How to Add-on a Playmat and another BIG one!
over 4 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!
over 4 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

Over 2K Backers! Announcing a 5th Player in Distilled!
over 4 years ago – Fri, Jul 09, 2021 at 03:21:16 AM

Here we are again with another big milestone - early this morning, within the 48-hr mark - we've received our 2,000th backer! 🥳 What better way to celebrate than to announce our big... 

 5th PLAYER STRETCH GOAL!!!

The 5th player has been something we've wanted to do for a very long time, but it was going to be quite hard to pull off without the proper volume for printing. It is also the #1 requested addition to Distilled by all of you! This stretch goal is BIG! Can we do it? It will cost quite a lot to print additional:

• Basic Ingredient Cards (Yeast, Water, Sugars, and Barrels)
• Starting Item Cards
• Alcohol Cards
• Player References
• Tasting Flight Cards
• Spirit Label Tokens
• Player Marker
• A 5th Distillery Player Board

This all adds up to over 50 additional cards, components, and boards for Distilled!

So, as you can see, this is a BIG stretch goal! We'll need your help in unlocking it, which includes those who were on the fence until there was a 5th player option or telling others about this new update in case it would change their minds about backing Distilled! Note: this 5th player addition will be in ALL copies of Distilled, regardless of pledge level. And trust me, we're not done yet, regarding big stretch goal updates, so with all of you being along for the ride, this is only just the beginning ;)

Master Distiller Winner (Selfie Brag) Component!

I have always enjoyed playing Sagrada. It's a nice, relaxing game that is simple to learn and has some nice depth of strategy. It is fun to play with my kids, as well as introduce to people new to the gaming space. I also love how your board's end state is a beautiful collage of colored dice, akin to a stained glass window (like they are striving to represent in Sagrada, of course)!

I found it to be a nice touch that Floodgate Games included a special card for people to display by their board, if they were the winner. Furthermore, it encouraged players to take a picture of their final board state and post it on social with a certain hashtag. Before even playing Sagrada, I actually designed Distilled with this concept in mind, hoping players would snap a pic of their final Distillery player board state and share on instagram. 

With our next stretch goal at $150K, I'm excited to do something similar in Distilled, with some sort of card or component that allows the winner to take it and display it above their distillery board, proudly. The question for you is, what might that card or component look like? Could we work together to come up with a neat design that represents victory, while also is the crowning visual achievement on your distillery player board? Perhaps a trophy, medal, or even rooftop sign that sits above your board? I'd love to hear your ideas about this in the comment section!

 LIVE Playthroughs of Distilled, including on DICE TOWER!

We have some wonderful playthroughs planned for the coming few weeks. For some you'll be able to watch online, while others have open seats at the table for YOU to join! Richard Woods, our developer, and Neo Teng Whay, one of our biggest supporters and playtesters, will be holding a few demo games of Distilled that you are all invited to join.  Join our Distilled Discord server to play or watch the two games on Saturday in Tabletopia at 1pm and 8pm EDT (UTC-4). 

Additionally, we have four different live streams coming up that you are welcome to watch (all times EDT (UTC-4):

• Tomorrow (Friday) at 1pm Distilled will be played LIVE on the DICE TOWER! Drop by to say hi! 
• Saturday, July 10th at 3pm Dave will be playing Distilled LIVE on TTS with InGameUK 
• Friday, July 16th at 2pm Paul Grogan of Gaming Rules! will be doing a LIVE multiplayer playthrough!
• Wednesday, July 21st at 2pm Paul Grogan of Gaming Rules! will be doing a LIVE Solo playthrough!

For all of the above, we'd love for you to pop by to watch, comment, and promote these. This is a wonderful way for you to see the game played, but also for others to learn about how special Distilled is!

Finally, don't forget to keep adding ideas for Flavor cards, player tokens, and now the winner card/token into our comments section! Soon, we'll be sending out an update about Flavors specifically, with a chance for you to vote on your favorites! Here's to another whirlwind few days, and let's start unlocking that 5th player feature for EVERYONE in Distilled!

