The halfway point, plus part 2 of the comic!
almost 5 years ago
– Fri, Jul 12, 2019 at 12:36:29 AM
Hey everyone,
Happy mid-campaign day! OK, so the middle of the campaign was technically yesterday, but I wanted to wait for part 2 of the comic to go live before sending out an update.
Spreading the word
Over the past 2 weeks we have gained over 4,000 backers for The Isle of Cats and this is incredible! Thanks to your continued efforts in telling people about the game, I have been able to add more cards, tiles, and some new artwork, making the game that little bit better!
We now have over 170 tiles with unique artwork on them, here are some of the ones you have unlocked:
A lot of people have been asking me how they can help spread the word, and now we are halfway I thought I would write a top 5 list of things you can do:
1. If you belong to any board game groups on Facebook, it would be amazing if you could share the project and let people know why you are backing it. If we get a few posts in different groups today, it'll help increase conversation across the entire community and help more people find the game.
Please don’t just spam the groups, make sure you add more than just a link and try to encourage conversation. It's important we give a good impression!
2. If you use Board Game Geek, you can thumb The Isle of Cats entry on the Gen Con Preview list, assuming you are looking forward to the game!
3. If you use Board Game Geek, you can thumb any images on the game page, this helps more people see them.
I would recommend the following 3 images:
https://boardgamegeek.com/image/4777591/isle-cats
https://boardgamegeek.com/image/4782364/isle-cats
https://boardgamegeek.com/image/4805323/isle-cats
4. If you use Twitter, why not tweet me a picture of your cat with a message about The Isle of Cats! I would love to see them all and it will help spread word about the game at the same time.
5. Finally, if you don’t use any of these platforms, you can simply tell a friend who you think might enjoy the game!
Remember. You don't need to do any of this, but it certainly does help!
Comic part 2
Last week Semi Co-op released part 1 of their adventure to the Isle of Cats, today I am pleased to share with you part 2!
Please make sure you visit their website and leave a comment to show your support!
Your lessons
A few days ago, I asked you to suggest lesson cards which could be in a future version of the game and wow did you come out in force! It was amazing to see so many great ideas being suggested, and I would recommend people check out the suggestions. I’ll be keeping an eye on the post, so if you’re new and would like to submit your own ideas, it’s never too late. Hopefully some of these will make it into a community expansion in the future!
Until next time
I hope you have a fantastic couple of days and enjoy your weekend, I’ll be in touch again soon.
Remember if you are in Manchester on Saturday I will be at Fan Boy Three all day with the Isle of Cats, please come and say hi!
- Frank
What's your lesson?
almost 5 years ago
– Tue, Jul 09, 2019 at 02:38:45 AM
Hey everyone, I hope you had a great weekend!
We are approaching the halfway point for the Kickstarter and I'm in shock with how this last week has gone. There has been so much incredible discussion in the comments, people have been giving amazing ideas, sharing the game, and we've flown past £200,000. I know I say it a lot but thank you! You've no idea how much this means to Sara and I. I can't wait to get the game to you and promise to do everything I can to get it there as quickly as possible.
What's your lesson?
One thing I love about Kickstarters is all the amazing ideas people have to offer, so today I would like to ask you a question.
If you could add 1 lesson card to the game, what would it be?
Lesson cards are goals which players set themselves during the game, you can read more about them on an earlier update.
Don't worry about balancing the numbers, I'm more interested in your ideas for objectives and to see what you can come up with!
To get your started, here are a few that are already in the game:
- 12 points if there are no empty spaces at the edge of your boat.
- 7 points if you have covered exactly 3 treasure maps.
- 1 point per treasure on your boat.
- 2 points per visible rat on your boat.
- 9 points if you have exactly 9 red cats on your boat.
- 15 points if you have at least 3 of each colour cat on your boat.
The best kind of lesson card is one that makes you do something different to normal, something that forces you to make a decision and not something that just gives you points for playing normally.
I look forward to hearing your ideas.
Play The Isle of Cats in Bristol and/or Manchester!
I have arranged two special days to give people the opportunity to play The Isle of Cats in the coming weeks.
I really hope to be able to see some of you there!
Until next time
In the next update I'll be talking about some fun things, and hopefully sharing the next comic! Until then, keep up the amazing work and I look forward to reading your lesson ideas!
- Frank
The 5 & 6 player expansion, plus our new comic!
almost 5 years ago
– Fri, Jul 05, 2019 at 02:26:13 AM
Hey everyone,
Have you heard of Semi Co-op? They make fantastic comics about the board gaming hobby, and they also love cats! Last month at the UK Games Expo I thought it would be great to team up with them and create a 3-part comic for The Isle of Cats, today I am really excited to reveal the first part!
You can see a larger version of the comic here, and also, please leave comments for semi co-op to show them your support.
I look forward to sharing part 2 with you next week.
The 5 & 6 player expansion
One of the questions I get asked a lot is "Do I need the 5 & 6 player expansion if I'm not going to play with 5 or 6 players?", so I wanted to answer this in an update to make sure everyone has the information they need to make a decision.
What is in the 5 & 6 player expansion?
To keep this as clear as possible, I have categorised the items into things you can use with 1 - 4 players, and things you can only use with 5 - 6 players.
Things you can use with 1 - 4 players
40 unique cat tiles
The 40 cat tiles are completely unique, they have new artwork and are all entirely new shapes. These add a huge amount of variety to the possible cats you can pull out from the bag (increasing the quantity by nearly 50%), and of course give you more cats to look at.
