Making Progress (and Making Jokes with Dr Inkwell!)
about 4 years ago – Mon, Mar 07, 2022 at 09:52:49 PM

Happy March, Distillers!

Another month, another update! We've been busy and I've got a lot of pictures to show. We're SOOOOO close to being done with everything and shipping it off to localizers and the factory! So, here's a  breakdown of what we'll be covering in this update:

• Game & Component updates
•  бу́дьмо! 
• Con Report and Preview!
•  The Still Column with Dr Inkwell! 

 Game & Component Updates

Let's cut right to the chase with some slightly bad news: we're behind.  While all gameplay and writing is finished, Erik (our sole artist and graphic designer for the project!) is doing his darndest to work through the large quantity of content we've unlocked in this campaign. With over 200 custom illustrations, hundreds of different cards, tokens, and boards, and a 24-page rulebook to boot, we have a LOT of content! We all have full time careers of our own as well, so we're trying to do as much as we can every night and most of the weekends to get this finished. 

The good news, Erik is very confident that he'll be finished between mid and late March, no matter what. That's how close he is - we simply have the rulebooks (which is A LOT!) and the boxes left, so we truly are almost there! I'm also happy to report that we've built that padding into our schedule, and we really aren't that behind. I'm still hopeful we can make Q4 fulfillment for y'all this year, if things stay on track. And remember, don't get to excited - after we finish, we also have to have the game translated before hitting the PRINT button at the factory, so we are still looking at a month or so into the future (but the good news is that I can be working with the factory on white samples and digital proofs during that time!). 

Now on to some more good news - we've making some wonderful headway in samples evaluation with the factory. I realized that these past few months are the perfect time to work with them on finalizing all things "non-paper" such as metal and wood components. Below, I've got some updates on a few of those, and a peek into my process in working with the factory.

Custom Scoring Tokens for each player

These are exciting, as you all helped us unlock these! This is what you move around the scoreboard during the game, representing both the overall color and still that is custom illustrated on your own player board (I might show the player boards next month - they look AMAZING!)! While the shapes I designed and the illustrations Erik created are working wonderfully, the colors were a bit more garish than we expected. When working with actual paint, you can't use RGB or CMYK - you're using instead an international code called Pantone. While we thought we had the right Pantones when we sent them, we've since realized they are meant to be more muted, so the factory will be sending us a new set with the new Pantones we picked out, based on the player colors we've chosen. In order to do this, I created a diagram for the factory, of which I've adopted a visual communication process in most of what I'm doing with them now, both due to the language difference and the nature of it being a visual-based experience in games (to give credit, their English is quite good!). 

I ended up doing some of the same thing with the round marker, which is meant to be a nice-sized wooden barrel, representing time and age. I've been using some sort of barrel for awhile now, but wanted something slightly bigger. In the below picture, you'll see the two to the right that were originally sent from the factory, and after some back and forth, we settled on both the shape and the stain I was looking for, with the end result being the bottom middle image. 

In Distilled, you need to obtain the knowledge of how to make a certain spirit, before you can just simply craft it. This often is accomplished through obtaining a cube from the market in tiers of Bronze ($2), Silver ($4), and Gold ($6). As each tier increases in price, it also grows in prestige and difficulty to make. While I showed you an image of the metal cubes (that some of you have added-on to your order) we'd received in last month's post, the "bronze" cube just didn't sit well with me. It looked a bit too much like copper, and in the wrong light, could even be mistaken for gold. So, I asked the factory to send a darker cube for that bronze metal version. What they sent was far too dark (top cube), so I've since mocked up a happy medium (bottom cube) and they are working on that now. 

For the main retail game, those same recipe cubes will simply be made of wood, but I still want them to exude a sense of "luxury", and not just "yellow, grey, and brown". So I've asked the factory to look into some metallic paints, of which I'm happy with what they've returned - a sort of glittery sparkle! But just as with the "bronze" color for the metal, it is a bit off with the wood too. This time, it almost looks like a tarnished gold, which is cool, but again would be confusing to the players! In this, I've colored a version in photoshop,and also included the illustrations that will be in the game in many places, so that they can achieve something close to that color. 

Last but not least (well, actually it is sorta least, as it has no gameplay significance - just fun at the table!) is the shot glasses. The initial sample they sent felt quite cheap (left). I sent a picture back of a sample that had a thicker bottom, denoting a higher quality (less breakable) glass. They've since found that, and I'm happy to report we are moving forward with a good quality Distilled shot glass for all the Signature Backers in the group!

#WeStandWithUkraine 

What is happening over in Ukraine right now is absolutely terrible. It hurts my heart to see such an imbalance of power and true example of "bullying" that is occuring. On February 24th, I decided to post something to our social media community, to demonstrate our stance on the issue, and to show support for Ukraine. 

The statement I wrote to accompany the image we posted was: "Paverson Games condemns all acts of violence, and is horrified by what is happening in Ukraine. We stand in support of our Ukrainian partner, Geekach Games, who was one of the first to believe in Distilled. Join us in raising a glass of honey-pepper Horilka* and exclaiming бу́дьмо!  which means 'let us be'. Let us be strong. Let us be with Geekach. Let us be with Ukraine."

These events overseas are especially troubling to see, as one of the first companies who believed in Distilled was Geekach, as they signed a localization contract to bring the game to the Ukrainian people! While we don't know what will happen with that agreement in the coming months, we will be continuing to show our support for both Geekach and the Ukrainian people. 

*for those curious, Horilka is a national drink of Ukraine, and has been compared to vodka, but has far more complexity (and sometimes has honey and pepper flavors with it!). 

Cons, Cons and more Cons!

Another month, another con! I was glad to have two local, smaller conventions for the months of January and February. A con that is near and dear to my heart is Con of the North. While it is nowhere as big as most any con that is nationally known, this was where it all began for Distilled. Back in February of 2019, this was the very first public venue for Distilled, in which I set-up in an open gaming room and asked for playtesters. One of those was Marika, who you'll actually see in *both* pictures below! Marika is a demonstration of why I love to write these updates and create game experiences like this one - players who stick with you throughout the process, providing support and feedback along the way. Thank you Marika, as well as all of you other distillers out there, whether you're a new, returning, or master distiller!

GAMA EXPO!