Sláinte,

Dave

FUNDED IN 23 MINUTES!!!!! 🤯🥳
over 4 years ago – Thu, Jul 08, 2021 at 09:31:57 PM

HOLY SMOKES! 🤯

I don't even know what to say. We've funded in 23 minutes, and are already careening towards $50,000 with just two hours into the campaign. This is absolutely phenomenal, and it is thanks to all of you.

As I catch my breath over the next few days, I will be excited to send you updates, detailing things like:

• Images and info on some of our cool unlocked stretch goals, such as mini-expansions, identities, and spirits!
• We'll start voting on components to let all of you - the Distilled backers - choose what will go into the game!
• Stories and updates about how far we've come and where we are headed

For now, here is a sneak peak at our next stretch goal to unlock, at $65,000!

These four new Distillery Upgrade Cards will include some cool new specialists and equipment, such as:

• Greenhouse - At the start of each Round, add a Basic Mixed Plants to your Pantry (and will have an endgame bonus that gives you 1 SP for every two of your Americas labels)
• 3rd Warehouse - This upgrade acts as an extra Warehouse space
• Intern Researcher - Once per Market Phase, may discount one Recipe Cube by 2 (and will have an endgame bonus that gives you 1 SP for each of your Silver and Gold recipe cubes)
• Private Investor - At the start of each Round, if you have at least one spirit in your warehouse gain $1 plus $1 for each spirit in your warehouse

Until next time and Sláinte,

Dave

100K in the First Day!!!
over 4 years ago – Thu, Jul 08, 2021 at 09:31:52 PM

As I am about to send this, the clock is nearing midnight here in little old Menomonie, Wisconsin, USA. Just over 15 hours ago, I hit the green LAUNCH button, hoping that we might raise $18,000 in the first day. I cannot believe how this day has gone, from the outpouring of support online, on my phone, and on the KS comment section! Already, 1,490 people have said "yes, I believe in this project!", bringing us to over $100,000!!! 

So to all of you, thank you. Seriously. This is amazing. 

And to think we are just starting! While we won't raise this much in a single day again, we still have so many great things to look forward to, and so many cool things that we've already unlocked! 

This will be a longer-than-usual update, since I'm trying to catch up on A LOT of stuff that we accomplished today! 

In this update, I'll talk about:

• What we've Unlocked so far!
• You're all Invited to Whisk(e)y Wednesday on Facebook!
•  What's Next? (and how it involves you!) 

First off, WOW, we really blew through some stretch goals today! To recap, we unlocked the following:

• The 14-card mini expansion, which will be FREE for all backers!
• 3 new Distillery Identities, Recipes and Spirit Labels, making the game even more diverse and replayable!
• 10 new Flavor Cards, in which we will rely on YOU to help name!
• 4 new Distillery Upgrade Cards!
• Custom Shaped Player Tokens and Round Marker 
• 4 more brand-new Distillery Identities!!!!

Let's dive in to just a couple of these (and save some for later too)...

Unlocked: 10 New Distiller Identities & New Spirits!

This first $100K of the campaign allowed us to unlock TEN new Distillery Identities, through the free mini-expansion and two other separate stretch goals! Additionally, we also unlocked some new international spirits to make as well.  All of these gorgeous Distiller Identities are created and painted by Erik Evensen, Distilled's artist, and they come with their own signature ingredients and recipes, adding even more content to the game. So far, we have unlocked four unique, special identities that will not come with the base game, but all of you will get for free (pictured above):

• Idris El-Mokrani from Algeria, specializing in Absinthe (Africa & Middle East)*
• Svetlana Yakovlevna from Russia, specializing in Vodka (Asia & Oceania)
• Hans-Hannah from Germany, specializing in Schnapps (Europe)
• "Alley Cat" Armstrong from Harlem (NYC), specializing in Moonshine (Americas)

*while Idris is technically for the expansion, they can still be used in the base game 

We also unlocked three new characters that we had already finished, but were worried we couldn't afford to put in the game if we only funded to $18K (I know, that sounds sort of funny now, eh?). I'm happy to report that (pictured L to R, below) Pilar del Fuego Escalante of Mexico (Amercas), Sakai Sotaro of Japan (Asia & Oceania), and Gunnhild Hellström of Sweden (Europe) will be joining us with their new spirits of Tequila, Shochu, and Aquavit!

