Pull tab results and GameTrayz Exploded View Image
almost 5 years ago
– Sat, May 29, 2021 at 01:19:41 AM
Survey Results
WOW! Thank you to the over 3000 backers who participated in the pull tab survey put out last Friday! 65% of you pulled for the tabs to be on the top and bottom sides, so we are all set! Having these on larger boxes has proven to be super helpful to us in the past, we hope you all agree once you receive your rewards. We are truly grateful for all the insightful feedback we received in the past two updates - lots of food for thought!
GameTrayz Development
In the below renderings, you can see a good example of what the trayz will look like and how they will stack up - our little OCD hearts are going pitter patter over here!!
Have a great weekend everyone!
Box Design Inquiry - What are your thoughts?
almost 5 years ago
– Tue, May 25, 2021 at 02:19:05 AM
We could use your input!
We are considering adding pull tabs to the box top to help when removing the lid; these half moon cutouts are typically on the box sides to the right and left of the cover. We have heard some folks don't care for the way the tabs look aesthetically when the game is stored upright on its side when shelved. Another option would be to put the tabs on the top side and the bottom side so they don't show when shelved, but you would have to turn the box to pull the lid off easily.
In the image below you can see the box top design both with the pull tabs in the normal spot and with them switched to the opposite sides.
Let us know your preference in the comments!
A. Give me those tabs! I don't care where they are!
B. The tabs would be nice only if they are on the sides that don't show when shelved.
C. I prefer no pull tabs at all.
Our heads hurt now
almost 5 years ago
– Sat, May 15, 2021 at 01:28:39 AM
So a while back we presented the question “What is the most money the Master Builder can make on a single turn in a 5 player game?”
We thought the answer would be simple, and oh how wrong we were…
The first thought was two players buy rooms priced at 15k, the other two buy the 10K and 8K and then the Master Builder takes 5K instead of taking a turn, for a total of 53K.
Then there was the question of “Well what if they complete an outdoor room?” And then "What if they have the Royal Decree (one of the new expansions) that gives them the power to receive 15K for every completed outdoor room rather than only 10K?"
And then, "What if they bought a bunch of yellow rooms and kept chaining them to keep taking multiple turns?!?"
Now we we were headed down a serious rabbit hole! Every time we tried to come up with an answer, our brains would start to melt!
We went through countless equations starting from answers of 53K to 99K, to 173K, to 217K and on and on and on - each time a new “what if” arose and threw our theory out only to start from scratch again.
Our most recent equation was one that really swung for the fences in the realm of possibility. Basically all the other players would be forfeiting their turns for 5K most of the time to allow the Master Builder to buy up all of the outdoor rooms and corridors (which magically just kept coming out in to the market). Then on their final move they were able to chain an entire market of food rooms together to complete a ton of the outdoor rooms (gaining 15K for each closure with that special Royal Decree).
Our Quality Assurance Manager, Nathan began testing the theory and was able to pull off a move earning him 251K on a single turn! One hallway placement alone closed 5 outdoor rooms contributing 75K! We were blown away but also laughed since this would NEVER actually occur in a game - but what fun to see!
And lastly, the question of “what if there was money sitting on the tiles in the market already?”
That’s when we realized that players could theoretically pass again and again, pretty much forever through infinity, which would provide the Master Builder with infinite income that turn, though he’d have to wait through an infinite number of turns, and the stacks of money on the rooms would be infinitely large, both of which provide slight logistical issues. That is, until we release the Infinite Edition of Castles in a few years (it would be sooner, but there are some thorny production and shipping issues to work out first).
Math is hard.
Testing - Testing -
almost 5 years ago
– Fri, May 07, 2021 at 04:06:03 AM
Playtesting is well under way!
Here is a shot of one of the colossal beauties that came out of the last game we played.
We are super happy with the way things are going so far, just little nit picky things we are catching here and there. Many more hours of reviewing and playtesting ahead but this project is shaping up to be pretty amazing! You will not believe how awesome these weighted swan player markers are!
We like big moats and we cannot lie...
