Production Update Twenty-One: Getting it done

This is how excited I get over 80lbs of marbles 

 tl-dr edition:
-finals over! :D
-waiting for funds remainder
-etsy shop open
-DIY files available
-first production run done
-first backer reward shipped
-rulebook and shipping

Hooray! Finals are over! As expected, I actually enjoyed one of them, struggled a little but got through the second, and really hated the third. The first two were math, that third was not-math. Actually, that was done last Saturday, but I've still been immensely busy since then anyway. Friends of mine run a shipping store where I used to work, and they had an employee abruptly quit before their busy holiday season; so I've stepped in for just a week or two. As a bonus, this also gives me access to all the shipping services every day! Also, Amazon's still holding half of the funds, so the extra cash is helpful.

Production Update Nineteen: Done with finals!

That is all. Time for a victory Battlestar Galactica episode. Also, have a draft of the rulebook, just to make this a real update.

Production Update Eighteen: Kickstarter Wrap-up

When that first prototype arrived from the laser cutting shop, it was wobbly, too small, and wouldn't even stay together for a whole game. But, I took pictures of it anyway, and launched the Kickstarter. In 42 short days (they really blew by me) I went from that to being able to produce two dozen boards in a few hours, which are rigid, strong, and an absolute joy to play games on. I could not have done that on my own! I received support from the Kickstarter community, my family, and friends, and here I am, finishing up a semester of school (as usual), while getting ready to produce the first edition run of a game I've been developing for over a year (very not usual). Thank you, everyone, for this incredible experience. There's nothing like having an idea and people to share it with. For all you math-o-phobes, this will sound weird, but the only time I've had so much fun is working with my classmates on a challenging proof or computation.
I now have the privilege of sharing my idea with people all over the world. In a couple weeks, I'll start shipping to backers scattered through

Production Update Seventeen: Just some more pictures

Production Update Sixteen: Another Day at the 'Shop

Today I got to make the first acrylic 5x5x5 board, and am immensely pleased with it. I also took the chance to make my Reddit Secret Santa Gifts. If you don't know, last year, Reddit set the world record for largest secret santa, and it was a lot of fun. So I'm continuing the tradition with Delta V!

(un)Production Update Fifteen: Lego Board Reprise

So, I was hoping to post a new prototype of the five cubed board, but the workshop was already closed for the holiday. But, I did get to visit the Lego store with my boss today, because my boss is awesome. The result was this.

Production Update Fourteen: Final Announcements! Referral and community bonuses!

As we enter the final stretch, I want to thank everyone again for their support. We're already over the goal, and well on the way to meeting stretch goal two. I've started setting up the rulebook for printing, and am doing some more work on the five cubed design this week. As incentive to push us even further (and give me plenty of work for winter break), I present two offers for anyone who can take advantage of them. 

• Referral Bonus: Convince 1-4 friends to pledge and receive a 1-4 extra fleets; I'll send out a survey as it closes, or they can just message me. Refer five friends, and you'll get an extra MDF board with three fleets. Refer ten, and you'll get an acrylic board with five fleets, refer fifteen, and you'll get a complete copy of "The Traveller" tier free!
• Community Bonus: Find a game store or any community location willing to receive pledge rewards for two or more people. Then, every backer who receives their reward in that shipment will receive an extra fleet, and for every ten backers in that shipment, the actual shop or address will receive an acrylic board with five fleets. 

As a reminder, the stretch goals:

• MET! Printed Rulebook: every tier from $10 and up will receive a printed rulebook
• ($5000) Five Cubed: the larger five cubed board design will be available*
• ($7500) Fleet Cards: a "tracker" for your units off the board will be added to all tiers, one for every fleet, along with a spare drone marble.**
• ($10k) Scenario Deck: a set of 20 scenario cards will be added to every pledge of $15 or more
• ($15k) Materials Upgrade: All MDF boards and supports will be replaced with baltic birch ply
• ($20k) Resource War Scenario: all pledges of $35 or more will receive a set of "gas giant" and "asteroid" marbles and the Resource War scenario will be added to the Scenario Deck (note that these aren't printed marbles, but just carefully selected).
• *The MDF five cubed will be available at $45, and the acrylic version at $65. Backers already at that level are more than welcome to replace their two four-cubed boards with a five cubed. 
• **These fleet cards will be available as an add-on if funding doesn't reach this level.

Handmade Delta V boards

I posted this update on Kickstarter a few days ago, and I thought I'd repost it here for posterity. It's easy to make your own Delta V set! Two backers have already done it, and my old prototype is another good example.

