18 DAYS LEFT - Twitch, Dice Tower, & Community
almost 8 years ago – Thu, Jul 21, 2016 at 08:44:30 PM

Greetings, Hoomins!

We are working hard on spreading the word about Cantankerous Cats so everyone can snag those Premium components. While it is a tall order for a small company like ours, we did have a bit of surprise help from our backer community and some exciting surprise guests!

 

 The big news this weekend is Dice Tower giving us a nod in their Kickstarter round up for Board Game Breakfast! This is a nice surprise and we are super excited to be noticed. You can click on the image or link above to see our segment in their episode!

We also left a box with Geek & Sundry earlier this month and they were excited to see it! There may be a stream with them in the future and we will post an update here if something pans out

Speaking of Video...

 

 If you missed our Twitch stream with Erika, Jessie, Sarah, and Miles on Sunday you can watch it here! https://www.twitch.tv/erikaishii/v/78576392 
We ran a bit long at 3 hours, but you can skip to 1:44:00 if you want to cut right to the second, less tutorial heavy playthrough.

We also noticed some folks from the KS Community had some lovely things to say about our game!

You can check out Kicking it with Meg HERE.
The Casual Board Game Revolution write up can be found over HERE.
And the Stay Geeky Preview can be seen HERE. 

Seeing so much love come from friends and strangers alike has been the best part of this experience. It means the world to us when people spend time and effort on our work and it is the biggest compliment we can receive.

TRIBUTE CATS

Last, but not least, Elise has finished sorting out the Tribute Cats and we have been overwhelmed with all of the adorable images! We will be sharing these on the regular for the remainder of the campaign. Elise has also started working on the FIRST Tribute Card...

Running this campaign is difficult work and all of these things have made the journey much more bearable and pleasant than we could have hoped for. Wherever we wind up in our funding, the one thing we will promise to you, our community, is that we continue to work toward making the best game possible so we can be a great reflection of this wonderful experience.

Thank you again for your support and have a wonderful day!
-Al and Elise
The Hoomins behind Cantankerous Cats

We are Funded! - A video message from Al & Elise
almost 8 years ago – Wed, Jul 20, 2016 at 12:01:53 PM

 Holy Meow, everyone! We are funded!

Outside of the video, we've been working as quickly as we can to refresh our little project page with more eye candy. We've added thumbnails for all of the Game tiers, and added an important new feature to the KS Page:

Print & Play Added

We have finally added a link to the Print & Play Edition of Cantankerous Cats! While it has always been available on our website, we are adding a button here to address a big concern for us and some potential backers:

1. INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING COSTSWe know International shipping is expensive for a lot of folks. Unfortunately, we simply do not have enough orders to ship any other way than USPS Priority International. Their rates start at $23.95+tax and we can't do anything to lower them without 1,000 more backers. We are eternally grateful and humbled by those of you who have chosen to back us from outside of the US with these costs.

To help alleviate some of the frustration with other fans, we are placing a download link to our Print & Play Edition here on the Kickstarter page. If we manage to get enough backers to start talking to shipping companies, we will post an update. For now, this is a great alternative to buying a Kickstarter Edition of the game if you know people who just can't swing the $60 to pick up a box.

LIVE DEMO NIGHT - GLENDALE, CA

Next week, we will be hosting a BoardGames 101 event with our good friends at Game Haus Cafe in Glendale, CA. We will have THREE copies of the game to accommodate for folks who want to join us. Details are as Follows:
WHERE: 1800 Brand Blvd., #107 Glendale, CA 91204
WHEN: Tuesday, July 26, 7:00PM - 11:00PM

If you are local to LA and want to see our special Collector's Box edition in the flesh, Tuesday will be the best chance to do so.

Thank you all again for making our dreams come true. Now it is all about those stretch goals, so let's see if we can make this edition of Cantankerous Cats something truly special.
<3
Al, Elise, Office Cat, Luna, and "The Dog"

Card Spotlight: Ambush & Over 90% Funded!
almost 8 years ago – Sun, Jul 17, 2016 at 03:48:53 PM

Greetings, Hoomins of Kickstarter!This week has been exciting, busy, and full of behind the scenes work. The first announcement is that we are over 90% funded! We have some pretty spiffy things in store for our stretch goals and the page itself after we fund, but we will leave the specifics for another update. For now, know that we are excited, relieved, and amazed at the same time.

Outside of that, we have another card spotlight for you and a pair of announcements:

CARD SPOTLIGHT: AMBUSH

Some cards in the deck have additional effects when you play them. While you are never REQUIRED to take the effects, they are generally a great little bonus to otherwise mundane cards. Ambush is a great example of this setup.

CARD TACTICS FROM AL:
Ambush is a great card to hang on to if you are playing with an advanced group of players. Cat Nap cards don't seem like much of a gain on their own, but they effectively discount this card by one Affection while simultaneously putting a dent in your opponent's House. It is especially nasty if you want until Cat Nap is the ONLY card in someone's house, leaving them vulnerable to attacks by other Cats. These reasons are why there is only ONE Ambush in the deck. Use it wisely, and strike from the shadows!

BACKSTORY FROM ELISE:
I had three cats when I was growing up. This card depicts Kevin (or “Kevvie”, as we used to call him), who was by far the most mischievous of them all. This card comes straight out of a memory I had from when I was about 10 years old. I was walking around barefoot and Kevvie came out of nowhere to “play” with my feet. With teeth and claws. But he always made up for his mischief with love and cuddles later.

