Re-Chord is a guitar themed euro game for 1-5 players which plays in approximately 40-60 minutes. You are a budding guitarist, a rising star in your genre of music perfecting your craft to become a legend. Using real guitar picks to play chords, can you become the most famous guitarist of all time?
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We've been working with a few backers to clean up some song cards that didn't quite hit the right note. It seems that we've gotten each of those individual situations ironed out now and will be submitting proofs to song card backers this week.
There will be another update following this one immediately for "Rockstar One Hundred" backers to proof their names on the box which is ready for print. If anyone in that group sees an issue please contact us immediately as we used the exact spelling and case that you entered in backerkit.
The molds for the guitar miniatures are complete! Forge Prints is doing an amazing job, they are incredibly fast and efficient. My understanding is that I'll be able to hold a few copies in my hands in the next week or so. I plan to dust off my paints and try my best to make one of them sparkle for you all, perhaps on a live stream. We can't wait to share them with you!
When backer proofs go out this week for song card creators a quick response will be needed. I'll put a hard deadline on these in those emails, and will be submitting to our printer on that date so be sure to keep an eye out for that email. For those of you who have been checking in with me, I appreciate it.
For the few of you who need contracts for real songs we are finalizing those now as well, it's not a common request and our legal folks have been great in working with us to figure out the best way to fairly protect everyone involved.
The backerkit will lock after we submit files, which will be very soon. If you'd like any additional add-ons, or have a friend who would like to pre-order, the window is closing!
This weekend Courtney and I welcomed our second son Corbin into the world. I wanted to apologize for the lapse in updates during the last month. I've been working with individual backers and our rules editing team all while preparing for Corbin's arrival! We will have slightly more regular updates during production as long as we have interesting information to share. Thanks to all of you for your support!
This is it, we will be locking down files in the next few days and moving towards the proofing process. I expect those who have not filled out their submissions will likely not see this update either but if my emails and messages didn't reach you and this does, please submit your song / name!! For the rest of you, thanks a bunch, I'll be emailing each of you a copy of your card over the next few days to proof it personally, you won't have a huge window to respond, so if I don't hear back I'll assume you are happy.
On that same note I'll be emailing an update out to the Rockstar One Hundred with a cropped shot of the 100 names. If for any reason you need to make a change or there is a typo please get in touch asap. These are the EXACT spellings you entered in Backerkit, including capitalization and punctuation.
I was at Unpub8 this past weekend looking for new games that would fit the Yanaguana brand. I'd expected to come away with potentially one game for our company, and instead potentially brought three new designs into the fold, on top of the two we've already signed this year it's going to be very busy around here. We want to assure you that Re-Chord's production and fulfillment are a top priority.
Oh, and yes, this is me playing a prototype at unpub with Ian Moss (Duelosaur Island) Jonathan Gilmour (Dead of Winter, Wasteland Delivery Express, Dinosaur Island, and you get the point...). I'm happy to report that not only are they amazing designers, they are amazing and genuine people. I'm fortunate to have become friends with both of them and many others at Unpub8 which is now on our annual calendar.
I'll also be around at PAX East, you can catch me on Thursday or Friday hanging out with my friends from Lay Waste Games! I'll be showing off Matt Fantastic's awesome new dexterity game, come buy a copy and support my friends!! On Saturday and Sunday I'll be meeting with quite a few different folks, about new projects as well as the future for Re-Chord.
Part of my meeting schedule in Boston is with distributors who have actively been pursuing Re-Chord regardless of my intention for it to be a direct to consumer, Yanaguana exclusive product. Since the campaign we've had multiple industry colleagues insist that Re-Chord deserves a wider distribution, claiming it would help not only hobby shops, but the industry to grow due to it's shelf presence and potential gateway qualities. I'll be honest I'd never thought of our self distribution as hurting retailers, nor had I thought that by limiting Re-Chord's release I'd be bringing less people into our hobby, but it's a fair point.
Our biggest deterrent in this course of action is and always has been deep discount websites and how our products lose value when they can be sold at undercut rates by huge warehouse sellers. We are discussing how to best serve everyone, and certainly understand that hobby shop owners need attractive products to put on shelves. We also know that many of you might have been inclined to join our campaign due to the fact that we stated this game was not aimed for wide scale distribution outside of our own retailer network. If this avenue is something that you are unhappy about and would be adamantly against, please email me or feel free to discuss it here in the comments.
