After a bunch of number crunching, rules editing, video production, and all that fun stuff... I've gotten Pretense to the point where it's ready to go on Kickstarter. I'll be launching it Wednesday with a cool $500 goal. Why so low of a goal? Well, that's the minimum it's going to take to get the wallet game process going. I've paid for the art, so while it would be nice to make it back, it's not crucial in getting to the next stage of production. I need to fund the wallets, rules and card production and $500 is just enough to start. Obviously, I hope to make more to cover costs of the art, bring down the price of components, and make everything just a little less stressful, but that's the fun of Kickstarter. 

If this is the first time you are seeing Pretense, let me explain it. Like everything we've done so far, it's a little outside of the norm. Pretense is a game night social metagame. Essentially it's a game that you play DURING other games. You have a secret role and a secret objective, and if you accomplish it, you gain a point AND you steal someone's role. With that role you can try to gain more points and more roles. It plays from 2-12 and is great on a good sized game night with about 5-6 people. 

The art on Pretense was done by French illustrator Fabrice Weiss, who I previously worked with on Seven7s with Eagle Gryphon. Fabrice is an amazing artist and great to work with, and I guarantee I will be collaborating with him again. Even with a light language barrier, he quickly nailed exactly what I wanted (1970's social gathering).

One of the things we'll be doing is having package deals that include Storyteller Cards, Storyteller Cards: Fantasy and Movie Plotz. You'll save a few dollars on the package deals and if you go for all of them you'll actually end up getting Pretense for free. If you haven't picked up any of our other products, these bundles are a great time to jump onboard.

And finally, Pretense is packaged in a wallet. It's the second in our line of wallet games and I'm really excited about expanding the line. There are a few other wallet games on the horizon, but... DESIGNERS: if you are interested in making a wallet game, let me know. The wallets are an awesome solution to the nightmare of packaging a microgame. They have custom logos on top, room for rules and about 12-20 cards (or card like things). I do these on short run production (<500 units), and while small press in boardgames is usually impossible and unaffordable, these wallet games just make the cut. 

I hope to see some of you on Wednesday when Pretense launches. It'll be a quick campaign, and fulfill in late February / early March.