I'm also thrilled to announce that Distilled (and I!) will be at GAMA Expo this year, in Reno, NV from March 14-18! This is very exciting, as GAMA is a bit different than your typical con. This is specifically for retailers in the industry, to check out and pre-order games that might be released in the coming year. GAMA is put on by the Game Manufacturers Association, who also puts on Origins (which we plan to be at as well!). Paverson Games will be working with Hit Point Sales (which is part of Funagain Logistics and Distribution) and will be demoing Distilled at their booth (#139) and also giving the media a first look on Tuesday. Erik and I have been working hard to have a version of the game that is nearly identical to what you'd find in the box (all except the Gametrayz!), so that the media and retail attendees can get a true glimpse at what they'd be getting - which is A LOT! 

Fun fact: to create an identical version of Distilled - all except Gametrayz insert - it ended up costing over $400 in prototyping supplies and manufacturing in working with The Game Crafter. This is due to the hundreds of components, cards, and boards, plus the dual-layered recipe clipboards and custom, unique player boards! It's ridiculously expensive, but I really do believe it is worth it for everyone to see exactly what they'll be getting later this year!

 THE STILL COLUMN with Dr Inkwell

To finish things off this month, we have another amazing guest. Today, it is Blake Tucker (aka Dr Inkwell from Boozephreaks), who has been Distilled's spirits consultant throughout our process. I've asked Blake to bring us up to speed about what he's been up to, as well as a bit more about himself. Blake, take it a away!

Blake: On our recent Facebook livestream, I realized my guest post should be (in)appropriately punnily named, hence THE STILL COLUMN.  I’m Blake Tucker and I’m excited to be your flavor-text-, pun-filled-, dad-joking-, historic-storytelling-, bon-vivant spirit-expert fun-fact generator! plays EDM version of circus music

As a bartender, I love sharing my passion about the history, culture, and formulation of spirits with others. Someone once wrote, “there is an inherent sense of artistry in drink because of its frivolity — you don't need to have a Bellini, but it's a damn good feeling when do.” Voila, my mantra. Alcohol should be a means to socialize, share with others, and celebrate our traditions. That’s why I go by Dr Inkwell: I don’t want you to drink more, I want you to drink well.

As a board gamer, I love welcoming new people, enjoying each other’s company, and discovering something new. My favorite games are Viticulture (I love hosting with an accompanying wine tasting), Time’s Up (how many belly laughs have come from terrible charades?!), and the West Kingdom series (Paladins makes me feel like John Nash, equations sprouting out of my head and spinning off into infinity). When I found Dave was working on a distillation board game, I was very intrigued. Was this going to be a vessel to educate as well as entertain? LET ME AT IT!

Luckily, Dave was welcoming to my advice, suggestions, and stories. As the pandemic wore on and I got more chances to play, we struck up a friendship and he welcomed me to the design table. I thought to myself, Could Dave have an inner bartender himself?!

As the Official Fun Fact Education Nerd (OFFEN), I was super excited to hint at the reasons behind why humans make spirits the way we do. There are so many beguiling mysteries to be revealed in baijiu production, fascinating reasons behind cask-aging, thought-provoking reasons for spirit production methods, and more. I wouldn’t be able to bore tell players the complete history, but I could hopefully ignite their imaginations and curiosity to seek more information. It’s something I like to do OFFEN.

And I don’t see OFFENs enough. The aforementioned wine-making game is an example of so many decisions made that reflect the process, and the game is so beautiful because of it. But if you don’t know about winemaking, you may just miss those details. So I was super excited that Dave wanted to spend time and budget to do that: make you appreciate spirits!

But little did I know about the evils Dave had in store for me. 80 CHARACTERS INCLUDING SPACES? What kind of monster are you, Dave? GOOD HEAVENS, MAN, DO YOU DO FIREBALL SHOTS TOO?

For example, on the Juniper Berries Premium Card, I had too many things to say. Should I point out that juniper is not really a fruit, it’s serving that way because we need to provide well-designed strategy and gameplay? Seems like a bit of a wasted opportunity. Okay, then maybe I should talk about how juniper is actually a tiny cone, like a pine cone? Hmm, but that’s not the most compelling story here. The cool fact is that juniper was often packed into the long nose cones of the hawk-like doctor’s masks at the time of the bubonic plague to ward off the “bad air” that was wrongly thought to be the method of transmission, and is directly linked to its use in genever which led to the creation of gin. Okay, how do I do that with only 80 characters?! (see Cody’s post about concision). Making the compromises I made with “Juniper was thought to be the wonder drug against the bubonic plague” still makes me want to revise. But hopefully it’s enough to get players to learn more.

Of course, my favorites are ones that can lead players to taking direct action. On the Ancient Grains Premium Card from the expansion, I hope that “American craft distillers make small batch whiskeys from quinoa, millet, and oats!” will lead you to find some of those products. Both Koval and Corsair distilleries make some of my favorite experimental whiskeys and it’s a delight when I find new tinkerer distillers doing the same. Getting you to sample just one unusual whiskey would be almost as good as introducing it to you personally. Go explore, boldly!

Then when Dave asked me to also work on what he alarmingly dubbed PROJECT FLAVORTOWN, I was excited to add a dash of humor to the mix as well (much as people like to make fun of him, Fieri is actually amusingly self-aware and does good things). In my youth I worked on some pretty killer projects and with my interests being what they are, working on Distilled would be yet another. So how could I make this a fun highlight to the game, while keeping the grounded, factual path I’d already forged?

On the Cinnamon flavor card, I thought about what I might write in my tasting journal. Since the taste of cinnamon is something that needs no explanation, I thought this was a great opportunity to break for the funny. I do sometimes leave my tasting journals lying around, and get nervous about how other people might take in my notes. THAT’S IT! Use the unexpected turn of marrying the whiskey-lover with the basicness of a PSL. “I would write pumpkin spice, but then if anyone were to steal this journal I would be ashamed.”