10 rare treasure tiles
While these are the same as the rare treasures already in the game, if you add the 40 new cat tiles to your discovery bag, you will also need to include these tiles.
2 unique Oshax tiles
The 2 Oshax tiles are completely unique, they have new artwork and are unique shapes.
2 player boats
Each player boat is unique in that the position of rats, and colour of treasure maps does change. This means your options will change depending on which boat you are using, some strategies do work better with different boats. As a result, I do think the additional boats add more replayability to the game, even for solo players.
70 cards
The 70 Discovery cards contain 2 new lesson modules which can be used like any other lesson modules, you can switch them in and out of your game as desired.
The other cards can be added to your deck, and will provide additional options, but I only advise this for 4 players or more.
Things you cannot use with 1 - 4 players
1 Oshax Meeple
This is used for player turn order only, in the base game there are only enough pieces for 5 players*. Technically a player could still use this piece, but it doesn't add anything to the game in terms of new content.
*The Kickstarter Pack, which is included with every pledge on this Kickstarter also includes 1 Oshax Meeple, so you will already have a special one!
16 common treasure tiles
The common treasure tiles are identical to those already in the retail version of the game, in the base game there are only enough to support 4 players.
20 fish tokens
The fish tokens are identical to those already in the retail version of the game, in the base game there are only enough to support 4 players*.
*The Kickstarter Pack, which is included with every pledge on this Kickstarter also includes upgraded fish and provides enough for up to 6-players!
Summary
The 5 & 6 player expansion was primarily designed to allow more players to play the game, but as a result it does contain new content which can be used by even a solo player.
If you have no intentions of playing with 5 & 6 players, than you can just consider this to be an expansion, as I believe the new cat and Oshax tiles, along with the player boats and lesson modules, provide a large amount of additional content that will give you countless hours of additional play.
With that said, there is plenty of content in The Isle of Cats to keep you going for many nights of gaming without the need for additional content. The expansion is certainly not required, and will be available after the Kickstarter via my online store, and hopefully other places as well!
Until next time
On Saturday I will be at TING a local convention in South West England demoing The Isle of Cats, if you are going please come along and say hello. I am also in the process of organsing a few other events around England to give people the opportunity to play the game over the coming weeks.
I continue to be surprised by how many new people are joining the project each day, it's broken all expectations and I thank you for the continued support in spreading the word.
Have a fantastic couple of days and I'll update you all again soon!
Frank
Introducing lesson modules!
almost 5 years ago
– Tue, Jul 02, 2019 at 02:47:11 AM
Hey everyone, I hope you had a good weekend?
Thank you to everyone who joined me on the live stream on Saturday, it was fantastic to talk with so many of you and play The Isle of Cats. I will be doing this again soon (on YouTube) and will let you know the details in a future update!
Today I would like to talk about lesson modules, one of the ways you'll be able to extend the replayability of The Isle of Cats and keep every game fresh. But first, lesson cards!
Lesson cards
Lesson cards are one of the most important parts of The Isle of Cats and will influence every decision you make.
They give you personal goals which will reward you with points for achieving them. Each lesson card is unique and it's up to you to choose which you should try to achieve, and which you should avoid.
This means each time you play, rather than trying to fill your boat, you will be trying to achieve a handful of small objectives which when combined, create your own unique puzzle.
In the standard game there are 38 lesson cards (including public lessons), and 14 of those are considered core, so they must be included in every single game you play.
The remaining 24 cards are made up of 3 lesson modules.
Lesson modules
Lesson modules are sets of 8 lesson cards which can be switched in and out of the game.
In a 1-4 player game you will always need to have 3 lesson modules shuffled into the discovery deck, but you can pick and choose which ones to include!
The first time you play you will likely want to include the ones which come as standard with the game, but after your 10th play? Perhaps it's time to shake it up a bit and start switching which lesson modules you use.
As standard, the retail version of the game doesn't come with any extra lesson modules, but today I am pleased to announce a new stretch goal, which will add a lesson module to every Kickstarter Pack!
Overtime more lesson modules will become available, but for now I am very pleased to be able to offer this first small expansion as part of the Kickstarter Pack as a thank you for your continued support through backing and sharing the campaign. We've just got to unlock it!
If you have any questions about lesson modules, then I'd be happy to answer them in the comments below!
Until next time, thank you for the continued sharing of cats on Facebook and Twitter, I'll be sending another cat update soon!
- Frank
Play The Isle of Cats with Frank today!
almost 5 years ago
– Sat, Jun 29, 2019 at 03:26:40 PM
Hey everyone,
What a fantastic few days! It's hard to believe that we have already broken 2,000 backers, £100,000 and have shared over 100 photos of cats!
Earlier in the week I introduced myself, and then you shared your stories too, so now we know each other I think it is time for the next step.
Would you like to play a game with me?
At 19:00 BST (14:00 EST, 11:00 PST) I will be going live on Facebook and would like to invite you to play The Isle of Cats with me. The chat will be helping me decide which cards to select, the cats we will rescue, and experience the game as a player.
The purpose is simple, I'd love you to get an idea of what it is like to play the game, so if you are free please join me!
In the future I will look to do a stream on YouTube as well, but this time around Facebook will be the platform of choice.
The Isle of Cats in the media
Over the last few days The Isle of Cats has spread across the internet, a huge part of this is thanks to you and the sharing you have been doing. I'm seeing more and more people talk about the game and would love to share some of what they have been saying.
Until next time
In the next update I'm going to start talking a little more about gameplay, but until then, please remember to keep sharing your cats on Twitter and Facebook!
- Frank
