The Monolith (Canceled) AND The Monolith (D) Kickstarter Critique Review
Transcript
Ohoy there YouTube. I'm back again today for another Kickstarter critique where I take a look at a different Kickstarter tabletop game project every weekday at 1:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Give my honest thoughts on how that project is being ran. And today I'm actually legitimately excited for a couple reasons. First, I like Plaid Hat Games. Second, we're checking out The Monolith. And third, well, that's not the second one. Second, we're checking out both the Monolith and the Monolith cancelled because this particular game, they launched on Kickstarter, they got enough money, they got, you know, if we want to really be a stickler. We say, "Oh, they even they even overfunded by 27 to 30%." Right? But that clearly was not their funding goal. They're back now. They have 26 days left to go and they're 250% funded. So, kudos. They And this is this is why there used to be this wisdom that people would say, "Oh, no, just let it play out." It's like, no. Like because the original campaign stuttered at 27400. This one's already over 100,000 bucks even though we can't see it. Slay your enemies and offer their hearts to the vile monolith that holds you in thr.
Looking at the main image, very boring. I see a box with a thing in the middle, which I know actually is like a cool looking component on the main image that that's actually in the game. And you know that. And they wanted you to know that last time by actually showcasing it, but someone's like, "Hey, components on the main image, get rid of that. Nobody wants that garbage. Wrong, I think. But player length, time count, age, mechanisms, price, like there's so many things that you can put here. Have we hit stretch goals? You know, anything else aside from generic looking artwork and a generic looking boring box? Like I don't think it's a great image and I think it's actually worse than the original image. That looks like one of those ones where like, yeah, you know, why change that part? Uh, but the description, absolute trash. Just absolute nothingness. It doesn't tell you anything at all except for fluff.
Like thematic fluff. Like, tell me it's a deck builder. Tell me it's completely cooperative. Tell me it goes 90 minutes. Tell me anything. And instead, you're like, nothing. Did they tell me stuff before? Nothing. Yeah. So, terrible description, terrible main image. Don't think it's off to a great start there. They're really banking on the fact that you want this game, I suppose, and that you're interested in this game and you're going to click on this game. And I don't know why you would from this main image. Slay your enemies and offer the hearts to the vile monolith. Like, that is just such a god- aful main image and description. I can't get over it. It's just so little details. Why the secrets?
Once we were explorers.
By the way, this segment, this show sponsored by onero.com, who just the best Kickstarter services on the planet. I said that before they sponsored the channel and now they sponsor the channel. So check out that link down below. Tell Bowers Game Corner sent you. They truly do some of the best video work and other Kickstarter services around. Let's get back into the theme.
Who traveled the stars.
We played with science.
Helpless babes.
Monolith useless or something. We got destroy
weak.
Come on. Get
then we found it.
Oh, art. Oh, there's art.
The holy planet. the monolith.
Oh, now we're talk like that. Why can't like that as the main image is better than your either of your main images. I think I get it. Like you've already set me up for a very high price as soon as I see this big thing. Lots of minis. I'm excited about that main image. I'm excited by this one still frame. More excited than anything else that you have done. And it's not even close.
And I don't mean Plathead Games in general. I mean on the specific Kickstarter page cuz Plat Games has a great reputation
waiting for us. art
and the monolith. You are a shaman, a warrior priest who interprets the will of the monolith that I
What are we doing here?
This feels like someone who's like, I know what we should do for our next Kickstarter. Let's just go copy Sean
enthralled
and just focus on
players
like we've just focused on nothing but art and components and theme and none of them are particularly you know astounding or amazing or like oh my gosh that's such a unique theme no oh my gosh that's such unique artwork no oh my gosh that's such unique mechanisms I don't know you haven't told me didly squat yet what are we doing here people what are we Wait, can we please
false prophets who must be eradicated?
Can I like What do I do in this game?
Beg the stones for horrific blessings so you might punish the apostates.
Amass warriors will not shy from violence.
And that's exciting. Like I'm not even knocking it. This act. So, okay. So, there's going to be like little outposts and stuff spread out around the board. Once again, information that you have yet to tell me anything about. I have to infer it through this bad video.
And in return for the love it has shown me for, the monolith asks for but one thing.
Oh my god, it's a dice tower.
Wow. Oh, it's a skull tower.
Harvest the hearts of your enemies and boast of your deeds.
Only then can you prove the monolith favor.
