Magnate nominated for "Most Anticipated Game of 2021" on BGG - can you vote?
over 3 years ago – Thu, Jan 21, 2021 at 07:01:21 AM

Hi everyone, 

Just a little bit of news and a quick request for help.

One of our backers, John, just nominated us for this BGG competition. If we get enough thumbs we go to the next round.

I didn't realise this competition existed so we're really late to the party: as you can see from the number of thumbs we have so far (publishers are strongly encouraged to get backers and fans to vote). It's just a bit of fun, but I think we have a real shot at winning the "Most Anticipated Economic Game" category - so, I thought why not give it a go?!

If you're looking forward to getting Magnate, could you thumb the GeekList item on BGG? That's all you need to do to get us to round 2!

You'll need a BGG account already if you don't have one. It's easiest to register first here if you don't before trying to vote.

That's all for now!

Cheers,

James

Happy new year: Insert preview & mass production underway!
over 3 years ago – Fri, Jan 15, 2021 at 01:43:46 AM

Happy new year!

In the Christmas-NYE hinterland I got some great news: We are finally into full-scale mass production and I have an awesome new insert design to show you.

Progress update

Christmas turned out to be a very busy time for us: I signed-off a ton of final proofs and we spent a lot of time developing the game's box insert, making final adjustments to components like punchboards and the insert to balance out various goals: easy packing, storage and crucially set/up pack/down acceleration. My Christmas present: We began full-scale mass production literally on Christmas Day! Thank you Santa! I also received all the remaining samples for the Tycoon edition - which you can check out below.

As a result of all this progress, many of the game's components have now been made and are being warehoused for assembly. More are being made right now: we're expecting all the cards soon; the tutorial, new tenants, risk and AI cards, for example.

The only snag is this: because of 2020's manufacturing disruption, it now looks like we will slam into the Chinese New Year shutdown. If you've made anything in China you'll know what a pain this is for projects. It shuts down everything for about a month or so. What we've been warned is that this will be worse this year because many factory workers will be travelling home early to avoid any potential new lockdowns the Chinese government could impose. 

Likely this means we won't finish all components until CNY has passed, so we still won't be shipping the game out for a little while yet. It's very frustrating. However, once CNY is over, we'll be able to take stock and finally give you a more exact estimate for game delivery. 

Insert design

We finally got the insert to the place I wanted it to be and I am pretty pleased with the result. This isn't the final version: the factory still need to tweak a couple of small issues (the money tray needs to be re-designed for instance), but its very close. Hopefully you can see why we took the time to make some critical quality of life improvements:

There's a specific slot for almost every component and the trays lock neatly together. The small tray has been designed to be removable so that all the tenants are already organised by type (excuse the mixture of prototype and sample tokens here), massively increasing set-up and avoiding the problem of fiddling with lots of baggies when you just want to get into your game as fast as possible!

The building inserts are also removable and hold each building in a neat, organised way. If you have space, they make another useful addition to the table and obviate the need to take them all out of the box individually. This one makes me think of a chocolate box: "Oh yes I would like to try one of those industrial units!"

Below the top trays are other useful removable ones including the money tray and the second building tray. As with the tenants, money will already be organised in such a way that you don't even need to set up the bank: you can just take the insert out of the box and place by the playing area. I like to think of it as a practical but much less glamorous cousin to the deluxe money tray add-on. Another quality-of-life problem solved! 

If all goes to plan in the final iteration, there should even be room for the Tycoon content in there: so all you Tycoon pledgers out there can pack everything away neatly into one place. 

Tycoon edition

These components have come out really well, so here's a couple for your amusement. I am especially impressed with these employee cards. The corners will be round in the real cards but aren't the colours already great?

The tower isn't yet in colour, because this sample was made before the plastic production began: but you can see with the sampler how vibrant the green of the home buildings is now! I think that's an improvement over the more military green of the prototype and takes it well into the SimCity feel we're going for. 

The bidding screens are spot-on too and serve the purpose I hoped: an extra place to hide your money and an alternative to wallets for those who want to use some other component (like chips) rather than paper money to count their fortune. The little turn order board is classy as well.

That's it for now! As always we'll send you an update next month. However, given CNY disruption, it's likely to be a short one. 

All the best,

James

A very quick update: Wallets, money, digger and a new Naylor Games logo!
over 3 years ago – Sat, Dec 12, 2020 at 01:19:18 AM

Hi everyone,

The last of the component samples for the core game have finally arrived! 

I thought you'd be keen to see them, so this is just very quick update with a few photos. I'll probably be updating you again in the new year (How is it December already?).

Wallets and more

First there's the 10m Kickstarter exclusive banknotes, which I personally think look absolutely brilliant; even before their final spot UV effect is applied!

