25: NVS Gameplays Review and Interview

About week ago, NVS of NVS Gameplays released 2 videos about Space Frontier. This was particularly appreciated because it was totally unsolicited. He contacted us and offered to do a review of our game because he thought it looked neat. Very flattering.

Speaking of flattering, both his Impressions Video (above) and Overview & Rules Video are overflowing with praise. Makes a game designer feel good. The reason I bring this up however is because I recently had a chance to talk with NVS about his experiences with the Space Frontier Print and Play and conducted a little Q&A session with him. It took him a bit to respond back because he's busy with other review projects, but he did respond all the same. As the person with perhaps the most experience using our Print-and-Play format, I really wanted to hear what he had to say; and he said this:

NVS Gameplays Interview:

Aaron -
What other board games have you played that were similar to Space Frontier?
How did Space Frontier differ from those games?

NVS -

I'm trying to rack my brain for other games that I've played that are similar, but I just can't seem to come up with any. I know I've played games that utilize similar mechanics as Space Frontier, (I'm not the greatest at giving examples, but things like Exploring Tiles from Settlers of Catan, Building Up Your "Fleets" of Workers like Agricola, etc), though Space Frontier has gathered all these game mechanics into one place, and created an amazing game around it. While these other games may have stood out from the crowd with their 1 mechanic, Space Frontier has allowed you the freedom to use whichever mechanic for gaining Influence Points you'd like, so your game is played how you want to play it.

More Questions and answers after the break:

24: Space Frontier Review by UndeadViking

Lance Myxter, the very awesome UndeadViking, has posted a very in detailed Space Frontier review over on his Youtube Channel. UndeadViking has hundreds of board game reviews on his account and also a lot of related content over at 2d6.org. Please do check out his other fine content but in the meantime, watch this glorious review that picks up on all the subtle nuances of Space Frontier's design and tells you how to play as well.

-Aaron Dona,

Freeze Dried Games

23: - Kickstarter Launch Day!

Today is the day.  After numerous trials and tribulations, it is finally here.  Kickstarter Launch Day.

HERE IS A LINK TO OUR KICKSTARTER PAGE!!!

Our Kickstarter campaign is going to run from May 20th to June 28th and our funding goal will be $35,000. That sounds like a lot, but in order to make the game affordable for everyone, a larger print run of 1,500 units is required.  When accounting for start-up tooling costs as well as shipping pallets across the ocean and then to backers, that's the number that it has to be.  What money is leftover John and I will use to finish the game's art.  We have stretch goals planned for over the $100,000 mark, which is probably too optimistic but we'd rather have a plan now then try to come up with one later.  Rest assured that the money will be used to improve game components, add custom dice, and finally miniatures to replace the cardboard cutout fleet markers.

Minimum pledge to get a full copy of Space Frontier will cost $39, but a pledge of merely $1 will give backers access to the Print and Play version of the game so they can try it out for themselves to see if they want to commit to a higher pledge or just to help John and I out on play-testing by sharing their experiences.  If being immortalized within the universe of a board game is your thing, there are also several pledge levels that allow backers to name some important element in the game, such as player factions, planets, or trade guilds.  Finally, if you're crazy, made of money, or just REALLY want to support the project (perhaps all 3), there will be an epic level reward that involves a double sized version of Space Frontier with 3D printed miniatures scaled to fit the new 2X sized map.

To say I'm excited would be an extreme understatement.  Please go check out our page, ask questions, give us feedback, and tell anyone you know who you think might be interested in checking out Space Frontier and potentially helping to make it a reality.

-Aaron

22: May - State of the Prototype

The latest Space Frontier Prototype is done.  So far I've sliced out 2 copies and the only reason I don't have more is my aching hands.  Seriously.  You can only wield a pare of scissors and an Exact-o-knife for so long.

Overall, the game feels good.  Play testing is finding less and less faults in the rules and overall games are completing faster and players are having more fun.  The rulebook was finalized about 5 days ago and despite slight tweaks has remained intact.  I'm looking to get a lot more people to play Space Frontier and so I've been trying to set up a Demo Day over at Card Kingdom in Seattle on the 19th of May.

The Kickstarter launch date is actually even closer than that.  John and I are looking at 2 PM on May 17th.  As of this post, that is less than 48 hours away.  We have a lot to do.  In the meantime however I wanted to show off some pictures of the completed Prototype that has been the fruit of over a year of labor.  I'm quite proud of it and hope that its quality speaks for itself.

I will have more updates soon about our Kickstarter Campaign, the game box, and overall news in the coming weeks.

More Pictures are after the break.

21: April - State of the Prototype

Exciting times in Space Frontier production as our 4th and final Prototype (before the Kickstarter is completed anyway) is currently being printed. I've been working like mad on the cutting mat trying to slice out our game as fast as possible. Looking at the prototype pieces side by side really is staggering.  Our new one just blows every other old prototype out of the water. The map tiles are very difficult and time consuming to cut out but the cards are done.  Next will be market shards and a few other miscellaneous pieces and then... WE'RE DONE!  Cards are finished as of this afternoon and I think it will likely be 2-4 days until the rest is done.  This means that the launch of our Kickstarter Campaign is very close.  Hopefully within the month of May but certainly before the end of June.  I'll post some complete game shots as soon as a complete prototype exists but for now I'll stop talking and start posting pictures.

More Pictures below the break!

20: 1000th Hour

Remember back in February when I promised updates?  I sure do.  I meant it too.  The reason for this posting is because I wanted to showcase progress, but nothing has been finished.  I have been hard at work though and I wanted to express that.  I keep track of my hours worked on Space Frontier, and yesterday I reached a pretty impressive milestone.  Hour 1,000.  This makes sense, considering I've been working on the game for about a year and have spent 20 or so hours a week on average working on it.  I talked to John about this and he asked if I included our time talking about game design on the phone with him and I said no.  We agreed that 100 hours was a conservative estimate.

Point is, progress is being made constantly.  Delays abound, but the core of the game has been looking really solid for a long time and now we're just improving things or tightening the mechanics.  As a final note, I took a screenshot of my computer screen with a lot of the new stuff on it and wanted to leave it here for people to see.

I hope to get a "STATE OF THE PROTOTYPE" done before the end of March, but even if I don't, know that progress is being made and John and I are hard at work.

-Aaron

19: Aaron's Rules Writing

I feel that this song accurately describes Aaron's grammatical abilities while writing the rulebook.

-John

18: Blowing The Dust Off This Blog

December.  It's gone.  And it's been February... It's been February for like a whole week.  What happened to all my promises of productivity and board game completion?  Life.  Life happened.  Nothing more interesting than that.

So does that mean more of nothing?  No!  John's made a special trip up here to work with me.  He's here for 10 days.  During those 10 days we're going to get stuff done.  We have to.  It's our last chance for quite some time and we're going to take advantage of it.  I'm excited.  Excited enough to make this blog post and make more promises of progress even though that backfired on me before.  It's gonna happen.  I'll try to keep things updated here but might be too busy to make that happen until after the fact.  I will however, do my best.  More updates soon.