Pledge Manager OPEN + Component & Playtest Updates!
over 4 years ago – Wed, Nov 03, 2021 at 02:46:31 AM

As the crisp fall season finally hits Wisconsin, I'm exchanging my candy  🍬 for a dram of whisky 🥃 to warm things up! The colder weather also aligns with "gaming season", as we had some great Halloween-filled family game nights playing Betrayal at House on the Hill, Horrified, and Mysterium.  I hope you and yours have been able to enjoy this season too, by dressing up, eating candy, and playing games!

This month's update is much like the last - CHOCK-FULL-OF-GOODNESS! It includes:

• Reminder about the Pledge Manager 
• New Component Prototypes from The Game Crafter
• A Playtesting Recap from Richard (and a call for new playtesters!)
• Inktober Flavor Sketches from Erik

So, pour yourself a glass of something tasty and let's begin...(oh, and a word of warning, most images in this update contain prototype placeholder designs by DAVE (Game Designer) and not final artwork by ERIK (Artist), so please don't worry - Erik will be making all of this look much nicer in your final game!).

Pledge Manager Open! One Month Left!

The pledge manager has been open for a month, and about 6,700 of you have filled it out, which is awesome! But there still is about 1,700 people who have not, so this is your gentle reminder to get in there and fill it out! This will allow you to finalize your order, add anything extra (like some metal recipe cubes or a neoprene playmat to deluxify the game!), and enter your shipping information. 

Don't exactly understand how to fill out the survey? No worries, just check out our October update for a step-by-step guide to filling it out!

⚠ Remember, the pledge manager is going to close in mid-December, so you'll want to get in there ASAP to finalize your order! ⚠

Some Pledge Manager FAQ's to keep in mind:

•  When will you charge my credit card? We won't be charging cards until mid-January of 2022, as we know that many of us will have spent a lot in 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 ;)
•  How long do I have to fill out the survey? You'll have until mid-December to do this, but the sooner you do it, the less you'll be pestered by me and Backerkit.
• 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

Components from Game Crafter

As you might recall, we had some fantastic backer support by all of you during the campaign. It allowed us to achieve something that we frankly thought would never happen - dual-layered recipe clipboards that will let players swap out different tasting flights (our name for curated lists of recipes) and also place their cubes right next to their unlocked recipes, all on this board that is located right next to the player mat! 

During the campaign, I created a 3D rendered mock-up of the recipe clipboard as an update. Since then, we've been testing some designs in Tabletop Simulator, and I have even added a bit on to it to streamline the overall setup and flow of the game (printed recipe cube costs at the top and a spot for your signature recipe at the bottom). I'm now happy to report that I received the prototype back from The Game Crafter (TGC), and it is looking great! I glued two laser cut boards on top of each other to create a prototype of the dual-layered clipboard, allowing for the players place different tasting flight cards, put metallic cubes next to the recipes they've unlocked, and finally - in a new plot twist - include their "signature recipe" into the bottom slot of the clipboard.  

Throughout both the physical and virtual playtesting we had been doing over the last year, something always annoyed me - we had these cool one-time use "signature recipes" (that everyone loved making), yet it required the game to have a separate spirit label token and an additional component in which the recipe was on a random standalone card that wasn't part of the main recipe clipboard. This resulted in extra table space and extra setup time that was especially obvious in the physical playtests. Then, a few months ago, the lightbulb moment hit me - we can combine those two things into one component, and include it at the bottom of the clipboard! Players begin the game with their punchboard token "recipe side up" in their clipboard, and when they craft that fancy spirit, they take it out of the clipboard, flip it over, and put that - "spirit label side up" - above their distillery to gain the bonus and display it proudly to the table! Note: the one thing we need to fix with the clipboard is a finger indent to pull that token out, but otherwise it is looking very good and ready for Erik's artistic overhaul!

In addition to the recipe clipboard and signature recipe/label tokens, I also took a stab at redesigning the Spirit Awards, based on Erik's original design. The version we originally had were TGC default 3.5" wide circle cards, that were far bigger than necessary. For the final game, they will be punchboard tokens (roughly 2.5" wide), resembling a medal or ribbon for winning that award, much like you'd find in a spirits competition. These are again just my first attempt at them, and Erik will be revising the design with more polish in the coming months. I've also included a few different tasting flights below, to show you what that might be like for your own copy. Again, all just prototypes, but this demonstrates the amazing depth of Distilled, through offering 8 different tasting flight combinations in the base game, and 6 more flights in the Africa and Middle East expansion (w/ 1 copy of each tasting flight per player). That means that you'll need to play Distilled 15 times before you experience a game with the same spirit combination! 🤯

 So, there you have it - Distilled is going to be even more deluxe now, thanks to all of your support in helping us meet some of those pricey stretch goals. I can't wait to see Erik bring these up to the awesome standard that he's already set for the game's art and graphic design!

