Grab Your Popcorn 'n' Whisky - Time to Enjoy the Stretch Goal Show!
almost 3 years ago – Tue, Jul 20, 2021 at 07:02:27 PM

It's Time to Be Honest

Okay Distillers, I want to let you in on a little (likely obvious) secret.  We hadn't planned for many of the last 10 or so stretch goals. I mean, we talked about them, but more in the sense of "wouldn't it be cool if we raised like $200,000 and could do these super cool extra things?". As I've said before, I wasn't even sure if we'd hit $100K by the end of the campaign.

So, when we raised over $100K in the first day, we quickly brought back all those dream stretch goals! We brought the neoprene mat and shot glass add-ons back, added extra spirits and distiller identities, and realized that the dual-layered recipe clipboards might become a reality. Those all added a lot of cost, cards and components to the game, but knew they would be appreciated by fans, which is what is most important to us. And thanks to all of you, we were able to include those (and much more!) in the game.

But now that we've hit $300K, it's the wild, wild west. 

What you're going to see - for stretch goals during the rest of the campaign - are ideas we've brainstormed during the campaign in order to give back to all of you. We want to show our appreciation and thanks for helping us realize our dream. So sit back, grab some popcorn (or maybe some whisky) and get ready to help us unlock these new ideas by spreading the Distilled gospel!

The Next $100K & The Next 3 Stretch Goals

The next three stretch goals will bring us closer to that $400K mark, and are meant to be savored by multiple senses, just like a fine single malt whisky. No, we won't be including a free bottle of scotch in your game and no, this won't come with scratch 'n' sniff flavor cards, but we are hoping these gifts will still satiate the sounds, sights, and tactile quality of Distilled!

I'm a huge fan of ambient sound for my board games. My friends and gaming groups know that I always have thematic music playlists queued up - and sometimes even sound effects - when playing games at my house. I use two different channels for this, but my all-time favorite is Tabletop Audio. The tracks are professionally composed to have subtle, ambient music coupled with unique background sound effects to fit the theme. If you haven't heard of them before, I encourage you to hop over to their site, and maybe even support them via Patreon like I am, where you get access to even more tracks!

I'm thrilled to announce that if we reach $340K, we will be commissioning Tim at Tabletop Audio to compose custom audio tracks specifically for Distilled! This will involve multiple tracks, likely focusing on different regions or areas of the world in Distilled, while also incorporating sound effects one might find in a distillery or other spirits-related industries. While these will be free and available on the website for the world to enjoy, all backers will be able to download bonus tracks that will have music and sound effects separated, for further flexibility.

By the way, my other go-to music site for board games is Melodice, which accesses user-created YouTube playlists - type in your favorite board game and boom, you have a long list of auto-shuffled instrumental songs to play in the background that matches your game's theme! Check out (and please add to!) Distilled's Melodice playlist here.

First sounds, now sights! I hope you'll all agree, Erik's Distillery Player Board illustration is truly a work of art. It functions as your dashboard or playmat, but also helps you to feel like you are looking into your own distillery, as if it were a dollhouse right in front of you. Currently, all the distillery player boards are exactly the same. But what if they weren't?

I still remember when Frank West brought out this stretch goal in Isle of Cats, where each player board would have a unique animal swimming alongside the ship. I thought that was so very cool and unique, and realized that we could do something like that with Distilled as well! As you can imagine, gorgeous illustrations like this don't come cheap, and we can only do this thanks to all of your help. If we hit $360K, we'll commission Erik to make each distillery player board unique, mainly through different still designs on each board, and perhaps other little props here and there. This will also allow him to find ways to denote each player's color as associated with their player board too, and perhaps this will allow us to seal the deal on the scoring markers being unique still shapes, matching their player board! It is all coming together nicely, eh?

Some of you have asked for it, and now you'll have Metal Recipe Cubes as an optional add-on! Due to this adding weight to the game, we wanted to make this one an optional add-on for anyone looking to deluxe-a-fy Distilled even more! We're going to be providing these to you for $12.  Solid metal cubes are fairly expensive to manufacture, so these won't be a profit opportunity for us, but instead just enough to cover manufacturing costs and any added shipping costs involved with this extra weight for those who choose to add this on. Note: this will be an add-on available in the pledge manager after the campaign is over, so you don't have to do anything right now. All pledges will still receive the wooden recipe tokens, even if you choose this metal cube add-on.

