I’d love for any of you to review this and just make sure there are no glaring mistakes. We are all so close to this document that I am afraid we'll miss something.
It has already been blind play tested hundreds of times, but since then we’ve update a number of things: The workers have all been changed to flasks, the term macromolecule “cubes” has been replaced with macromolecule “resources”, and many other things.
If you point out any inconsistencies, blatant errors, or obvious grammatical mistakes, we still have time to change them.
Note: The Player mat in the virus expansion and the credits page is still going to be updated, so don’t worry about those two things.
Also, we are creating a separate booklet JUST for the science explanations. We had a LOT of content from the 25 different biologist from all over the world who volunteered to help and edit the document - and we did so in under a week. Currently, it is roughly half as long as the original rulebook for the game!!! - so that will be it’s own its own booklet now. It went through it's final rounds of edits Friday, Satyrday and Today and will sent to the graphic designer to be laid out tomorrow and Tuesday, with the hope of being finalized on Wednesday.
Once it's done, I'll send everyone a pdf copy in an update.
I think this douement will be called:
Cytosis and Cell Biology, or maybe
Cell Biology 101 & Cytosis The Board Game
What are your thoughts on the name of the additional booklet?
878 Viking Ends Tomorrow!
I promoted this game once already but I want to do so again because it ends in 24 hours!
Here’s the thing.
Many of you have asked me when we'll start making History games, and my answer is usually the same. Academy Games is already doing an AMAZING job at this, so let's just support their efforts and I'll focus on the hard science stuff!
Their latest game, 878 Vikings: Invasions of England, is LIVE on Kickstarter and ending in less than 24 hours! I definitely encourage you to check it out! The art is stunning, the gameplay intriguing and they're already got over 3940 backers... And I AM ONE of them!!!
Overflowing With Appreciation,
John
Dice, Screen Printing and the 2 Player Virus Expansion!
about 7 years ago
– Mon, Apr 17, 2017 at 05:32:05 AM
Lots to discuss:
First Dice!
There was a lot of discussion about dice, here is an overview. Final thoughts?
Regular 6 side cubes.
Most of you suggested just using the 6 side cubes shaped dice.
Pro – Very common, can use on most surface and play areas, easy to replace if lost.
Cons – It’s not as cool? Not a natural shape in biology (???) like icosahedron.
12 sided Dice
Pro – a bit cooler than 6 sided cubes, has 12 sides so we can just have two of each number 1 through 6.
Cons – A bit harder to replace, not a natural shape in biology (???) like icosahedron.
20 sided dice (icosahedral shape)
Pro - Resembles the virus capsid shape!
Cons - MUST be on a flat surface to use, and may get lost and hard to replace
Personally, I enjoy rolling the D6’s becuase they are nice to hold and land quickly on a side, are playable anywhere and easy to replace. And it could be fun use a color mixture (the left two examples) but with red and yellow to make them feel a little more special. Or some said they really like the transparent dice. I think either will fit the game well so it's up to you all.
Please note - these are just examples of color mixture and transparent dice, not what our dice will look like.
Please note - these are just examples of color mixture and transparent dice, not what our dice will look like.
What are your thoughts on the shape and color of the dice now?
Final Wooden Components Shape
Carbohydrate Structure
Three options for the Carbohydrates: Which of the three do you all prefer?
My fear is that the chemical structures are too small and won’t show up well on the screen printing. We'll have a much better idea when we get the samples back!
Protein Structure –
Just so everyone is aware, yes, these you can flip over in order to form Peptide Bonds between them and make little poly peptide chains. Aw, so adorable!
Lipid Structure – It’s a bit oversimplified but it get the point across.
2 Player Virus Expansion
We’ve actually already finished the Two Player Rules for the Virus Expansion. I am very thankful for Rahdo and his suggestions to make that happen. It was actually a very simple addition to the game. I wish everything was that easy!
Overflowing With Appreciation!