I never expected Horse Blanket to be one of the flavor cards. So when it won the Kickstarter competition, I was at a bit of a loss… A LOSS?! THAT’S IT! My beloved mother would joke when playing a game and losing, that players would be listed in the “also ran” category used in horse racing. Perfect! For the record, it means lost by A LOT. I would expect a spirit with the taste of horse blanket also to lose. By a lot. Oh memories! I “also ran” in a game of Risk against her far too many times. Aw, Dear Ruthless Mother, we miss you! <3

When you play, take the time to read your flavor cards aloud and hopefully your table will get a chuckle, guffaw, or a groan from these cards, though I would settle for a sly smile when I make a reference to British surrealist comedy or a story about toys. Working with Dave and team has been a joy and we want playing the game to be that as well. Thank you, Dave, for asking me to be a part of it. I’m honored to be captured in a distillery upgrade card in the expansion, with a game mechanic that might take you on a road rockin’ trip to Flavortown!

After adding facts and flavor, Dave asked if I could also write something longer about each of the spirits in the game. I thought to myself, is this finally a chance to fully explain things? NOPE! 300 character limit this time! Haha. I’ve tried to squeeze as much info into that section of the rulebook to help players understand something of about the origin (and pronunciation) of spirits---you might even say I tried to distill it down. :D

I also convinced Dave we needed to call out the cultural, geographical, and agricultural uniqueness about these products that most countries are now recognizing, in the form of the PDO (Protected Designation of Origin). So I added a call out at the start of the section explaining that international trade is helping keep these categories separated, unique, and special. This is an important part of preserving each nation’s and culture’s traditions making sure we carry diversity and specificity forward into the future. Want to learn more yet?

I also want to take a moment to acknowledge Dave. Since my youth, I’ve aspired to find ideals that resemble Star Trek: spaces of inclusivity, diversity, and acceptance are the final frontier. I was lucky to find Micaya and the San Francisco Hip Hop Dancefest community in my thirties, so I dove in, learned to dance, and joined as the official photographer. Distilled is also one of those spaces: room for all spirits-making traditions around the world, and even a Cultural Consultant on staff to ensure thoughtfulness and sensitivity are lenses we look through. Inspirational people are more rare as you age and when you find them, hold onto them! I look forward to Dave’s next projects and hope I can help.

Should you want to engage with me directly, I would be pleased to offer you live or virtual cocktail classes, spirit tastings, or deep dives. I have an ennui-breaking Zoom setup with three camera angles that will bury memories of those bad meetings we’ve all had the last couple of years. I have accounts on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. And of course, I absolutely love being behind the bar (or camera) in person if you’d like to engage that way, Number One.

Live long, prosper, and drink well!

-Blake

PS And also play lots of board games. With your mother, when possible.

Wow, what a great entry from Blake - as you can see, I've had such a fantastic time working with him, and sincerely believe that the work he has done to bring a more authentic foundation - with a touch of humor - to Distilled will do nothing but improve your overall experience with the game.

So, with that, another update comes and goes! See below for how close we're getting, and I can't wait to post some pictures next month from our time at the GAMA EXPO!

Dave Beck

Paverson Games

February Distilled Update: METALLIC EDITION 🤘
about 4 years ago – Wed, Feb 02, 2022 at 02:02:44 AM

Happy February, Distillers!

Another month, another update! January has been craaaaaazy, filled with attending our first in-person con and lots and lots of proofing! I'm really excited to share some pictures with you in this update, as it is a sneak peek into some of the cool stuff you'll be getting when Distilled arrives at your door. So, here's a vague and perhaps not helpful breakdown of what we'll be covering in this update:

• Proofing & Art Updates
• Totally Metallic
• Con Report!
• 乾杯 (Kanpai)!

Cross-eyed from Proofing Awesome Cards & Tokens!

January has been a MONTH, let me tell you! The Paverson Games team has been in full crunch mode this month, reviewing the proofs of ALL the cards that Erik has been posting to our Google Drive folder. While we had an original deadline of February 1st (TODAY!?!), we're now shooting for a mid-February target. All writing, testing, balancing, and organizing has been done - now it is in Erik's hands to finish the final components before we can send it to our 10 different localization licensing companies to translate the game (at the same time, I'll start working with the factory on digital proofs and white samples, more on that in another future update). Please send Erik good vibes this month while he's finishing everything up - we're almost there!

While I walked people through the below process on last week's Whisk(e)y Wednesday on Facebook, I thought I'd also briefly share how this proofing process goes for those interested. Believe it or not, it isn't as easy as just looking at a card and saying "yup, that looks good". I mean, I GUESS you could do that, but we are really striving for near 100% perfection with grammar, culturally appropriate terms, and game mechanics and point values. After all, 8,000 of you believed in us to make this happen, so if we didn't take this really seriously you'd be right to have some major concerns!

For the past three months, we have been working on a spreadsheet that includes every component in the game in which there is any presence of text or other copy-editing needed. This includes cards, tokens, boards, and rulebooks, to name a few. First, Richard and I made sure it was added to the spreadsheet with the proper text we'd been using in-game for the last few months. Then, Cody (as rules editor) would review that text to make sure it is consistent amongst the larger system of the game or revise as necessary. Then, Blake would add flavor text to be included on the card, if it was one that had that option. After all three of these phases were done, the checkboxes would go green, and it was then passed to Erik for him to "copy 'n' paste" over to the component (but trust me, it isn't that easy, as he laid out a few months ago in his guest post). 

Once Erik has a set of cards or components ready for review, he passes it back to us, in the form of a PDF uploaded to a Google Drive folder. Then, Richard, Cody, or I download each PDF, comb through it and compare it to the spreadsheet, and make comments where things need to be fixed. We each save a version and pass it on to the next person on the line for further proofing. After this PDF has had six eyes on it, it gets passed back to Erik for a second round of revisions and proofing. In many cases, we have had to do 2-3 rounds of proofs to make sure we catch every little thing across the hundreds of unique cards and components!

Finally, once something is "error free", we set it aside as finished, and then we make sure it is checked off of the MASTER PROGRESS SHEET (which is a more complex version of the public barrel progress graphic at the end of this update every month). Believe me, once all boxes are checked green on this 400-row spreadsheet, I will be a very very happy designer!

But seriously, the result is worth it. I'm thrilled to say that we are now 100% finished with the 400+ cards in the base game and the expansion, and we've also made a nice dent into the tokens with finishing all Signature Recipe Labels, Spirit Labels, coin tokens, and Spirit Awards! I thought it would be fun to show a few of these below, in their final form. As you can see, Erik has also been busy in January with illustrations as well!

Who's Ready for some METAL!?!

