Board art preview!
over 5 years ago – Thu, Mar 21, 2019 at 10:13:38 AM

Hello High Rise backer, I wanted to give you a preview of the art that Heiko and Kwanchai have been working on!

The following is in-progress art for the right side of the board. This features 3 of the 5 neighborhoods in the game. There's no icons or game stuff on this image, but most of that will be on the edge of the board anyway, in the water section of the board. And of course, because it's in-progress, there's still some detail that Kwanchai will be adding.

The building spaces on the board will be more pronounced once Heiko adds his graphics to Kwanchai's images, but Kwanchai has been working on making the illustration line up with Heiko's graphics, so the two aren't fighting each other. 

One thing you may notice as a change from the prototype board is that we're rotating the building spaces 45 degrees, which is why they appear as diamonds instead of squares. This way, if you're playing on a square table, you'll be able to see the buildings regardless of where you're sitting.

There's still more detail to add and update, but I wanted to share this with you now so you have more of an idea of what the game will look like. We'll probably finish this board in the next week or so.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments! 

Play with me at GDC!

I'll be at GDC all day today playing High Rise. Come find me in the Shut Up & Sit Down area! You can also find me there tomorrow afternoon and most of Thursday.

Coming soon: a preview of buildings with backer names for the $125 tier!

YACHT OWNER pledge level now open!
over 5 years ago – Mon, Mar 18, 2019 at 08:48:18 AM

Hello High Rise backer! Want to name a pier on the board? You can do that now!

There are 4 piers on the board. When you pass a pier, you can take a bonus that's stacked on the pier. These piers are what you're naming!

This pledge level includes free worldwide shipping. There are only 4 of these pledges available, so don't wait too long!

The fine print for the Yacht Owner pledge level: All naming submissions will be reviewed by Formal Ferret. We reserve the right to decline or ask for changes for any name we find inappropriate or cruel, or that overtly advertise a product or service. We will communicate a deadline by the conclusion of the campaign. Please have your submission in before the deadline, or we may not be able to include your suggestion in the game.  

Bay Area, play with me at Kubla Now!

I've spent the last week in Nashua, New Hampshire and Reno, Nevada demoing High Rise to all sorts of people. Now I'm in San Francisco, California, and I'm hoping to do even more demos!

I'll be at Kubla Now (real name is "Kubla! NOW!!" but that's a lot of exclamation points...) this weekend. If for some reason you can't make it, you can meet me at The Local in Alameda on Tuesday at 6:30 for a demo.

And of course, if you're lucky enough to attend GDC, please come to my talk about indirect interaction in game design on Monday afternoon! It'll be just after my friend Cole Wehrle's talk on direct interaction and kingmaking, so you'll get quite a diverse set of opinions.

We've gotten some momentum in the past few days, and I hope we can keep it going. We are on track to hit our funding goal, so please keep spreading the word.

Thanks so much for all your support, enthusiasm, and feedback so far!

Watch a video playthrough of High Rise at 2p, solo rules summary, and try it in New Hampshire or Reno!
over 5 years ago – Sat, Mar 16, 2019 at 09:34:07 PM

Hi backer,

Thanks again for backing High Rise! 

Slickerdrips playthrough

Tom "Slickerdrips" Heath recorded a video playthrough of a 2p game of High Rise. I didn't get a chance to put it on the page during launch (it's there now), so I wanted to share it here in case you missed it.

This is with the old, stackable version of the game and the (ugly) old prototype art, but you should get a good sense of how the game plays.

On the road

Today begins my "national tour!" I'll be at 3 different conventions in the next few weeks.

I'm driving up to Granite Game Summit today, and I'll have High Rise on me. There's a scheduled game happening on Saturday at noon, but if you find me (shouldn't be hard, it's an intimate show), we can arrange a game.

From there, I fly to Reno, NV, where I'll be at the GAMA Trade Show. This is an industry-only show, so it's not open to the public. But I will be at The Glass Die on Wednesday, March 13 at about 7:30 pm, and I'd be happy to show you the game there.

Finally, I'll be in San Francisco the following week for GDC. If you're part of a Bay Area game group that meets on the weekend of Saturday, March 16, or in the evenings the following week, let me know; I'd love to meet you and show you the game!

Rulebook review, and solo High Rise

If you've weighed in on the rulebook, thank you! I haven't had a chance to review your edits, but I should have some time in the next couple of weeks. Even though I'm at conventions, I won't be tied to a booth most of the time, so I'll have time to review.

You'll notice that I haven't written anything down for the solo version of High Rise yet. Don't worry, I have solo rules; I just need time to sit down and word them! Here's a quick idea of how it will go. Note that these rules are subject to tweaking; numbers may go up or down here and there, but the general structure is good.

First off, you know that dummy player you'll use in the 2p game? You'll use two of them in the solo game. So it'll be you and 2 dummies. (For those of you who dislike dummies in games, this one is a bit more interesting; when it's your turn to move a dummy, you can either move it to a prescribed space, or take 1 Corruption and move it to an Action Space within a certain range, taking that action. It actually works really well. Check out the 2p section of the rulebook for more info.)

There's one more wrinkle in the solo game. There are a few extra markers, with numbers ranging between 3 and 7 on a bell curve. You'll shuffle the markers and put one on each Blueprint.