Finally, we unlocked four more brand-new distiller identities, that we haven't even designed yet!!! We know what countries they are hailing from and what spirits they will specialize in, but that's it! Question for you: What sort of distiller back stories or characters should hail from:

•  Canada specializing in whisky (Americas)
•  Australia specializing in gin (Asia & Oceania)
•  Ireland specializing in whiskey (Europe)
•  United Arab Emirates specializing in vodka (Africa & Middle East)*

*the UAE distiller will just be included in the Africa & Middle East expansion

The addition of these cards will make your game even more unique and special, while adding even more replayability (you'll now have up to 19 different Distiller Identities to choose from for each game!).  

Unlocked: We need your help with this game too!

We've been working on this game for nearly two years, playtesting it hundreds of times, drawing amazing illustrations, and considering the overall presentation. But we also knew that some of this needs to be dreamed up by you during this Kickstarter campaign, an important part of this process. I'm so excited that we've already unlocked TWO different components that we want all of you to vote on! 

Participate in the comments section of Kickstarter (see below for a screen grab) to start talking about what sort of flavors names might be good for a fine, aged whisky, baijiu, or rum. Discuss ideas about custom player token and round marker designs. Should they stay barrel shaped, or perhaps change their shape or color to be more unique (Glasses? Bottles? Stills?). These are awesome opportunities to help us develop Distilled into your game, which is how it should be, since you are a big reason this dram - I mean dream - is becoming a reality! We'll be doing some polls on these soon, so keep an eye out in future updates, and be ready to voice your vote!

You're Invited: Whisk(e)y Wednesday w/ Dave!

Our now 1300+ member Distilled Facebook group has been growing for about a year and a half now. Every Wednesday, I broadcast live on Facebook from my home, to chat with the community about all things Distilled,  while enjoying a nice dram. I'd like to personally invite all of you to this weekly party! This week, I'll be simply celebrating how far we have come, and doing an AMA (ask me anything) with all who join me. Pour yourself a dram of your favorite drink and join me at 8pm central, live on Facebook!

What's Next?

Many of you have started doing exactly what I was hoping you'd do in the Comments section: asking about additional cool features that should be considered for adding to Distilled. These range from gameplay to aesthetic additions, as well as add-ons and awesome out-of-leftfield suggestions! I'll say it here: no suggestion is out of the question or absurd, as we want to create the best possible Distilled we can, at the most affordable price! Obviously, what that means is some suggestions may not work due to financial, design, or logistical reasons, but they often start the conversation for even more unique and creative ideas, so all are welcome at this Distilled brainstorming table!

We've had some great suggestions already, such as (quoted from backers in comments):

• dual-layered recipe list boards
• central market neoprene mat add-on
• board for solo play's card setup
• custom Distilled glassware
• 5th player addition
• ...and more!

We have some very exciting things planned, and hope we'll be able to make some of them come true. But again, we want to hear what YOU think is best for Distilled as we continue to climb higher and higher!

That's it for our first day, and I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings (y'all might unlock that $115K stretch goal before I'm up in the morning, so you'll just have to sit tight, everyone!)!

Slàinte Mhath*,
  Dave Beck
  Distilled Creator
  Paverson Games

     *Slàinte Mhath - (pronounced Slanj-a-va) is Gaelic, and translates to "Good health". Often used when toasting a dram of whisky in Scotland!