BackerKit surveys sent!
over 7 years ago – Tue, Dec 13, 2016 at 06:21:28 PM

Hi Wordsy backer,

Please check your email; you should have gotten your survey from BackerKit! 

This survey will be how you'll be sending me your shipping address. Remember, you'll be able to go back into your survey by clicking this link here to change your shipping address until I lock everything down (which will be around April).

If you have any issues with the survey, BackerKit has a really good customer service department. Just click the "Need help?" link at the bottom of the survey page to get started.

If you have a moment now, please fill out the survey! The earlier you fill it, the easier things are for me. You can always go back and change your address until I lock things down, and that won't be for another few months.

Some other notes:

• You will be able to buy extra copies of Wordsy if you'd like through BackerKit. 
• You can also change your pledge level through BackerKit. If you're at the $19 level and would like to buy at least 3 or more copies of the game, you can up yourself to the $45 pledge level. There should be a drop-down list you can click on at the start of the survey that will let you change your pledge.
• If any of your friends missed the Kickstarter, they can pre-order Wordsy! Pre-order customers will not enjoy the significant shipping discounts that Kickstarter backers had.
• I'm still working on the Wordsy PNP! I should have it ready for you by the end of the month.
• Scott and I are just about done with the rulebook; thank you for all your suggestions! We're turning our attention to the scoresheet and the game box design. Once those are done, we will submit the art to the printer!

Thanks as always for your attention and support. I hope to reach out to you in a few days with the scoresheet design!

Graphics almost done, PNP in progress, check out the rulebook!
over 7 years ago – Fri, Dec 09, 2016 at 11:05:12 PM

Hi Wordsy backer! It's been 10 days since we funded, so I wanted to update you about where we are.

I've been working with graphic designer Scott Hartman on finalizing the rulebook and scoresheet. I'm testing out the final scoresheet design later today, and hope to post something soon.

We're almost done with the rulebook. Here's what we have now. If you can find any glaring typos, I'd hugely appreciate it! (Unfortunately, I'm not in a position to take any feedback regarding large changes to the rulebook; we're too close to production at this point!)

I'm going to work on the full-art print-and-play over the next couple of weeks. I hope to get it to backers who pledged at least $5 by the end of the month. It will become available as its own product sometime in March, but as a backer, you'll get it for free a few months early.

I'll be sending out surveys through BackerKit next week; I'll tell you all about that when you get them. 

I'll also open pre-orders to anyone who missed the campaign. Pre-order customers will not get the large shipping discounts that you backers did, though. :)

That's about it. Please let me know if you find any glaring typos in the rulebook. Thanks to everyone who's helped me along so far. We're getting closer to getting the game in your hands!

Pencils down! We've done it!
over 7 years ago – Wed, Nov 30, 2016 at 11:03:05 PM

Thank you!

Almost EIGHT HUNDRED of you wonderful people have hopped in to get Wordsy. And thanks to you, it's going to happen!

Wordsy means a lot to me, because it's based on Prolix, my first game design. So to see it take another huge step towards existing is amazing and humbling. I can't wait to get this game to you!

So what now?

Kickstarter will now charge the credit card you supplied. There's a chance that the charge will not go through. If that happens (and it's happened to me!), you'll get an email notification from Kickstarter. Follow the instructions listed in the email to switch cards, or to try your card again.

You'll have two weeks to make sure your card is successfully charged, and I'll be following up with backers whose cards are giving them trouble. Unfortunately, I cannot help directly with credit card issues; that's all handled away from me, by Kickstarter. But I can still point you in the right direction.

After two weeks, Kickstarter will give up on credit cards it can't process. I will not be able to send rewards to any of these backers, alas!

The survey

In a week or two, I will be sending out surveys for all tiers except the $2 retail tier. That's where you'll enter your address.

I'll be using a third-party pledge manager called BackerKit for this. This means the survey won't come from Kickstarter directly; it'll come from BackerKit instead. 

With BackerKit, you'll be able to order extra copies of the game, and you'll be able to change your address as much as you'd like. (It'll also let me more easily handle pre-orders for people who missed the campaign. Note that pre-order customers will not get the large shipping discount that you Kickstarter backers did!)