BIG Playtesting Update from Richard

The past three months have been a whirlwind of progress on the gameplay front. This is largely thanks to our awesome developer, Richard Woods. I've asked him to write a bit about what has been accomplished.  So, I'm excited to hand the keyboard over to Richard to give a recap on the amazing progress we've made in design, development, and playtesting. Richard, take it a way!

"Following the amazingly successful Kickstarter campaign, we were presented with a plethora of extras that were unlocked and needed to be developed and tested. These included new Distiller Identities, new Recipes, new Distillery Upgrades and new Goals/Awards. It was a big challenge but also very exciting to be able to add so much more depth and replayability to the game we love.

So in August we focused on the recipes and identities added to the core game. In total there are 15 unique recipes and 18 diverse identities in the core game alone, so making sure all of these worked together and were finely balanced was a key priority. Whilst we had already designed these all on paper before the campaign, we hadn’t played with them all yet. So we took what we thought would work and played numerous solo and multiplayer games, each time tweaking the numbers and abilities to ensure they all felt distinctive and fun to play with. The result is that we now have a fantastic mix of things for people to explore in the core game.

Alongside this we also reinvented a number of the solo goals (above) that were previously region-specific, meaning they needed to be removed during setup if they didn’t match your identity’s region. The great news is that they all now work with any Distiller Identity or Taste Flight making setup even quicker and also providing more variety.

In September we turned our attention to the Africa & Middle East expansion. Whilst we had many ideas for the new cards that the expansion added, we’d not yet had the opportunity to fully define them all. It was so cool being able to come up with interesting and different abilities that added a little something extra beyond what was in the core game.  Alongside 6 new identities and 4 recipes, there are 10 upgrades, 8 ingredients and 8 items included in the expansion and we wanted all of these to stand out. So again we drove straight into play testing, both solo and multiplayer, trying out new abilities and finding out what works. Our Distilled community has been awesome throughout this process, helping us decide between options and even coming up with original ideas in some cases (for example the Tunisian identity power is a direct result of a suggestion raised in our Discord server).

We really wanted a special ingredient to be included in the expansion, which provided great utility to the player who was able to snap it up in the market. We’ve therefore been testing both Glucose Syrup that acts as a wild sugar, as well as Neutral Spirit Alcohol which provides some additional luck mitigation when used. The plan was to choose one of them to include, but the reception to both has been fantastic, so we’ve decided to keep them both. This means that instead of 8 additional ingredient cards, the expansion will now come with 10 additional ingredient cards!

In October we completed the main play testing and are delighted to report that most of the content is now fully developed and is working wonderfully. My attention for November is therefore turning to testing the Beginner’s Guide written by Cody Reimer (our Rules Editor), as well as revisiting the core game after playing with the expansion for the past two months. Needless to say, whilst we are almost there, play testing never ends and we’ll be continuing to play regularly in TTS right up to when the game goes to print. So if you’d like to join us and see all the exciting extra content we’ve added since the campaign please do join us in our Discord server."

Thanks Richard! As you can see, Richard has been VERY busy- we've accomplished a MOUNTAIN of work in the past few months (and this is all while we're holding up our main full time jobs!). If you are interested in helping playtest, we are looking for new players to test out our Beginner's Guide (aka First Taste) over on our Discord server. All you need is Tabletop Simulator (which is a one-time cost of $20) and we'll help with the rest!

Distilled playtesting, by the numbers (August-October):

• Number of different multiplayer games: 20
• Number of different playtesters participating: 27 (we had returning players for many games)
• Number of solo game playtests : 40
• Approximate total number of in-game spirits crafted: 1,400!

Tasty Sketches!

