Button Shy
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Diving into 2020
🕑 Added 2020-01-20 18:26:51 +0000 UTCHoly moly. Last time we talked I asked for your feedback without pulling any punches, and it was both extremely helpful and extremely eye opening (and somewhat painful too! But I asked for it). I learned a lot that was implemented immediately, some that will take a little longer to get in place and some that we;re still unpacking.
Here are the few immediate takeaways:
1) Getting things out on time is very important to a large amount of Patrons.
This is something we've always struggled with (mostly because it's a straight up ridiculous self imposed schedule), but every time we talk to Patrons in person they say they don't mind and they "know it'll eventually come". And it does, but I know that's much harder for new supporters that have the big initial wait and don't see anything.
How to fix?
We hired Jason Greeno as a part time graphic designer to focus on BGOTMC and our supporting projects. He's helped us get the first quarter of the year in order very nicely, and we're onto more and more projects, much earlier than I've been able to do myself.
We also are sending out 2020 starter packs on their own, instead of with the first package. For this first batch, they will be arriving together, but for anyone else that joins in 2020, they'll get a starter pack sent on/around the first of the month after they join. This isn't entirely in our budget, but I hope the goodwill goes both ways.
With this all in mind, we have November and December going out starting this Thursday. January is still being wrangled here. I said that we'd have it out in January, but it's looking like it'll still wind up arrive here in February due to all of the new games included. Personal Space and Trolling For Trouble are both year long games and the setup took longer than planned. The good news is, we ordered Jan, Feb and March all at the same time, so there will be no further delays based on those games. I'm very disappointed in myself for not hitting January in January, and should have been less optimistic with it being the launch of the new games. It's the hardest month of the year to assemble and the one that I insisted we start with, but we're the closest we've been yet. I'm going to keep pushing forward and if things are delayed, our level of communication needs to go up. That's a goal on my end that didn't emerge on the surveys. We should have weekly updates here, at a minumum.
2) Not everyone loves getting multiple expansions for the same game.
In 2019 and carrying over to 2020 we released a few ongoing expansions. Games like Anthelion and The Perfect Moment were heavy in the $10+ packages. Some of that was planned from the start, and others were situational based on the printer's schedule, artists, etc. Now if you were a fan of those games (or any similar ones that were heavily expanded), it was great. But if you didn't have them or want them, it was a lot of content that you may not use.
How to fix?
Going forward, we are going to try and make the most of each month. So if there's a 6 card expansion for a game that's ongoing (for example: SpaceShipped will have 3-4 expansions in 2020), we will try to get another small playable into the package. Ideally the $10 slot is a mix of expansions, new games, and small standalone stuff. But it's also our only way to expand games after release, and making / signing brand new $3-9 card games every month and arranging the art in a timely way is not as easily done as I'd hope. So we will continue to release expansions, but we will be aware that if a game is being heavily expanded, that we should pair it up with something small for those that aren't interested. This is where games like MechAge come into play. It's a 3 card standalone game that was to be paired with Anthelion, but that game had some delays and we didn't hold the schedule for it.
In the next few packages, you'll see the last of Anthelion and The Perfect Moment, and by the February package you should be seeing all new stuff in the $10 slot. There's a little bit of everything, so I hope that it answers the issue of heavy expansions for those not interested.
I think those were the two big ones. I'm still diving into the comments and discussing them here.
So while we're here, let's take a peek at the February featured wallet game, Royale.
Royale was a submission to our recent contest: Design an 18 card game that doesn't use a table or surface. It's one that caught our attention early in the contest and ended up in the top 3 (each of which is scheduled to come out in our 2020 lineup!).
Trouble is brewing in the Kingdom… The greedy Queen shall be tolerated no more!
ROYALE is an asymmetrical bluffing game for five players: One Queen and four citizens.
Will the citizens rise up, or will the Queen drive them to her knees?
This is our first one vs. many game? At least in the wallet line, I believe. While it says 5 players up there, I can assure you that Mike Mullins is working his magic for other player counts. He's already proposed a 3 and 4 player variant for me, and we've even played it at 2. Solo is definitely out of the picture, unless anyone in the community wants to tackle it. (The community solo variant for Seasons of Rice has been getting a lot of action lately: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2339839/solo-mode-ai-opponent).
This is our first game with Miller Hollinger on design and our second with Milan Zivcovik on art.
Also, if you want to see the original pitch video, here it is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9neNlFlMbg
There's so much more to tease, so we'll break it up into more posts. We want to do this weekly at a minimum, so expect more very soon!
if anyone has any questions or is missing anything, please let us know! Sept/Oct have shipped, so if you don't have those please contact Matthew at buttonshyhelp@gmail.com. T-Shirts wave one went out and wave 2 and 3 are going out with Nov/Dec packages. We'll be reaching out to $20+ Patrons next for their choice on Nov/Dec wallet games.