While much of what you read about above was going on in January, I was also communicating with the factory about components that didn't necessarily need to go through heavy proofing or language translation. Since I knew that the factory would have their hands full once all proofing was done, I wanted to get a few things off of our plate ahead of time. This mainly included non-paper products, many of which aren't even in the base game (but instead just for your KS backers!), including:

• Metal First Player Token (which every single backer gets as a thank-you!)
• Barrel-shaped Wooden Round Tracker (found in every game)
• Drink Coasters (Signature Blend Pledge Reward)
• Metal Coins (Signature Blend Pledge Reward or Add-on)
• Distilled Shot Glass (Signature Blend Pledge Reward or Add-on)
• Metal Recipe Cubes (Add-on)

With anything metal, the factory needs to make a mold that would then be used to cast the thousands of copies of each component. For things like coasters, wooden barrels, and shot glasses, they will usually partner with another factory to obtain those. While I won't be showing pictures of every one of these below, we're making great headway in each area, and am confident we'll have high-quality, deluxe components for you! So today, it is all about the metal.

First up, the First Player Token. This is in the running for one of my favorite game pieces of all time now, as this turned out beautifully. Erik's design was transformed by the factory into solid 4mm thick metal. I specifically chose this size so that it could sit over a Glencairn glass, resembling challenge coins you'll often see on whisky YouTube channels and in other organizations. With the "D" on one side and our favorite saying on the other, I hope some will be inspired to carry this around with them or flash it at a convention - good health (and good in-game luck!) to all of you who carry this beauty!

But it doesn't stop there. They also did an amazing job with turning Erik's awesome coin designs into metal versions as well, really capturing the three-dimensional quality of the designs. What you see below is just the first pass on these metal coins, as I've asked them to push the depth a bit more, so that we see a bit more contrast between the polished raised portions and the (hopefully) darker lower portions. Remember, anyone who went with the Signature Pledge will be getting 55 of these for FREE! 

Which is your favorite coin?

Finally, if you went for the metal hat-trick by getting the metal recipe cube add-on, this next one is for you. The main game comes with 37 metallic-painted wooden cubes. But for those that want to take it to the next level, we offered metal recipe cubes as an add-on. The satin/frosted look of these is fantastic, and they weigh a hefty amount, since they're solid metal. As you can see below, they make those cheap plastic Terraforming Mars cubes look like the flakey, poorly manufactured and cheap cubes that they truly are! 🤣

So, I hope after seeing some of those, you're getting as excited as I am about bringing Distilled to the table, especially since every single one of our Original or Signature Blend backers will have at least one of the above deluxe options!

Report from Midwinter Gaming Con

In mid-January, Distilled finally got to return to the real world. For nearly two years, it has been confined to online platforms or quarantined in people's houses for playtesting, until Midwinter Gaming Convention in Milwaukee! I was accompanied by my friend, Houston Taylor (pictured above, teaching new players), and we got a chance to introduce Distilled to about 20 new fans, some of which were our awesome backers and others who pre-ordered the retail version on the spot after playing! We got a chance to test out our "First Taste" that Cody talked about last month, and allowed players to catch a glimpse of what the game would be like at their own table.

We have another local con in a few weeks, at Con of the North, and all nine of our game sessions are sold out for the weekend! If you live nearby, I hope you'll try to get on the waitlist or stop by and say hi to Houston or I, and even stay awhile to watch the game!

Distilled is Big in Japan!

Last but not least, I wanted to officially welcome ふるりん本舗 (Fruhling-Honpo) to Distilled, as they will be licensing the game in Japanese! With 焼酎 (Shōchū) being one of the main drinks in the game, we can't wait for others to learn about the wonderful drink of Japan! This is our 10th international language in addition to English for Distilled!

And another update comes to a close. I'm hopeful that by next month, I'll have even more good news, more art, and some photos from Con of the North to share as well. Until then everyone - 

Sláinte,

- Dave

PAVERSON GAMES Charging Cards for Distilled this Weekend! 💳
about 4 years ago – Fri, Jan 14, 2022 at 12:37:17 AM

Hi everyone, this is a very short and brief mid-month reminder that we'll be charging all credit cards in Backerkit for Distilled this weekend! I wanted to send this specific update out, to let you know that it will show up as PAVERSON GAMES on your credit card statement, and I don't want you to wonder who that might be (cuz that's me!). 

I'll see you all in early February for an official update, with LOTS of fun stuff to show and share!

Dave Beck - Paverson Games

Happy New Year from Distilled! 🥳🥂
about 4 years ago – Wed, Jan 05, 2022 at 04:37:08 AM

Happy New Year, Distillers!

So here we are in 2022! I'm not sure what your resolutions might be, but I can confidently say that mine is to deliver Distilled to you this year! 🤞

Even with the holiday season, it has been another busy month and I have a handful of updates to share, including:

• Reminder: Cards charged on January 15th 💳
•  Art from a few new cards from Erik 👨‍🎨
• Guest post about creating the 'First Taste' from our Rules Editor, Cody Reimer! 📝
• Photos of all 794 components in Distilled, via Dave's latest prototype! 📷
• Links to the Tabletop Simulator & Tabletopia Updates! 💻
• Paverson Games' Plans for Cons in 2022... 📆
• Preview of Next Month's Update... 

Cards Charged Jan 15th!

Just a reminder that all orders were locked in Backerkit back in December, but I deliberately waited until January to charge cards, so as not to stress out the ol' bank account during the holidays. Your card will be charged on January 15th, and there isn't anything you'll need to do before then (but if you've changed credit cards or something else goes wrong, you'll likely hear it via email from Backerkit on/after the 15th). 

Have you still not filled out the survey? Shame on you! But luckily, you can still squeeze in through the door!

New Art!

Erik posted a big art update last month, so I'm just including a few new assets here. He's essentially locking himself up in his studio during the month of January as we race into the big final lap to prepare things for translation and pre-press printing tests! Locking oneself up inside right now is actually somewhat easy to do where we live in Wisconsin, as it is currently -14° F outside as I write this 🥶

Erik has been finished with the base game ingredients for awhile now, but we still had the new ingredients from the Africa & Middle East expansion to create. Remember, if you backed the Signature Blend, you'll get this expansion as part of that package (you'll notice that all cards found in the expansion will have the region logo on the card itself for easy sorting). We've playtested these extensively over the last few months, and have settled on five unique "super ingredients" that will add a bit more complexity (and flavor!) to the game for those ready to take it to the next level. The above 3 "super sugars" will count as two of the same sugar type, and also allow you to add two alcohol cards to your washback,  - but they are quite expensive!