That mini looks cool. I put that on the main image. And not just the artwork of him on the main image, by the way, because I'm pretty sure that might be the artwork today.
That was terrible. Like that feels like such an old school Kickstarter project where it used to be good enough to just have great art and great components and a slick looking slick looking video because that video was slick looking, but gameplay-wise, tell me tell me what that gameplay is about. Tell me what I'm going to be doing. That was useless. Your main image is useless. Your description is useless. This at least showcased the components and art. Same this scene was that was fire. That Yeah, like this is just that image. Oh, THE ONE I PAUSED on right here. There you go. Get rid of that back now on Kickstarter. That looks way better, honestly. Oh my gosh. Just It's just who who's running this ship? Like, who's like, "Yes, this boring generic." Like, you already have a boring generic theme.
Don't lead into the boring generic super auto pet cards battle. Ash's Ascendy uh Ashes Ascendy's out and Wandering Galaxy I do know is out. Super auto pet card battler though. Is that one out? Let's make sure people got their stuff. Game arrived late due to Zatu. Not sure. Oh, I think that's a tropical thing like a hurricane earthquake. Gameplay is pretty much what was expected. No complaint or maybe it's a shipping service. I don't know. No complaints over there. Although not sure my friends enjoyed my 15 bees. However, I'm really disappointed. Flathead games on multiple points. Stores in the UK started pre-orders on the game a few weeks before they dispatched at 33% less than the Kickstarter price. OW. THIS IS after we paid a fortune extra in shipping that we wouldn't have had we ordered locally. So, there's no savings for backings, just extra cost. The big box set is just that big, unnecessary.
So, at least a third of the box is wasted space. Each of the three sets comes in its own internal internal box which has an insert for cards in it with loads of extra space but no lid so you can't take one box out with you. So it's pointless. Could have just saved all that wasted space and packed all three sets into just one row of spacers. The Yeah. So you guys sucked on a lot of the stuff you did there. Can I have two free buy actions? I have uh two as written no. Uh cool. And they didn't respond to it. It's like, "Hey, we see that you took the time to tell us your complaints and really took the thought and effort to put it in there and we Let me tell you, puppy pride, don't give a damn. Leave us alone." Okay. Uh, all received. So, people got their stuff. So, can you do it? Is Yeah. And I think I thought plaid hat got bought out by by uh Asthmo Day and I might be incorrect about that one because these have like dead of winter and stuff too.
Now the other thing we're going to be doing interesting on this particular project is we're going to see what they have changed. So let's see. Is this the same video? Okay.
Still okay. So same video description. Uh less less information. Let's be mysterious, guys. Let's do that. It's not like there's 200 other games on Kickstarter right now competing for time, attention, and money. Let's be mysterious. Oh, wait. There is 200 other games on Kickstarter right now in Game Found right now. Active live games, not stuff that you can pledge for that's already happened. Like active live stuff. So, maybe we shouldn't be all secrety about it. Like, I still know the mechanisms. The victor will not win by laying his own whatever. The world of Monolith. There's a there's a shot of it. He's got the Oh, eight inches tall. Now we're talking. Now we're talking. I'd honestly have that on the main image. Uh but granted, it wouldn't make any sense because you decided not to showcase the big piece of plastic on the main image, even though you did the first time.
You're like, "That was the lesson we learned. Don't display the awesome looking components." I would also convert this to millimeters. Like I I knock the Europeans. Well, I guess not Europeans. It's everyone else except for us and like two other weird countries uh for not having inches. But this definitely needs to be in millimeters because, you know, while it is probably gonna be the most popular in the United States of America, the the other half's still going to be probably the rest of the world. 770. The rest of that we got. So, yeah, but still millimeters. They're nice. One game board. Nice. 22 by 32. Four favor markers. Five shaman figures and cards. Neat. 64 warriors. Big chunks of plast. You got a whole bunch of plastic. Whole bunch of plastic. Whole bunch of plastic. I love the fact they haven't told me the price yet. Oh, the other big thing of note is Oh, this is the old one. Dad, did I get mixed up?
No, I'm on both of Damn it. This is why I don't like to do this. Uh, the other big thing to note is the original funding goal was $20,000 and this one is $50,000, which is them pretty much just lying and be like, h, like we they're playing that cutesy little game of like, h, we want to brag about how quickly we got funded, so we're going to put a lower funding goal. At least that's what it looks like. And then you got burned by it. Um, no sympathy period. Uh, the monolith. Yeah, you got your theme. I just want to get to your price and your shipping. 18 standard. So, 54 cards. Not a lot of cards, but hey, what ifs. We got a whole boatload of plastic because that's what you want. Board tokens. Oo, play rates. Those look nice. 16 page rule book. That is a relatively light rule book. Like it.
