The Bubble Net Collection

Less than 48 hours left to go!
4 months ago – Tue, Jul 09, 2024 at 10:48:59 AM

Hi everyone, we are so excited and grateful for all the support getting our first campaign funded and almost across the line!

It's been a really interesting experience, with so many firsts - our first Kickstarter, of course, our first booth at Origins, our first time working with graphic designers on a board game...

It's certainly not Cat's first time illustrating anything, but it's her first time making a final version of a game for publication. 

Updates on box art

Here is a time-lapse of her initial sketches for the game box, which is coming along well - only the whales themselves left to colour! 

Note: all white text is a placeholder, and the whales are still white because they are WIP. They will be in the same rich blue-green palette as the rest of the composition once they are finished. 

Cat's plan for tonight is to colour in some whales - looking forward to showing you the completed box art soon!

Update on the stretch goals

As you know, we have our set of 4 new Podmate enamel pins available as add-ons now. If we hit $11K, we are also going to be able to include a mini-expansion with dice to replace the cards - you will have a little more knowledge about the possible location of the whales, and a couple of extra cool changes to gameplay. 

As you may have realised, there are 16 points of the compass, and 3 D6s have 18 sides, so we have added two twists that only happen in the dice version of the game. 

At the Fish Card stage, instead of drawing a fish card, the Fish player rolls the dice. The three locations revealed on the dice faces work exactly like the cards - that's where the Fish will attempt escape. The Fish player has a potential advantage, though - on their roll, if they roll either a Bubble or a Podmate on the NSEW die, they get to use that die temporarily as an additional Bubble or Podmate token before the fish on their board attempt to escape. 

Current rules: this means that they get to block one additional lane of fish from escaping. The Podmate also acts as a Herding Podmate, so they push one more fish inwards. The Bubble only blocks that lane - but it also means that the next Bubble placed leapfrogs past that spot, meaning that player has a different Bubble configuration from the others, with a gap where the Bubble die was placed on that turn. 

We are still finalising these rules, so please join us for play-testing sessions and keep an eye on our social media to find out exactly how they will work.

We want to hear from you - what kind of dice do you prefer? Wood? Resin? Something else?

INDEPENDENCE and PNP
5 months ago – Thu, Jul 04, 2024 at 08:00:36 AM

Let me start by saying: I am not American, but I live in the USA now, so: happy Independence Day to those who celebrate! What's your way of celebrating? 🥳 🎉 

For our household this year, it's a day of restful drawing for me, and George continues his isolation for COVID 😭

But one thing I think epitomises the spirit of independence to me is Print-And-Play.

Print-And-Play, or PNP, is a craft all of its own, as well as being a cheaper and more expedient way to add to your board game collection. 

Martin Gonzalvez, from the huge Facebook group Martin's Print and Play Hideaway, is one of the industry's  experts. We are very lucky to have him on board to lead our PNP file creation for Bubble  Net!  

Martin Gonzalvez is the admin of the Print and Play Hideaway Facebook group and a regular host of the Print and Play Crafting Geeklist on BoardGameGeek, roles he has held for several years. Known for his creativity, Martin has rethemed nearly 30 games and designed three original board games, with a fourth in development. He also brought his insights to the board gaming community as a past co-host of the Solosaurus podcast, where he discussed solo board gaming. His work continues to inspire and connect print-and-play enthusiasts and board gamers alike.

Links: The Print and Play Hideaway: http://www.facebook.com/groups/PnPHideaway 

The print and play crafting list: https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/338704/what-print-and-play-games-are-you-crafting-or-plan

Here's an interview we did with Martin on the Meeple Syrup Show a while back, too!

So, tell us, PNP backers: what formats matter to you? Are you Letter or A4? Duplex or gutter fold? Deeply involved in the craft, or never done it before? We want to hear your story!

FIRST STRETCH GOAL!
5 months ago – Wed, Jul 03, 2024 at 01:25:23 PM

Oh wow, we did it! We hit $10K!

To celebrate, we have designed new enamel pins with the Podmates Herding and Holding on them. 

These are different from the ones we have made previously (pictured above) - and they will be available in two different designs, with two different colours, as a set. Because we are so grateful to you wonderful backers, we are offering you a special discount - they will not be this cheap once we hit retail, because running a tiny business is EXPENSIVE. 

PODMATE PINS

Full price: $15 each 
Kickstarter special: $20 for either pair, or $35 for the whole set

We have loaded the new add-on options now - if you edit your pledge, you can add them on if you want them.

Here's a little tip: the reason the Podmates are two different colours is more than aesthetic - you can play on hard mode, where each Podmate can only play on the rays that match their colour - dark on dark, light on light. It makes for a much more challenging game!

We just can't thank you enough, wonderful community, for helping us make this game a reality!

Our next stretch goal is a mini dice expansion that George is developing. It replaces the cards for those of you who want a little more information about what the fish might do, and now comes free in the box for all physical game backers. It will also be available as an add-on.

Stay tuned for our next stretch goal reveal! 

What would you like it to be? 

Fancy metal Podmate coins? George's Fish Clock expansion that adds a more interactive element to the game? Custom stickers for all the fish tokens?

Tell us in the comments!

Your opinion is important to us!
5 months ago – Sat, Jun 29, 2024 at 04:07:37 PM

Hey folks!

We have narrowed down the options for the game box logo for Bubble Net (a simplified version will be used elsewhere).

Given the enthusiasm for the bubbles in my social media posts, I have asked Jovial Graphics & Games to come up with some more ideas that also align with the way humpback whales actually blow bubbles, and these are the three I like the best. These are still sketches as we decide which to develop.

Which is your favourite? How do you feel about the black and white bubbles, or the tails cutting into the words?

Notes from Jovial below:

B

This variant moves the whale to the right and has the bubbles trailing to the left into the center. This also explores using positive and negative space to add some dimension to the bubble stream. If this one is selected we'd want to clean up the intersection between the tip of the tail and the letters.

D

This variant redraws the whale to dive downwards with the bubbles streaming to the right. Again, the tail intersection with the words will need work.

F

This variant streams the bubbles left to intersect with the first B instead of the center B.

What do you tthink?

Tell us in the comments!

WE ARE LOVED! - KICKSTARTER "PROJECT WE LOVE" and INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING QUESTION
5 months ago – Thu, Jun 13, 2024 at 09:20:29 AM

Hi everyone, thank you so much for all your support, sharing, and encouragement - we already feel the love! 

So it's even more special to have that endorsement directly from Kickstarter - with a "project we love", we will get extra coverage and hopefully, we will have a better chance of getting this lovely little game onto your tables!

We are absolutely stoked and blown away by this validation on our first campaign, and we are working hard to prove you al right and get Bubble Net out into the world!

INTERNATIONAL BACKER QUESTION

We have lots of other updates in the pipeline, but we don't want to spam you too much, so we just have one other question - if you are an overseas backer, which country are you in? 

It looks like we currently have enough interest to offer shipping to:
New Zealand
UK
Canada

If you aren't in these areas, please comment so we know to try and add more destinations! And if your friends are interested in getting a group purchase together, you will save on shipping AND be able to play Bubble Net at a higher player count together!

Speaking of which, non-retail backers, would you like another pledge level? Maybe a carton of 6? We can't do the retail discount, but we are running numbers to see what we can offer. 

Or is there something else you would like us to offer? Custom sketches? Live chats about whales? Tell us!

BONUS CONTENT

Here's a little solo playthrough that I made on launch morning while I was trying to stay chilled out before the Big Button Push.