Cauldron: As we approach the end of 2014

As the year is drawing to an end it is great to look back and reflect on what so far has been the most exciting and involved project of my life. I am talking about Cauldron, the board game of competitive alchemy that I am currently working very hard to bring to Kickstarter. In looking back what I find most is gratitude. Gratitude to many people, and I’m going to try expressing it in this post.

I am so grateful to the fact that my friends are so talented and passionate that they did and are still doing a ton of top-notch work for absolutely no money. I mean, here, look at this pretty late prototype with these awesome graphics from PowerPoint clipart and bits from Settlers, Waterdeep and Chaos in the Old World (earlier version even included mini chess pieces).

Can you spot where each of the cannibalized components comes from?

And now, a year later – this is how the game is going to look like. Pretty amazing. I can’t wait to play it myself once it’s all finished:

The work in progress graphics as of November 2014

Here is my team by the way, recording a bit for our Kickstarter video. We’ve got our best “please support us” smiles on.

If we could all make Puss in Boots giant eyes at you – we would!

I am constantly amazed at how great the things that they’re able to pull off are.

I am also extremely grateful for finding and joining the board game community across all social media channels. Starting from Ben Gerber’s fantastic group on Google+ to James Mathe’s Facebook advice group for aspiring designers, to everyone on Twitter and YouTube – there are truly too many names to list. All of you people and your reviews and contests and opinions and puns made this process so much fun. Seriously, if there is one advice I can give to anyone who is an aspiring Kickstarter creator – make a Twitter account, now. Your venture will only be as successful as your engagement with the community. And what a phenomenal community it is to be a part of.

Even for Kickstarter-specific information I found so much support and advice out there. Jamey Stegmaier’s generosity in sharing his route to Kickstarter mega-successes is amazing and so thorough. Smaller project creators all willing to discuss and help.

At this point even if Cauldron is a total bust on Kickstarter I will not be upset because of the amazing work I got to do with amazing people and a great community that I became a part of.

I also got so much support from family and friends and most importantly my wife throughout this process – in testing the game, in bringing it to designer nights at Snakes and Lattes, at spreading the word. I will need so much more of that goodness when the actual Kickstarter comes, but I am so grateful to be surrounded by this support. Seeing them enjoy playing Cauldron is something very special:

The sneaky second girl on the right ends up winning as the Trickster.

So as the work on graphics concludes and we are creating the first official demo versions of the game to go to the reviewers – look out for more. If all goes well it will be up on Kickstarter by April-May of 2015.

Many people worked hard to make this project a success. My ultimate hope is that people who play the game will have as much fun as we did bringing it to life.