Artists around the world will often participate in #inktober, in which they dedicate the entire month of October to drawing something every day. Our artist, Erik, decided to take inspiration from this, and do his own "Distilled-tober", in which he sketched a different image (for the flavor cards) everyday and posted it on his Instagram feed! As you might recall, we had a flavor-filled event during the campaign, where fans like you got to suggest and vote for your favorite flavors (some of which are now in the game!). Thanks to #inktober, Erik has now finished all 48 unique flavor sketches for Distilled! In addition to ones he already completed, see the 31 flavors he completed for #inktober, collaged below. Do you spy your favorite flavor, or one you voted on during the campaign?

Looking to Next Month...

If you've made it this far, congratulations! I hope you can see how much we've been working to make the best possible game for all of you, and I can honestly say that it has only gotten better and tighter since the Kickstarter! Next month is going to be equally as exciting, as we'll be diving deeper into:

• A big art update from Erik
• Details on major new TTS & Tabletopia Mod updates with our digital demigods, Seth and Dave H.
• Report back from Cody on the design and testing behind the "Beginner Guide" (AKA First Taste)
• And more!

Sláinte!

- Dave

The Pledge Manager Will Open AHEAD of Schedule!!!
over 4 years ago – Wed, Sep 29, 2021 at 04:27:28 AM

Happy Distilled-toberfest! 🍻

TL;DR: If things continue to go as planned, every single one of you will be able to access the Pledge Manager by this Friday, October 1st! 🥳

We're a bit early for our monthly update, but since this is going out at the end of September as it bleeds into October, we thought this would be a great opportunity to celebrate Distilled-toberfest! There are a number of important things in this update:

•  Pledge Manager Opens Later this Week!
• Distilled's Custom Progress Chart 
• Two More Languages Added!
•  Signed Prototypes Shipped to Master Distiller Pledges

Pledge Manager Will be Open by FRIDAY!

Yes, you read it here first folks, you'll be getting an email from Paverson Games (via Backerkit) sometime in the next few days! We're starting with some "smoke tests" (where a random sampling of 5% of the backers will get the pledge manager early), and the rest will be coming to your inbox in the next few days. Since I know this might be new for some of you, I've tried to lay out a few things to make it easier:

1. First, you'll get that email about filling out a SURVEY

2. Click that button, and it will take you to a "Welcome Screen", where you will confirm your country (and possibly state)

3. After hitting the green button, you'll be greeted by some questions I've set-up to ask you (each customized to your specific pledge level), like whether you want to stick with or switch from the pledge that has no reward (the $1 Wee Dram pledge) or what language you want your game to be in when it is delivered to your door. After answering all of those questions, you'll get to the Add-ons menu.

5. Here, you'll choose any add-on's you'd like from the store, while the amount you pledged in Kickstarter is credited to your account or chosen pledge level (ie: if you pledge $85 for the Signature Blend in Kickstarter, you will see all components of the Signature Blend already in your cart, and $85 subtracted from your total).

From there, you're just going to fill out your shipping and billing info, and you are good to go, easy peasy. 

Some FAQ's to keep in mind:

•  How long do I have to fill out the survey? You'll have until mid-December to do this, but the sooner you do it, the less you'll be pestered by me and Backerkit.
• I live near you Dave, and I want Local Pickup to drive to Wisconsin and save money! How? You'll choose it as your "Country" on the Welcome page and the Address page
• Can I get multiple games or add-ons? Yes! In fact, in some cases, it will save you a lot of money on shipping, as extra games cost only $7 each to ship! 
• Why am I being charged taxes or VAT? Since you are obtaining a product, it is required by law to have taxes involved, I'm afraid. Because of this, Paverson Games will be writing a big check to the government(s) when this is all finished

The Pledge Manager can be a confusing, daunting process. So, if at any time you have a question, consider coming back here and leaving a comment - I'm sure some of our Distillers will be more than happy to answer your question. If it is extra-complicated or personal, feel free to also message me of course. 

Introducing the Distilled Progress Chart

In order to keep all of you as best updated as possible, I've created this progress chart for you to see where we are with certain components and features of the game. This is a highly generalized list (there's like 250 different cards alone!!!), but will hopefully give you a good idea of what we're looking at. You'll notice that things like the Wood Tokens and GameTrayz Insert are barely started, and that is because those were unlocked during the campaign, while much of the other stuff was already on its way when the Kickstarter began. We also have some things skipping a few steps, as there won't be as much "Game Design" or "Game Development" for things like Metal Coins or Playmats ;)

I've always admired these progress charts by other designers and companies, and wonder if Jamey Stegmaier's version (for Stonemaier Games) might be the first to do this for his entire game line. I think it is a great way to let fans know where you are in the process, and demonstrate transparency throughout as well (which we're all about with Distilled!).

