Solo Mode Video, Upgrade Challenge, and More!
over 3 years ago – Wed, Sep 16, 2020 at 12:06:03 AM

Hello people!

Let's cut right to it - I have goodies to share!

Solo Mode Playthrough Video

Much requested, painstakingly edited, and recently uploaded to YouTube, here is a complete playthrough of the Streets solo mode, recorded live with Haakon playing against his solo AI, The Grifter, and with constant interruptions from my good self.

If you're keen to watch this and would like to familiarise yourself with the rules, they can be found here.

And if you're a Tabletop Simulator user and would like to try out solo mode for yourself, you can find the Steam Workshop files here.

Another Upgrade, Another Challenge

I'm going to be nice and give you a clue as to what our next secret upgrade is. Since we're talking about the solo mode, I can tell you that this upgrade relates to it, and when it is revealed we will learn the identity of The Grifter!

To unlock the upgrade and unmask The Grifter, we're doing comments again! This time, we'll get serious and talk about board games. Answer any or all of the following questions to get the total comments on the main campaign page to at least 1750:

• What are your go-to games for playing with people who are new to modern board games?
• What book, movie, or TV show would you most like to be turned into a board game, and how would it play?
• What is the most fun or memorable moment you've ever had while playing a board game?

To make it slightly easier, you can answer each question as a separate comment. I know, I'm too nice to you.

Villagers Kickstarter Expansion

The copies of Villagers we're offering on this campaign come with the Kickstarter Expansion Pack bundled inside the box. but for logistical reasons we're not making the expansion available as a separate add-on item. However, until September 30th, we are offering free shipping on the expansion via our webstore for anyone who purchased the game via retail and missed out on the expansion. Just use coupon code STREETS at checkout to enable free shipping.

To reiterate: if you've pledged for Villagers as part of this campaign, you are automatically  getting the expansion pack.

Tuesday Livestream on the Unicorn Collective

Tomorrow night (Tuesday 15th) at 19:30 GMT+1, Haakon and I will be playing a live game of Streets with a person named Chris who runs a Facebook group called The Unicorn Collective. This promotional graphic was made by him without my permission and frankly I'm not very happy about it. I will forgive, but I will not forget.

Chris claims he is going to "crush" Haakon and I at our own game, so there is clearly much honour at stake. Please tune in and loudly boo whenever he scores. If he even scores at all. I might just repeatedly flip the table until he disconnects. Whatever happens, it is guaranteed to be a grand spectacle!

And on that extremely sour note I will bid you all a good night. Good night.

Much love,

Dave

Boom! That Was a Stretch Goal!
over 3 years ago – Mon, Sep 14, 2020 at 01:02:50 AM

Hey people!

I hope you're all having a weekend. I'm just finishing one, it was nice!

Today I mostly hung out with the young whippersnapper while Carly built furniture in our spare bedroom. So I now have my miniature painting & streaming gear in a permanent home next to James' art station and Carly's study. For one thing, it's going to make broadcasting live games of Streets much easier. I had intended to do it from the main office at the bottom of our garden, but the internet down there isn't reliable enough so we've had to come up with a plan B. We'll start doing live games this week - watch this space!

Speaking of which, Haakon and I recorded a Streets solo mode live playthrough video on Friday afternoon. I'm halfway through editing a slightly (but not much) tighter version which I'll upload to YouTube soon. An intrusion by my hungry cat and an entirely appropriate academic discussion on the merits of colourful language will sadly not make the final cut.

We passed a couple of milestones on the campaign today: we smashed another stretch goal and reached total funding of over £200,000. Thankyou SO much to the backers who've joined in the past few days and kept us moving forward!

Did Someone Say Stretch Goal?

We've only unlocked a new building tile, and that means new art from Haakon :D

The valuation on this magnificent Candy Shop has yet to be finalised, but I can show you some of the previously unlocked tiles and their unique valuations which add even more variety to the game.