Above, you'll see two quite interesting cards that allow you to "cheat" a bit with these ingredients, just like some distilleries-who-must-not-be-named do in real life with these products! Notice that the Glucose Syrup is quite powerful (essentially, a "wild sugar"), but gives you no spirit points and little return on investment, while the Neutral Spirit Alcohol performs the same function as normal alcohol (can be used as a water or a yeast in your washback), but now has a one-time luck mitigation, akin to what you'd find in a more permanent Distillery Upgrade card!

There's lots more that Erik has been up to of course, and we'll have many additional examples to show in the coming months for sure!

Crafting the First Taste Experience

Another month, another guest post! This time, I've asked Cody Reimer, our rules editor, to spend some time walking you through the development of our "First Taste". Cody has been a phenomenal addition to our team. He is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Stout and he frequently appears as a guest on the podcast Game Studies Review. Take it away, Cody!

Distilled posed an interesting challenge for onboarding and rules writing. As a medium-weight, Euro-style board game, it has myriad components and a bit of crunch to the rules. This is expected by hobbyists familiar with the style. Dave anticipated the game finding another audience, though—spirit aficionados who are board game novices. The Kickstarter’s tremendous success proved Dave correct. Many backers came to Distilled not for love of the genre, but for love of the flavor. The challenge, then, was this: How do we teach the game to disparate groups of players?

“First Taste” is a beginner’s guide that comprises a big part of our solution. We were inspired by the likes of Wingspan and Root, both of which have exceptional supplements for new players. The goal with the guide was to help introduce the phases, mechanics, and concepts of Distilled clearly, simply, and quickly. We wanted folks to be able to follow the guide, which we also called a walkthrough, through the first round to learn core gameplay. Early playtests had shown that once folks got through the first round they learned fast, so we committed to creating a teaching tool to do just that.

The first draft, before the guide even had a name, was designed and written as separate handouts for each player, in the spirit of Wingspan. These dictated each player’s distiller identity and starting goals and prescribed which purchases to make and which spirits to try to distill. With their single-page supplement, new players would be escorted through the Market, Distill, and Sell phases of the first round. Because it’s not possible to distill an aged spirit in the first round—at least, not without considerable design contortions that would only create confusion—the Age phase was set aside for players to learn through the core rulebook.

The separate handouts aimed to teach the game without regurgitating the core rulebook, but the draft needed only one round of revision before we decided there was too much repetition of information across the separate handouts. We needed a single guide. In the subsequent revision, Richard Woods (Distilled's game developer) offered fantastic design choices about which identities, purchases, and spirits to use to best showcase the various concepts and mechanics of the game. With few exceptions those choices are still reflected in the current version of First Taste. We also decided the guide would start players with a little extra money to show off more of the premium market in the first round.

As I wrote the guide I strived for concision—the most meaning in the fewest words. Brevity and clarity are always in tension. If I strayed toward brevity, confusion could creep in. There’s just not enough information. If I strayed toward clarity, the guide would grow in size until nobody would want to read it. “You’re telling me I have to do homework to play this game? No thanks, I’ll just have a dram and watch.” Practicing concision required interrogating whether repetitions were warranted to reinforce information (e.g., two basic market purchases per round per player) or whether they were needless, but also how much hand-holding was necessary. How much does the guide need to explain strategy and how much should be left for the players to discover on their own? Discovery, after all, is one of the joys of learning and playing. We needed player feedback.

Fortunately, we planned on playtesting the guide for answers to such questions, and we did so across another round of revision. Dave and Richard each organized two rounds of testing: three I sat in on (taking notes), and another Dave recorded for me to watch later (which I did, taking more notes!). In each playtest the majority of the players were brand new to Distilled, having only played a much earlier prototype many months prior, watched the wonderful How to Play video by Ryan from Nights Around a Table, or read about the game from the Kickstarter campaign. Seth Berrier's work with the Tabletop Simulator mod proved invaluable for these playtests, as several of the players were not only new to Distilled, but to TTS as well!

We learned several important lessons from the playtests. One, First Taste was working! Players quickly learned how to play as they advanced past the guided first round and, just as importantly, indicated that they liked the guide and would use it at their table. Two, there was still finessing to be done to position the guide as a supplement to the rulebook. We realized that the guide works best if at least one player was familiar with the rules already. While this might seem like an existential problem for the guide (i.e., if somebody already needs to know the rules, why would they need a beginner’s guide?), we realized it makes sense for many players’ tables, where the host already knows the game and is teaching friends how to play.

Two rounds of testing and subsequent revisions later and we’re happy with the design, balance, and concision. The heads and tails have been cut and we’re left with a well-distilled heart. Erik will finish the layout and graphic design and it will go through a final proof, but I’m thrilled with our work. The guide should serve as a spirited First Taste for seasoned board gamers and initiates alike.

While Cody has been a driving force behind the First Taste, he's also done quite a lot of other work behind the scenes, such as copy-editing all assets in the game, editing the rulebook, and helping to write the rules for the Africa & Middle East Expansion. Cody's been working extremely hard over the last few weeks to have all of this finished, so that it can be passed off to Erik for the final layout on all cards, boards, and books!

All 794 (prototype) Pieces of Distilled!

For those of you in our Distilled Facebook group, you've already seen this, but since I know that not all of you use that platform, I wanted to repeat this one in the update! With the opportunity to teach Distilled to folks at upcoming local cons (more on that below), I needed to order an up-to-date copy of the prototype from The Game Crafter. They are an amazing company in Madison, Wisconsin who will custom print a fairly high-quality copy of your game. For instance, any previews, videos, and pictures you saw of Distilled this summer around the Kickstarter campaign featured Game Crafter printed prototypes. Furthermore, I wanted to get a full sense of both the main game and expansion, regarding the amount of components and how much box space they truly took up, as we continue with the design of the GameTrayz insert. 

