items, then I think it would be a no-brainer. But considering that they are, it would be a lot of complexity to mess with those limited quantity limits, and I'd risk screwing something up.

So I'm going to give credits in BackerKit to anyone who has pledged for both Extra Tenants 2020 and Fancy Bits add-ons. Here's how much the combined shipping will cost; your credit will be the amount in shipping you paid for both add-ons combined, minus this number.

US, CN, TW, HK: $6

AU, CA, CH, EU, IS, JP, ML, NO, NZ, PH, SG, KR, TH, UK, VN: $8

Everywhere else (except BR & RU): $10

Thankfully, BackerKit offers far more flexibility with this kind of thing, so I should be able to process these credits without too much hassle!

The first stretch goal

We're going to have a great stretch goal out of the gate: at $75k, we're going to add 5 tenants to the Extra Tenants 2021 add-on! I've been testing these tenants in the background, for a few months, and I'm looking forward to having a double-sized module as a bonus for all you backers.

I'll reveal another tenant in the Extra Tenants 2021 module in my next update.

What's the next stretch goal after $75k? I will let you know soon enough!

And I have more exciting news to share later in the campaign... :)

For now, we celebrate!

Extra Tenant 2021 Reveal #1: Upscale Organic Supermarket
over 3 years ago – Thu, Oct 08, 2020 at 08:03:05 PM

Hello UltraPlastic backer!

We're on Day 3 of the campaign. If you're new to backing Kickstarter projects, you should know that this is the point in the campaign where pledges start to slow down. We're likely going to get about 1-2 dozen backers a day, so don't expect the big gains that we've enjoyed the past two days.

Nevertheless, we're on track to hit our funding goal, probably around the 15th. We should also be able to hit our first stretch goal by the end of the campaign at this pace, doubling the number of Tenants in the module (from 5 to 10).

With that in mind, I thought it would be a good idea to start going through some of these new Tenants I've been working on. We'll start with this one:

The Upscale Organic Supermarket is a Downtown tenant. Downtown tenants tend to give out building material, as once players are in that area, chances are they've constructed a building and need more material. 

The way this tenant works is a bit involved, but stay with it; I really like what it does.

When a player lands or builds here - call them the active player - they draw a number of building material from the bag equal to the number of players plus 1. So, in a 3p game, they'd draw 4.

The active player takes one building material tile. Then all players draft, starting with the player furthest ahead on the one-way track. So, if you make a big jump to this tenant, you'll get first choice twice. The player furthest behind on the one-way track will get the lone remaining material.

In a 2-4 player game, it's a nice way to choose two tiles (assuming the ones you need come out) with no corruption. If you just need building material, it's a pretty solid choice, as long as you can stomach your opponents gaining material as well.

I'm still working on the 1-2p interpretation of this. I can go with something easy/boring like: in the 1p game, you just draw 2 tiles and keep them (which is the intuitive interpretation, but isn't much different), and in the 2p game, you draw 3 tiles and draft them as normal. Or I can go with something complicated/interesting like you draw 4 tiles, arrange them in a line left-to-right, and the Neutral Moguls return the leftmost tile to the bag on their turns. More testing will answer that question; and of course, I'm happy to hear your thoughts!

Latest High Rise playthroughs

My friends Jon, Sarah, and Ian will be playing High Rise live on Twitch tomorrow (Friday Oct 9) at 1 pm EDT. They're a lot of fun - I'm sure the game will be excellent!

Also, my friends at BramBeardGaming played High Rise a couple of days ago! Here's the VOD; it'll be available for about 12 more days.

Please keep spreading the word about this campaign! Now that we've officially entered the Slow Season, every bit of help is significant.

Thanks again for joining up, and I'll post another update in a few days!

Thank you for a strong Day 1!
over 3 years ago – Wed, Oct 07, 2020 at 01:25:44 PM

Hello High Rise backer, and thank you for an awesome first day, so far! We're not even 9 hours into the campaign, and we're already over halfway there. For perspective, we hit the previous High Rise campaign's Day 1 total in a bit over 2 hours, and we're now where the previous campaign was 12 days in. So we're doing really well!

Of course, I'd love to hit some stretch goals, including the $75k goal of expanding the number of Tenants in the UltraPlastic expansion from 5 to 10. I have a bunch of other really exciting goals planned; let's keep our momentum going and get as many as we can! 

In the coming days, I'll start sharing some of the new Tenants with you in these updates, as well as the contents of possible future stretch goals. 

Until then!