Roll Camera was nominated for Game of the Year at SXSW and I need your help!
about 2 years ago – Fri, Feb 04, 2022 at 10:15:19 AM

Roll Camera! was nominated for Tabletop Game of the Year at SXSW!! 

Now, I don't know how big a deal this is in the board game industry, but as a filmmaker this is pretty amazing. I always wanted to go to SXSW! Never thought it would be with a board game 😂

The results are partly determined by vote, so make your voice heard! 

Now, I know what you're thinking: "Mal, I love Roll Camera and all, but Oath / Cascadia / Dune / TTYKM are on that list." I KNOW RIGHT?? Believe me, I know. It's incredible I'm on the same list as these amazing games. The good news is, we all know Oath is going to win, so you can vote for Roll Camera guilt-free! 🥸🥳😇Or just vote for your actual favorite, dang it!

Thank YOU for helping this happen. It 100% would not have happened without your support, so - yeah. Thank you so, so much.

Your pal

Mal

Artwork completed! White box is here!
about 2 years ago – Thu, Feb 03, 2022 at 12:07:25 PM

Hey filmmakers!

All the artwork for the B-Movie Expansion is done.

Hoo boy, that was quite a project. I calculated it took me the equivalent of six full time 40-hour weeks. But I did it by the end of January, as I'd hoped! Yessssss.

Now I'm in the process of assembling the files for the factory and our localization partners. Actually the files are 90% done - the only thing remaining is to ensure everything meets the new bureaucratic requirements imposed by the UK as of this year. It's a real pain. Obviously I'm not alone in feeling that way, but it's especially frustrating because there are literally no other countries in the world that have the type and depth of requirements that the UK is asking. It's cheeky, is what it is. It's right cheeky!!

But whatever, everyone has to deal with it, so I will, too. Might just mean a grumble now and then.

Anyway, enough of that, check this out!

The white box has arrived

I always like getting the white box. It's the first look at the game as a final product - the first time you get that feeling of, "oh hey! This is gonna be a real thing in the world." 

What is the white box? It's a single sample of the game that the factory sends to you for QA, but which does not have anything printed on it - it's all blank. It's just to check component quality, count, weight, etc. 

And it all looks great! I mean luckily there isn't too much in the way of unusual components so I wasn't expecting any major changes. I did send a few notes back to the factory, mostly about the optional sticker sheet, but apart from that it's all pretty solid.

The other thing I like about the white box is that I get a bunch of blank components that are GREAT for prototyping new games with!

I also tested again if all the expansion components fit in the base game tray because at first glance, it sure does not seem like it! There's SO MUCH STUFF in this expansion, it's absolutely packed. But it all DOES fit (by "all" I mean the expansion's gameplay components - the 161 new cards, the 6 new player boards, the genre tokens and the new action tiles. The random additional tokens pictured above might not fit and the expansion rulebook won't fit, but all that stuff will easily fit in the clapper box with the tray). It's a bit tight, I'll admit, probably because of some of the cards we unlocked near the end of the campaign, but it fits. The lid is really tight and strong and keeps it all snug. And I tested it on both the 1.0 tray that you got if you already have Roll Camera, as well as the 1.1 version made for this campaign with only minor tweaks. Everything fits in both trays. It's pretty amazing. 

So how's the timeline look?

Well, now Chinese New Year, the biggest holiday in China, is starting and will last for officially two, unofficially three weeks, during which the country is basically shut down. That gives some time to our localization partners to wrap up their work and submit their files so that we can be ready to print by mid March. If freight doesn't take too long, there's a chance you could be seeing this game as early as August! But there's a reason I like to overestimate timelines - I did that last time as well and we delivered a month late, so we'll just have to see how 2022 treats us. Let's agree to not get excited until the games are on ships.

How late will the pledge manager be open?

I don't have a hard deadline for shutting the PM - I want to keep it open for orders as long as possible, which is basically up until freight starts, technically. But I might close it before then if I need a tighter control over the manufacturing quantity. However the absolute earliest I will close it is start of March. That's also around the same time we'll charge your credit cards for addons and shipping.

