An urban tile laying game for 1-5 players from the designer of Villagers.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Progress Report #4 - We're going to print!
about 3 years ago
– Fri, Feb 05, 2021 at 04:51:30 PM
Hello people!
I hope you're all OK. We have exciting Streets news, so let's go!
1. Production Samples
The final production samples of all versions of Streets have arrived from the factory and we have approved them for production with only a couple of minor corrections. Here's some photos of the finished articles. I quite like them :p
Deluxe Edition. Mmm, nice.
Wooden money tokens from the deluxe edition. They'll arrive in the bag, ready to play!
Kickstarter promo pack stuff (not including the extra consultant cards). All backers get this!
Component storage boxes.
Wooden components from the standard edition.
The component boxes double as meeple holders during the game :D
Money token punchboards from the standard edition.
Consultant cards & player aids.
The next job is to place the manufacturing order. I am going to make my best guess on how many we need to print based on the pledge manager surveys submitted so far. Just over 90% of backers have answered now so we're close to an accurate number, and I will pad the order generously to avoid shortages.
2. Pledge Manager
If you haven't yet filled in your survey, please do so as soon as possible - if you don't complete it and give us your shipping address, we can't send you anything!
If you can't find the original email from BackerKit with your unique pledge manager link, please try to retrieve it here before you contact us.
A couple of weeks before fulfilment begins, we will lock down all pledges and charge cards for shipping and add-ons. The current estimate for that is May / June, but is subject to change. We'll communicate everything via these updates.
UK BACKERS WITH LOCKED SURVEYS
There are ~300 UK backers who pledged for a copy of Villagers with early shipping. Due to the way BackerKit works, these partially fulfilled pledges are now locked to further changes. We didn't realise this would be the case so it's a goof on our part - sorry about that! Here's how we'll get around it:
If you need to update your address before your copy of Streets is shipped: please contact us with your old and new details at any time before fulfilment begins, and we'll update it for you.
If you'd like to add extra items to your pledge, please make a pre-order here. UK shipping is free, so this is the least messy way to do it. Be aware that your items will be shipped separately.
To be clear, the above issue only effects UK backers who have received early copies of Villagers, and who need to update their add-ons or shipping address. All other backers can access the pledge manager and update items & info as usual until the pledge manager closes.
3. 🇮🇳 India 🇮🇳
I'm pleased to say that we've secured a shipping solution for India. It's part of shipping Zone 5 as detailed on the main campaign page, and I'm told it's a very good, reliable service. Fulfilment will be handled by VFI Asia.
India is now available as a shipping destination in the pledge manager, and pre-orders can be made here.
4. BGG Most Anticipated
Streets made it into the top 5 most anticipated games of 2021, according to the unofficial but hotly contested annual poll on BoardGameGeek! Final voting is now live and you can help us out by voting for Streets here in the Overall, Euro, and Family categories. You must be logged in to your BGG account to cast your votes.
5. Production Schedule
So this is where we're at, another green light!
I made a tweak to the steps for January - March to more accurately reflect the situation. I'll give it a couple of days after this update for more BackerKit surveys to be completed, and then place the order with the factory.
That's all for now. Stay safe and play games!
Love,
Dave
Progress Report #3 - pledge manager is open!
over 3 years ago
– Thu, Jan 07, 2021 at 02:12:38 AM
Hello people!
I hope you've all been keeping safe & well, and enjoying the holidays as much as possible. Let's hope 2021 is kinder to us all than 2020 was. I'm back in the office now and am pushing forward with all things Streets, so let's get into it!
1. Production Schedule
Here's where we stand:
The last entry for October - December 2020 was the creation & approval of blank samples, but we've removed it because we're skipping straight to final samples. We already had fully printed pre-production samples made (the ones we sent out for video previews etc) before the campaign began, so we agreed with the manufacturer that there's no sense going backwards & making blank ones. We do definitely need to check everything is right with the Standard, Deluxe, and Retail editions though, and all the free promo content, so those final samples are being made as I write & should be done before the end of January.
Also, THE PLEDGE MANAGER IS OPEN! (or at least it will be very shortly after I post this update). Let's talk about that.