So, I've put a few pictures below, in which anything with custom art is separated, to demonstrate how much unique art and components will be found in Distilled! If you want to see more, feel free to check out this video on Facebook where I walk people through everything in detail. NOTE: this is all still a prototype, with graphic design, art, and other finishing touches still coming for your final manufactured game!

And because all of you are the extra-special Distillers, you're getting even MORE stuff than what is above! Everyone will receive the KS Mini-Expansion (left side of the table in the below picture) and those who backed at the Signature Blend level will also get the Africa & Middle East expansion (right side of the table in the below picture). 

When its all laid out like the first picture, it is a table hog 🐖 but it cleans up nicely when sorted and stacked! 🥃🎲 I can't wait for all of you Kickstarter backers to get it to your own table later this year!

Play Distilled for FREE (online)!

I mentioned it last month, but here I am now to let you know that we have BIG UPDATES to both our Tabletop Simulator and Tabletopia mods for Distilled. In both cases, these are completely free*, and offer a bunch of new features since the last update in May of 2021.
*while the TTS mod is free, you must purchase Tabletop Simulator on Steam, here. Tabletopia is completely free, and runs in your browser.
 

   The updated version is very close (concerning gameplay) to what players will experience in the final (physical) version of the game that ships in late 2022, but still has a ways to go for art and graphic design. It features that new beginner's guide (First Taste) mentioned above, a revised solo mode, 18 different distillers and 2 of the 8 available tasting flights. Since a fair amount of the art still needs to be completed, this is definitely still a digital prototype of the final version of Distilled.
 

Distilled at Cons in 2022

Who knows what 2022 will bring? Will the pandemic continue to putter onward, but grow increasingly weaker with strains (let's hope so) or will there be new variants that we once again have to pivot in order to keep us all safe? Either way, I am planning to have a "soft rollout" of Distilled's presence at cons in 2022, due to the fact that it won't even be released until later in the year!

But I did want to let you know about a three small, regional cons in MN & WI I'm planning to attend and run sessions of Distilled, happening this month and next (links below take you to a page where you can buy tickets if you live in the area)!

•  Midwinter Gaming Convention in Milwaukee, WI from January 13th-16th. I'll be there running sessions of Distilled throughout the weekend, along with Houston, a friend of mine (we'll be taking turns). All 8 sessions are sold out, but I hope you'll stop by Table 33 in the Regency Ballroom to say hi and watch a game! I'll be gaming throughout the weekend too, so perhaps we can play something together!
•  Protospiel Minnesota in Bloomington, MN from January 21st-23rd. Protospiels are events for designers to bring their prototypes and other "in-progress" games to be played and critiqued! Instead of bringing my own game design(s), I hope to "give back" by playtesting other games all weekend (I won't be playtesting Distilled, for obvious reasons). You can attend as a playtester to just play games all weekend, or attend as a designer to bring your own designs to playtest (I brought Distilled in January 2020 for its first "non-friend public playtest", as you'll see below!). 
•  Con of the North in Plymouth, MN from February 18th-20th. I'll be there running sessions of Distilled throughout the weekend, along with that same friend of mine mentioned above. Just like with Midwinter, all 9 sessions are sold out, but I hope you'll stop by the Copenhagen Room to say hi and watch the game! And again, just like with Midwinter, I'll be gaming throughout the weekend too, so perhaps we can play something together! This will be special to return here, as this was the first - and last - Con that Distilled made an appearance at before the pandemic hit one month later. 

I also have tentative plans to attend the following cons happening later in 2022, which could range from having an entire booth to just doing some demo  and teach 'n' play events. 

•  GAMA Expo in March (Reno, NV)
•  Geekway to the West in May (St. Louis, MO)
•  Origins in June (Columbus, OH)
•  Gamehole Con in October (Madison, WI)
•  PAX Unplugged in December (Philadelphia, PA)

Again, none of the five above are set in stone yet, but I'm hopeful that Paverson Games can be there, and maybe get a chance to connect with you! 🤞

Well, that's a wrap for January's update. I have a funny feeling we'll have A LOT for next month, as we are aiming to start submitting things to licensees for translation and also start to work with the factory on pre-press proofs! 

Sláinte,

- Dave

 P.S. I simply had to share this amazing and thoughtful gift I received from a BGG Secret Santa this year. In addition to surprising me with a sold-out game I had been literally obsessing over throughout the fall season, my Santa commissioned Tux & Roll to create these sweet custom whisky dice, inspired by Distilled! Look closely and you can see the little ice cubes floating in each one - dice on the rocks - how cool is that?!? Perhaps one of the greatest secret santas of all time!? 🎲🥃🎅

DISTILLED PLEDGE MANAGER CLOSES SUNDAY! + Big 'n' Awesome 🎨 Update!
over 4 years ago – Tue, Dec 07, 2021 at 11:48:12 PM

Happy December, Distillers!

Can you believe it has been just 4 months since the end of the Kickstarter? We've been working like crazy to move things forward, and have a bunch of updates and info to share this month, including:

• Details about the Pledge Manager CLOSING SUNDAY ⚠
• Big Art Update from Erik 🎨😍
•  Foreign Languages Update 😢
• Big Tabletop Simulator & Tabletopia Update Dropping Next Week! 💻
• Results of the 2021 Distilled Global Showdown! 🏆
• Preview of Next Month's Update... 🔭

Distilled's Pledge Manager Closes SUNDAY!!!

That's right, the Pledge Manager (PM) will be closing in just a few days! What does this mean exactly?

This is what is typically called "Locking Orders". It gives us  a good overall idea of the number of games, expansions, accessories, add-ons, and more to order. It does NOT charge your credit card or finalize your address (those come later). But it will make it so that you cannot access the PM to add any more copies or change the selections you have, so you'll want to make sure follow this link, enter your email, and fill that survey out if you haven't yet! Note: around December 10th an email will go out from Backerkit reminding people that they have 48 hours left to fill out the survey.

After the PM is "locked" (like a good whisky warehouse should be), the next date we'll be looking at is a mid-January credit card charge. Remember, what you pledged in Kickstarter was charged back in August, so this is just for additional items you added, as well as shipping costs. Sometimes pledge managers lock and charge at the same time, but I felt it might be good to wait until after the holidays, so it is a bit better on everyone's wallet, so I've picked January 17th for the charge date.  After that, we'll be in touch later in the year about finalizing and updating mailing addresses, but that's nothing you need to worry about now!

