Dear supporters,
As the end of August approaches, and halfway through the campaign, we have an extremely positive assessment of these first weeks of collection. With nearly 12,000 euros collected , the project is sustainable, and its relevance is demonstrated. Once again, thank you all for your generosity, your very friendly and often very timely comments!
Some big news to start this newsletter: THE ARRIVAL OF A SOLO GAME MODE 🥳! We'll talk about it again later.
We also tell you what we're doing at the moment for Trail up! ( spoiler: you will have a nice visual of the game board, which is progressing well! ), we talk about the rules of the game, and we ask you if you have contacts in trail magazines/blogs.
🔥🔥 THE SOLO GAME MODE
This is a variation that we have often been asked for. We're not going to lie, we never thought about Trail up! like a game played alone. We wanted evenings with family, with friends, to worry about cramps and pressing needs and to love hating each other.
Making a single-player mode that has a fun interest and stays within the theme of the game was a real challenge !
We first thought about doing a time trial: “you have to do this course in less than X laps” type, but that seemed a little empty. OK, we race against ourselves on a trail, but we like the excitement of being followed by a competitor on the trails!
So we had the idea of having you race against an opponent , whose pawn you would move. But obviously, we have “scripted” the actions of this opponent, so that you are not judge and part of the game (do you get it?)! After around twenty test games, we are satisfied with the result, even if we continue to optimize the script.
Your opponent will be formidable, because he will start much better equipped than you, and will have a larger hand.
Will you be able to find the resources to beat the one who is faster than you (on paper)??
THE GAME'S RULES
We have (I hope) described the different game mechanics well on the campaign project page. We are in the process of writing the rules "literally", and we will try to get proofread by someone whose job it is! For the curious, you can read the rules (still in draft form) here --> the rules .
MEDIA RELATIONS TO SHOW THE CAMPAIGN
2 YouTube channels were kind enough to review our campaign. Thanks to them !
- The boardgames Society credited us with their “ favorite of the week ”: https://youtu.be/u3OfkKcZZ0Y?t=576
- Ludovores welcome the “ made in France ” aspect, and “ rather nicely presented for an Ulule project ” 😂 https://youtu.be/VoE-5h3iMlQ?t=2137
🔥 It's hot this morning: Airzen is releasing a podcast and an article to talk about the project: https://www.airzen.fr/trail-up-decouvert-le-trail-a-travers-un-jeu- de-plateau/
Can you help us ? If you know someone (who knows someone) who works in the specialized trail running press (newspaper / blog / site) or board games, we would be very grateful if you could put us in touch with them. We will prepare prototypes to send to the press for the start of the school year. We can be contacted at: hello@trail-up.com
WHAT IS THE TEAM DOING IN AUGUST?
We continue to move forward, to guarantee you the best experience, and within the announced deadlines!
Pierre , the illustrator, is illustrious! We received some feedback regarding the readability of certain elements of the plateau, he readjusted that and continued to illustrate the valley. It’s absolutely beautiful 😍. And we are very happy to share some of that with you:
Quentin , the author, makes the necessary back and forth with the manufacturer, tries to respond to comments within a reasonable time, to requests by email, and prepares the B2B marketing phase (to resellers). From the start of the school year, the game will be offered to numerous resellers, building on the excellent results of the campaign (once again: thanks to you!). Also, we continue to explore the best way to make beautiful Golden bibs!
And still, we also take the time to breathe, because the start of the school year promises to be busy!
Thanks for reading us!
Don’t hesitate to talk about the campaign around you, every support counts 💚!
The Trail up team!