I'll have more instructions about BackerKit when I send out those surveys in a couple of weeks. 

Manufacturing

We've already submitted a bunch of the components to the manufacturer, and hope to start production in mid-December. We will likely finish production in March (there will effectively be no production in February because of Chinese New Year), so the games should start crossing the Pacific in April. 

That estimate puts the game in your hands in late May or early June; I added a one-month buffer for the estimate, which is why the project promises delivery in July. Of course, "estimate" is the critical word here; there are a lot of possible small delays out of our control, so all we can do is plan conservatively and hope for the best.

For now, let's sit back and enjoy our victory. Not every game on Kickstarter meets its funding goal. I'm very grateful that Wordsy will be made!

Less than 48 hours to go, $14K goal hit, and new variants in the rulebook!
over 7 years ago – Wed, Nov 30, 2016 at 10:37:03 AM

We're scampering madly towards the finish line! We have less than two days to go, and we hit our first stretch goal: extra scoresheets in the game box!

Thank you, backers! While I will have replacement scoresheets available to buy or download/print, it will be great to have that many more scoresheets in the game box.

So here's our next stretch goal:

You may be wondering, why this emphasis on pencils and scoresheets? Remember that this isn't a game where you finish playing and one player tallies up the score. Each player needs their own pen/pencil and scoresheet. So that's as many as six pencils and scoresheets per game. 

That's why I put the extra-scoresheet stretch goal first, and why I recommended the $16K stretch goal be pencils in the box. For a long time, I was one of those ne'er-do-wells who never had a pen or pencil on me when I needed to, and I know I'm not alone. If you're playing Wordsy at a convention or a game store, I want to make sure that everyone will have at least a rudimentary writing aid so they can play the game.

So I think this $16K stretch goal will be really nice to hit. It will really help to have pencils in the game box!

And of course, I think the $18K stretch goal is worth mentioning...

This one is going to look amazing. The game box is going to look like a book, so it will be wonderful to have it open like a book as well. I really hope we hit it!

Rules updated with two variants

I've been testing out a couple of variants in the game, and I'm happy enough with them that I've put them in the rulebook draft. 

Variants are delicate things. When I play games with too many variants, I find there's extra work picking exactly how to play, and it's usually easier to just play another (probably better-designed) game.

But variants can be valuable, and I find the best variants are ones that let players control the "magic circle" that everyone implicitly agrees to at the start of the game. A good variant will make a game more social or more competitive, and bring in players who wouldn't otherwise get to try the game.

So, of these two new Wordsy variants, one is a scoring handicap that reins in advanced players. I've been looking for a good variant here for a while, and I'm happy to say I've found one that's simple to use and that doesn't complicate the game for new or lesser-skilled players.

The other variant is an accessible version with no time limit. This is for players with real-life restrictions that prevent them from grabbing a timer in real-time, or for players who don't like timers in their game.

To check out these variants, please go to the rulebook draft and scroll to the bottom of page 9. It's a Google Doc, so you're welcome to comment and make suggestions. Take note of the disclaimer at the start of the rulebook; it is a text-only draft, and graphic design will come later, so please don't worry about things like page breaks or whitespace.

I'll send out another update tomorrow, when we'll be less than 24 hours from wrapping up. In the meantime, keep playing Wordsybot, and let's see if we can get magnetic!

Pencils it is, and we're entering the home stretch!
over 7 years ago – Mon, Nov 28, 2016 at 08:01:32 PM

Over 100 of you voted in the poll, and you spoke clearly: 61.1% of you preferred pencils as the $16K stretch goal. I'm happy to see this, as I think it will help in situations where you're playing the game away from home, and not everyone has a pen or pencil handy. Thanks everyone!

We're entering the home stretch of the campaign. The $14K goal will definitely get hit, and I'd expect to hit the $16K goal. But I really want to hit the $18K goal; that magnetic clasp box will look amazing.

Please do what you can to share the campaign. We only have a few days left, and I'd love to send you the game in a beautiful box!