Hopefully there's a clickable link right there. Would be nice. But hey, uh hopefully it's down here. Why you want this game? It's a highly interactive battle game reminiscent of classic dudes on a map games with the striking table presence, tactical maneuvering, asymmetric powers, the opportunity for some welltimed backstabbing. You know what would be better than you just writing this paragraph as the designer. If you actually had a quote like this was at Gen Con. I saw this at Gen Con in the wild. So hopefully they have a robust list of quotes from content creators. blows my mind when companies are so shortsighted that a content creator comes in your booth, he tries a game, and if they like it, you should immediately ask for a quote. Be like, "Hey, I'm going to shoot this little video. You got you got a quote for this upcoming Kickstarter." Cuz that's seeing all that plastic. Guess the price. Well, I have it in spoil a little bit, but it's a very good price. So, I'm going to guess uh man, it's hard not to I'm going to guess that it's 90 bucks if it has a good price. I think because honestly if you told me this was 130 I'd be like yeah that feels right. You told me it was 150 be like okay but we're going with Plahat Games who wants let's just let's just get this out of the way.
Does Asmoday own Plathead games? Because if Asmo Day owns Plahat Games then my answer is going to be different than they did not. In 2015 Platt Games was acquired by Canadian company F2Z which was itself acquired by Asmoday Group in 2016. During that period as published and distributed many Pla had titles and blah blah blah. However, in 2020, the founder reached an agreement with Asthma to reacquire the independent rights. So, no, they are now not. Okay, good to know. So, um then I'm going to go with 100 bucks. I think that's my guess. Game playth through. We set board game company and they set down to play. Check out the playthrough video there. I appreciate the extra sentence. Watch the excitement unfold here. Uh sat down to play the game. Read the rule booklet.
Excellent. Or just reading if you'd like a sample overview. I think they did a fantastic job on so many aspects from the ease of learning the game, the tension, the decisions, the reasonable game time, the components, the quality, the miniatures, the model itself. This is an excellent area control game. Wow, that is that's a lot. That's a lot in one quote. Um, I would smatter these about like that's one thing I feel like just congesting them all in one area is not the best way to use quotes. And that's just they could do a lot of heavy lifting in different parts of your campaign page and bundling them all together just it just feels pointless. Like do do people do you expect people to like go through this one by one and read them out loud? I don't think most people do. Like let me know if you do. I do because I'm doing the show. But Tom has red eyes.
The spot is cool. The attacking is fun and the game keeps him engaging the entire time. What an amazingly fun game. Cool. Maybe that was a quote from Gen Con or something. And why not lead with that? Like that is the world's most popular board game reviewer. Because I mean I I mean I don't count Will Weeden. Like maybe there's somebody else who's I guess ProZD but I don't think he does it anymore. So like of the tabletop gaming nerds like in that circuit like he's the biggest one. I'd lead with that honestly. Uh yeah, we get it. It's got a nice tear. I saw the video. What do I want? Oh wow. Holy crap. 70 bucks. You're doing two3 boy grade bump down just immediately. just immediately like the the fact that that like why are you hiding this? Why is it to like look at the relative positioning of the page? It is halfway down. That is you have so much plastic. YOU HAVE SO MUCH STICK plastic that if you just had that one shot we showed with all that plastic at $69 and Planat Games, which is a reputable game company, by the way.
You've done a poor job of that as well. Like I know that you don't technically have the rights to certain games anymore, but you maybe I don't know if it's part of the agreement, but if it's not, there should be a really nice comprehensive list somewhere of how many games you've made and how you've done this and how much you've sold and all that sort of stuff because that on top of a fantastic price on top of a whole bunch of plastic should be an easy slam dunk back. So, let's go back to this page and see what's different. Oo, did you actually lead off with a player time count age? That's nice. Hate the fact you took it away. Granted, that is a very player. That is a restrictive count. Three to four. I wonder if that's what like Yeah, we don't want to let them know that bad information first and then we get right into the components relatively early. So, this is the canceled. Yeah. On both of them. Okay.