Thanks everyone! And Happy New Year! (I know it's late, but if anyone saw last night's Curb Your Enthusiasm premier, that was directly for you).
Comments
Benjamin Jelley
Phew! Thanks for that. Since not getting my Sept and Oct packages I’m just worried I am missing stuff and not noticing. Paranoid much :D :D (I’ve emailed Matt already before you suggest it, just waiting on a support ticket number)
Button Shy
It’s the same thing. The content cards were made without the title. Good eye!
Button Shy
I do it every single time
Benjamin Jelley
Hi! :D I pressed enter like a numpty so all you saw was Hi *facepalm* I have edited my comment above to be more explanatory
Button Shy
Hi Benjamin :)
Benjamin Jelley
Hi, my December 2019 package has a perfect moment expansion called an escape plan gone wrong, but the content list says it should be a camping trip gone wrong. Did I get the wrong expansion or was it renamed?
Button Shy
We know and it’s a bummer. No scheduled reprint right now as it’s still fairly playable. Just need to see if a print slot emerges sometime soon. Each misprinted card is about $500 to fix, so it’s always a struggle.
JazzFlight
Ack, sorry to mention, but I think the final cards for Chain Mail have an error (unless it's just me). The December 2019 cards have a printing problem where the Feast Worm/Changeling's back (their flavor text boxes) is on the Lightning Wand Treasure List's back and vice versa (the monster card front has the treasure chest icon on its back). Any chance for a reprint? It's a shame that out of the whole 12-month delivery, this is the only misprint for my complete Chain Mail.
Button Shy
Hahaha. It’s the best and worst all at once. Always valid, but neverending.
Edward Kercado
My local playgroup is going to find this hilarious - I do have something of a reputation.
Button Shy
You pick nits like our rules editor. :) he caught this and corrected it as well.
Edward Kercado
Perhaps a nitpick, but I'm pretty sure it should be, "drive them to *their* knees" - the Queen isn't the one kneeling.
Alison
Looking forward to it! Thank you for the quick reply.
Dennis Michels
Thank you for your reply. i'll contact Matthew then :) Keep up the great work!
Button Shy
It just depends when things get here. But we will be getting February and the welcome packs together so you’ll likely get them at the same time.
Button Shy
Sorry about that. Please message Matthew and he’ll straighten it out. Buttonshyhelp@gmail.com
Dennis Michels
Great post!! Thank you for the update. On a sidenote, I seem to have never received the June package? :(
Alison
I had no idea there was any kind of 'welcome pack'! I just joined in mid-January; am I part of that last "it ships with your first package" cohort, or the new "it ships around your first payment" world? (I figured I would be waiting a while for things to start up and am totally okay with that.)
Beano X Bates
I wouldn't mind multiple expansions for the same game as long as its for a solo game or make a non-solo game solo. 😁
Theo Clarke
MJust keep on keeping on. I just received Seasons of Rice, The Water Festival, Tussie Mussie, Flower Shoppe, BGotM Sep, and BCotM Oct. I remain delighted.
Jason Sanchez
Good to hear! Thanks for the quick response.
Button Shy
Yes, we just need to get them over to our PNP guy. I’ll get on that
Jason Sanchez
Any chance we'll see some of the expansions released last year as PnP's this year?
Button Shy
This is a great note. The reason we don't offer combining orders with packages is because it slows the whole system down. I have an idea on how to try and implement this and I'll see if it's possible. The second issue is that anything else in the package on a $20 dual month shipment is going to add $10 to the shipping, as it's at max weight already. So it would probably need to be a minimum purchase amount to balance that out. I'll do some research :)
Fernando Costa
On the "stuff I won't use" note, my beef with it is the lack of an offer to purchase and have the base game and/or previous expansions shipped with the monthly package, should I want them. I've yet to purchase Supertall and The Perfect Moment, and would do so without hesitation if I didn't have to wait for a larger order to save on shipping. In all honesty, I didn't like MechAge, despite realy liking the idea, but getting an expansion for it makes me want to try it again, specially since it's a new scenario with different gameplay. Even big games like Terraforming Mars may get new life from expansions like Prelude, so don't throw away the expansions ;) Looking forward to more SpaceShipped!
Button Shy
The original submission was a King but we changed it to a Queen in development.
Christian Mills
Does Royale have a king or a queen? On the pic it says king, but you said queen in the description.
Lora miller
Great post! Looking forward to 2020!!!
