if you are seeing this text: November 2013

Friday, November 29, 2013

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!

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

(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.

Sunday, November 24, 2013

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.

Saturday, November 23, 2013

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.

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Delta V sample round III

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

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!

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

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.