Button Shy
patreon
Lots of updates and a solo wallet game variant!
🕑 Added 2016-05-19 11:33:47 +0000 UTC Hey friends!I have a few cool things to update here (including a very cool solo variant to one of our games), so let’s get into it.
First Of All... Welcome New Friends!
We have grown every single month and this is really becoming quite a thing. It’s super exciting, so I wanted to welcome all of the new supporters! Feel free to dig around the updates here for some PNPs, and other fun stuff.
May Packages
It looks like things will get here right at the end of the month (desperately trying to get closer to the middle, but it’s so hard!) This month was tricky with timing of a few things, but all is good and working it’s way through. The may package has a bit of a theme to it. You’ll see. I don’t want to spoil anything. :)
Note for new subscribers: Your first package will most likely be received at the end of your second month. For example: The May package will go out to anyone who was a subscriber as of 4/30/16. Patron takes your payment on the first of the month (5/1/16) and then we order around 5/6/16 when we receive the totals and have exact numbers to work with. Everything takes about 2 weeks to get here then we spend 2-3 days getting the packages out. And sometimes there are other unforeseen delays, but we try to keep everyone in the loop.
If you started after 4/30/16, your first payment will be on 5/31/16 and your first package will be the June package. And speaking of the June package, it is looking to be jam packed at this point with some great games, a fun postcard and the bonus Avignon cards.
T-Shirts
Those of you who are due for T-Shirts should be getting them with your May packages. They turned out super nice@ Analog Gamer is our T-Shirt Dude and he has even made these excellent Con Crud shirts (with bonus Con Crud Cards to give away) for us that would be wonderful for Origins and Gen Con or your favorite local con. Anyway, expect shirts very soon if they are part of your reward level.
Check out the Con Crud and Button Shy shirts here. Yours aren't shown though because they're a surprise :) http://www.analoggamer.com/buttonshy/
Board Game Road Trip
The Road Trip is in full swing, but it’s just waiting on me to edit and wrap up the audio and PNPs. 3-4 more episodes will be coming your way very soon. The little rose game has really taken off, and there are some fun new rules, including one very silly one that I want to see in action. You’ll see soon enough!
Smoke & Mirrors: Solo Edition
Chip Beauvais made a really cool solo version of Smoke & Mirrors, which is interesting because it's a bluffing game. In this version, it's a little more of gambling or playing the odds against a pair of dice. The rules are below and it just requires a copy of the game, 2 dice, and 3 failure tokens (they can be anything at all). If you don't have a copy of the game, you can always get one here with your monthly discounts or download the PNP and rules.
Here are the links. Warning, this game is addictive! I haven't played a perfect game yet, and Chip almost missed dinner by refusing to give up until he played a perfect game. Hope you enjoy it too.
Solo Rules: https://www.dropbox.com/s/xoj5xmj3iuyy7bg/SmokeandMirrorsSoloRules.pdf?dl=0
And if you need them. Just make sure you familiarize yourself with the main game rules, and most importantly the deck distribution, before playing solo.
PNP: https://www.dropbox.com/s/4wri0ip9v2ct98m/SM-PNP-BW.pdf?dl=0
Standard Game Rules: https://www.dropbox.com/s/vhkisjmmyixxqcm/SM-Rules-072715.pdf?dl=0
That's it for now! Next month we're revising Movie Plotz with a full standalone expansion and after that is Pod-X by Daniel Solis, which we can't wait to share. See you soon!
Comments
Button Shy
Hi Heather, June just went out this week and July will be going out in about 3 weeks or so. You can add either or both. You'll be just in time for August as your first payment will come out 7/31. Just let me know!
queerwolf
Hi! I'm pretty sure I didn't subscribe in time for July's package is there any way for me to add that on? Thanks!
kenneth wong
i appreciate the thoughtful response! it didnt occur to me that adding days to the campaign added significantly more work. i shouldve taken into account that button shy has a very different business model than most kickstarter creators anyways- they are looking to put all their energy into infrequent, huge projects; while you are continually putting out many smaller projects on a tight schedule.
Button Shy
Here's another side note on Kickstarter campaigns: If you look at the funding charts, it's usually a huge day one, a drop on day two, then a big drop during the middle lull, then it picks up for the last few days with a big finish. The middle is the worst, so that's what we cut down. We lose the time for people to find it, but during that time you are lost in the Kickstarter searches / browse screens (high funding campaigns for the day go to the top, so things that are at the day 1 or 2 or ending soon are usually funding well for the day. Things in their middle lull are pushed down as Kickstarter shows what is hot and hides what is not). So we tried to drop that time where we are hidden. On a campaign that takes off (Pretense and Avignon) it's great and we had huge momentum the entire time. But an interesting one for me was Wild Cats. We did it as a 5 day campaign and it dos better than some of our recent 10 day campaigns. It was on the Just Launched and Ending Soon charts at the same time so it stayed at the top.
Button Shy
Haha, there are a few reasons why we do short campaigns. Longer might fund more, but here's the reason for short ones. We're doing one every month as part of our wallet thing, but we want downtime. Running a Kickstarter can be brutal, stressful and very time consuming. At one point I would spend 4 hours per night (while the Kickstarter is live) working on graphics, updates, promotion, etc. For sanity reasons I've dropped that down a lot. But aside from it just being a lot of work, I wanted to have more time not asking for money on Kickstarter than time asking for money. Right now 1/3 of the time were on there with a 10 day campaign each month. My goal is to be able to put up the games, make sure the people who are interested aware of them and not beg for money. As we grow it's less begging for money and more fulfilling our fans, which is exactly what I want it to be. Begging for money is no fun and gets old. So we do nice low stress, low price point campaigns that can do their own thing and survive on a few thousand dollars. I've been there in a $12,000 funding goal and you are sitting at $8,000 for a week sweating it out and begging people to back your game. I never want to do that again. If people aren't there, it's because it isn't grabbing them OR it wasn't out there enough, which leads me to what we need here... With doing these monthly, we need a little more lead time for each game to get them into the hands of media, bloggers and people like you here. I just need another hand or two on staff to make those things happen. If more people know about what we're doing, and are aware that the campaigns are out there, low priced and shipping in two months, the small window will be less of an issue. TL;DR: My top goals are to make this doable. I don't want to kill myself doing it and drive people nuts begging for money, so it's been low key by design. But some media push is 100% necessary to take this to the next level.
kenneth wong
im curious about your short kickstarter campaigns. i havent run a kickstarter, but i would think longer campaigns would mean more chance of people discovering it. it seems like most kickstarters, by far, do longer campaigns. or at least the ones i back. never forget that whatever you accomplish, somebody with no clue will assume they can do it better.
Button Shy
We are shipping the Heretic to all supporters. It's just a little pricier for those outside of the US. The $5 level is $6, $10 is $12 and $20 is a little trickier. I think that info is a little buried in the main page.
PiHalbe
I love that you continue to support your great games. Shame about the domestic shipping only – I'd love to get my hands on the Heretic. :-)
Button Shy
I did ask about the shirts and if you didn't respond on size, it's ok as we'll be ordering regularly. Message me with your size and I'll make sure you're covered. Thanks!
Lamont Dyck
I have a question about the t-shirts: did you already ask for a size and I a) forgot or b) did not respond. Thank you
