Thank you, we did it!
over 1 year ago
– Tue, Nov 08, 2022 at 12:35:49 AM
Thank you everyone for your support. Last week, we ended the campaign by nudging past the stretch goal for upgraded wooden water and levee chits, so that's an upgrade we'll be adding to the game.
Where Do We Go From Here
So, for our next steps, beyond Kickstarter collecting your pledges, we are full steam ahead on final tweaks and getting the game files into the correct form for the manufacturer. We'll keep you abreast of how that shapes up, but as of this moment, we are on schedule for the timeline we put up on the campaign page.
In terms of Backerkit, we hope to have the Preorder Store open later this week or early next week. This will be for anyone who missed the Kickstarter campaign itself, but would still like to order the game (so if you know someone that applies to, send them the link when we have it). Surveys for current backers will go out later.
We also hope to have the link to Rising Waters on Tabletopia soon. That process took a bit longer than expected, so keep on the lookout for that.
If you have any questions about anything, please don't hesitate to reach out. You can message this account directly, or send an email to [email protected].
Stay safe, everyone. We'll be in touch
Final Two Days!
over 1 year ago
– Wed, Nov 02, 2022 at 02:10:25 AM
Push to the End!
Thank you all so much for getting us this far in the campaign. We are almost there and would love to upgrade the chits for the water and levees. If you can share our game with people you might think would be interested in it, we would greatly appreciate it! We are so close!
We have another diary entry from Scout today as well. This one really looks at the important role design contests played in helping her create Rising Waters. Bonus points: if you read through it and our Kickstarter page you will find out where I (Jon Truitt) was wrong about the full development process. I though her process started with Zenobia. Apologies to the Board Game Workshop Design Contest for that oversight!
Designer Diary – Game Design Contests
I can’t overstate how important game design contests were to the overall development of Rising Waters. Most certainly, the game would not be as strong as it is without all the feedback and guidance I got during those contests.
For me, contests help with several aspects of game design. First, they keep me accountable by forcing deadlines to get things finished. That’s always helpful for me. Second, and more important, you get a lot of eyes on your design and (in a good contest) that goes along with some good feedback as well. Game design contests can also push you into new skills and new ways of thinking about your design for a more public audience, depending on the types of things they require as part of the contest.
I entered Rising Waters in two game design contests before it was signed by Central Michigan University Press. The first was The Board Game Workshop Design Contest in 2020. I had just started designing the game in the fall of 2019, so this wasn’t long after things started to come together. I had entered that same contest the previous year, with a game called Adopt Me! – which is about finding homeless pets homes through homeless shelters. That had been a good experience – although the game didn’t make it to the final round, Adopt Me! had finished 9th out of all the 106 entries that year. In addition, the contest assigned Greg Loring-Albright to be my mentor over the contest. Greg gave very helpful advice as I progressed with the design, and I continue to seek out his help to this day.
For Rising Waters, I had a rougher game that was in an earlier stage of development than Adopt Me! And I really hadn’t had much of an opportunity to playtest or get feedback from many players (remember spring, 2020?). The first round of the contest required a 2-minute pitch video and a short form with a brief description of the game. Neither one of these elements sound particularly complicated, but they are. To do a good 2-minute pitch video (which I haven’t mastered at all!), you need a very clear idea of your objectives with the game, a clear idea of the main mechanics, a usable and visually appealing prototype, good camera and set up skills, and a comfort with being in front of the camera. And being concise, I tell my students, is so much harder than just having an unlimited amount of time. So, this contest required me to develop photography and filming skills, as well as think seriously about editing and marketing. All that on top of the design itself. Phew!
Something must have worked, because Rising Waters made it through to the second round. Here, we had to produce a full copy of the rules as well as a 15-minute how to play video. Now, generally 15 minutes is a good amount of time for a how to play video, but Rising Waters is a pretty heavy game, with some novel mechanics. And I wanted the rules to look visually appealing, and that layout design work was going to take time as well.
Here, COVID got in the way. The deadline for these elements was early August, 2020. Of course, that’s also when our fall semester starts. Unlike some institutions, Troy University was determined to go back in person. We did have to accommodate the reality of the pandemic, however. That fall we had a completely different way of teaching – using “pods” – which meant dividing a class into two to keep fewer people in the classroom, and offering a lot of the class online, particularly lectures. I opted for a version where I would just be seeing a pod once a week for a discussion section, and they’d listen to online lectures to cover the content. The requirements weren’t finalized until shortly before classes started, so everyone was scrambling (more than I usually do!) to get ready on time. I just didn’t have enough time to finish the rules or the video to the standards I wanted. I will admit that I was really disappointed with what I submitted. The video was a mess and the rules just were too rough and unfinished. Rising Waters didn’t fare too badly though. It finished 18th that year overall, out of almost 100 entries.
