Villagers - Card drafting & village building for 1-5 players
Created by Dave Clarke - Sinister Fish Games
The official Villagers pre-order store. Draft and build a tableau of villagers to create the most prosperous village. A little game that feels like a much bigger one!
This store closes on 10/16!
Pre-order now to get substantial discounts.
Pre-order the game and get the expansion pack FREE ($10 value)!
Latest Updates from Our Project:
LAST CALL FOR ADDRESS CHANGES!
about 5 years ago
– Wed, May 01, 2019 at 01:34:57 AM
Hi there,
Since we locked the Villagers pledge manager to address changes a few weeks back we have been manually updating addresses of people who didn't make the deadline for whatever reason. This is fine, and we're happy to do it so that everyone gets their pledge. However, we are now reaching the absolute final, FINAL call for shipping address changes.
If you need to inform us of a change to your address, you need to message us privately with the new information here on Kickstarter, or via our website contact form. Please do this NOW!
You can check all your pledge information via the personal link that was sent to you via BackerKit to the email address you use for Kickstarter. The email came from backerkit.com - if you've lost the link, you can request it again here. Failing that, contact us and we can send it to you, but please try getting it yourself first.
Address Change Deadlines
The final date for UK backers to change their address is Thursday 2nd of May.
The final date for backers everywhere else to change their address is Thursday 9th of May.
We are going to start printing address labels for UK backers from Friday 3rd of May, and for backers everywhere else from Friday 10th of May. If you fail to inform us of an address change and your pledge is shipped to an incorrect address, you'll have to wait for it to be returned before we can re-ship it to the correct address at your expense.
20,000 address labels in my hallway.
The ship carrying the first container of games is currently off the coast of Cornwall (UK) on its way to Rotterdam (NL), after which it will come back to Felixstowe to unload its precious bounty. A little bird (specifically, a seagull) tells me that the ship might dock a few days early. We shall see...
I'll post a full, and much more fun update once the first ship has docked and I have a firm delivery date.
Not long now!
Dave
www.sinisterfish.com
Progress Update #11: Ahoy!
about 5 years ago
– Fri, Apr 05, 2019 at 01:27:50 AM
Avast, ye salty villagers!
Why am I talking just like a pirate when it's not Talk Like a Pirate Day, and Villagers isn't a pirate game? It could only be because I lack imagination, and THE GAMES ARE ON A BOAT! This boat, to be precise...
We're not gonna need a bigger boat!
But more about boats in a minute - there's something important we need to get out of the way first.
Last Chance for Shipping Address Changes
At 17:00 GMT tomorrow (Friday 5th April) I will initiate the final lockdown of everyone's pledges, after which you'll no longer be able to update your address yourself. The lockdown will go into effect 48 hours after I click the appropriate button in BackerKit, so you have until 17:00 GMT on Sunday to ensure that we have the correct shipping information for you.
To change your own shipping address, just log into BackerKit and make the necessary update. If you don't know how to do it, send me a private message here on Kickstarter, including your updated address, and we'll look after it for you.
At the time of writing we have 26 unpaid pledges, and 261 with no shipping address. We can't send games to people we don't have payments from, or addresses for! If you don't remember filling out the BackerKit survey for Villagers, you can retrieve it yourself and fix any issues, starting here: https://villagers.backerkit.com
OK, now where we?
Villagers Is On A Boat!
The container vessel Ever Genius is due to sail from its dock at Xiaoyng Island just off Shanghai later today (April 4th), and is expected to arrive at port in the UK (Southampton, I think) on May 6th. We expect to wait approximately 7 days for the container to clear customs, and another few days for it to be collected and delivered to us by truck.
The shipment is so large that we've filled two 40ft shipping containers, the second of which is due to leave China aboard the MSC Eva on April 7th, to arrive in the UK on May 9th.
Through the wonders of the internet and satellites and sky hooks and stuff, you can track these vessels in real time from the comfort of your own toilet...
We're talking in earnest with the experts at Royal Mail about the logistics of getting ~15,000 packages processed efficiently, and it's all looking good. We have a large warehouse space available to us for as long as we need it, so as long as there are no appreciable delays, we should be able to begin fulfilment around the 3rd or 4th week of May. We still don't know what will happen about Brexit, but we are going to assume that whatever occurs, the sky won't fall, so we are continuing with our plans to conduct all final fulfilment from here in the UK.
Since we will be selling the game at UK Games Expo from May 31st to June 2nd, we will prioritise UK backers and attempt to send out all UK pledges before the convention. We will unfortunately not be able to deliver pledges at the event, but hopefully we won't need to.