So there you have it - this is the start of our home "stretch-goal" stretch, and I hope you're as excited as I am about how these things will make Distilled even more special, for both you as the backer as well as future players and fans who don't even know about it yet!

Which one of these three stretch goals are you most excited for? Leave your feedback in the main comment page, and maybe even talk about ideas you might have for the audio and visual elements of enhancing Distilled!

Sláinte,

Dave

PS. I failed to announce - for our Print 'n' Players - that we now have the Africa & Middle East Expansion available as a PnP add-on for just $3! Feel free to manager your pledge and update that accordingly.

PPS.  The Flavor Survey was a HIT! We have had over 1,300 responses so far, and the survey is open until the end of the day on Tuesday. So if you haven't voted yet, get thee to the survey link found in Backers-Only Update #6! I'll plan to send an update to everyone shortly thereafter with all vote totals, which should be interesting!

PPPS. I wanted to once again invite all of you to our Facebook Community, where we talk about games, spirits, and many other things. Usually every Wednesday, I do a "Whisk(e)y Wednesday w/ Dave" where I livestream updates, interviews, and other things to that community. If you're on Facebook, feel free to join our nearly 1,500-strong community of Distillers!

Live Playthrough Today w/ Gaming Rules!, New Shipping Updates, and QUACK! 🦆
almost 3 years ago – Sat, Jul 17, 2021 at 09:58:53 PM

Does that number say 4️⃣0️⃣0️⃣0️⃣ Backers?!? 

I still can't believe this. It's like a dream for me, and you're all to thank for making it not only come true, but exceed all possible expectations by about $200,000! 🙏😆

First off, we unlocked another stretch goal, and we're headed to the next as well! These stretch goals will solely support our Africa & Middle East Expansion, with a new spirit called Grogue, that hails from Cape Verde (off the west coast of Africa). While many of you might know Grogue as the little green guy who hangs out with a bounty hunter, this bevvie was around long before that! In Distilled, you can make the rum-like Grogue with sugarcane or another plant, and it can be aged in a clay or wood barrel - that's right, in the expansion, some spirits can be aged in either barrel type! We're well on our way to unlocking some cool new upgrades, barrels, and flavors as well, at the $300K mark!

I'm quite excited about this update, as I've got some things for you to watch and some great news for some of our backers, regarding shipping! In this update, you'll find:

• A link to a live playthrough happening TODAY
• Discounts for local pickup and multiple-copy shipping 
• A quack-tastic video that was published yesterday, that you can watch immediately!

LIVE Playthrough by Gaming Rules! TODAY!

Paul Grogan, of Gaming Rules! will be streaming a 3-player game of Distilled today! He's got a physical copy and has been spending some time learning to play the game, so I'm excited to see how things go for him. Paul is based in the UK, so while it will be evening for him, it will be 3:00pm EDT here in the States. I hope you'll be able to tune in and comment in the chat - I'll be there answering questions and correcting Paul if he makes any flubs ;)

Be sure to tune in via this link today at 3pm Eastern to watch Paul play Distilled!

Discounts on Shipping: Local Pickup & Bulk Pricing!

These weren't present at the start of the campaign, as I didn't realize so many people would come out of the woodwork asking about it. Again, thanks to those who inquired, I now have some good news! 

First, for those interested in shipping more than 1-2 games to a single location, I'm happy to report that it will just cost an additional $7 to ship each copy, up to 4 total, to the same destination! For instance, if you wanted to ship 4 Signature Blend pledges to Australia, it would cost:

$40 USD to ship the first Signature Blend, and then $7 for each additional game, totaling $61 to ship four games to the same address in Australia. In this scenario, you would see the cost change from $40 per game for shipping to just $15.25 per game to ship to Australia! Note: If you wanted to send 5 games, it would trigger a new $40 shipping cost. To get the most for your money you'll want to ship in quantities of 4.

Additionally, I'm happy to report that anyone who wishes to pick their game up locally may now do so, for only $5 (you would choose this in the Pledge Manager after the campaign). It costs quite a great amount of money to ship a pallet of games to my house, but it allows me to pass the savings on to you by shipping so many in bulk. I live about an hour outside of Minneapolis-St. Paul and would coordinate a few days and events where you could pick the game up from me during those allotted times. 

Finally, I'm also happy to report that the countries we cannot ship to has been edited to be more ship-friendly, and we have reduced from 21 to 11 countries on this "we do not ship to" list!