  

Delta V sample round III

Production Update Thirteen: I hope you're not sick of marbles!

A huge variety of combinations here. 

I said I was going to be quiet for the next couple of days, but I came home to a new shipment of 16mm "ship" marbles. I was pretty happy with the last batch, but there wasn't quite enough variety. But I think that problem is solved now. This shipment might be enough for about 30 backers- I'm hoping to need many times this amount. I already need to order at least this much again, plus all the drone marbles. Remember; what you see here is only one-third of the fleet. Each fleet gets three distinct 16mm marbles, plus seven drones in the base color. The base colors are red, blue, green yellow, sky blue, black and white. Make sure to scroll through all the pictures!

I'm always encouraged by her helpfulness. 

There were so many blueish marbles we didn't even distinguish between blue and sky blue.

I like yellow.

Production Update Twelve: Stretch Goals

In the second week, backers received an update with some of my ideas about stretch goals, and the feedback from everyone really helped me refine them. I was waiting until we meet the funding goal to announce these, but I'm tired of hovering right on the line. So, without further ado, the official Delta V stretch goals;

• ($3500) Printed Rulebook: every tier from $10 and up will receive a printed rulebook
• ($5000) Five Cubed: the larger five cubed board design will be available*
• ($7500) Fleet Cards: a "tracker" for your units off the board will be added to all tiers, one for every fleet, along with a spare drone marble.**
• ($10k) Scenario Deck: a set of 20 scenario cards will be added to every pledge of $15 or more
• ($15k) Materials Upgrade: All MDF boards and supports will be replaced with baltic birch ply
• ($20k) Resource War Scenario: all pledges of $35 or more will receive a set of "gas giant" and "asteroid" marbles and the Resource War scenario will be added to the Scenario Deck (note that these aren't printed marbles, but just carefully selected).

We might be able to raise even more than $20k, and in that case, I'll have to get creative with the stretch goals, because I'm just about tapped out of ideas. T-shirts, maybe? Here are the pictures I can provide at the moment, the five cubed is still not quite as nice as I want it. It wobbles, and seems too tall. More prototyping to do, but it's almost there.

*The MDF five cubed will be available at $45, and the acrylic version at $65. Backers already at that level are more than welcome to replace their two four-cubed boards with a five cubed.

**These fleet cards will be available as an add-on if funding doesn't reach this level.

Delta V featured on TiBG back-it-for-a-buck corner

The folks over at Today in Board Games featured Delta V in their recent issue. The bach it for a buck campaign encourages gamers to pledge $1 to new, up and coming game designs, even if it's not their favorite type.
$1 pledges recieve a digital content pack, including vector drawings for your DIY pleasure, and a print and play edition based on the super advanced technologies of cardboard and chopsticks!

Production Update Eleven-point-Five: More on prototypes!

This last weekend was incredibly busy for me. On Friday night, I attended DenHac's game night, and joined their membership. They're a great non-profit organization, and an even better group of people. Check them out! We created the very first attempt at a larger board. I was, admittedly, a wee bit inebriated, and failed to properly scale everything. The resultant board made the most unstable small ones feel totally solid. We also played a great game of Monopoly. After my Friday night fun (which ended early Saturday) I worked at MSU Denver's open house. It was totally unrelated to production, but I managed to show off the board to one of my professors. Then, I headed to Enchanted Grounds coffee shop and game store. They reserved a table just for me! I felt special. I got to teach a few people, and play through two games. I even received some invaluable feedback. Sunday was a quieter day for me, thankfully. I just took those pictures of marbles and worked on homework. Then, on Monday, after a morning in the school library researching Native American mathematics, I decided to visit the Club Workshop. I took their Epilog laser safety class, and got to work on prototypes for a few hours. Hence, yesterdays' exhausted post.

Production Update Eleven: Eighty Percent Funded and Prototypes!

I made some prototypes last night. Well, less than four hours ago, but now I'm going to bed. Details later. :)

Production Update Ten: Marbles marbles!

Click through for more photos

Production Update Nine: Marbles!

Wee tiny spheroids o' glass. Hooray!

Blue fleet 

Yellow fleet

Soon-to-be-assembled fleet ships

Green fleet

Luna and Mars, no Earths yet

Production Update Eight: New Kickstarter Video!

This isn't the complete play-through people have been asking for, but a new promotional video. And, it has an error, since I'd made changes to the tiers between filming... I state that the Solar War tier comes with three boards, but it actually comes with two. I actually brought the price of that tier down by $20, as well, so I'm just going with it. Hopefully we can fix it soon, for now, enjoy some real video!