Looking very similar. Looking very similar. I don't see anything why you want this game. Early bird bonus. So, they did they got rid of the early bird? I'm going to guess they sold their early bird and they stalled out after that probably. So, this one does not have early birds, it doesn't look like, but the other one did. All right, we we were down here. Oh, yeah. We were down here a little bit. Pictures. Okay. 69 bucks. Very reasonable price. How much is it? Great. That That feels like legitimately a great price. Free shipping for the amount of plastic there. Gameplaywise, I don't know. You've done a terrible job. Terrible terrible terrible with the gameplay. Uh unless you want to read and sift through stuff. Deluxe tier. Okay. One to two players bot pack. So, this makes it so it's one or two players and this is $144 value. It has an extra mini uh shaman pack expansion, which is why uh what's that do? Is that like is is that an extra character? Is that a bad guy? Maybe a little for more information be nice, but whatever. Uh no, not whatever because that is this is the main this is the pledge. This is the pledge that they are trying to sell the most of. And I feel like they did a terrible job of convincing me to sell it. Aside from the price, cuz you're saying this is the $30 price jump right here.
I mean, that's what I'd expect to pay maybe MSRP at my friendly local gaming store for that. At least based on what you're showing me, right? What you're showing me here. And hopefully you're going to go more in depth with this later on, but I feel like this feels like a great price. This one I'm like, eh, I don't feel it's bad, but I don't feel like it's The bottom line is I feel like we should be spotlighting that. And nobody's taking this. Okay, cool. They're Wait, did they Did it happen again? Oh, it happened again. Wait, how long has this been up? Okay, it happened again because we're still in the early bird window. We just got out of it. Okay. So, I So, they did do early birds again, but it was only for the deluxe. So, let's check out the the old one, and it was the first 200 backers of the loyal follower tier. Let's just get over here and cheat. So, the loyal follower is 90 bucks. So, cool. And then it jumped up to 120. What are those? Oh, art prints.
Art prints. Well, at least we learned one valuable lesson, right? Our main image still sucks. Our description still sucks, but at least we're not trying to shove some art prints down your freaking throat that are going to collect dust. Okay, I appreciate that. So, let's look at the price. 89 versus 90. So, it is cheaper. And then the the all-in is uh 99. Oh, this is the new one. God, I'm getting mixed up. So, it was 120. Wait, it didn't have Oh, you doing that cute. What in the world is this? What are you doing? What is this garbage? Oh, god. Why are most your pledges just art? Yeah, that's going to leave a All right.
Glad that's not there. Now, I will say that. Actually, you know what? I don't think it's a bad idea, but when I go through your pledges and it feels like you selling me some form of art is one of the main tiers that I see consistently feels a little cart in front of the horse. Uh, also, I don't feel like you've done a great job spotlighting your artist either, which I personally don't care, but if you're going to try and sell me art, might be something you want to do more of. All right, then we got the add-on 69 for the game. Yeah. So, what they did was this stuff wasn't included, but I'm going to guess that they were stretch goals or something. And then when they saw they weren't going to get the stretch goals, they were like, "Oh crap, we actually have to be honest. We just assumed people were going to love this art and it would push us over." Oh, there's only one. That's weird.
Okay, so I don't have an issue with that one as much, but that's Huh. It should be add-ons for people that want a little extra. Yeah. Not its own four pledges. Oh, it is. So, it also is. Yeah. Then why wouldn't it? Oh, because these are these are just these are arts that everybody can have, but you want the one of one. Uh $12 subsidized shipping. Okay, that's cool. So, we checked out the old page. And does it even have stretch goals? So, yeah, I imagine. Yeah, man. They didn't have stretch goals. So, where did this other stuff come from? You just didn't have it. I'm going to read their most recent update at some point because this is this is very interesting. I'm going to guess that they were stretch goals that they were hoping to hit or something. I don't know. A new playable shaman to add to your game one. Oh, so it's playable.
Awesome. Uh, metal token upgrades. Cool. Blood token upgrade pack. Is this Oh, so this is where you're spotlighting this deluxe tier now. Yeah. Cool. Oh, $100 off those. And they did. They turned them into add-ons. Good, good, good. The bot pack expansion is a clever card driven system allowing players to play the bot with one or two players, then maybe you lead off with one to four players with an asterisk. Two hours, right? Like I don't know why cuz I don't know if this I'm going to click off that one a second, but I don't think they've actually mentioned the player length, the time count, or the age in this specific campaign. And I want to double check that. That makes that reeks of like, hey, we want to hide the fact this is a three and four only player game, which from a strategic business perspective is not a bad idea. If you go talk to CGE, they published a game a couple years back that was supposed to be brilliant. I think it was like deal with the devil, but it was only playable, I think, at four players or something like that. And anytime you have that restrictive of a player count, it's only it only works at two player counts unless it's two and one.