 TWITCH STREAM REMINDER

Tomorrow is a big day for us! As you all may recall, we are visiting our friend Erika Ishii from Geek & Sundry tomorrow (Saturday) at 12:00PM, Pacific Time! We will also be joined by the amazing Jessie Pridemore (Rufflebutt Cosplay), Sarah Elmaleh (Voice Actress Extraordinaire), and our friend Miles Flannigan (Super Daryl Deluxe) for tea, cucumber sandwiches, and lots of Cantankerous Cats!
Remember to check out https://www.twitch.tv/erikaishii at 12:00PM Pacific Time.

BOARDGAMES 101 @ GAME HAUS CAFE

We have a live demo planned in cooperation with Game Haus Cafe in Glendale, CA. That event will be TUESDAY, July 26 at 7:00PM. Game Haus is where we shot our tutorial videos and they have been huge supporters of our project since the early days of development.
If you are in the LA area and want to try the game in person, please stop by! You can mark your calendars now, but we will post a dedicated update for this event later in the week. We also have one more suprise...

Elise has just about finished parsing and sorting all of the adorable photos we've been receiving for the Tribute Edition tiers and has finished cleaning up the pencils from Heather! We will tell you more about who this particular Cat is in a future post! ;)

Thank you all again for your support. We are incredibly close to funding and can now start talking about those stretch goals at the bottom of the page. Exciting times are ahead and we can't wait to share it with you all.

<3
Al and Elise
The Hoomins of Cantankerous Cats

Live Streaming and Origin Stories
almost 8 years ago – Sat, Jul 16, 2016 at 08:09:15 PM

Hello, backers!
Today's update bring a pair of Interesting announcements. First up...

**CANTANKEROUS CATS LIVE STREAM**

Our pal Erika Ishii (@samuraierika on Instagram) will be hosting a play session of the game on her Twitch channel this Sunday, July 17 at 12:00PM! If you have been wondering how the game looks in action, this will be a fantastic opportunity to watch a mix of old and new players tackle the game. You can catch everything over at: https://www.twitch.tv/erikaishii

To recap, that's Sunday, July 17, 12:00PM at https://www.twitch.tv/erikaishii
And no, you do not need a Twitch account to join the fun. :)

With that out of the way, we also have another announcement: Cantankerous Cats and Elise share a birthday!

CANTANKEROUS BIRTHDAYS

On this day back in 2013, Cantankerous Cats was born during a weekend camping trip for Elise's birthday. During that trip, we were trying to figure out what direction to take Mentha Designs in for the next five years. We will spare you the details, but we wound up deciding that there we have played too many cat games that had nothing to do with cats. We wanted to change that.

Elise concocted the base concept of the game. She knew from the start we wanted to make a game that made the player FEEL like a cat doing what cats do best: manipulating humans to do their bidding. The base gag for us had always been that cats only seem to butter you up with Affection when they are about to turn around and cause Mischief.

With that base concept in mind, we spent the weekend roughing in a list of Cute and Not so Cute things cats are known to do, assigned them values, then got to work crafting the set pictured above. After our first round of development and testing, we knew we had hit a chord with fellow cat lovers.

 What was intended to be a short few months of design and development turned into a three year behemoth of a journey for all of the right reasons. We always knew our game was going to LOOK beautiful, but we kept holding out until we had game play that reflected the simplicity and elegance of the art while making people FEEL like they are being a cat.

 Now, three years later, we are sharing everything with the world and we have the support of too many friends and colleagues to count. There is still much road to travel, but we are humbled by the response to this little project from a few designers just trying to get by.

Thank you all for your support and we will see you next time!
-Al and Elise

Card Spotlight: Swat the Dog
almost 8 years ago – Sat, Jul 16, 2016 at 05:43:04 AM

In Cantankerous Cats, there is only one Dog featured throughout the game, and that is Dudley; Al's canine companion. This card was one of the first Dog cards created for the game and it also features Phoenix; one of our player cats.

 CARD TACTICS FROM AL:
Hoomins do not like it when you swat their prized companions, so this card burns a lot of Affection. A fair price to pay for jumping one third of the board. This card is also fantastic as a sneaky attack. If you wait for another player to put any "Dog" card in play, this gives you a decent attack opportunity with minimal risk. There is only ONE of these in the deck, so use it wisely if you happen to take it into your hand.

BACKSTORY FROM ELISE:
Depicted here is Dudley (Al's Dog) and Phoenix (feline overlord to team member Shawn Strider). While I haven't seen them together, I imagine this is exactly how their first meeting went down. Dudley REALLY wants to be everyone’s best friend, and sometimes that can get him into trouble! Phoenix was one cantankerous old cat and legend has it that he beat up a coyote and lived to tell the tale. Sadly, Phoenix passed away during the development of the game, so we immortalized him as our seventh player character.

EXTRA CREDIT FROM AL:
Phoenix and Dudley actually got along pretty well, but there was definitely a swatting or two when they first met. Dudley has always had a problem respecting the boundaries of cats and sometimes needed...training.

Phoenix was probably the most Cantankerous old Cat I have ever met, but he was also the heart and soul of Shawn's house when he walked the earth. He loved "checking in" on us during long nights of set building, work parties, and general shenanigans.

He was a bit like a cat version of a salty old sailor looking over the youngsters, complaining, then "begrudgingly" accepting heaps of cuddles, scratches, and tummy rubs. Shawn may have been his Hoomin, but Phoenix was the spirit animal for a lot of folks in our community. He is also the cat that planted the idea of the "Tribute Edition" and "Portrait Edition" tiers in my brain.

That about wraps it up for today's Card Spotlight! We hope you enjoy this tale from behind the scenes and we'll see you next time.
-Al and Elise