Welcome to Czech and Portuguese Languages!

Two more languages have joined our ranks, bringing Distilled's language count to TEN! We're thrilled to welcome REXhry as our Czech partners, and a mystery partner for Portuguese (who will be announced in the future!). While these won't be included in the Kickstarter options (just like Korea and China aren't), they will still be available for retail in those countries, which is exciting!

Small Batch Release for our Master Distillers!

Finally, I wanted to end with a few shots of the games that were signed, authenticated, and sent out to our Master Distiller pledgers recently. Limited to only 10 spots, the Master Distiller Pledge included the Signature Edition pledge (like many of you have), but also one of the original 10 prototypes for Distilled (dubbed "Small Batch Release" by Erik) that were previewed by content creators for the Kickstarter and signed by Erik and me. Eight of these were sent around the USA, and the other two to France and New Zealand. Perhaps you'll get lucky enough to find one of them in the wild, and get a chance to play Distilled a full year before it's official release!

Well, that's all I have for this month, Distillers! Good luck with the Backerkit Pledge Manager Survey this week, and please comment below with any questions!

Next month, we'll likely have some new art updates to share, as well as some final reports on the extensive playtesting we've been doing over on our Discord, of the Africa and Middle East Expansion!

Sláinte 🥃,

Dave

Distilled - Now in 8 Languages! 🤯
over 4 years ago – Thu, Sep 02, 2021 at 02:31:05 AM

Only a Month, but so. much. stuff. 

Hello Distillers! Didja miss me? I have honestly missed all of you. That 3.5 weeks of Kickstarter goodness, ending just over a month ago on July 29th, was such an amazing experience. So many of you showed your support in the comments or on social media - it was something I'll never forget (and remember, we can stay in touch a lot easier if you use Facebook, where you can join 1,700 of us talking about spirits and games on a daily basis!).

But we must move on - after all, we're making a GAME, aren't we?!? 🤣

This is one chock-full-o-goodness update, if I do say so myself. After a brief respite, we've been busy and back on the grind, and I'm excited to share some of those nuggets with you in this nice 'n' lengthy update! In this update, we'll cover:

• New Language & Partner Announcements!
• A New and Improved (and Free!) Tabletopia mod
•  Core Team Check-in - what has everyone been up to?
• Plans for the next month (aka Pledge Manager time!)

Multilingual Distilled

As you might know, it has been a goal of Distilled to have a reach around the globe. Not only due to the game representing countries and cultures through its spirits and characters, but in order to educate our global community of gamers and spirits lovers about the amazing stuff that is out there. Thanks to the hard work of Michael Raftopoulos of M.O.B. Vanguard, we've seen that reach become a reality. 

During the campaign, we had Spain and the Ukraine. But as you might recall, I made a promise to all of you. That we would try our hardest to expand that language offering further. I'm happy to report that we've done that, and then some (and we're not done yet!). 

Not only have we signed some great partnerships with companies to translate Distilled in to Dutch and Korean, but we've also aligned with some industry giants like CMON for Chinese and Matagot for French. 

Finally, and likely the most anticipated and requested of all, I am proud to say that Distilled will now be offered in German! But it doesn't stop there with our German edition! We are partnering with happyshops, who will be partnering with Giant Roc to bring Distilled to their popular German-only crowdfunding site, Spieleschmiede! This will likely occur sometime in October, and is a perfect opportunity for those who missed the Kickstarter to consider this second chance with the German language. 

To clarify and make things crystal-clear, you can still get the game in German either way - using your pledge with us in the Kickstarter or by making a new pledge with Spieleschmiede, if you missed our Kickstarter. 

Most of these language editions of Distilled will be available in the Pledge Manager (but not all), in case a particular language is preferred over English. And there are more partnerships on the horizon, so who knows which countries we might announce next!

Can't wait until 2022? Dr. Dave's Prescription: Tabletopia!

It was important to me to have Distilled on Tabletopia by the time the Kickstarter launched. While I prefer Tabletop Simulator as a designer and developer, I know that the accessibility of Tabletopia can't be beat, with it being free, browser based, and having a UI that feels much more polished than many other platforms. But I also knew that my "mod" of Distilled wasn't that great on Tabletopia, and simply didn't have the time or expertise to develop it further. 