Yeah, it is a bit of a sell a harder selling point I think for some people not having at least that two. Uh oh. Oh, was it there? There it is. It's a war game. Oh. Oh, okay. Yeah, I wouldn't lead with that, but they did mention it, so you can't say after the fact you didn't know. Okay, that pledge it feels fine. Like I need to come into So that pledge feels good. Like that pledge legitimately feels good for the amount of plastic you're getting. As terrible as a standard that is, this one $30 price jump. I would like to know more of what's actually in this box and that and these. But it's fine. I also couldn't even tell what these really were. Those are metal token upgrades, I guess. Fine.
Prices feel fine. Good. No, prices feel good. Yeah, let's be fair. That feels like a good to great price credit. We got to get the the shipping just for how much plastic again, right? Is metal token upgrade. Neat 12 bucks in and out the door at 81. Wow, that's a great price. Was so what was the in and out the door of the last price? Because that that's really interesting. Oh, was 90 bucks to get the Wait, so the GAME WAS OH GOD, YOU DROPPED $21 off that. Oh my gosh. WOW. THAT IS SUCH a humongous amount to chop off. Like, hey, we were we were kind of gouging you earlier, so uh you know, we won't do that now. Uh cuz the shipping didn't change. So, I was like, oh, maybe they added some extra shipping here or there to like No, this just meet the artists. Cool stuff things. All right. Oh, that is some nice looking art right there, man. That looks Who animated that video? That looks great.
The priest shout out there. All right. Anyh who, um, FAQ updates comments. Give this one a grade. Was AI used to make this game? No. Update. New Deluxe package add-on. Hello, Ber wanted to save on shipping with family and friends and ask if we could also include the deluxe roar tier as an add-on. Now you get multiple deluxe sets all at once. Get enough of them, you can use them to build a fort in your backyard. Okay, this is nice. It's also one of those ones where it's like, "Okay, welcome to industry standard." Like this like Yeah. a lot of people, especially international people, love when you you have stuff like this. So, it's it's just I don't know. It's like it's like like when my 13-year-old is like, "Hey, I wiped my butt well, man." Like, "Oh, well, good. That's what you're supposed to do." He doesn't say that, but it's like, you know, it's like, "Okay, cool."
I'm glad that it's there, though. I am glad. So, what is this? An incredible start. Day two and the tasty early bird special is drawing to a close and more than doubled our funding goal. So, oh, their original early bird was limited to the first 200. Well, there you go. That obviously screwed you out of a lot of money there. Like, let's Where is it? Where is that early bird? Because I think it said it was only the first 200 people. And to put that into perspective, they got 1,200 people in the early bird this time. Like that is a massive difference. Now also 21 bucks lpped off will do a difference. Uh hi there and blessed all the child. The great monolith guest in the expansion also works to have a fourth player play with three players. I mean it adds one bot whatever the player count. Oh wait so this is so they just announced this. Oh no you're just talking about it. Okay.
You're just talking about it because you didn't give us much information in the story because why would we possibly want to know what we're buying? Uh this is the first Kickstarter project I backed. Wow. Uh any chance for milestones? Congratulations. There's stretch quotes, Jay. Come on, Jay. Actually, I you know what? I'm fine with milestones as long as you're not doing the Awakened Realms thing and calling them unlocks because they're not daily unlocks are different. Forgot to ask, will Canada orders be thing? I do not want to spell that way. Will there be a late pledge any chance and alternate scorps of the warriors? I want to see Mod with BG hot sets. Let's make it happen. They might with the with the with the controversy. You never know. Let's check out the update. see what their official description was for why why they decided to pull. I wish they showed the date. All right. So, first our congratulations to Shane winner of our monolith giveaway. But the main purpose for the update is we want to share that a relaunch the monolith is happening. So, you didn't did you not?