If you go back through the entries and finalists for the two years that I entered, one thing will stand out to you. Or at least it did to me. There were very few women designers. Most of the people who were entering (and winning) were white men. That, of course, is a problem endemic to board game design, but contests often reflect that.
The next contest that I entered specifically had a goal of addressing the lack of diversity in game design by only allowing underrepresented designers to enter. In addition, the contest specifically focused on historical games. Impressed with the focus and wanting to improve on the design of Rising Waters (as well as address the disappointing end to the contest the previous year), I entered the Zenobia Contest in the spring of 2021. The rules of the contests promised to evaluate the games based on originality, historicity, and gameplay. Early elements of the contest backed this up – the initial submission was a proposal in which we had to lay out the details of the game, but also specify how the mechanics aligned with history. We also had to provide lists of historical references for the games. All of this greatly impressed me – the initial proposal was similar to the assignment I have my students complete when they’re designing historical games. A five minute video was allowed, but not required, so games could be in a much rougher state – even just an idea – than with other contests.
There were about 150 initial proposals to the contest. In the spring, judges selected about 46 to move forward – Rising Waters was one of those. Here’s a graphic illustrating the 46 that made the first cut – and look at what happens when you diversify game designers – an amazing amount of diverse topics! https://zenobiaaward.org/advancing-game-proposals/
As a part of the process, the team assigned Pijus Krüminas as my mentor. Pijus has been an enormous source of support. He’s kind, thoughtful, and incredibly inventive in his thinking about games, and I was lucky to have him in my corner during the contest. He was also very inquisitive and interested in learning new things – I don’t think he knew much about American environmental disasters or African American culture in the New South prior to the game, but he read a lot independently to help with the game. I couldn’t have wished for someone better!
The 46 advancing games had to submit draft rules and a game prototype. Given the continuation of COVID, many of the contestants decided to develop an online version of their game on Tabletop Simulator. Another new skill to be learned! And the judging team held several playtests of the game, with various people reaching out to me for clarifications on the rules as they played. After all this, the judges announced 8 finalists to the contest. Rising Waters didn’t hit this mark, but only by a hair – we finished in the top 12, which was really respectable in my eyes. And, importantly, the game caught the eyes of a wide variety of very prestigious people - including Cole Wehrle and Volko Ruhnke! (I still can’t believe that either of these actually interacted with my game!). The exposure and positive feedback also convinced Jon Truitt, a colleague of mine from Reacting to the Past, to offer to sign the game for Central Michigan University Press, a new game publisher that focuses on academic games.
Overall, again, contests are incredibly valuable – not for the tangible awards – but for the process of developing a game and the feedback and mentoring. I’d recommend it to anyone! If you’re looking for a contest to enter, Cardboard Edison has a continually updated list of them here: https://cardboardedison.com/contests. And be careful – look through the fine print in contests before you enter. You’ll want to know if you’re losing your rights to your game by entering, for example. And don’t be enticed by awards – look for contests that prioritize feedback first and foremost. For those interested, the Board Game Design Workshop contest is an annual affair. Their website is here: https://theboardgameworkshop.com/. And Zenobia will return in 2023! So get working!
Ending Soon! And an Update on European Shipping
over 1 year ago
– Sun, Oct 30, 2022 at 03:14:03 AM
We're careening toward the end of our campaign. Thank you all so much for your backing and support. If you know of anyone in your circles who might be interested in Rising Waters, be sure to reach out to them and let them know about the Kickstarter. You can use the direct link below:
We're a little over $2,000 away from hitting our next stretch goal. Hopefully we can get there and upgrade the water and levee chits.
European Shipping
We are still in the process of lining up our European-based fulfillment partner, but we should have that squared away early next week. However, in working out some of the details with the one we are circling, we are able to give you all some tentative estimates for what shipping to Europe will probably look like during fulfillment.
These bands are in the categories given by the fulfillment center and are bound by the lowest and highest cost states in the category. If you have questions about a specific country, let us know, but we also hope to have it more specifically broken down on Monday or Tuesday and posted to the main campaign page.
- UK Backers: $10-12
- Larger European Markets (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, and Sweden): $13-23
- Smaller European Markets (smaller states and Eastern Europe mostly): $18-$43
- Norway, Switzerland, and Turkey are not included in the categories above (we hope to have specifics there on Mon/Tues as well).
The rates above are for a single copy of the game and are EU-Friendly, meaning there are no additional VAT or customs. Orders with multiple copies will be higher in cost.
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Thanks again everyone. Let's finish up strong!