BoardGameGeek Most Anticipated
With the help of our amazing backer community, Villagers had a fantastic showing in the unofficial BoardGameGeek Most Anticipated Games of 2019 poll. The results were announced and digital rosettes distributed recently - here's our collection!
Another review video came out unexpectedly early, but we don't mind because Anthony & Frances did a wonderful job of showing off the game. Here they are...
Product Photography
A stray preview copy of Villagers recently found itself under the trained lens of photographer & boardgame blogger, Ross Connell. Ross runs a great website called More Games Please, where he interviews board game artists and showcases his wonderful photos.
I wanted some really good photos of the game to use on the Sinister Fish Games webstore and for general promotional purposes, and I think Ross really came up with the goods. So, to whet your appetites for the rapidly approaching fulfilment phase of this project, here is Villagers (and associated paraphernalia) in all its glory.
Base game box. For real this time.
Base game contents.
Base game with Kickstarter expansion & Coin Chest
Expansion content.
The coin chest in its retail packaging.
Coin Chest unleashed!
I am showing you the money! It's right here!
I think that's a good note to end this update on. Things should be fairly quiet for a few weeks, and then everything is going to happen at once. We'll keep you in the loop!
Much love,
Dave & Haakon
Progress Update #10: Update Harder
about 5 years ago
– Fri, Mar 08, 2019 at 02:10:29 AM
Greetings, villagers!
It’s only Progress Update #10! Let’s dive right in shall we?
Production & Fulfilment
The factory manager at Whatz Games tells me they are on track to finish production of Villagers before the end of this month, ahead of the earlier estimate. If everything goes to plan and there are no delays at port, we could be taking delivery of the games early in May. I don’t like to rely on predictions too much so let’s remain hopeful and see what happens.
We have started our logistical planning so that whenever the games arrive, we’ll be ready to start shipping them out to you as soon as possible. At this point I don’t know how long it will take to complete the process, but rest assured we’ll do everything we can to make things go as quickly & smoothly as possible.
We will accept address changes up until a few days before we start shipping.
There are still 300 backers who haven't completed the survey. This means we don't have an address to send your pledge to, so you won't be getting your game! If you don't remember filling in our questionnaire and adding your details, please double check via the link above.
Early Reviews
As I told you some time ago, we sent a number of early copies of the game to reviewers. These review copies were duplicates of the production samples we had made a few weeks ago, so they did have a couple of errors which were subsequently corrected before mass production began. Most noticeably, the wooden tokens in the sample expansion pack are only printed on one side. In the final version, they will be printed on both sides.
Most of the reviews won’t be coming out until May, but until then there are a couple of unboxing videos and a full review from Tom Vasel of The Dice Tower; you can see what he thought here…
We also sent a copy to the guys at The Secret Cabal. They’ll be doing a full review in May, but in the meantime they’ve been playing the game, and have talked about it on episode 178 of their podcast, starting from 07:40.
Rodney Smith from Watch it Played has completed his tutorial video, and he’s done a really excellent job. We’ll share the link with you as soon as it goes live in May.
We’re expecting other reviews to drop in May from Ant Lab Games, Man vs Meeple, Rahdo, 3 Minute Boardgames, Rolling Solo, Tabletop Gaming Magazine, and more!
UK Games Expo
I hope to see lots of you at UKGE this year! You'll find us in Hall 2 not far from Fantasy Flight Games and CMON. We’re right next to CGE on Stand 2-412. Haakon and I will be in attendance for the whole event, food and bathroom breaks notwithstanding.
If they arrive in time, we will take copies of the game with us to sell at the convention, and it is possible that this will happen in the middle of our fulfilment process. I know this won’t sit well with some of you, and if so, I sincerely apologise in advance; we didn’t plan it this way. Big conventions like this are very expensive for us to attend, so it’s vital that we have stock to sell. Our plan is to send out pledges to UK backers before the convention. Offering pickup at the event will be a logistical nightmare for us due to the potential numbers involved (we have over 3000 UK backers), and the fact that we’ll only be able to transport and store 2-300 copies of the game. In an ideal world, we’d like to send out all Kickstarter pledges before UKGE, but there might not be time for that. We will do our best.
It is probably worth mentioning that retail sales of Villagers will not begin until we are completely finished sending out pledges to each & every Kickstarter backer. The only exception to this is retail stores who backed the Kickstarter, in which case we treat them just the same as other backers. Pre-orders made via the Sinister Fish website will be fulfilled after Kickstarter backers.