Okay. What's new? Here we go. Has suggested the monolith has suggested we can do better. This is the one we're looking for. backers supposed to start this the right way and allow us to say thank you again for placing your faith in us and offering us your hardearned money to make the monolith come to life. You your support means the world to us. Well, we hit our funding goal at a decent rate almost as soon as we did. The pledges stopped. Another 24 hours passed and the needle didn't move. Of course, we had questions since we've run several campaigns now and this experience is completely new to us. What we found was that our visually striking campaign was drawing in lots of people, but they weren't pledging. While this wasn't a ton of feedback, one thing we heard on several occasions is why pledge now? Why not just wait for retail? For everyone here who backed this, you already know the answer to that question. Do do we uh also everyone here uh whatever. But we must acknowledge the simple truth that along the way we could have done better. Each and every person who visited this page should have been smacked with the stark truth. The game is amazing, a blast to play and a must have for any game collection. So with that simple guide post in mind, we've decided to close the campaign at this time. But here's what we're going to do.
We went ahead and already started production on the monolith. We're all in, baby. We're coming back and we're going to do it sooner than you think. What's more, when we return, the target date for delivery will be the exact same. So, what changes? We're coming back with a value proposition that is so clear gamers will want to be on board. We're not saying you'll close little Billy's College Fund to pledge five times, but you might daydream about it. Here's a link for those backers who'd like to be notified, blah blah blah. Uh, you backed us here before. Trust us, you'll want to again, and we won't forget those who generosity helped us this far along. We'll talk again very soon, but that's it. To be honest, I don't think I'm going to back again. This product looks great, but this campaign suddenly seems rather disingenuous. If you were going to be happy with the amount your funding goal was set at, why set it that low? Yeah, $20,000 for a bunch of plastic smells like you being a liar or you having Asthmo Day's wallet in your back pocket.
One of the two. And apparently, it's not the one. Was it so you could just add the graphics to the title card that said funded in X hours? Which once again, the stupidest thing. Just such a stupid thing to brag about. Like, hey, like like there's as opposed to stretch goals or price or shipping or any number of other things. Getting funded should be your one and only concern. Everything else is and should be seen as just icing on the cake. And you guys had a really nice cake, man. And meeting your presented funding goal for this product isn't good enough. It makes me wonder whether it is creative project of passion or something designed to get as much cash as possible. They are a business, but there are levels to the you looking like a greedy money grubbing corporation and $500 art prints and lowering your price $21.
Those are pretty good ways to look like it. That's true of pretty much every entertainment business, my friend. I was hoping you'd say pal. Passion and making money aren't opposites. They both necessary. Okay, I want to hear what they say. Hi, Brandon. We appreciate respect your position. When we met the funding goal, it was clear it was dropping. Our second day of a 30-day campaign, no less, saw gains more or less erased by canceled pledges. Things were clearly going south and our private projections painted an ugly picture. We decided to relaunch would preserve a game we believe in rather than let it die in the most drawn out way possible. So, I wish they would have done some specifics here. This this I feel like the reason why this feels disingenuous is because of the time period we're in. People expect more out of your Kickstarter project because there have been so many huge companies that have completely fall flat on their face and screwed regular people out of hundreds and thousands of dollars. If you go to Gen Con and you just said, "Hey, if you've lost $500 on Kickstarter, raise your hand and I bet you you're going to see a see your freaking hands." So, the fact that you're not actually going bit by bit, which other companies have done, by the way, and that's what I'm getting to. It is now kind of expected because other companies have been spectacular and open and transparent and we appreciate that. And when we see you not doing that exact same thing, we say, "Oh, it can be done. You're just choosing not to with your $500 art print." Okay. So, I agree to a certain extent with Joshua.
I was just expecting so much more THAN JUST, "OH, WE'RE DONE." LIKE, OKAY, this is messed up because I got the drawing pledge for the game. And what if someone gets it before me next time? [snorts] It's going to be a big rush for that. Uh, we're still determining the details, but we tend to offer people who pledge the blah blah blah blah. Okay, check the comments. Then we'll get back to the original page. We won't venture back to that. Uh, it would have been great to have an idea of when it's relaunch. It's expected. Bummed to guy. Okay, cool. So, neat. There's the rule booklet. All right. Love the project. have to read the rules and watch the gameplay videos. How gamebreaking would it be if you can use the anger to move the hearts inside the monolith counterclockwise? I feel that it would give more options. So there's the rules question when this game is yours. You can do whatever you want with it, but I'll say that the design is very intentional. It might feel random blah blah blah. So that's the designer. Cool. I'm no heretic. Please praise be the will of Both. I would also like um if you can tag them as something in here so at least they have some sort of thing.