What about the PNP?

The print-and-play files for base game and expansion will be sent out to all $5+ backers after we've sent the files to the factory. I've already contacted Martin Gonzalvez, the PNP King, once again to help in their assembly. So you should expect to see it in 4-6 weeks.

All right filmmakers, that's it for now - I've got to go navigate UK import requirements now, hooray. 

Have a great weekend!

Your pal

Mal

Roll Camera is Rahdo's #1 GOTY!! 🏆🥳🎬 Tray sample arrived! Artworking still artworking!
about 2 years ago – Tue, Jan 18, 2022 at 02:37:24 AM

The #1 game of the year!! 🏆🥳🎬

Happy new year, filmmakers!

And there's nothing that made my new year happier than to see that Rahdo had chosen Roll Camera! as his #1 game of 2021. I mean - crazy. For a small, almost-first-time publisher like myself, that's bananas. It'd be like Roger Ebert choosing your feature film debut as best of the year! I mean, 2021 was a year with some incredible games. Sorry to keep blabbering on here but it means a lot to me!

Roll Camera! made a bunch of other 2021 best-of lists, including /Film's, which surprised and delighted me as well, since they're film folks.

I guess that's settled - I've gotta keep making games now!

New tray sample arrived - sleeves fit

The new tray sample arrived from the factory, and I'm happy to report that all the base game cards fit when sleeved. I used Paladin 90-micron sleeves - I did try to get Sleeve Kings as most people suggested but they're on back order. These sleeves are quite thick so they did rise up a lot on their own (pic #1), but luckily the dials and player boards easily pushed them down (pic #2) for a snug fit with the lid. If it were me I would use thinner sleeves.

NOTE: this new tray comes by default with ALL copies of the base game backed during this campaign! You do NOT need the new tray addon if you are already getting the base game here! You only need the new tray addon if you have the first printing or retail version of the base game, and ONLY if you sleeve your cards. The first printing tray works just fine if you don't sleeve.

Stiiiiiill doing artwork!

I have finished all the artwork for the 75 (!!) Scene cards, and now I'm almost done with the art for the 56 remaining cards - Ideas, Problems, Production Companies and Equipment. I just want to point out here that with the B-Movie Expansion you are getting MORE CARDS (161) than come with the base game (146)!! And you're getting an additional six player boards, so you are literally more than doubling the base game's content. Crazy. Just wanted to take a moment for us all to appreciate that!

Anyway, after the card artwork is done, it's on to the player boards and rulebook cover, and then after file review I can send everything off to the factory for the print samples. I am optimistically aiming to have all the art done by the end of January.

Here's a peek at my master document for the card artwork (just the sketches - as we speak I'm doing the line art on top of this):

And here's a peek of the scene card art slamming at you full speed:

Talk to you soon!

Your pal,

Mal

Backerkit has shipping costs! Community vote scene card art! Status update!
over 2 years ago – Sun, Dec 19, 2021 at 01:33:29 AM

Shipping prices implemented

Thanks for your patience, all - your order in the pledge manager (accessible via this link) now has shipping costs visible. It was a bit of a hassle to get set up, so it's quite possible I made a mistake somewhere. If it doesn't look quite right, please shoot me an email at [email protected]!

Also note: to make good on my promise of free shipping for addons and extra copies, I had to do shipping in a weight-based setup - but I also have to use the same setup for retailers purchasing by the carton. This means that for most regions, there is a price jump after your order weighs more than 8 kg / 17.6 lbs total - far more than 99% of you will need (the game + expansion + every single addon weighs 2.7 kg / 6 lbs). BUT, I did say during the campaign that you could order up to 9 additional copies of the game at the same shipping rate. 9 copies of the base game will weigh over 10 kg, so I am sorry to say that wasn't possible to set up. If you're in that 1% of backers though, get in touch via email and I might be able to work something out with you manually.

TLDR: shipping prices are in Backerkit, email me if something looks off!

IMPORTANT NOTE: your cards are NOT being charged yet! Again, this is how Backerkit does it, so I'm rolling with it even though I find it a bit strange - we will charge your cards when or even after we lock the pledge manager, which should be March next year at the earliest. So you've got some time.

