December 2023 - Unition's Future
5 months ago
– Tue, Dec 05, 2023 at 08:46:25 AM
Hello everyone and Happy December! Tons to talk about today.
Fulfillment
First, a a quick note that everyone should have received their order by now. If you do not yet have your copy, please reach out ([email protected]) and I'll get it sorted.
What's Next?
Now that we're at the end of this long kickstarter journey, I wanted to take some time to share a bit of the plans going forward in getting Unition more officially out into the retail world and how you can help.
Board Game Geek
As many of you gaming veterans already know, Board Game Geek is a major part of the board game ecosystem and culture. People go there to discover games, evaluate them, ask questions, and post in forums. Each game has its own page with a rating, photos of components, as well as a forum page to post comments or ask questions. This brings me to my next few points.
Rate Unition!
Arguably the most important element on BGG is a game's rating and reviews. Each game's overall rating is displayed in a prominent hexagon next to it's name, and can be clicked on to give people an idea of the game's quality, as well as its strengths or weaknesses. One of the best ways to help independent creators to get noticed in the community is to submit a rating-- it's as easy as selecting a number of stars (1-10), and adding an optional sentence or two to summarize your likes and dislikes for the game.
This would be a tremendous help, and I would greatly appreciate any time you can give. Right now, Unition's ranking isn't showing a number yet because we need at least 30 reviews for it to appear. at the time of writing this, we're at 15 or so. Please keep in mind I'm interested in hearing both the good and bad aspects of Unition, so while ratings of 10 across the board certainly sound appealing, more realistic and organic feedback is better.
Unition's page can be found HERE.
Gameplay Support
Many of you have reached out with questions or rule clarifications. Some of these were about small details, and some were about major game mechanics. I've added two important "OFFICIAL" threads in the BGG forums for Unition: Errata and Clarifications as a way to collect all of the information in one place.
The "OFFICIAL - Errata" thread is a list of error corrections that were found either on the cards or in the rulebook.
The "OFFICIAL - Clarifications" thread is a collection of commonly asked questions that were in need of further (or better) explanation than what was provided in the rulebook.
If you find any errors or have questions about rules not found there, please reach out via email, or post about it in the forum. I'll be keeping an eye on things and will respond to posts that I see.
One final note on support: a few folks have reached out asking about a tutorial video for Unition's gameplay. I had made a video for the kickstarter campaign, but it needs to be updated with the latest components. I'm in the midst of working on that and will post a link when it's ready.
Brick and Mortar Stores
The next step of getting Unition out in the world is to have it stocked at brick and mortar stores. If you have a board game store that you love and want to see Unition on their shelves, reach out via email with your recommendations, and I'll send them some information.
Online Sales
While I do plan to sell Unition online at some point, the first stage is getting it into stores to save folks a bit more on shipping while I get a better solution for fulfillment figured out. In the meantime, If you have friends who would like a copy and can't wait till it hits the shelves, you can still order a copy through thebackerkit store. Preorder prices are still active for a little while longer. It's also currently at $29.99, the last change to get it before the full retail price of $34.99. Consider it a holiday sale!
The Future of Gameplay
A number of have been enjoying Unition enough to ask if there are upcoming expansions, and yes-- there are plans in the works. I don't want to reveal anything too soon, there are some early concepts for two small micro expansions that would add more cards into the game, and one major expansion that would use the base game cards to go in a similar but different direction. Those of you who have read Errant Arcanity, (the lore book), might already have an inkling of where things are headed.
These concepts are really exciting and I can't wait to explore them fully in the near future. If you have any ideas of what you'd like to see, drop a line and let me hear it.
Final Update
There's one more update coming before everything is officially wrapped: a post mortem of the campaign itself. When you all backed the kickstarter, you took a chance on some stranger on the internet and I owe you accountability on the process. I'm writing up a quick report on the behind the scenes: what went right, what went wrong, and what I've learned for the next one. Hoping to have this written up for the end of the year.
Till then, enjoy the game and have a peaceful and happy holiday season.
Mike