It doesn't have to be creator but like co-creator for publishers. Once again, very common thing uh because they can also and probably do also want to help with your customer service in the comments and the updates and things like that. They can answer questions before you get to them. They can answer questions that you might not even have the answer to, like this one about going counterclockwise, which if you're the social media manager for Plathead Games, you well, Colby is Plathead Games, I do believe. So, but your typical social media manager would be like, I don't I don't know. Let me send her a message, get back to you. Saw an ad for this on Facebook at Instabact. I thought it said blocked. Uh, is there information on the size of the miniature spaces? 25 millimeters, 28 millimeters perhaps. I love how Yes, that's what I said earlier. Convert the current. Convert convert that for people so they can be able to figure it out. Tell me you didn't waste the bag of your rule booklet. I bet you did. You did. Thanks for not including anything useful and helpful on the the on the table along with your player reference cards and instead just this piece of artwork and on the other side a piece of artwork.
All right. Um, I I guess we're done, man. Check out the comments. Give this one a grade because these are the new comments as opposed to the old comments. Yes. Yes. Forgot to ask. We can't uh I any chance in alternate scopes of the warriors? Also, any train packs? We can't do this at the time due the intense time we're operating on, but there are a lot of ideas rattling around our brain. If the game proves to be successful, I want to see the model without BG hot. The same needs. Let's make it happen. When is this coming out by the way? Like I'm starting to get the inklings of a pre-order if this is what November. That's what So you pre-ordered it and then Oh my god, this is so bad. Give me a second so we can truly unpack this.
Because if this is November 2026, then that means that this is done. This has been manufactured. This might already be on its way to the United States of America or in the United States of America right now. If that November 2026 is the real delivery date, because that is not how manufacturing works. That is not how getting your molds work. That is like I used to work for Time Manufacturing. They literally went to the building where they made the molds out of these giant hunks of plastic and they made miniatures in front of me. It's super cool. But it is No. November 236. No. So, this is a pre-order and you got caught with a price that quite frankly feels like MSRP. I I don't know. It's so hard to judge because you just did the thing where you just shoved a bunch of plastic in my face and said, "Hah, you want this?"
Because it's a bunch of plastic. And then it's like, "Oh, if you actually want to know if you would do it, go through all these videos down here. sift through hours of videos. Wait, wait, wait. Do we have the videos? Okay, cool. They moved them higher. I think I'd put those. Okay, final grade. Let's get out of here. Do I want it? Um, I mean, no. No, I really don't. Like, it doesn't look that amazing, especially once I found out it's only three to four players. But yeah, you can Jimmy rig it to play one, two. Cool. But that makes me slightly less excited. Also, the fact it's a war game and you did tell me, but you just slid it in there. You chose like is there action selection? Are there action points? Is it asymmetry?
Like you used We're in the final grade, by the way. I don't know if I said that. So, so do I want it? No. Yeah, we are. Because you didn't describe it to me. Well, the main image is is is bad and it's it's arguably worse than the original main image. Um, the price feels good and I think part of the reason why it feels good is because they already ordered the games and it's really fascinating to me because that's the beauty of Kickstarter people. If you were newer to the hobby, then you might not know this, but what used to happen was that people, real people like you and me, who had a lot of extra money and had a dream, would publish a board game and they'd become a board game publisher and they'd pay the money up front and hopefully it would go well, or else they would just have hundreds, if not thousands of those board games sitting in their garage. If you are older, you might remember going to thrift shops sometimes and you'll just see massive stacks of the same games or games from the same company.
And that is why that used to be such a prevalent thing that you might see. Kickstarter takes away that risk unless you decide to be cute and stupid and use it as a true pre-order thing for a game with a pretty generic theme. In which case, you fall on your face. You talk generically about how you're gonna get back up and fix it and you just lower the price by $21 and then add on other random things that were not even mentioned in the original campaign. So, do I want it? Nah, not particularly. Let's check. Does Phil Grass have a great designer track record? No. No, he does not. Okay. But you know who does?
You know who does? Plaid hat games. And I know they might not have the rights to these games anymore. 255, 356, 369, 414, 44, 333, 568. But you were the captain of the ship when these games came out. Like legitimately, this is 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 like eight. Oh, Spectrum is so good. That's like eight or nine games in the top 10,000 of all the time. There's a reason they got bought up by Asmo Day. And I understand if you're not allowed to use like but BUT SPOTLIGHT YOUR DANG PEDIGREE. I said the exact same thing to uh Whisperwood who also had garbage mayhem. God their main they haven't changed it either which just it's just art. But but just spotlight your track record. Like if you want to silence all the hubbhub that might be around this campaign because you know of that that other thing truly wow me. Get my money out my pocket as fast as you can.