Enter Dave Hutchings. Dave works with computers by day, and is a WIZ at Tabletopia by night. When we first connected, he mentioned ideas and approaches I could never even fathom implementing, and then the next day they would be done for Distilled! Over the course of August, Dave has taken Distilled from a clunky, basement moonshine still that I made out of scrap parts and turned it into a polished, state-of-the-art single pot still that has all the bells and whistles!

The Tabletopia version now supports Solo play, Hotseat play, and any group from 2-5 players. Additionally, it has some slick setup instructions, 10 different Distiller Identities to play with, and even works as a Google/Apple App for your Tablet! And best of all, it is entirely free and available through a browser! If you haven't tried Distilled yet, I invite you to visit the Distilled Tabletopia site and consider giving it a go (and thank Dave Hutchings by raising a glass in his name as you're playing!).

What's the Team Been Up To?

Since we don't get to connect with you as much, I thought it would be good to give an overview of what the team has been up to the past month (after we celebrated all around the globe on July 29th!). Remember, Distilled isn't coming from a giant studio, but it also isn't coming from single person. It is thanks to this amazing rockstar team - and all of your support - that we're making this come true!

•  Dave (me!): About a week after the Kickstarter, I took my first vacation in over two years, to Michigan, with my family. I've been going to a family camp/resort there all my life, and it was absolutely wonderful to be there. I unplugged with no computer and phone, visited a farm distillery, and played some games. Since then, I've been hard at work on finalizing manufacturing quotes now that we know exactly what we need to make! I'm happy to say we've received those, and are starting to move forward with next steps on finalizing a manufacturer. I'll actually talk about this in more detail during my Whisk(e)y Wednesday update tonight on Facebook. 
•  Richard, our developer, has been hard at work playtesting and balancing all of the stretch goals we unlocked, and implementing them into the game. We've been running regular playtest sessions in our Distilled Discord server, and they've been going really well. Terrence, our community coordinator, has also been an amazing help on this front as well, with both of them running multiple games and doing solo playtests too. We've just about completed testing additional spirits, distiller identities, and upgrades for the base game, and we are going to start playtesting the Africa and Middle East expansion this weekend (and are looking for more players - hit the Discord link above to join us!).  

•  Erik, our artist, has been taking a well-deserved break this last month, to work on other projects he has going on (like his graphic novel), as well as getting ready for the start of the next school year at the university, where he is a professor. Erik and I met last week to go over the big list of what we have left to do, and we're excited to dive back in to those assets, as we finalize the gameplay elements from the playtests listed earlier. Watch for future updates featuring his amazing artwork, as we progress into those last stages!
•  Cody, our rules editor, has been hard at work buttoning up the rulebook, but also doing two other crucial things. First, he's going over each card's text, to make sure it reads correctly with all other systems and naming conventions in the game. He's also begun sketching out a "Beginner's Guide", which we're modeling after effective documents like Wingspan's Swift Start and Root's Walkthrough Sheet. We want to be sure that players who might be new to hobby-level board games can still have a positive and entertaining experience with Distilled, and we feel that this would be a great way to do that. 

Did Somebody Say Pledge Manager?

I know, I know, all of you are chompin' at the bit for the Pledge Manager to open. Don't worry, it will open eventually, but it is actually quite common to have a month or two (at least) go by without it opening after a campaign, so I promise I'm not slacking! Since our timeline is a bit more extended than some campaigns, it frankly isn't *that* important to have it open quickly. After all, it will be open for quite some time, so there is no rush!

There is actually quite a lot to do to have it prepared. I want to be sure that you have as many options as possible to add different things to your pledge, select the right language that fits your needs, have the shipping accurately reflect what you've chosen, and get a chance to ask questions as well. Now that we have finalized most of our languages (we are still working on a few more!), I will be diving deep into that process and hope to have some good news for you next month, with that being the big topic of the October update.

So, as we head in to September, I'll be focusing mainly on finalizing manufacturer costs and preparing the pledge manager in Backerkit. I'll also be sending out the original 10 prototypes of Distilled to our Master Distiller backers, so you might see some pics of those pop up on social media soon! We'll also be continuing to test the various stretch goals we've unlocked and start to crank up production on the artwork again. It should be an exciting month indeed! 