Production Update Seven: the media

~~~~~I was a little grumpy when I wrote this, and have redacted some bits. Sorry.~~~~~~~~~~~~

Delta V is a unique game- not just because it's in 3D. The three dimensional part has been done plenty of times before. There's the Star Trek chess, Space Checkers, and Raumschach, just for starters. There are two things that make Delta V really special;

(1) It's a free culture work- anyone can start producing and selling Delta V sets today
(2) Its learning curve is pretty steep- close to that of chess- and it's a good thing

I want Delta V to be played and kept by families as a living room standard. If it takes 100 years, no real surprises there. Who knows how long it took chess to reach its current status? So I've pulled no punches. Legally, Delta V has an intellectual property status very much like that of chess. It's a part of free culture now. Also, I've made sure to keep to the roots of chess and checkers, while introducing plenty of new dynamics to the "competing armies" archetype. There's a weird rule or two- just like en passant or castling- but with some thought, their existence really fills out the game.

~~~~~Redacted. I was still a little grumpy. Sorry.~~~~~~~~~~~~

Production Update Six: thank you for all the early support!

Here's a huge shout of thank you to all my early supporters! We're already almost halfway to the funding goal! In response, I've removed certain reward tiers, and added a new one. New tier: The meaning of life edition- includes the ingredients of the Star Warrior, plus a printed globe marble and planet defender scenario card. $42! For everyone who noticed the kickstarter's duration. :] I'm working on bonuses for stretch goals, as I'm hoping we can bust the top off this kickstarter. More updates on that soon.

I spent today with the wonderful folks at Modular Robotics (modrobotics.com) in Boulder. They loaned me a laser cutter and an engineer for most of the day, which was super helpful. So I'll be sending pictures of new protoypes soon! I have an etched design which I think will greatly lessen the learning curve.

Watch this space! Tell your friends, help make Delta V better for everyone!

Production Update Five: Kickstarter live!

Support now!

Production Update Four: sample game video

Production Update Three

The laser cut parts turn out to have a bit of wobble when assembled. It doesn't affect gameplay much, but it's a bit disorienting. I'm send a prototype to an evaluator, and am considering solutions.

RE-revision; three potential solutions have presented themselves
(1) Use of ABS throughout the whole board will allow use of hook-tabs to more strongly connect everything, with the loss of the cool transparent panels
(2) Use of a wood will allow hand-sanded joints
(3) Small bushings on the legs

Production Update Two

EDIT: This post is full of lies! I've modified the board design allowing for 25mm marbles with the main board design. But, I am planning something. :]

First official stretch goal: $5000 pledged, and three things happen; 
(1) a new tier is opened for a larger sized board, including 25mm marbles, ~$50. 
(2) All boards get a stenciled, signed and numbered ΔV bag 
(3) all small boards get a box.

Note that anyone who pledges $50 or more on another tier may switch their reward after the stretch goal is reached. 

Production Update One

Production Update One

1. ΔV board: approved!
2. ΔV: SourceBook: collecting material
3. ΔV rules reference card: editing rules wording
4. ΔV fleets: ready to order
5. Cloth bags: ready to order

DeltaV Kickstarter Preview and Production Update Zero

On October 20, the Kickstarter for the three dimensional board game ΔV will be open for pledges, and will remain open for 42 days. I created ΔV with a friend of mine, Bryan Curtis. Our goals were originally development of a mobile game, but I was so happy with it as a board game, I decided it must be produced. ΔV is the game of spatial combat. Play occurs in the three dimensional version of a checkerboard. Until October 20, feel free to preview it and leave feedback. 

Lab Assistant Database Update Form

Click through for form.

Ghost B.C. Infestissumam Album and Concert Review

The house lights dropped, and Gregorian chants lulled the crowd- for a moment. Somber latinate tones accompanied the appearance of five hooded and robed figures, which filed to their instruments. Then, chanting explodes into soaring riffs with thumping, head-bangable bass. The five “Nameless Ghosts” (as they are known online) rocked out Infestissumam, the eponymous introductory song of Ghost B.C.’s second album. Their second number required the frontman, Papa Emeritus II, to grace the audience with his presence, and he was given a screaming welcome. Wearing skull face paint and a profoundly blasphemous mitre, Papa led Ghost B.C. and their congregation through highlights of both their albums. Their paced slowed once to bid Denver good evening, and only once more to give the audience an opportunity to scream adoration. Their show at the Ogden on April 18th demonstrated the supreme talent and showmanship of these anonymous musicians.