Instead you have a boring video. all along. [groaning] Oh god, there's space and there's a big chunk of plastic in me. Yeah, that's been done a lot. Okay. So, do I want to know? Can you do it? Yeah, I'm not worried about it. Feels like you already pre-ordered it. So, yeah, I'm not worried about that in any way, shape, or form. Uh I'm going to guess that originally they had unlocks and add-ons and stretch goals that unlock some of that other stuff that would that just kind of feel randomly thrown into that deluxe pledge. But either way, can you do it? Yes. I'm not worried about it. And honestly, they have a really good track record. So, can you do it? You should kind of be excited about it because I can't imagine he's going to come back with the big flathead game release after, you know, super card battle or whatever the hell card game with a big like this is probably like, so can you do it is yes. An emphatic yes. But I feel like you did a terrible job letting me know that. And then how much is it?
It's a good $81. That feels really good. Like it feels darn good for as much plastic as you're getting. Um but I mean yeah, period. Go to the deluxe version. 99 little less. So 98 to 19. Still kicking five to one. Uh early bird though. Crushing it. And that was a good call not to give people the option of the other early bird without this stuff. And that honestly that's their biggest thing right there. I'm going to give them a third. I'm going to give them a two-third of a play grade bump up for that because otherwise, no, I'm not. I'm going to give one third of it because they did. They realized that oh maybe we shouldn't just limit it to 200. Maybe that's dumb because why why limit it to 200? Like what are you worried that too many people are going to back it at that price? like, "Oh, no. We had 6,000 people backing at this price or something like like which." Okay, then you go back to your manu. Oh, because you can't go back to your manufacturer.
That's right. Because you're probably doing the pre-order stuff, which might be why it was such a weird number of 200. I wonder if that's like a certain percentage of the print run. Oh my gosh. Just getting your hand caught in the cookie jar. Full point grade bump down for that. No, I'm going to go two/3 because at the end of the day, controversy does help and I'm here because of the controversy, honestly. So, final grade is bad. It's a bad one. They really are banking on you wanting this or spending the time to sift through stuff like sift through videos to figure it out. But their price is is pretty dang solid for they got. Once again, this main image is just so terrible. You have a great price. You have good shipping. You have a large box. You have lots of plastic. And I see, oh, hey, here's some generic artwork that you literally felt the need to mention in your FAQ is not AI artwork taking up more than half of the page.
Just a complete waste of space. And it's it's just this. I'm gonna go with a is we had another D. Sean goes D minus. Wow, that's rough. I don't think I can go D minus. I can't just because $81 is legitimately for that much plastic. That's a dang good price. Like I like I can't I got to be pretty honest with you there. Like I imagine that's moving a lot of units. But yeah, I'm going to go with a D. I know. It's so much better than D minus. Uh, the monolith D. Man, this description sucks. That manager sucks. Yeah. D minus like I can't. And the fact that you just ah Yeah. And that with just how you treated your customers in the other one. It did. It felt I don't know if I'd use the word disingenuous because I don't use big words like that, but it felt like it.
No, I gave a D minus. Two. I gave like two D minuses in the last week. So, we're just going to go I'm going to go with D. I am gonna go D because I did a third of a point bump up for realizing that the stretch goals of 200 was preposterous. But um D, let's get out of here. I want to like this price. Sean says amazing, but the Kickstarter is so underwhelming. It is. It really is. And I would have said that without it being a failed pro like if without all the other knowledge of like oh this lower not you know I still be like okay it just feels like you're trying to sell me a big box of plastic and hoping that I don't look at the shell game which is a war game and uh not a good feeling. Let me know in the comments below what's your final grade. Have yourself a good one. And if you're looking for some Kickstarter services yourself, such as a pre-launch Kickstarter critique with some feedback, suggestions, ideas, or rule book could help, which by the way, nearly five star reviews on every single one of those.
Check out my Fiverr link down below. Uh try to do that more. Also, uh if you want to be a member, I'm going to start doing a private live stream, I guess, once a week. Uh I think it's IRL, what they call it. Like it's just hanging around, chit cchatting about the channel and doing work or something. I don't know. Bye.