A multi-module expansion for the Golden Geek Award nominated card game Villagers, from designer & illustrator Haakon Hoel Gaarder.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Progress Report #1A: Pledge Manager FAQ
over 2 years ago
– Tue, Aug 10, 2021 at 11:41:11 PM
Hello villagers!
I trust you are all well on this fine Monday morning. This update is a quick addendum to the previous one, to address some issues people have been having with the pledge manager. There's nothing seriously wrong, and if you've already successfully completed the survey then there's nothing else for you to do except wait for lovely games!
We will bill for shipping and BackerKit add-ons when the pledge manager closes at the beginning of October.
Pledge manager invite email not received?
If you don't complete the survey in our pledge manager, we can't send you anything! If you haven't received an email from us via BackerKit containing your unique survey invite link, you can try to retrieve it yourself here: https://villagers-shifting-seasons.backerkit.com - remember to check your junk mail folder if it still doesn't appear. Failing this, please contact [email protected] and Carly will come to your rescue.
If you used ApplePay to pay for your Kickstarter pledge, we might have an automatically generated email address from Apple for you which is preventing you from receiving email from BackerKit. If you think this might be the case, please email [email protected] so we can update your email address in the pledge manager.
Shipping fees charged in Kickstarter
Some of you were billed for shipping when you paid for your pledge on Kickstarter. This was an error on my part as we are charging for shipping in the pledge manager. However, any extra funds above & beyond the value of the items you pledged for are held as credit in the pledge manager, and can be used against the actual shipping fees we'll bill for later this year. No action is required, and nobody will be charged more than they should be.
High shipping fees for Switzerland
Switzerland was in the wrong shipping band in the pledge manager, meaning that shipping fees were surprisingly high. This was my error, and has been corrected - nobody will pay more than necessary.
Shipping fees higher than advertised
Shipping fees as stated for the "Shifting Seasons", "Gameplay Bundle", and "Everything Ever" pledges on the campaign page are being correctly applied in the pledge manager. We calculate shipping based on the total weight of the items in your basket, so if you select add-ons, shipping fees may increase. Certain countries are affected more than others, and unfortunately there's nothing we can do about this other than commiserate with you about the current sorry state of international shipping.
"Promo Pack" item locked in basket
The "Promo Pack" item consists of both packs of previously released Villagers promo cards: Promo Pack 1, and the Dice Tower Promo. If you already have either of these and would like to remove the "Promo Pack" item from your basket in the pledge manager, you'll have to ask us to do it. Removing the item will leave you with £4 credit which you can apply against shipping fees, or other add-ons. The two promo card packs are available separately in the pledge manager priced at £2 each.
If you'd like us to remove the Promo Pack item, please email Carly on [email protected] using the email address associated with your Kickstarter account.
That's all for now!
Take care, and play games.
Dave
Progress Report #1: Pledge Manager Opening
over 2 years ago
– Sat, Aug 07, 2021 at 11:27:00 PM
Hey villagers,
I hope you're doing OK. We have a lot to get through today, so no fooling around back there!
Pledge Manager
We are starting to open the pledge manager today - Friday 6th August!
BackerKit will randomly select 5% of backers to be invited first, with the rest following shortly thereafter (as long as there are no problems). So in the next couple of days everyone should have received an email from BackerKit including a unique pledge manager invite link. This will be sent to the email address associated with your Kickstarter account.
It's really important that you click your invite link complete the survey - this includes giving us your address and payment information so we can bill for shipping and send your items. If you don't complete the survey (and some people never do), we can't send you anything. We will bill for shipping and any extra items added in BackerKit at a later date, but we will collect card details now.
If you run into any problems or you have questions about the pledge manager, please contact us via our website.
Streets on Board Game Arena
As you may know, Board Game Arena is the world's biggest website for playing board games online, currently hosting 6 million members playing around 3.5 millions games each month. We love it, and you'll be pleased to know that Villagers is coming to the BGA roster soon - it's currently in alpha testing after a long period of inactivity. We'd really like Haakon's other game Streets to be available on BGA too, but it can take time for BGA's volunteer developer community to put the work in. Another option is for us to pay a developer, which gets a finished game up & running much faster. Development costs can be anywhere from £3000-7000, so it's not exactly cheap, but we have a plan!
In the Shifting Seasons pledge manager we have added a "Streets BGA Adaptation & Promo Tile" item. It can be added to your basket for the princely sum of £2.50. This adds funds to the development pot, and gets you an exclusive Streets promo tile with free shipping (shipped at the same times as Shifting Seasons).
If we can get 1000 backers to purchase this add-on in the pledge manager, we'll green-light development of Streets on BGA!
You will not need to have purchased the add-on to play the game, as it will be free to play for anyone with a free BGA account. Sinister Fish Games will not profit directly from the game being available on the platform, but we hope that some of the people who play it there will go on to purchase a physical copy.
Hi, Doctor Nick!*
It's been on the cards for a while now, but Sinister Fish Games is finally getting another full time employee, in the shape of Nick Welford. Nick comes to us from his current position with UK games retailer Zatu, and his various side hustles as board game content creator and social media marketer. This is a big deal for us because up to now, Sinister Fish has been a very small family business with Dave as the only full-time employee. Nick will join us from September on a permanent four-day week contract, and we are ridiculously excited to have him on the team!
* Nick is not, and has never claimed to be, a doctor.
The End
The end of this update I mean. I'll just leave you with a progress report which will be included in (roughly) monthly updates from now on.
Take care, and play games!
Dave
All Stretch Goals Unlocked!
almost 3 years ago
– Sun, Jul 25, 2021 at 11:05:38 PM
Hey villagers,
We did it! We hit 8500 backers while I was brushing my teeth this morning. I was a little worried we wouldn't make the mark, but my fears were unfounded. This means our final stretch goal is unlocked, giving us four new Event cards to add even more variety to our games.
That's 19 extra cards in the free stretch goal pack. Here they all are!
Finale Live Stream
Haakon and I will be on Twitch later this evening for our now traditional finale live stream, starting at 20:30 GMT. We'll be answering questions, talking about the campaign, and musing about what comes next. Please join us this evening!
Finale Livestream!
almost 3 years ago
– Sun, Jul 25, 2021 at 11:05:14 PM
Villagers!
We've reached end. What an amazing campaign this has been. Come & join Haakon and me as we indulge in a live Twitch stream of unplanned Q&A and general nonsense. Come & ask us anything in the chat.
Stretch Goal #10 Unlocked - Final 48 Hours!
almost 3 years ago
– Wed, Jul 21, 2021 at 04:51:34 AM
Hey villagers,
Ohh it's getting exciting now. We are officially into the last two days of this campaign, and it's a time when traditionally, Kickstarter projects enjoy a late rush of backers. This is due to Kickstarter's "remind me" feature which emails people when the project countdown reaches 48 hours. We have something like 7000 people receiving that alert, so we hope a few of them like the look of our stretch goals and join us for the lap of honour!
Let's take a quick look at what we've unlocked so far...
A nice little haul there I think. Every backer who pledges for a copy of Shifting Seasons will receive these cards (and any others we unlock before the end of play on Thursday) completely free of charge. They will be packaged inside the Shifting Seasons expansion box, so please don't panic if you can't see a little pack of cards floating around inside your shipping carton.
ANYWAY! We just unlocked another flippin' stretch goal!!! Our next mystery guest is...
Fun fact: I had a teacher called Mr Naylor, and he had eyes just like this!
This can only mean that we have reached our final stretch goal!
Here it is, we hope you like it!
That's it for now my lovelies - see you in the comments!