And a reminder about some PM FAQ's to keep in mind:

•  When will you charge my credit card? We won't be charging cards until January 17th of 2022, as we know that many of us will have spent a lot in November and December on holiday shopping!
•  I've never received an email for the Pledge Manager - am I too late? Nope! Either visit the above link to obtain your survey, or message Dave by clicking on the Paverson Games link under the "Visit Game Website" button. We'll get it worked out!
•  Why am I being charged taxes or VAT? Since you are obtaining a product, it is required by law to have taxes involved. If we didn't charge backers taxes or VAT, we'd either have to pay it to the government on behalf of thousands of backers (which we can't afford as an indie game studio that is operated out of Dave's basement) or decide not to pay the government bill, which would likely land us in jail. We'd rather not go bankrupt or go to jail, so that we can keep making fun games for all y'all, if that's okay ;)
• I live near you Dave, and I want Local Pickup to drive to Wisconsin and save money! How? You'll choose Local Pickup as your "Country" on the Welcome page and the Address page

How long do I have to fill out the survey again? OMG. SERIOUSLY?!?  UNTIL SUNDAY!!!!

Big Art Update & Guest Post from Erik!

Just like we had Richard provide an update on playtesting and development last month, I've asked Erik Evensen, our amazing artist and graphic designer, to give us an update on what he's been up to for this month. So without further ado, take it away Erik!

Hey all you Distillers out there, I wanted to write and give you all an update as to the process on “art assets” for Distilled!

First of all—we are marching steadily toward our February print date. Over the two years we developed Distilled, one of us—either Dave or myself—was on sabbatical at least 75% of the time (a sabbatical is when a professor gets some time off to focus on their own research, which was in this case, Distilled!). However, now we are both working full-time, so we deliberately gave ourselves a bit more time than we might have otherwise needed because we have plenty of things to do outside of the Distilled world. So in case you think, “Erik, you should have been able to do all of this by now,” you’d be correct, except for the whole job thing.

So, I’m here to give you a glimpse of the behind-the-scenes sausage-making that’s happening on my end.

NEW ART ALERT!

First, some new art! This is what you all really want to see, but it only accounts for one of my duties at this stage. As Dave outlined in last month’s update, I’ve completed all of the artwork for the Flavor cards, which was probably the biggest number of unique art elements in the game that I had yet to finish. Since I had 31 sketches left to do, in October I used Inktober as an excuse to work on these, doing a new sketch every day and sharing it to my Instagram account to maximize my internet fame.

Distiller Identities

I’ve finished new character art for the distiller identities representing Sweden, Ireland, Canada, Australia, the Philippines, Italy and Peru. Phew! I still have to design the rest of the Distiller Identities for the Africa & Middle East expansion.

Final Coin Designs

I very recently redesigned the coins for the game, after finding an approach that we felt struck the right balance of consistency and diversity. We decided to go with a numeric front, with a graphic back to each coin. The backs represent the three sugar types in the game, and increase in value—grains are the cheapest (the 1 coin), then plant, then fruit. Redesigning the coins needed to be prioritized, because we are having  these paintings turned into 3D models and developed for all you backers who are getting metal coins—rather than being a faux-sculpted painting, you will get a legitimately sculpted coin that looks just like this! This is not something I’ve EVER done before, so I’m pretty excited.

I also did the same thing for the “first player token.” You may recall Dave running a poll in our Facebook group, and he settled on one of his favorite sayings for the back side of it. This too will be turned into a metal version for all Kickstarter backers for the Original or Signature Blend pledges.

File Prep

All game projects have a lot of “file prep,” and Distilled has more than its share! I have been spending my time doing batch conversion of our assets from RGB to CMYK. Everything was originally developed in RGB because of Tabletop Simulator, so now it needs to get converted for its final print application. This is not exciting and not worth showing you images of. Actually, there’s barely anything visible to look at. It’s like tuning a musical instrument, except at least with that, the audience can hear a difference.

Another part of my job is taking the multi-layered work files, and redeveloping them to be flat images. When designing the game, we had such an iterative process that in order to stay nimble, most every element was on its own layer. There are shadows, graphics, and layers and layers of textures pasted on top of one another. It made it easy to swap one element out for another, or modify a size or proportion whenever we changed a card size, or added or removed text or icons. But for printing purposes, all of these layers need to be merged and flattened.

WHAT’Z NEXT?

I still have quite a lot of file prep to do to get things ready to send to our manufacturer. However, a lot of it goes pretty quickly—batch-converting images is not difficult, and flattening card art and component art has been pretty easy, as well. Rebuilding our cards and components with the new, flattened, and converted files actually goes pretty quickly now that art direction and game balancing has been established. The biggest level of complexity will be the typesetting—a lot of the cards you’ve seen in Tabletop Simulator and Kickstarter preview videos were typeset in Component Studio by Dave, as the physical prototype games were exported from Tabletop Simulator. So my duty is to remake these cards with a lot more typographic control at my disposal. This also won’t be terribly time consuming, but it will take a few full days.

Also, I still have some illustrations to produce. There are a few bottles, barrels, and ingredients that were late additions to the game that never got illustrated, and the Distillery Upgrades have always needed some more attention. Not to mention our expansion packs. My estimation is that I have half a week, maybe a full week of illustration left to do.

Thanks Erik! As you can see, Erik has been busy - when he's not working long hours at his actual full time job at the University of Wisconsin-Stout, he's been cranking away at Distilled! He and I are both looking forward to our winter break, where we hope to be able to accomplish a lot of work in a window of time off from work at the university.

Foreign Languages Update

So first, the good news. As I said before, Distilled is now officially in NINE different languages. This is pretty unbelievable, especially since this began as a small project that I was hoping we'd raise enough to print a few thousand copies in just English! One of the licensees have come back and requested additional copies due to the popularity of the game in their own country, and we are now looking at printing over 10,000 non-English copies of Distilled!

