Let's Name a Tile!
over 3 years ago – Sat, Sep 26, 2020 at 11:58:30 PM

Hey people!

Launch day seems like SO long ago, and we've come such a long way, but Streets has just 5 days left on Kickstarter! I honestly had no idea what would happen when I pressed the launch button but we've had a great run so far, and there's still the potential for an influx of new backers in the final days. I just wanted to thank you all so much for joining us, and to let you know that we still have some cool extras to unlock.

Speaking of which, yesterday we unlocked the Board Game Café building tile, and with that we need to decide what to call it. You suggested hundreds of potential names, which Haakon and I have whittled down to our favourite six. We're going to turn to BoardGameGeek to run the voting in a fair & orderly fashion - just click here to review the names and vote for your favourites (you can vote for more than one).

That means we have another item to unlock for the promo pack! It's another building tile, which will bring the total number of bonus tiles to 10! After that we have just one more thing to unlock, but I promise it's a really good thing... or maybe even things!

Designer Diary & Strategy Guide

While we're on the subject of BGG, Haakon has been very busy there. He has posted part 1 of his designer diary and also a strategy guide complete with designer tips hidden behind spoiler warnings if you'd rather discover Streets' hidden depths on your own.

BGG is a great place to keep up with the game after the campaign ends, and we encourage everyone to use the rules forums there to ask questions so that the answers become a searchable resource for the rest of the community and for the people who discover Streets in the years to come.

Interview With The Designer

Haakon did an interview with Tabletop Gaming magazine in conjunction with their virtual convention which is going on this weekend!

About That Upgrade Task

This campaign has been a learning process for me - it's only my third one in 5 years so I'm far from an expert. I wanted to run things a little differently with stretch goals & whatnot, as I talked about in the first update, and what I've found is that social goals & the kinds of tasks we've been doing to reveal upgrades are quite hard to gauge. Too easy and we blow through them in an hour; too hard and once the initial fervour dies down we're left with an insurmountable challenge that ends in chaos on the comments section (my fault entirely!). It was a fun experiment but probably not something I'd do again unless I can think of a better way to go about it. Do let me know in the comments what you think about so-called 'social stretch goals' and what your experience has been of them on other campaigns you've been part of.

So shall we just reveal that upgrade?

I can't wait any longer because I really like this one...

You wanted storage solutions, so we got you...

And that is a good place to leave it for today. We'll be back soon with a teaser for the final upgrade.

Take care & play games!

Dave

One Stretch Goal Falls, Another Rises!
over 3 years ago – Thu, Sep 24, 2020 at 01:24:56 AM

Hi people!

I hope you're doing well. I'm going to keep this one really brief.

A Stretch Goal

We just unlocked some cool illustrated tile dividers for the promo pack - hurrah!

The full art for these is still work in progress, but we'll show you when it's done.

Some New Artwork

Speaking of work in progress, let's take a look at some brand new alternate Consultant art!

Consultants completely change how you play, and the Renovator is no exception. Being able to build on top of existing buildings is super-powerful, but all the Consultants have very strong abilities. The Renovator doesn't work so well in a 2 player game because it puts too much pressure on the other player to enclose streets, so it is restricted to 3-5 players.

A New Stretch Goal!

I'm going to tell you what this one is, several of you have asked for one, and we have obliged - Streets is getting a Board Game Café.

But there's a twist - we want you to name it! The tile will be called "Board Game Café" but the building in the illustration will have a name on it, and that's what we want you to choose. Here's how that will work: suggest a name in the comments of this update. After the goal is reached, Haakon and I will pick a shortlist and create a poll so everyone can help decide the winning name. Can't wait to see what you come up with!

🇨🇦 Canada Friendly Shipping 🇨🇦 

And last but not least, we've chosen Pick & Pack Logistics to provide tax and customs free shipping to all our backers in Canada at every pledge level.

That's it for now - see you in the comments with those name suggestions!

Much love,

Dave

[Amusing Update Title Goes Here]
over 3 years ago – Tue, Sep 22, 2020 at 12:38:08 AM

Hi people!

What do you know, we hit 5900 backers this morning which means we unlocked another building tile! That makes it eight new and unique buildings coming your way in the free promo pack. And we're not finished yet.

Here's what we got...

This magnificent Junk Art Statue definitely follows the emerging pattern of unusual stats & effects, bringing out a tourist and a hipster meeple when played. But its real power lies in being played later in the game, when it has the potential to attract a massive heap of meeples (collectively known as a heaple, as everyone knows).