As always, I’m happy to discuss details in the comments.
The next update will be posted when the games are on the boat!
PS: Apologies to anyone who was hoping to see us at Airecon in Harrogate this weekend. We've had to pull out of this year's event, but we'll be back for AireCon 6 in 2020!
Progress Update #9: SPOILERS!
about 5 years ago
– Wed, Jan 30, 2019 at 02:04:59 AM
Dear villagers,
The production samples have arrived at my house!
Short version of this update: IT'S BEAUTIFUL.
Long version of this update: The following photo-story will hopefully illustrate some of the splendour contained within the modestly sized box I have before me. Please forgive my less than optimal photography - I've sent a copy of the game to a professional photographer who tells me he is the owner of an actual real camera, so I'll have some better shots at some point.
If you want a spoiler-free experience of opening the game when it arrives in a few short months, look no further than the following production schedule thingy.
Mass production begins mid-February, after the Chinese New Year holiday.
A box arrived from China, causing some surprise.
Contained within said box were more boxes.
Contained within said box within said box, was another box!
Extra protection for the corners. The packing carton itself is double walled cardboard.
25 x 8.5 x 10.5cm of goodness!
That panoramic art though!
A box, a box, and another box.
Kickstarter Expansion Pack with baby for scale. One Kickstarter Expansion Pack was harmed during the making of this image.
What a lovely coin chest you are!
Wooden loot!
Rulebook & punchboards.
Base game cards & dividers in one of the two organiser crates that come with the game.
Village Square cards, front & back.
Base game & expansion cards & dividers, plus the four wooden tokens in one organiser, leaving the other free for coins.
The reverse sides of the dividers tell you what cards they divide.
The Founders, literally so in the case of the four on the outside, who are Villagers backers!
The starting six, and some very festive market cards.
Basic villagers, showing both sides of each card.
Some of the cards that were changed since the Print & Play. The Mason got nerfed!
Solo mode event cards. Can anyone smell roasted pork?
The Countess and her court jester, to whom there is more than meets the eye.
Cards from the Developments expansion.
Cards from the Saints expansion.
Cards from the Scoundrels expansion.
Cards from the Profiteers expansion.
Cardboard coins vs wooden coins.
So there we have it - I hope you're as happy as I am with everything. Other than two small mistakes we didn't catch in time (which will be corrected in the final production version), it all looks good to me.
Finally, thanks so much to everyone who voted for Villagers in the Board Game Geek Most Anticipated Games of 2019 poll - we finished 4th overall, did really well in every category we were eligible for, and came first in the "Family & Children's" category. Not bad going for a first-time designer and a second-time publisher I reckon!
There won't be much to report for a few weeks, so the next update will probably happen when mass production is finished, which we expect to be around the end of March. I will of course let you know if anything important or interesting happens.
Thank you all once again for your support - we will speak again!
Love & stuff,
Dave
Progress Update #8.1: One More Thing...
over 5 years ago
– Wed, Jan 23, 2019 at 12:19:07 AM
Dear villagers,
This is going to be really quick mini-update, which is happening because I forgot to mention something important in the last one.
I'm not the project manager you need, but I am the project manager you deserve ;-)
Production Samples
Very briefly, the production samples are on their way to me via FedEx. As I write they are at Narita Airport in Japan, and are due to arrive at my home on Monday January 28th. All being well, I will update you with a full report, pictures & everything, on Tuesday 29th. I'll schedule a video livestream as well once I definitely have the samples in hand.
I need to remind you about this now because the deadline for votes is January 27th - that's this Sunday coming, before I'd planned to do the next update, so you see my dilemma. I should have just mentioned it last time, but I didn't, and here we are.
Anyway, I know many of you already voted because Villagers is doing quite well and is currently #1 in the "Family & Children's" and "Solitaire" categories, so huge thanks for that!
If you haven't cast your votes yet, and you have a BoardGameGeek account, please consider voting for us. To cast your votes, go here and scroll down the list of categories, giving a tick for Villagers in each of "Overall", "Original / Innovative", "Crowd Funded", "Family & Children's", "Solitaire", and "Artistic".
Clicky boxes!
After ticking the relevant boxes, go to the bottom of the final category ("Best of the Rest") and hit the "Vote" button. This will really help us get some extra attention for the game in the run up to its release, so we're really thankful for each & every vote.
That's all - we'll get back on track next week, see you there!
