Guys... at the last minute we got a patron who put us over the edge! More to follow soon
almost 5 years ago
– Thu, May 16, 2019 at 05:03:48 PM
Hey everyone,
Well, that was unexpected! I got woken up a few minutes ago by a text from an old friend saying he wanted to make sure this project became a reality. So... it looks like we're going to fund! I will post more details later, but wanted to get this quick update out in the final minutes of the campaign. This was an unexpected surprise, and a welcome one - more to follow soon.
- Mickey
Important update! Thank-you gifts, where we're at, and where we're going
almost 5 years ago
– Thu, May 16, 2019 at 06:29:20 AM
Hi everyone,
So, a have a few exciting things to talk about. First, I want to give you an update about where we're at. We've crossed 10k funding, and that's amazing! I'm so happy with the support this project has generated. But, as you know, this is still a long way away from 24k... so should we be worried?
I've been saying all along that I'm excited about our pace, and that we're on track to fund. Here's why:
That's a screenshot from a tool called "BackerTracker" that tracks the funding progress of Kickstarters and estimates where they'll end up at the end of their campaigns. For the most part, kickstarter campaigns tend to follow a similar curve - a big chunk of funding the first few days, a bit of a flattening out during the middle, and then a rise toward the end. With the caveat that it's impossible to really predict the future... well, if our campaign continues on this pace, we could be in good shape! For the past week BackerTracker's prediction of our progress hasn't changed: it's hovered around a few percent of within us hitting our goal, sometimes higher and sometimes lower. But those light purple regions represent uncertainty... and it means that it's going to be close.
So this is part of where my optimism comes from, but it also means that every single backer counts. If we hit our target, it could be because a single person decided to jump on board a pre-order a copy of the game! And that means that every one of you can have a big impact.
This is part of why I've decided to make thank-you gifts for everyone who's supported this campaign, and will continue making thank-you gifts for everyone who supports it in the future. I got the tools to make these gifts on Friday, and spent a long weekend setting up a little assembly line, cutting out planet fact sheets, stuffing envelopes... it's been a pretty fun few days of arts and crafts :D
So I've been making buttons! And I've made 24 different versions, each with a different world, and a little miniature printout of part of its entry in the companion book. Every backer will get one of these buttons - just a small thing, but I hope it gets you excited about all the other worlds you'll be able to experience when we can finally produce this game for real.
And here's my ulterior motive. I hope to mail these out on Monday, and I hope you'll get them a few days after that*. Once you get that button, you can help the campaign so much by just wearing it! And then when your friends and coworkers ask you "hey, what's that button you're wearing all about?" you can say "oh, that's Iapetus, Saturn's most distant moon! It's a thank-you gift you get for supporting this great new board game on Kickstarter called Brave New Worlds, which you should TOTALLY go support because it's great!".
So that's part of my plan: if you wear the buttons, you can help a lot by spreading the word! But also, buttons and planet fact sheets are just fun, and I'm excited to just be able to give everyone who supports this campaign a little something to let you know how much I appreciate your support while we wait for the real game to be manufactured.
What else am I planning for these final few weeks? Well to start with, more advertising - for the past week I've kind of put facebook ads on hold while some components were redesigned. This week I start ramping up again, which should help drive a lot of interest. We'll also be getting Brave New Worlds mentioned in a few astronomy department newsletters, and I'll be continuing to reach out personally to every friend, colleague, and former teacher I've ever had. And that brings me to the second thing you can do to help out this campaign.
Personal connections matter *so much*. If you can think of just 1 or 2 people who you think would love this game, and send them a personal email, linking to this kickstarter page and this update, and explaining how much of an impact their pledge will have on our success... you could help out in a huge way. Sharing on facebook and posting in your status is amazing and really helpful! But personal emails are even better :) That's what I'll be focusing on for much of next week (in addition to making more traditional ads), and I'd love it if you could do the same.
Anyway... just wanted to lift the curtain a bit and show you why I'm optimistic, and how I think we can reach our goal. It's going to be close! But we'll get there. And if we do *really* well... we might even be able to unlock those silk-screened cloth tile bags :D
- Mickey
*For my backers outside the US: I'm sending you buttons too! But, full disclosure, they might arrive a little later than those for my US backers. I'll try my best to get them to you before the campaign ends!