John
Redesigned ATP Tokens, Upgraded Box Insert & A Digital Version of Cytosis (Tabletopia)!
about 7 years ago
– Mon, Apr 17, 2017 at 05:31:58 AM
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Upgraded ATP Tokens - $360K Stretch Goal
We’ve upgraded the ATP Tokens per the request of SO MANY of the backers! You all wanted the ATP Tokens to more accurately reflect the structure of the actual ATP molecule. And even though it looks so simple, it was actually REALLY tough to get the design right. It had be informative and accurate but still fit on a small token AND also not clash with the card designs. And here is the new design!
We’ll set this Stretch Goal at the $360K. We’ve been working pretty much nonstop the last two days to finish the design and update all the files... And this little thing is on everything!
I want to take this moment to encourage everyone to go share the campaign in any tabletop groups, or biology focused groups on social media, or where ever you all visit regularly, so we can knock out this next stretch goal!
Upgraded Box Insert - $330K Stretch Goal
I talked to the manufacturer about having a four compartment insert and they actually said it wouldn’t be big deal, and the price difference is nominal. So I’m going to make this the $330K stretch goal! Since we’ve already hit it and I know people have been asking what would be next.
I am not very familiar with Tabletopia yet but I started to play around with it after their team reached out to me about getting Cytosis playable on their platform.
Tabletopia essentially creates digital versions of Tabletop games. They explained that it’s like a ”Sandbox” meaning players can do whatever they want in the game. So this version of the game is essentially a just digital set of components (but an incredibly beautiful and very easy functioning one) that you can do anything with. That means you still do need to read the rulebook (or watch any of the play-through videos) and know how the game works before you can play it on Tabletopia.
Has anyone played other games on Tabletopia? What was that experience like?
The Campaign Ends Tomorrow. So a few big reminders...
1. You will NOT be able to get the Premium Collector's Edition in retail after the campaign (unless a backer sells their copy, I cannot control that). We'll print enough to fill this campaign, and individually number each Collector's Edition box and then those won't be printed again! So if you want one, it's now or never. Of course I'll manufacturer extra custom wooden components but they'll cost much more by themselves if you find them separately.
2. Many of you saved a lot on shipping by pledging for multiple copies with a group of six people (or some interval of 6 because that's how many games come in a case). That's fantastic and I highly encourage this. Please email me at [email protected] if you wish with set up group pledge before the campaign ends tomorrow!
3. If you REALLY want to collector's edition and also REALLY want a standard copy of the game to play so your Collector's Edition doesn't get beat up, we created a pledge level just for you. TWO Copies of Cytosis: 1 Standard and 1 Premium Collector's Edition.
That's it for now! Thanks a million times over. I can't believe how amazing of a ride this has been.
Overflowing with Appreciation!
John
Stretch Goals, Wooden Resources & Silk Screening & More...
about 7 years ago
– Fri, Apr 14, 2017 at 01:58:40 PM
Okay BIG Update
So hello to my family's 4th player! His name is Soren Tomasz Coveyou. He was born Sunday afternoon at 12:05pm. Which is the same day we broke $200K!!! Happy Birthday little buddy :-)
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$225K Stretch Goal
So, we have a whole group of people working on the Science Explanations for the rulebook as we speak. We already passed this, but I am sure people are wondering what that Stretch Goal was going to be, and this one seemed to come up quite a bit in the comments.
$250K stretch Goal – 2 player Virus Expansion
I think this is self-explanatory, but at $250K we will add 2 player rules to the Virus Expansion. Some of you saw Rahdo’s Video Runthough. He said some great things about Cytosis but was a little disappointed that the Virus Expansion didn’t play with 2 players.
I chatted with him about this and he suggested a few ways to add a dummy player to the 2 player Virus Expansion, and it doesn’t affect anything in the game except to make the expansion 2 players. We also wanted to try two other suggestions because he thought the 2 player game lacked the tension in the 3+ player game.