2. Pledge Manager
If you've used a pledge manager before, you'll know what you're doing, but for those who haven't, here's the deal: many Kickstarter creators, including ourselves, use a third-party pledge manager service to organise pledges and shipping after a Kickstarter campaign. This gives us useful features that Kickstarter doesn't yet offer, like giving backers the ability to adjust pledges, and to charge for shipping after a campaign ends. The pledge manager we're using is called BackerKit - it's the industry leader, and we used it on our last campaign.
What happens now?
Very soon after this update is posted you'll get an email from BackerKit containing your unique link to the Streets pledge manager. It will be delivered to the email address you use for Kickstarter. Click the link in the email and go through the simple step-by-step survey, which will ask you for your shipping information, give you the ability to add extra items to your pledge, and finally tell you how much you owe for shipping.
You can log back in to the pledge manager any time before it closes (sometime in May probably) if you need to update your address or alter your pledge.
If you're in the UK or IE and you already confirmed your address last year, we do need you to do it once again now - sorry about that!
Shipping costs.
Fortunately, we are able to stick to the shipping costs as advertised on the campaign page. This will be automatically calculated for you in the pledge manager.
Retail pledges.
If you're a retailer with a brick & mortar store, you should see our bulk pricing when you go into the pledge manager. If you don't see the correct pricing, please email [email protected] and we'll fix you up.
Missing BackerKit email?
If the BackerKit email doesn't arrive, you can go here to retrieve your unique pledge manager link. You will need to enter the same email address that you used for Kickstarter at the time you backed Streets.
Customer support.
If you're having trouble with BackerKit, please use their support system before contacting us. If the issue is something we need to deal with, they will contact us on your behalf.
Please note that we can't offer personalised support via Kickstarter comments. If you need to contact us about anything, you can do that via [email protected]
3. Most Anticipated Game Of 2021?
Every year there's an unofficial poll over on BoardGameGeek to find what the community there thinks are the most anticipated games. There's a nomination period followed by final voting on the top 50 nominees. Since we have over 8000 backers who I assume are looking forward to the game, I think we stand a chance of making the finals! It's just a bit of fun, but it does give the finalists some free publicity, which is always nice.
Nominations end on January 16th and final voting is from the 17th (my birthday!) to the 23rd. If you'd like to cast a vote for Streets, please go to BoardGameGeek and click the green thumb, as illustrated here...
We could also use some thumbs on the two comments directly underneath the main entry for the game, which are there to nominate it for the Euro, Family, and Artistic categories. They only need 5 votes each to be accepted.
And finally...
Haakon's work on Streets is basically done at this point, but he has not been resting on his laurels. In fact he's currently working on something that may look familiar...
A girl, a boy, a log, and their hog.
I can't say much right now, but we will reveal more in the coming weeks over on the Villagers Community group on Facebook.
Thanks for reading, and we will as always keep you up to date on our progress as & when it happens.
Progress Report #2
over 3 years ago
– Fri, Dec 04, 2020 at 05:02:52 PM
Hey people!
I hope you're all keeping well and playing lots of games. Carly has been consistently beating me at Tiny Towns, and I've been consistently getting my rear end handed to me by unspeakable horrors in my solo plays of Arkham Horror: The Card Game. On the plus side, I had a cinnamon & raisin bagel for breakfast today and it was really nice, so I'm taking that as a solid win.
Anyway, let's talk Streets!
1. Production Process
We've been busy getting all the files ready to go to print, and it's all good news: barring a couple of minor tweaks, all the art & design is complete, and we are on schedule!
So let's do the chart...
So as you can see, the last planned step before 2021 is to approve the blank factory sample. This is one of the final steps our manufacturer will take before going to print: the construction of a full prototype using blank components. We've actually already seen a partial one which was made to figure out how to pack the components of the two editions into the box, but there are a few small updates needed to bring that version up to the final specifications.
This process might still take 2 or 3 weeks because we'll need to go back & forth with our project manager and then wait for the prototype to be sent over to us from China for a final physical check.
Once that's complete, the factory will send digital proofs: PDF files of all the cards, tiles, packaging, and rules laid out exactly as they will be printed. When we approve them, production quality samples of the entire game will be made and sent to us so we can double check the packaging & component quality. We will also have some extra copies made at this point so we can get reviews & other media lined up for the retail release.