What's the significance of these markers? Any time any Construction Zone is landed on or passed for the first time by a Mogul (yours or a Dummy), and no new blueprint is built, you'll select one of these solo markers to remove. This means, at the end of the round, there will be one solo marker left.

If, at the end of the round, you have more Corruption than the number on the sole remaining solo marker, you immediately lose the game!

You win the game if you survive the final round. If you can score at least 65, you've done exceptionally well!

This version of the game is really challenging and interesting. Every decision to take corruption is tricky. And which blueprint you construct is really important; if you can construct a blueprint with a "3" solo marker, you'll make the game much easier for yourself. But if you get rid of a "7" (or the game gets rid of it for you), you're going to have to work on dropping Corruption that much more.

Keep talking about High Rise!

Right now, we're on track to fund, but we need to keep our momentum going. Please, talk about the game on social media, tell your friends, get a tattoo. I'm going to keep chatting about the game on my end, of course, but I need your help to keep this thing moving.

Thanks everyone, and I'll see you in a couple of days for the next update!

Granite Game Summit was excellent!
over 5 years ago – Sat, Mar 16, 2019 at 09:26:01 PM

Hi backer,

I just wanted to share a quick update about this past weekend. I had a blast at Granite Game Summit in New Hampshire showing High Rise! It was 7 demos over the course of the weekend, with players really enjoying the game and recommending it to others. Each game was substantially different from the previous one; sometimes the most corrupt player won, other times the least corrupt player took it, and other times someone in the middle of the pack won.

The final game was especially amazing, as we had experienced players who wanted to try the Standard Game instead of the Intro Game. We hit a point where a player took a risk knocking down another player’s building. As you may have learned by now, knocking down a player’s building is only possible when that neighborhood is full. Only the shortest building may be knocked down, with the owner of the removed building keeping all powers and VP, and drawing 2 random floors from the bag. It’s not as mean or “take that” as it sounds; the displaced player doesn’t really lose that much. :)

So in this game, Player A took a risk knocking down Player B’s building, knowing that if they drew exactly a green and a black floor, they could match a blueprint and replace Player A’s new building with an even taller building.

So of COURSE Player B drew exactly those tiles! It was the most memorable moment of the game.

Player A won the game anyway (despite their rampant corruption and Player B’s amazing luck), and everyone had a blast.

My next stop will be The Glass Die in Reno, NV on Wednesday at about 7:30. After that, I’ll be bound for San Francisco. I’ll let you know when I have dates and locations.

Here are some photos of games at G2S!

New premium pledge level open, with another coming soon!
over 5 years ago – Sat, Mar 16, 2019 at 09:10:53 PM

Hello, High Rise backer!

We are still on track to hit our funding goal. But we are in the quiet part of the campaign, so progress is going to be slower now than in the first and last 48 hours of the campaign.

I'd like to shake things up a bit. Therefore, I'm adding two new premium pledge levels!

$125 - DONOR - Name a building (50 slots) - Open now!

Anyone who backs at this level (or raises their pledge to this level) will be able to name a building! We'll put your chosen name somewhere on the building tile. Also, shipping at this pledge level becomes free worldwide!

The buildings' heights range from 2 to 15. I will ask you for which building heights you prefer, but I can't guarantee you'll get it, especially if you want to claim one of the taller buildings. Pick your favorite number!

Note that there are 50 slots because I'm still playing with the quantity and distribution of buildings. I had estimated 61 buildings before, but repeated testing is showing that I can drop that number, and make room on the punchboard for other stuff...

Also, this is a good time to remind you that the building tiles will not be rectangles, but will be cut to match the contour of the building illustration. They're going to look great!

$250 - YACHT OWNER - Name a pier (4 slots) - Opens Saturday, March 16 at about noon EDT!

There are 4 piers on the board. These are the areas that offer bonuses to the players who pass over them first. And now you can give them a name, plus shipping at this pledge level becomes free worldwide!

Because we only have 4 piers to name, I will not open this pledge level until Saturday, March 16 at about noon EDT. That should give you some time to prepare, should you be interested. I'll send out an update when these pledge levels go live.

The fine print for both new premium levels

All naming submissions will be reviewed by Formal Ferret. We reserve the right to decline or ask for changes for any name we find inappropriate or cruel, or that overtly advertise a product or service. We will communicate a deadline by the conclusion of the campaign. Please have your submission in before the deadline, or we may not be able to include your suggestion in the game. 

Board illustrations coming soon!

Kwanchai is hard at work illustrating the board. I know a bunch of you are waiting to see the final look of the board before pledging. I'm just as excited as you to see what he comes up with. I'll share what we have as soon as we're able to!

Play High Rise at Kubla Now!

I will be attending the Kubla Now! mini-convention in San Francisco on Saturday and Sunday! If you'll be there, come find me. I'll be happy to show you High Rise!

(Note: The actual name of the mini-convention is "Kubla! NOW!!" but I'd rather not shout... :) )

I will also be coming by a couple of Bay Area game groups in the evenings to show off High Rise. I'll post more details about that soon.

I've run 10 demos of the game in the last 7 days, and I'm really happy to see how many people are enjoying it! I hope you get to try the game soon.