So, Tuesday night we had the 2 player game playtested by four different groups to test these changes and Shelley and I have been testing these changes daily and... I am super excited about our current results. So, now we are going to add that to the game. I have no doubts we will hit the $250K mark!
$300K Stretch Goal – Custom Dice ? ? ?
So, we can make custom shaped dice but we needed to make the molds, like yesterday… So I am trying to get the final design made ASAP! Then we’ll start on the molds right now and hope we hit the stretch goal.
One MAJOR thing I should point out. I am not sure if we can even use these custom shapes shown here due to legal infringements. I am trying to check. Does any know about about this shaped dice?
Something else to point out that we can do a color mixture. The overall dice could look pretty cool with a yellow and red blend to reflect the colors in the game.
Also, the Icosahedral dice could be pretty cool because that's the shape of the Capsid protein shell of many viruses.
What are you thoughts on the dice?
Custom Wooden Components
So, these obviously can't be 100% accurate since they are shapes carved from wood, but we at least wnat to them to resemble reality as much as we can.
Current Custom Wooden Shape Designs
The Carbohydrate resource shows the structure of a single Glucose molecule.
The Protein resource is going to have different silk screening on the two sides; one side will show the chemical structure of a single amino acid, and the other side will show the structure when they are bonded into a chain. This way you can make a poly peptide chain out them!
The mRNA resource has the wood shape a double helix and the silk screen of a single strand. This is to represent that the single strand of mRNA derives from the DNA template in Transcription.
The Lipid resource (I know many of the carbons are currently incorrect but I wanted to post his now rather than waiting for my designer to fix it) is a very abbreviated version of the hydrophobic chain of hydrocarbons and the hydrophillic head. I am curious what you guys think about this abbreviated model?
Your Turn!
Okay, please tell me what you think so we can move forward with this!
What are your thoughts on the dice?
What are your thoughts on the silk screening for the custom wooden components?
Now that we've upgraded the Meeples to Flasks, what should we call them in the rule book. We used to say "Workers" when they were meeples but should we just call them "Flasks" or keep the "workers" wording?
Anything I'm missing?
Overflowing with appreciation!
John
Help Me Write Some Biology Content, Stretch Goals, and Group Pledges
about 7 years ago
– Thu, Apr 06, 2017 at 06:31:23 AM
Hello Cytosis backers!
Help us write "The Biology Behind Cytosis" content?
Many of you have mentioned that you'd like to have an explanation of the biology behind Cytosis available... and I think that is an AWESOME plan. Every time I've taught the game to non-science players in the past, they say gameplay made even more sense (and was so much more enjoyable) when I explained the science as well. This way they knew WHY they were doing what they were doing!
The only issue, is that I am almost completely maxed out of bandwith with what's currently on my plate. But I know many of you would love to help with this! So...
If you've got a strong background in biology, love explaining complexities in a way that someone unfamiliar with biology could understand, and would be interested in volunteering to help me write a page or two of science explanatory content for the rulebook, please shoot me an email at [email protected] with the subject line "Cytosis Biology Explanations - [Your Name]" and we can start discussing! And if you're a graphic designer and want help lay it out, even better :-)
If it looks like we can make progress on this very quickly, we will make this our next Stretch Goal. Which leads me to... Stretch Goals!!!
Stretch Goals
Boy, oh, boy are you keeping me busy!! Hahah. Since the update two days ago, we've passed yet another stretch goal - $180K! Getting so close to the Flask shaped meeples upgrade at $200K.
I am looking into upgraded dice as future stretch goal!!! And I am super excited about the prospect but I am also trying not to get my hopes up... Bc who knows how much it will cost. I'll keep everyone posted.
Group Pledge Levels
Many of you have asked if you can back for a gaming group, or group of people and ship a single package to save on shipping.
YES, we can definitely do this but the restriction is that it has to be in sets of 6 games, because that a full case, and we can pass the saving on to you. Shoot me an email at [email protected] and we can discuss!!