2. Pledge Manager
While the final samples are being made, the pledge manager will open for all backers in early January (possibly sooner). This will be your opportunity to edit the items your pledge, pay for shipping, and give us your address details. I'm confident that nothing is now going to radically change the shipping prices that were quoted during the campaign, and if there have been moderate increases here & there, we will absorb them and honour the prices we quoted.
Later in January we will place an order with the factory and head into the mass production phase.
3. Villagers
We have completed shipping copies of Villagers to all UK backers who have paid for them - the last copies should be arriving today & tomorrow (Thursday 3rd & Friday 4th). Thanks so much to everyone who added them in the pledge manager!
As a reminder, you can find answers to most rules questions in the forums on the Villagers BGG page, and if you want to skip the rulebook you can learn the game with the official Villagers rules video from Watch It Played.
We would also love it if you'd leave a comment and an honest rating on BGG once you've played the game a few times.
If you're outside the UK and pledged for a copy of Villagers, it will be sent to you from the relevant shipping hub at the same time as Streets.
4. Rulebook
We now have the final version of the rules! Here's the base game rulebook, and here is the promo pack rules sheet. They are optimised for quick downloading and viewing on screen, and probably won't look great printed out. The image quality on the version you get with your copy of the game will be perfect.
It's not too late to make changes, so if you spot any errors, please let us know before next Monday (December 7th). We have a proofreading thread on the Streets Community page on Facebook, or you can comment directly on the file in Dropbox.
5. Streets on Tabletopia
You can now play Streets online free of charge with Tabletopia! It's been up for a while now but I forgot to share it with you so apologies for that. You can play with friends and it's also set up for solo play. You'll just need to be familiar with the rules as the simulation isn't scripted.
And that's all for now. I will update again when we have the blank samples in hand, or when the pledge manager opens - whichever comes first.
If we don't speak before, have a great holiday, and may 2021 be brighter for us all than 2020 has been. Apart from spending time with my amazing partner & beautiful little boy, working with Haakon on Streets has been pretty much my only highlight of this rotten year, so thanks again to all of you for making it happen in such fine fashion.
Shipping Villagers to UK Backers #2
over 3 years ago
– Mon, Nov 16, 2020 at 11:53:03 AM
Hello people!
I hope you are all well. Things are moving along nicely with pre-production on Streets, and we will update fully before the end of the month.
This update regards the early shipping of copies of Villagers to UK backers at the £1 (no reward) level, and update alerts are only going out to those backers.
Backers at the £1 level did not receive a pledge manager invite because there are no physical rewards associated with their pledge, so Kickstarter doesn't check where they're located, meaning we can't filter by location in BackerKit to send out targeted pledge manger invites. It's disappointing to imagine that humans might be the only sentient life in an unimaginably large and mysterious universe, and here we are dealing with annoying IT issues, but deal with them we must!
It's a messy problem with a messy solution: shortly after this update goes out we're going to open the pledge manager for everyone at the £1 level, on the understanding that we're only currently interested in responses from UK backers who want copies of Villagers to be shipped in November. Invitation emails with personalised invitation links will go out from BackerKit, and the pledge manager will be open for these backers until this Friday, November 20th.
If you don't receive a pledge manager invitation link to the email address associated with your Kickstarter account, you can retrieve it here: https://streets.backerkit.com/
The pledge manger will open again for allbackers in January.
Shipping Villagers to UK Backers
over 3 years ago
– Mon, Nov 09, 2020 at 12:51:33 AM
Hey people!
This is a really quick update regarding the shipping of copies of Villagers to our backers in the United Kingdom. For those unaware, Villagers is Haakon's first game, which was nominated for Best Card Game in the 2019 Golden Geek Awards!
Over the course of today we will send out an email from BackerKit.com inviting all UK backers to the pledge manager. From there you'll be able to add your shipping details, select additional items, or upgrade your pledge.
On Monday 16th November we will close the pledge manager, process outstanding payments for UK backers, and then start shipping copies of Villagers to those who pledged for them.
Yes, have some!
The pledge manager will open again for all backers in January after we've confirmed shipping fees with our fulfilment partners. We are not anticipating any change to the quoted fees, but we want to play it safe. Unless there are significant increases to the fees we quoted, that would be very financially damaging for us, we will absorb any price hikes.
That's all for now - we'll update later this month with another progress report.