Andrew and I are committed to making more games, and the best way to improve the products we make, is to get them into the hands of as many people as possible. The best way we can be ambassadors to the industry, is quite possibly to allow Re-Chord out into the wild, to spread its wings and fly, and catch the eyes of a few new cardboard enthusiasts along the way.
Feel free to chime in with your thoughts of support, or concerns, we are open to discussion with our supporters on this matter and want to maintain transparency as promised.
-Marshall
Many of you have submitted your backer created cards and names for the box, we appreciate the prompt responses! For those "more typical musician types" I get it, you spaced on the date, or you were too busy gigging in Duluth Minnesota at Curly's last night, or were just too busy shredding your axes.. So here is your extension, granted by your fellow guitarist who has spaced on a date himself a time or two in the past. Since I'll be showing Re-Chord off in New Hampshire this weekend at Granite Game Summit, you all get a tiny break.
*March 11th is the FINAL day to submit these cards and names in Backerkit. After this I'll be filling them with the extras I've created. I'll export the Backerkit answers on the 12th and that list will be what goes to print, so double check and ensure you are pleased with your choices!
**If you are missing your email or need help completing these steps please message me as soon as possible.
We are very near the part of the process where we send the files off to the printer to start the proofing process. All of the new Chord cards are complete, player aid cards are updated, and the currently submitted Song cards are mostly prepped. The major outstanding piece is the rulebook which is undergoing a draft edit which includes the updates you all unlocked during the campaign.
Ideally with all the cards in or filled on the 12th, we should be able to send off the initial files for print midway through next week. We appreciate all of your input and creativity, have a fantastic weekend!
Hello Everyone!
We have an update about all the things that are happening with Re-Chord so let’s get right into it.
Backerkit Emails with your surveys have been sent to all backers, no matter what pledge level. This means you have direct access to Pre-Order Re-Chord if you did not pledge at a level that included it. If your charge had an error on Kickstarter, Backerkit gives you the opportunity to remedy this.
More than half of you have already answered your surveys which is incredibly helpful. Your prompt answers help keep us on track for our projected timeline and we really appreciate this. Many of you have added the guitar miniature or some Re-Chord gear to your order and for that we are also extremely grateful, you rock!
A quick reminder to the higher tier backers, March 8th is the deadline for submitting the exact spelling of your song cards and names for credit on the box. If you have not done so already, follow the Backerkit email link and you’ll be promoted to enter the appropriate responses for your pledge level. The song cards have had me laughing at my desk pretty often lately, one of them even made me spit coffee on my desk, so thanks for that? I’m so impressed with these creations so far!
One thing I’d like is for each of you to send me a link either in my email or on Kickstarter with the actual song you intend to parody. I’d like to make a playlist with these on YouTube so we can all learn about songs we might not know. Thanks in advance, some of them I of course got right away, another required a bit of math, and a few are completely new to me which is expected since this is a worldwide campaign!
We had the pleasure of meeting with Ning, Christina, and Daniel from Longpack at NY Toy Fair. We got to sit down and have a discussion about the game and guitar picks and made some really great progress on making sure the guitar picks we intend to produce work perfectly for Re-Chord. In this discussion we found that our current design had some manufacturing hurdles we can overcome with some simple changes.
You’ll see the most major change in the image, which is the removal of the black border on the front of the picks. We discussed how the game works in detail and that the pick color must not be visible when placed face down, which led to likely using a flat sided pick design rather than a beveled one. We are really confident in Longpack after this meeting, their team is very sharp and had great solutions at hand for all of our unique needs.
During the month of March I’ll be at a couple of conventions with Re-Chord and another secret project that we are keeping fairly close to the hive for now.
Granite Gaming Summit in Nashua, NH - Designer Alley on March 10th @ 4 PM.
I'll also be checking out other games and playing games all day at the convention.
http://www.granitegamesummit.com/
Unpub 8 in Hunt Valley, MD - We will be playing new prototypes from designers from all over the globe. We have scheduled pitch meetings with designers, and will likely test some of our own prototypes after hours.
http://unpub.net/
Thanks again for all of your support, we are incredibly thrilled to be moving forward at our planned pace. I've also begun a segment called Monday Mug Mentions where I chat about the game industry over a cup of coffee. If you are interested please check it out on YouTube or join me on Facebook each Monday around 2:30 EST.
We want to thank you all again for the very prompt responses to your surveys, it's incredible helpful. We also want to thank so many of you for picking up the guitar miniature, a t-shirt, or any of the awesome add-ons. If you have any questions at any point please feel free to email us, or send us a message on Kickstarter.