 Community Vote scene card artwork finished!

Big thanks to all of those who voted and chimed in with your thoughts on the 5 "community vote" Scene cards. Although the poll wasn't strictly scientific, I used it as a starting point. I did end up using the top-voted genre for the tragic (blue), violent (red), and dramatic (green) scenes. For the comedic (purple) scenes, Road Trip and Movie About Making Movies were at 65.3% and 65.2% respectively (you can see what I mean that this wasn't scientific! Not sure how BGG was calculating the poll numbers), but I felt I had to go with the filmmaking one. It's a filmmaking game! As for sentimental (yellow), Romance won out with 63.3%, but I felt that was a bit too on the nose for that genre. So I kind of mixed that with the next-highest one, Musical, at 46.1%. 

Here's a peek at the artwork for the community vote cards:

Note that obviously the art featured here is isolated from the rest of the card's graphics, and it doesn't feature the slight depth of field blur and film grain that I give to all the "celluloid" back sides. Also, I may still make some color adjustments here and there - for instance I'm not crazy about the way the ninja one looks, it's a bit low contrast for my taste.

Impromptu status update!

I wasn't going to go through the rest of it, but why the heck not?

Artwork status: I've done all 75 sketch sides of the scenes, and I have about 15 of the celluloid sides left to go. Haven't started on any other artwork yet, which includes the new Idea cards, new Problem cards, Equipment cards, and player board character art.

Layout status: The rulebook is missing the front and back covers, but it's been all laid out. Here's a peek at that (the blue lines are guides and will not be printed):

Box: the box layout is pretty much done, though when the scene card and character artwork is finished I might swap some of these on the box out with new ones:

Cards: All the cards and player boards are laid out except for their artwork. The new Script cards are 100% done (they didn't need very much new art).

Wooden genre tokens: I just received another sample which fixed my issues with the money bag and bat (the money bag's $ sign is no longer mirror flipped on the rear side, and colors on both tokens have been adjusted and look great), but the robot head still looks way off. Gonna have to ask them for another round with that one. I would add a photo here but it's night and the colors will look weird. 

Updated base game GameTrayz tray: GameTrayz has completed the design! I've now asked the factory to make samples for myself and the folks at GameTrayz for quality control, which they said will take about 15 days. I'm looking forward to testing it myself. I'd like to use sleeves that you would use - anyone have a recommendation for testing out the tray? I'm not a sleever so I'm not sure what to buy. Last time the ones I bought on Amazon fit the tray just fine!

Sticker sheets: I have decided I will include in the expansion stickers of the new tile spaces and possibly also the new script space so if you want, you can permanently alter your base game board. This is not what we consider the default - we're still including the new action spaces as cardboard tiles of course, as planned initially - but it's not a big deal to add stickers for those of you that prefer a permanent change.

That's it for now!

Happy holidays, filmmakers!

Your pal,

Mal

Pledge manager is away! Artwork stiiiiiiill happening
over 2 years ago – Fri, Dec 10, 2021 at 01:02:35 AM

Survey / pledge manager is launched!

Please check your email (and spam folder) to ensure you've received it. You can also find it at this link.

REMEMBER: shipping will be charged at a later, future date closer to fulfillment!

If you have any other questions or issues, don't hesitate to reach out to me at [email protected]. I'll be your huckleberry 🤠

Artworking continues!

These days I'm spending 3-4 days of the week, 6-7 hours a day, just doing Roll Camera expansion artwork. I tell ya, 75 scene cards is an easy number to type into a Kickstarter page, and it is quite something else to actually draw that number! Especially since the Scene cards have TWO pieces of artwork, one on each side. I will be more careful about artwork promises in the future! But I'm more than halfway through at this point. Haven't started on the new Ideas, Problems, Equipment or Production Companies yet, but those shouldn't be quite as intensive as these. I think...

And as I said, it's really really fun. Just look at all that crazy stuff I get to draw! Your Roll Camera movies are about to get WAY more interesting.

That's it for now, back to drawing!

Your pal

Mal