QUACK! (🦆📺)

Finally, I'm thrilled to share this fantastic video with you, by one of my favorite content creators! Jesse not only loves bourbon, but has been a strong supporter of Distilled for awhile now, having played it with me on Tabletop Simulator months ago, and connected me with some great people. I owe a lot to Jesse, and want to thank him for his support and believing in me. Watch the below video for Quackalope's take on why you made the right decision to back Distilled!

Also, do you want to see an inebriated, alcohol-infused playthrough of Distilled on their channel? If so, be sure to comment on their video link here to let them know you'd watch it, as they are planning to do it if they get enough comments! 🥃🍸

Until next time Distillers - Sláinte!

Dave

Distilled Flavor Survey - for Backers' Eyes only! 👀
almost 3 years ago – Fri, Jul 16, 2021 at 05:07:39 AM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.

How to Add-on a Playmat and another BIG one!
almost 3 years ago – Thu, Jul 15, 2021 at 06:31:54 PM

WOWZAS!

Yet again, you all continue to blow through stretch goals like there's no end to this madness! Phew! I'm happy to report that this update has a couple juicy nuggets, including:

• How to add that Premium Market Playmat 
• Some more details behind our latest unlocked recipes and Distiller Identities 
• Details on our Flavor Survey 
•  Something BIG this way comes!

How to Add the Playmat

Congratulations! We've unlocked the Premium Market Playmat, which now deluxe-ifies your Distilled experience, for only $6 extra! This is an "upgrade" to the game, and thus what is called an "Add-on" in Kickstarter. 

To add it to your current pledge, it is simple, just follow these steps:

1. On Kickstarter, click the green "Manage Your Pledge" button in the top right of your screen

2. Click the purple "Change your Pledge" button at the bottom of the next screen. Don't worry, you won't lose anything!

3. (this is the confusing part) Now, just click the "Pledge $X" that is already pre-selected. This will NOT add a new pledge to your account, but just move you through the actions that you've already done!

4. On the next screen, you will be able to choose Add-ons. You will see "Premium Market Playmat" for $6 as the second pledge down. 

5. Click "Add" and Continue, and you are good to go! Remember, you can always adjust your pledge (and add-ons) at any time!

Say Hello to Pisco, Lambanóg, and Grappa!

Now this is some exciting and delicious stuff! Now that we have unlocked new spirit recipes and distiller identities, I'm thrilled to introduce three new spirits and distillers  to you!

•  Pisco is an unaged brandy-like spirit made from grapes, found in Peru. In the game, players will need at least three fruits to make Pisco from the Americas, making it now one of the most prestigious unaged spirits in the game! 
•  Lambanóg hails from the Philippines, and is made from palm sap (and also coconut sometimes too).  You'll need to acquire at least two plants to distill this unaged Asia & Oceania spirit
•  Grappa hails from Europe, and is one of Italy's famous liquors. Also using grapes, you'll need to age this one to get the full points. While many forms of grappa are not aged - the version in Distilled definitely is!

The Distillers who will hail from Peru, Philippines, and Italy will be created by Erik, so - just as before - we'd love any suggestions from our fans about these characters. We already have a character in mind for Peru, and perhaps we'll share that exciting news with you in a future update!

Take me down to Flavortown!

Alright Distillers, you've said your piece about what flavors - or tasting notes - you'd like to see in Distilled as our 10 bonus flavors. We gathered AAAAALLLLLL of them together, which resulted in over 170 flavor suggestions! The Paverson Games team has looked through them, and culled them down to a more manageable 85 different flavor suggestions that we feel could work well in the game and be represented by some of Erik's cool artwork (and not be a slog for you to wade through!).   We apologize if we couldn't include your flavor, but hope you'll find some good ones in this list!

In a private, for backer's-eyes-only update very soon, we will be sending you a link to vote on your top 25 favorite flavors from this list. We'll have it open for a bit, and then share the results with all of you, so that we can move forward with 10 fan favorites for brand new flavors in the game!

Did someone say DUAL-LAYERED?

I honestly never thought I'd be announcing this to all of you. This was a pipe dream of ours, thinking that we'd never get here. But I'm here to tell you today that one of our biggest stretch goals of all is now on the horizon. If we reach $270,000 raised for Distilled, all games will have dual-layered Recipe Boards! I know that seems like forever away, but this is a very expensive upgrade.