Until then Distillers, I hope you've gotten a chance to play some games and enjoy some spirits - and as always, Sláinte!

Dave

PS. About a 18 months ago, I applied for Distilled's trademark. It was officially confirmed this last month, which is exciting (not necessary at all, but I felt it would be good to have).

The Distilled Campaign is COMPLETE! 🥳 Time to send it to the Warehouse!
over 4 years ago – Fri, Jul 30, 2021 at 01:52:21 AM

I'll try to keep this short 'n' sweet.

THANK YOU.

It's almost two years since I spent an entire night in Scotland, coming up with the idea of Distilled. Along the way, I've been joined by numerous people who have helped bring that dream to a reality. While there are too many folks to name and recognize here, three individuals stand out and are deserving of special thanks. The first is my wife, Emily, who believed in me from the beginning and has supported me through long nights and weekends of me attending cons, playtesting the game on TTS, and spending time away from my family to pursue this dream.  Second is Erik, my partner in Distilled since the beginning, and who's creative vision and amazing artistic talents have helped breathe thematic life into the game beyond what I thought possible. Finally, Richard, who's keen eye for detail, balance, and mechanics as a developer have helped the game to run like a well-oiled machine, much smoother than I could ever have done on my own.

There are so many more people to thank, but I hope you can understand how overwhelmed with gratitude I am at this moment. Beyond recording the below video, I feel that the best way I can thank all of you is by trying to make the greatest version of Distilled as I possibly can, which I promise to do.

WHAT'S NEXT?

All of the things! OMG so many things! Some are obvious, some are usual business, and some are just plain fun. 

First off, I'll be keeping all of you Distillers apprised with a monthly update via Kickstarter. This will appear in your email inbox and also exist on the Kickstarter page. Given the timing of this campaign, you might not hear from me until early September, but you can be guaranteed that I'll be keeping you up to date on all things Distilled, every month!

Secondly, the Pledge Manager will open in the next few months, allowing you to use your Kickstarter pledge as "credit" towards that reward, as well as upgrade or add other things too, if you'd like (like metal cubes, extra shot glasses, etc.). This will also be where you enter and pay for your shipping. This likely will not appear for awhile, so don't worry - I'll keep you posted about that via those updates I talked about. BTW, if any of your friends were late to the Distilled party, I will have a "late pledge" available for them to find, via the Kickstarter page. They won't be an original Distiller (backer) like you, but they will still have access to Distilled!

Finally, we'll be hard at work starting to update the game with the amazing stretch goals we unlocked. This will consist of new art by Erik, and design and development by Richard and me. If you are interested in helping with testing these new features in Tabletop Simulator, be sure to join our Discord channel to help playtest! Also, remember that our community is quite large over on Facebook, with a group that is close to 1,600 Distillers! We post art and design progress, chat about spirits & games, and I try to provide more frequent (small) updates as well. 

So with that, I leave you with one final Sláinteof the campaign, and thank you again for such a wild and crazy ride this July has been. We've crafted a mighty spirit this past month, and it is time to send it to the Warehouse, so that it can age into a deliciously flavorful game for its 2022 release. 🥃

Dave

ONE. FINAL. STREEEETTTTCH (and Language Update! 🌍)
over 4 years ago – Mon, Jul 26, 2021 at 05:47:25 AM

HOLY WOW. $400,000?!?

We did it (well actually, you did it!)! And you did it faster than we expected, over a weekend when things are usually slow! This means that we have now unlocked some awesome goodies - all as a thank you to the backers! Now, there will be four blank Flavor cards in every mini-expansion, every Original and Signature Blender will get a FREE upgraded metal First Player and Master Distiller Token, and we'll be providing an online Spirit and Recipe Generator to the entire world! This was all thanks to you and your dedication to the project.

BUT WAIT. THERE'S MORE. ONE. FINAL. STRETCH GOAL. 

That's right. 

GAMETRAYZ.

What many of you have been asking for, could now become a reality. If we hit $450K, Distilled's base game will feature GameTrayz for its storage and set-up solution. 

GameTrayz is one of the leading insert designers in the biz,  known for their experience, innovation, creativity, and tech. We think that due to Distilled's giant component list - with over 400 cards and 200 tokens in the base game alone - this addition will be a welcome feature and a great way to put a capstone of success and celebration on our campaign! Since not all backers might be familiar with GameTrayz, I've taken the liberty of copy 'n' pasting a few images of GameTrayz that I've found online, to help you better visualize what a treat this will be for Distilled.