Buzz Aldrin's editorial in today's Washington Post... you should read it!
almost 5 years ago
– Thu, May 16, 2019 at 06:23:53 AM
Hey everyone,
Usually when I post an update it's to let you know about progress on the design of a new component, or a new funding milestone we've reached. Tomorrow I *will* be posting an update like that, because I have some exciting news about a thank you gift for all of you who've backed already... and it's going to be great, and I'm excited about it, and I can't wait to tell you :D But that's tomorrow - today I just want to send you this article:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/05/01/buzz-aldrin-its-time-focus-great-migration-humankind-mars/
If you've ever been unsure about why we explore, why we bother sending people out to risk life and limb to set foot on new worlds... hear what Buzz has to say. I can't wait for humans to return to the Moon, and I'm so excited for us to finally step foot on Mars. But there are half a dozen more planets, 2 more dwarf planets, 18 moons, and literally dozens of tiny moonlets, asteroids, and comets that have been visited by spacecraft but never seen with human eyes. And hundreds more lurking out there just beyond the threshold of detectability.
I want to visit them all. But... until that happens, we'll have to settle for discovering them in Brave New Worlds :)
Anyway! Check out the article by Buzz Aldrin for a really inspiring read, and get ready for an update tomorrow, can't wait to share it with you.
- Mickey
Five new worlds! An update on the companion book
almost 5 years ago
– Thu, May 16, 2019 at 05:46:44 AM
Hey everyone,
Just a quick update today. Obviously there's a ton of work that goes into running a successful kickstarter. Building a great game, finding an amazing artist, play-testing, soliciting feedback, going through design iterations... that's a huge part of the battle. And next is the logistical side: finding a manufacturer, negotiating shipping rates, setting timetables. And then there's promotion (maybe the toughest part?): designing ads, targeting different groups of people, reaching out to personal networks, plastering hundreds of posters around your university campus (maybe that last one is just specific to me...).
But I also wanted to ground this game in real science, and give people the chance to really experience the worlds that form the playing surface. So it was important to me that every copy of the game come with a companion book that would tell you all about every world you'd visit. I had finished work on nearly all the major worlds that would feature in this book when I launched this Kickstarter... but I'd been holding off on the major moons of Uranus. Because (1) there are **5** of them (that's a lot), (2) basically all the information we have about them comes from images taken during single flyby in 1986, and (3) because the moons are so dark and were so far away during the flyby, the images we *do* have are relatively fuzzy. So for all those reasons the moons of Uranus presented a bit more of a challenge, and I was dragging my feet...
Anyway, long story short: we now have a chapter on the moons of Uranus!
If you'd like to read through the preview version (which, full-disclosure, hasn't yet been fully edited and checked for typos), you can click the image above or just follow this link.
There are only two major moons left to cover in this book: Charon, Pluto's binary pair partner, and Luna - our own moon. Beyond those, I *will* also devote space to all the asteroids, comets, and little moonlets out there in the solar system, but these tiny worlds will get a little less page space - a few clustered to a page, rather than 2-4 pages per world.
Anyway! There's much to do, but we're on track, and it feels good :) Looking forward to another exciting week! I'll have some advertising news to share in a few days I think - stay tuned!
- Mickey
New player reference card designs! And 33% of the way to our goal, it's been a good week :)
almost 5 years ago
– Thu, May 16, 2019 at 05:46:24 AM
Can you believe it's only been 1 week? We've accomplished a ton in a really short amount of time, and for that I'm so grateful. And I wanted to post a quick update on where we're at, creatively and funding-target wise.
Last time I posted an update it was about a change I was planning to make to the miniatures, to bring them in line with a more realistic view of how human exploration might actually happen. Today I want to share with you a new design for the player reference cards:
I had been concerned with the look of the old reference cards for a while, but after feedback from you I finally decided to take action and work to make these look a lot nicer and mesh better with the overall feel of the game. These cards ultimately will be double-sided, with the tops looking like they do above and the bottoms listing the "advanced play" special abilities unique to each space agency. I'll continue tweaking the design, and would would love to hear your feedback! I've spent years designing and tweaking this thing, but it's really amazing how quickly progress happens when you're getting feedback from the entire world :)
Funding target-wise, we're 1/3 of the way to our goal, and have hit nearly 100 backers! That's amazing. $24k is still a long way off, but believe it or not we're **on track** to hit our target! But I want to make sure. So I've spent the past few days spamming every university physics or astronomy department I've ever had any connection with, reaching out to old friends, and printing up these flyers, which will soon be plastered around my neighborhood in Chicago:
It will be a marathon, not a sprint - but I'm confident we'll get there.
Anyway... it's seriously difficult to believe it's only been 1 week. We've already accomplished so much. Thank you everyone for your support and belief in this project. I really can't wait to share this game with you and continue exploring the Solar System.
- Mickey