So what's next? Since we're adding all these tiles, and the game already comes with a set of five tiles that are only used in the 5-player game, it might be useful to organise them in the box a bit better...

But that's not all! After our forgettable foray into song, the unveiling of The Grifter and the unlocking of a handy solo mode player aid card, we should probably come up with something else to add to the base game.

Let me just take this opportunity to tell you that we are adding linen finish to the cards and tiles. We wouldn't want you, our much loved and valued backers, touching anything less. Linen finish is certainly nice to have, but I can't bring myself to make it a surprise unlock. A solo mode player aid card was pushing it, if I'm honest ;-)

I'm glad we got that out of the way, because it frees us up for probably my favourite base game upgrade. We've had a few questions about how the box contents will be organised - we already have a nice bag for the money tokens, and we're on our way to some tile dividers, but what about the meeples and other tokens?

To reveal this one, we'd very much appreciate a total of 1000 new Facebook members / followers across the Streets Community group (currently at 332) and the Sinister Fish Games page (currently at 2008). That's 1000 divided over the two, to be clear. And don't feel like you have to do this - the upgrade is already included in the game, but if you want us to reveal it now then feel free to join us in the nice bit of Facebook.

🇳🇴 Norwegian Shipping 🇳🇴

I'm happy to pass on the news that in association with Grimfield Games, we can now offer cheaper, tax-free, and customs-free shipping to backers in Norway. If we can figure out how to do it in the pledge manager, a free pickup service may also be available, but we can't guarantee that right now.

Shipping to Norway will now cost £7 (about 80 NOK) for Streets, and £10 (about 115 NOK) for Streets and Villagers.

And that is all for now. We have some fun stuff still to come as we approach the final third of the campaign, so I hope you'll stick with us as the clock ticks down to the finale on October 1st.

Speak to you soon!

Dave

Stretch GOAAAAALLL!!
over 3 years ago – Fri, Sep 18, 2020 at 05:48:49 PM

Hello people!

We unlocked another stretch goal just before I went to bed last night. I didn't reveal the unlocked goal because I was really very tired, and these updates take me an extraordinarily long time to write due to my habitually editing and re-editing them a billion times before I publish. And I still make mistakes!

But it was worth the wait, because we've unlocked a very interesting Building tile - the first of its kind in fact...

The Grooming Salon has two different icons on it, so it starts with Parent and Shopper meeples on it, and also attracts both types when meeples move. Say whaaat?!
 

I'll share a little secret with you - some of the tiles we're unlocking are a little wild when compared to the others, and they do some funky things. We think they'll make for some fun surprises as you play, but if you find them a bit much, you don't have to use them.

All this excitement leads us neatly to another tile to be unlocked!

1750 Comments. Our Everest.

It has become clear that 1750 comments to unlock the next upgrade is too high a mountain for us to climb. But climb it we must. I know you're hurting. I feel your pain. The harsh reality of the mid-campaign lull has fallen over us like a wet towel and there is only one way out of it. We'll sing our way to 1750!

We need a little under 350 comments. Bohemian Rhapsody has 377 words.

We've got this.

I've already started -  you reply, one word at a time, but never more than one consecutive word from each person.

Is this annoying? Maybe. Does it have anything to do with Streets? Definitely not. But I don't know of any other Kickstarters that had a sing-song in their comments, so that will be something to tell the grandkids about.

After that we'll get back to proper tasks :D

Speak soon.

Lots of love,

Dave

That Was Fun! Let's Never Do It Again!!
over 3 years ago – Fri, Sep 18, 2020 at 01:38:45 PM

Dear people, and especially anyone who tried to legitimately use the comments this afternoon.

I'm sorry about the singing.

But at least we unlocked an upgrade! In this case let's just enjoy the destination & try to forget about the journey ;-)

Let's have a look at what we won... 

It turns out The Grifter is actually GRIFTR: a sinister AI property investment app running on a hacked tablet, which has somehow managed to acquire itself a face & a crude body and put on a fancy green tie! Does it think it's fooling anyone? Either way, we now have a handy dandy reminder card for the solo mode, and that's what counts.

And We're Live!

Haakon and I are going to play Streets with Nick Welford any minute now. Come & join us on Twitch :D

We'll reveal the new upgrade tomorrow, and I promise we won't make you comment to unlock it ;)

Love,

Dave