I like how Euphoria's solution has an area to support a large amount of cards at the bottom of the box  while also some modular containers for various components and tokens. Each GameTrayz solution is different, of course, as they work closely with the game dev team to create the best possible experience. Safe storage and easy setup/teardown are important parts of what sets GameTrayz apart from the rest. 

Museum is much like Distilled, in the sense that there are a great deal of cards in the game, as well as numerous components and player boards. Museum: Deluxe Edition (which has the GameTrayz insert) has yet to be delivered to backers, but this render and prototype above demonstrate how complex you can get with your stacking and compartmentalising through GameTrayz!

While this is more component-heavy, In the Hall of the Mountain King is another great example of a Kickstarter that was able to offer this to their backers due to the support and enthusiasm of the community.

Suburbia Deluxe Edition is a BIG game, but how they've organized some of the components and covered them with clear plastic adds a nice touch, and allows everything to be stacked and set-up fairly easily.

Do you have a favorite GameTrayz insert, or ideas we should incorporate into our design if we reach the funding goal? If so, please leave them in the Kickstarter's main comments section! 

 But wait - there's even more! Let's talk LANGUAGES! 🌍

TL;DR: I have good news for many of you frequent commenters.  Read on for the full story ;)

Even just a few weeks before launching the campaign, I had planned to simply publish Distilled in English. As an indie designer, I figured that it was enough of a challenge to try to have it published in my own native language, let alone others! I didn't understand the intricacies of "localization" (the term for bringing a game to a different region, which also involves language translation and licensing, amongst many other things). 

But then Distilled caught fire all around the globe. 🔥

Enter Michael Raftopoulos of Meeple on Board - Vanguard (MOB Vanguard for short), who connected with me just days before the campaign launched. Michael's agency helps indie games like Distilled to connect with the various licensees around the world. Based in Greece, Michael brings the experience of owning a board game retail store and combines it with working on localization and licensing for titles like Endless Winter, Hidden Leaders, and Machina Arcana, among others. Just as the campaign launched, Michael helped us to finalize licensing and translation contracts with companies in both Spain and Ukraine, which was wonderful. This happened because both of those regions were aware of Distilled beforehand. This was thanks to fans communicating to these companies about this little gem and urging them to pursue localization in their language.

But as one can imagine, it is quite an involved process to navigate an official agreement on localization in a country (especially during a Kickstarter!). It involves playtesting and demos, meetings and conversations, and agreements on procedures, schedules, rights, and payments.  Because of this, things have slowed down a bit, but it does not mean that Michael hasn't been working tirelessly in the background to finalize some of these big wins for all involved.

I frankly don't know if we'll have more language announcements before the end of the campaign, but I can make you a promise - a guarantee - if you will. Read on.

Michael and I are very confident that we will be finalizing localization agreements with the following countries/languages in the near future:

• Germany
• France
• Italy
• Poland

But I also understand that it is hard to ask you to make a commitment about something before it is "officially announced". I would be thinking the same thing if I were you, considering backing a project on Kickstarter from from an indie, first-time publisher. So, if you are someone who would be purchasing Distilled in German, French, Italian, or Polish languages, I would ask you to do the following simple thing:

Support Distilled at the Wee Dram Pledge Level for $1 USD, so that you can have access to the Pledge Manager after the campaign. I am confident that we will have positive news to share about these four languages in the coming weeks. After that, you will be able to increase your pledge for your chosen reward, in your specific language.

And if you do that, here is my guarantee: if, by the time the Pledge Manager closes and we have not finalized a localization deal in the language that you would be backing (from the above four), you can request a refund and I will cancel your Wee Dram pledge and refund you for up to $1 USD, no questions asked  (obviously, if you don't contact me or decide to still back another version, we won't cancel your pledge or refund you anything!).

I hope this demonstrates how much I want you to share this experience with us as a fellow Distiller, and also how confident I am that we will be bringing Distilled to these four languages, sometime in the near future.

Distilled, like good board games and good whisk(e)y, is all about the people you enjoy it with. I'm awestruck by the amazing community that has formed around this project, and want to be sure each and every one of you can come along with us for that ride.

See you at the finish line, and Sláinte,

Dave