So what about a new stretch goal? I say we keep it going and aim for another new tile...

The Bit At The End

As anyone following along on Kicktraq will have seen, we've entered a quieter phase of the campaign, commonly known as the 'mid-campaign lull'. It's something almost all Kickstarter campaigns experience, where many of the people who were aware of the game and were keen to back it have already done so, and the excitement surrounding the launch has died down, giving way to newer campaigns. While we'll still be working to promote the campaign and bring in new backers, this slowdown is something we expected and we don't expect any big change in pace until the final few days.

I'll be back with an update tomorrow to bring you a new challenge to unlock another upgrade to the base game. We've been in warm-up mode on the challenges so far, so I think it's time we broke a sweat!

Speak soon!

Dave

It's Double Unlock Friday!
over 3 years ago – Sun, Sep 13, 2020 at 08:24:50 PM

Hey people!

What a day: we have not one but TWO unlocks to share with you. That's a pretty good way to round off the week if you ask me.

Upgrade Unlocked!

First up, I gave you a challenge that was obviously far too easy, but still useful in my efforts to collect data on your collective abilities. The results have been logged! So I asked for 500 thumbs on this photo on BoardGameGeek, and you supplied 753 at the time of writing. That's overkill, but I like it ;)

You succeeded in making that image top of the 'Hot' images list on the front page of BGG - the next highest has 44 thumbs. Nice work! 

So I owe you some things... here you go!

We were going to put turn sequence and scoring reminders on the back of the rulebook, but thanks to your overwhelmingly successful invasion of BoardGameGeek we're now including 5 double sided player aid cards (Tarot size: 7x12cm). Streets is definitely easy to teach, but the sequence of events matters, so these cards will help your games run more smoothly, and we can now use the back of the rulebook for other useful reminders.

We will set the next challenge on Monday 14th.

New Consultants Unlocked!

OK, so I admit that 5000 backers was too many, and getting there felt like an eternity. But good things come to those who wait, and as of sometime this morning we're adding two new Consultants to the free promo pack.  Let's meet the Realtor and the Franchisor!

Now we need something else to add to the promo pack, and a new goal. We're going to change the pace so we don't have to wait a week for the next one - so let's add another new building tile at 5300 backers.

Solo Mode Playthrough

Haakon and I will be recording a solo mode playthrough of Streets on Tabletop Simulator this afternoon. Haakon will play, and I'll be there to provide moral support, or to heckle him, depending on how I feel at the time.

We'll upload an edited version to YouTube ASAP so it can be added to the campaign page, but we'll also stream the recording session live on Twitch. If you go to the Sinister Fish page on Twitch and hit the "Follow" button, you'll get an email when we go live. We are aiming for 12:30pm - so around an hour from this update being posted.

Let's Talk

I enjoyed the comments challenge from a few days back very much, and I'd like to keep it going. This isn't to unlock anything, it's just for fun: what is the best thing that happened to you this week?

Tell us in the comments section on the main campaign page :)

I will see you there.

Much love,

Dave

Let's Unlock Some Things!
over 3 years ago – Fri, Sep 11, 2020 at 02:02:47 AM

Good evening, dear people!

Had a rough day, so I'm going to make this one really short & sweet - we have another unlock challenge for you!

This is for another upgrade to the base game that will be included for everyone. It's a little quality-of-life tweak that we hope you'll appreciate and use. To unlock it, we need no less than 500 thumbs on this image I just uploaded to BoardGameGeek...

Let's have it!

Talk more soon,

Dave

Wooden Money: A Clarification
over 3 years ago – Wed, Sep 09, 2020 at 01:00:33 AM

Sorry to bother you again! Just to clarify something from the previous update: we are absolutely definitely still including wooden money tokens with the deluxe edition of Streets. The way I worded it could possibly be construed that we're removing the wooden money. That is not the case! We are just not making sets of money tokens available on their own at this time.

Take care, and don't write Kickstarter updates when you should be asleep :)

Dave