But, there's also some bad news. We have been tirelessly looking for licensees of Distilled in both Italian and Polish, which were the final two languages we were aiming to obtain. Michael Raftopoulos of Meeple on Board has been speaking with multiple companies, but we have not had luck in these two languages. I've sunk over $300 into printing and shipping costs to have a few major publishing companies based in Poland and Italy play and evaluate the prototype (they wanted to test it in person, rather than on Tabletop Simulator), but to no avail. Because of this, I think it is time to come to the realization that a Polish or Italian version of Distilled just isn't in the cards this time around. And, as promised back in the July 26th update, I will uphold my guarantee to all Polish and Italian Wee Dram backers:

I want to thank all of you for believing in this project, and holding out hope for these languages. Given the interest from backers and companies, not bringing Poland and Italy into the equation came as a major surprise to me, but there is absolutely nothing we can do at this point. We've tried everyone and everything for over four months now. 

New Tabletop Simulator and Tabletopia Mods Releasing Next Week!

Now back to some good news. As you can see from above, Erik has been busy! But he still has quite a lot left to go, so we have been working hard to playtest the final parts of both the base game and expansion on Tabletop Simulator (TTS) over the past few months while he is finishing up. Now that things are in a solid space concerning balance and gameplay, we felt it was time to provide an updated virtual mod to all of our digital distillers out there! 

The last time we released a major update for Tabletop Simulator or Tabletopia was BEFORE the Kickstarter campaign! I'm happy to report that Seth B. (TTS) and David H. (Tabletopia) have been hard at work updating both platforms for what will feature all final gameplay changes in the game. We are targeting the release of the update on TTS and Tabletopia for sometime next week! I'll be sure to drop something in the comments when they are live and official, and post on social media too. I've taken a few screenshots from TTS to help you visualize what you can expect in the newest FREE release, below. Please note that all of this will look even better with Erik's graphic design and artwork refinements when it hits your table next year!

Starting things out, above is our new "First Taste", a beginner's guide that holds your hand through the first round of Distilled. This will ship as a handout with the main game, and is simply a PDF to read online when you are playing digitally. Seth has scripted the TTS version to auto-setup the game for you if you choose this option, which is great. This is meant to help people playing Distilled for the first time, and our rules editor, Cody Reimer, has been hard at work creating both this and finalizing our main rules. Next month, Cody will be doing a guest spot where he talks about this development process, so stay tuned! 

With this update, you'll be able to play with any of the 18 above Distiller Identity cards, each of which hails from a different country around the world and features Erik's cool character designs.

When choosing a standard game, you'll now get to choose from two very different flights, showing off all of the different spirits from Distilled! In addition to Moonshine, Vodka, and Whisk(e)y, you'll also have four other spirits to sample from each region (Americas, Europe, and Asia & Oceania). 

Those flights will open up 15 unique spirits and 18 signature spirits, all which will be playable in the updates and also ship with your copy of Distilled. How many of these spirits have you personally had before? Perhaps this will inspire you to try a few new cocktails in the coming months!

Once you choose your distiller, you'll then get their signature recipe and ingredient, as well as some money and ingredients to begin the game. We're including a virtual prototype for the new dual-layered clipboard, so you can start to get a feel for what this might be like. Additionally, Seth has scripted a digital money counter for TTS, so you can add and subtract money to your heart's content without ever virtually lifting a penny - ahhh, the joys of technology! 

Finally, here's our final prototype for the point, round and spirit label board. As a reminder from our last update, we've shrunk this down and combined two boards into one, thus saving table space for all of you. Since our score track is smaller, we have a 50/100 "lap" token for each player now, to show the table what your total score might be at, as  (accomplished Distilled players have been known to often approach the mid-100 range!).

So, as you can see, some great updates are coming very soon for those who enjoy playing online. And again, we are doing this because it is something we can accomplish for all of you while we wait for the physical game to be completed in 2022.

2021 Distilled Global Showdown!

Another thing we wanted to do was show off all the cool game mechanisms and features in both the Kickstarter mini-expansion and the Africa and Middle East expansion,  (since all of you have had the chance to get that as part of being backers). We thought we'd have a bit of cheeky fun and hold the "2021 DISTILLED GLOBAL SHOWDOWN", where we invited four of our most frequent and high-scoring Distilled players who are active in our Discord server to play a head-to-head game that spanned the world!

The result was a four-player match that I hosted and streamed live on Facebook last week in our Distilled group. It was a lot of great fun, with the video already getting a couple hundred views. We had players representing all 3 regions from Distilled (USA and Canada for Americas, UK for Europe, and Singapore for Asia and Oceania), making it a truly international event (special thanks to Demo and Richard for participating in the middle of the night in the UK!). The scores were high and the competition steep, but it was really a great time had by all. Be sure to hit the link in the pic above or right here to view this video in our Facebook group, and get a sneak peek of all the cool expansion goodies many of you will get to experience next year!

And of course, a big congratulations to our winner, David "The Crown Royal" from near Toronto, Canada! David played as the Canadian Distiller, and leaned heavy into a flavorful aging strategy with the help of his distillery upgrades (at one point, he had a Doig Ventilator, Metal Rickhouse, and Tropical Warehouse, all of which were churning out extra flavors for him!). He was creating rye whisky and Japanese shochu that definitely tasted all kinds of delicious. Perhaps next year we'll actually get to do some of this tournament style playing in person, but for the next year the bragging rights stays with our Canadians!

Looking to Next Month...

Another long Distilled update, but rightly so, as there is a lot going on! As we finalize most all of the gameplay and rules, it will now be full crunch with art and design as we look to sending files to the translators and manufacturer in early 2022! Because of this, next month is going to be equally as exciting, as we'll be diving deeper into:

• A report back from our rules editor, Cody, on the design and testing behind First Taste (aka the "Beginner Guide")
• Details on what 2022 Cons you can expect to see Distilled at, and potentially meet some of the Paverson Games team!
• Manufacturing Updates on deluxe components 
• Additional art updates 
• And more!

Sláinte and don't forget tofill out that pledgeby Sunday!

- Dave

PS. I hope everyone is enjoying the transition into the winter months, as I'm sure there is a high likelihood that the number of board games one plays on a monthly basis rises as the temperature levels drop! I know I definitely did that over the Thanksgiving weekend in the states, where I went through a self-prescribed FEAST OF GAMES, playing a new-to-me game solo every day of the break. I enjoyed it so much that I have decided to start doing it every Sunday morning, and started this past Sunday with Dinosaur World (perhaps it's my new church?)!  🐱‍🐉⛪ #cardboardchurch