Next come the wallets. I am very glad to say that putting the extra energy and money into the company identities has proved very worthwhile. These wallets (which are also designed to hold the above 10m note as well as the core game's banknotes) demonstrate that very clearly for me.

I'm really pleased with how the leather effect interior has come out and their good strong construction should be robust enough for many, many uses.

Then there's the sample digger and, I'm glad to say, this is also exactly the one I wanted. So if all goes to plan you will indeed be able to drive this first player marker to the next player using its built-in wheels. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that's a world first!

A new logo

You may also have noticed that the Kickstarter page is sporting a new Naylor Games logo. The time was finally right to put some real effort into this. I hope you like it! If you're a bit of a nerd for design/marketing stuff, I also wrote an entire blogpost about how we came up with it and why we choose this design. 

That's it for now!

James

Gradually inching forward...
over 3 years ago – Mon, Nov 30, 2020 at 12:02:56 AM

Hi everyone,

It's update time again!

Progress update

This month's update won't be too long as I don't have a lot of visual progress to share. I had hoped to have the remaining samples by now so I could show you photos of the final wallets as well as components from the tycoon edition, but disruption on the manufacturing end continues to drag on. 

However, the insert design - while frustratingly slow - has been otherwise going well. If all goes to plan, we will deliver the insert I wanted: Something that really accelerates set-up and pack-down. The latest design will allow most trays to be removed and placed by the board with many of the most important components already organised for gameplay; speeding through a task that can often be a bit tiresome in all the but the lightest games. 

Indeed, it should even have some space for expansion content (the tycoon edition parts) and promo content if it all comes off. There is a small drawback to all of this: The box will likely need to get slightly taller. Thankfully it won't be enlarging in other dimensions so it's not going to bust a Kallax!

I can't show you a detailed schematic of inserts, but here's some teasers of some of the building insert prototypes:

Other news

Other than that, there's not a lot to share about Magnate specifically just yet. But things are moving very nicely on other fronts at Naylor Games:

• Just last week, I launched my initiative to offer myself as a free Mental Health First Aider for game companies (which are mostly small outfits without people with those skills on dedicated staff). This is a tough time for a lot of people, especially people who were already feeling isolated. So I thought getting trained to provide people with non-judgemental, listening support and direction to the right professional help could be useful - I guess we'll find out. If that subject matter interests you at all or you'd like me to be your organisations MHFA, I've got a blog about it here.
•  We'll be launching a new Naylor Games logo soon. We desperately needed a proper one for the first game. So it seemed like the right time to invest. I'm quite excited by it because I think it captures what we're about (or trying to be) very well and should be very recognisable.  
•  We continue to work away when we can at the early stage design/development stage on other game titles. Some really exciting stuff in the pipeline there. Once Magnate is a bit further along, and we can start putting focus on what's next, I hope to start sharing details. But I am naturally not a big sharer of these things until they are truly ready for prime time. Let's get game no1 done to a  high standard first! 

That's all for now!

James

A quick update: SAMPLE BOX ARRIVES!
over 3 years ago – Tue, Oct 27, 2020 at 03:32:58 PM

I generally like to avoid sending too many updates, but this one is a bit special. After the delays I mentioned last time, we've finally got to a proper sample box - including many of the other components! I'm not going to bore you with too many details. Let's focus on the exciting bit: pictures of components, especially those which are a real step-up from the prototype.

I'm really pleased with this box. I think it will really catch the eye and communicates the sense of scale the game itself is intended to impart: through its incentive to build ever bigger and its substantial table presence (And, to be fair, it actually has to be this big to hold everything! Not a lot of wasted air in there).  

The tenant tokens in custom shapes look so much better than the square chits with pictures of the art. The variety of shapes in general elevates the production things while improving accessibility. Seeing these in proper punchboard makes them somehow really real: Punching-out pieces I've laid out/designed myself in InDesign is really quite something!

The boards are lovely and thick now: The thickest you can practically get before going into punchboard. They aren't too thick that you can't easily shuffle the neighbourhood tiles and they don't increase box weight a lot. But they are thick enough that they don't move around and easily lock into each other on the table.  Seeing the land price marker on the punchboard also confirmed for me that this new approach is a big improvement on the rather impractical combined marker/crash track we had before. 

The now thicker, rigid neighbourhood tiles also have some pretty cool reverses. These should help you quickly differentiate the centre from the other tiles and raise the overall aesthetics of the experience. Most of the other components (like the banknotes) very much reflect the original Kickstarter prototype. Except now we have reverse designs on the notes too and the footprints are, like the other components, chunkier and more satisfying. 

That's pretty much it for now. Manufacturing continues to progress. Next month I'll provide you with a more detailed update!

All the best,

James