Let me explain what this upgrade means. 

Up until this moment, we were planning to ship printed cardstock recipe lists that would have different recipes on either side (and look like a clipboard, like you see in the videos). You would purchase a cube from the market to unlock a recipe, and place it on this large card. The chance of slippage of your cube off of the card was highly likely, especially if you were enjoying as many spirits as you were making ;)

I'm happy to report that with this new stretch goal, we can afford to print dual-layered boards, that will accept different recipe lists for each game! This allows you to have a more substantial board next to your Distillery Player board (the boards are roughly the same height). The board will now have recessed areas to hold your cubes purchased from the market. Furthermore, it means that every game of Distilled will have eight different "tasting flights" of recipes mixed and matched for the table to play. With the expansion, that total amount grows to twelve! I've spent most of tonight dusting off my 3D modeling skills and doing some renders of an idea of what I think it will likely look like, but none of this is final!

Once your friends decide which "tasting flight" you are playing with, you will all choose that recipe list and slide it into place on your "clipboard". Moonshine and Vodka will be pre-printed on the clipboard, allowing us to have smaller space for each card. Now, when you unlock a recipe, the cube will sit in place and not be bumped! This also provides opportunities for potential "Fan Made Flights" design by our community and printed by yourself at home!

I hope you're as excited as we are about this update. It is a BIG one, as these dual-layered boards don't come cheap! But with the enthusiasm of all of you and the success of Distilled, we can finally make another dream a reality. I can't wait to see us cross this stretch goal line and celebrate with this massive upgrade (and see what else we have up our sleeves!)!

Sláinte,

Dave

1000% Funded!?! Distilled is now a 1-5 Player Game and MORE ANNOUNCEMENTS!
almost 3 years ago – Sun, Jul 11, 2021 at 01:01:33 AM

1,000% Funded! We've unlocked the 5th Player in Distilled!

This is huge. Now, people will be able to add a 5th player to the game, and you all have just helped to add over 50 cards to the game, while it stays the same price for you! AMAZING!

But that's not all.

Our next stretch goal is just as exciting, just out of reach right now, at $200K. Can we do it? Can we unlock...

Neoprene Mat & Shot Glass Add-ons!?

Many of you have requested these, and we're here to happily say that you spoke, and we've listened! If we get to $200,000 raised for Distilled, all backers will be able to add-on a Premium Market Playmat for just $6! This will support the three rows in the central market, making it more easy - and more thematic - to pick up and slide those distillery upgrade, item, and ingredient cards across their market row!

We hope that this addition to the game will make it that much more special as you play around the table. None of the artwork is done yet, but Erik has already put a cool wooden background on it, that I think looks pretty classy! Due to its size, it won't be able to fit in the box, but it will roll up nicely and fit on your Kallax next to Distilled ;) 

 Plus, at $200k, the Distilled Shot Glass will be available for all backers in the Pledge Manager after the campaign, for just $5!  Now you can all look forward to using it as a libations vessel or perhaps a house-ruled gameplay piece (or both?!) while you play Distilled! We would not have been able to do this if the campaign was not doing as well as it is, so thank you! These stretch goals - and many more to come - are all super-stretch drams - I mean dreams - for us at this point. We'd rather reinvest with cool stuff for your game than just sit back and say "we're finished". I hope you agree that it's more fun this way too ;)

FREE SHOTS for our Signature Blenders!

But wait, THERE'S EVEN MORE! As an added bonus for us hitting that sweet $200k milestone, all $85 Signature Blend Backers will receive the Distilled Shot Glass FOR FREE! The price and the shipping does not change, just the amazing value for this package! 

What's Ahead? More Game Content Stretch Goals!

So, we've had our fun with some fancy deluxe-ified components, but let's get back to what really counts - playing a game about making spirits from around the world! I'm happy to report that we will have more stretch goals coming up that are focused on adding more content into the game, through new spirits, identities, and even some expansion-specific stretch goals. Stay tuned as we drop some of that information soon.

Last Call on Flavor Suggestions!

Finally, we'll be taking flavor suggestions through the weekend, and will be closing that up at the end of Sunday. Early next week, we plan to share a link to a survey in which all of you will get to pick the top 10 flavor names submitted by backers like you. Put your last suggestions in the Kickstarter Comments section for the campaign by the end of Sunday!

Until next time Distillers, Sláinte!

Dave