This evening, a friend of mine asked me what's new, so I told him about how great our new Alien Frontiers: Factions project was doing on Kickstarter.  He gave me a blank look and said he didn't know anything about it and then he asked when I had emailed all the original Alien Frontiers backers to tell them about the new game expansion. 

It was my turn to give him a blank look.

He just shook his head and said "You launched a new Alien Frontiers project on Kickstarter and didn't tell al of your original backers?  What kind of a fool are you?"

Well, I looked it up, and I see now that I'm "Fool Type 325 -- The kind of fool who forgets about the people that helped him succeed in the first place."

Yikes! OK, let me try to make amends.

Last week Clever Mojo Games launched TWO Kickstart projects. 

The first project is for a new game called Sunrise City. It's a role-selection, tile-laying, city-building game...with ZERO dice. Players choose citizen, businessperson, and politician roles that help them as they zone out Sunrise City, bid for building rights to the zones, and then construct the buildings that rise skyward...really...as Sunrise City grows.

The other project is for Alien Frontiers: Factions, the first expansion to our popular and award-winning Alien Frontiers board game. Factions introduces a 5th player (purple), secret Agenda cards that can earn you hidden victory points, and eight Faction mini-boards representing the business, scholarly, governmental, and extremist elements trying to get control of Planet Maxwell. As a Faction Leader, you get a special bonus just for you, and your Faction board has a new orbital facility with a new benefit that you can rent out to the other players for a price. Oh, did I mention that there are also eight new Alien Tech cards?

We asked for $15,000 in pledges and we made that in less than three days. A couple of days later we his $20,000 in pledges and we rewarded everyone with soon-to-be-opening Beta Launch access to the Mirthworks.com online board gaming community. Just today we pushed past $30,000 in pledges and I announced a new free bonius for all of our backers...The Alien Frontiers Upgrade Kit with 40 player-colored colony dome tokens cast from a handmade sculpt by Alex Garrett. And, if we hit $45,000 in pledges, then I'm going to hit Alex up for three new sculpts...the Field Generators.

Alien Frontiers: Factions could be the best thing to hit Kickstarter in months, so don't let it pass you by!

While we're in the process of planning the second printing of Alien Frontiers, I thought I'd take a little time out to share a few of the other projects that I am personally backing here on Kickstarter. Maybe you'll find something that sparks your imagination enough to sign on as a backer.

Labyrinth Board Game: http://kck.st/aIYxbD
This board game has certain similarities to a game we have been working on called Oubliette. However, instead of seeing Labyrinth as a competitor, I was intrigued by their design of a maze comprised of rotating rings. Really Cool. They have just over 2 days left on their KS project and are a long way from reaching their goal...but perhaps a last minute flood of backers can pull victory from the jaws of defeat.

Eminent Domain: http://kck.st/bzStPk
This is a "deck building" game. If you've seen or played Dominion then you already know that a deck building game is all about obtaining a mix of cards that you use over and over again to gather more cards and score victory points and, occasionally, mess with your opponents. Eminent Domain is the first SciFi themed deck building game that I've seen and it is getting a lot of attention on BGG at present. I am pleased to say that the project seems poised to reach their lofty $20,000 goal here on KS but a little love from you could send it over the top. It's got cool art, too.

Howard Glitch: http://kck.st/d5sttm
This is a new project that just appeared on my radar. Honestly, I have a hard time describing it. It's a media fusion of sorts...A book, an Audiobook, painted and ASCII art, eclectic genre-bending music, and a trippy surreal existentialist vibe that will have you scratching your head in bewildered excitement. Rob, the project leader, has an engaging video presence and some wild hairstyle going on. Must be a Brit thing. :)

Pop Culture Paper Doll Project: http://kck.st/chcUb4
You've seen paper dolls before, right? You stick Michelangelo's David on your fridge and cover up the naughty bits with designer jeans. Well, this is a lot more whimsical and is all about people you might have more fun with. Melissa, the wife of Alien Frontier's designer Tory, is an artist in her own right and creates collage based portraits of pop culture icons like Johnny Cash, Alfred Hitchcock, Betty White, Dr. Who, Uhura...the list goes on and on. Pair these unique figures with oddly juxtaposed accoutrements and you've got the makings of a giggling-good time. The beatnik Spock in the project video sold me. The Pop Culture Paper Doll Project has already reached it's goal, but there are a few days left to jump on board anyway. I'm using my paper dolls for Christmas gifts this year. It's gonna be GREAT!

We're running a little poll over on BGG and I thought I'd let y'all know about it as you might want to participate. We're considering making an Alien Frontiers T-Shirt based on the sketches Mark did for the Art of Alien Frontiers books. We'd use the funds to help finance a second printing of the game.

What we want to know is would you buy a t-shirt and if so, what design do you like best.

Come on over to BGG and take the poll.
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/578051/would-you-buy-an-alien-frontiers-t-shirt

The Kickstarer Reward for backing Alien Frontiers at the $300 level was a 15" x 20" giclee print of the Alien Artifact artwork. About three-quarters of the way through our project I added a giclee print of the Box Cover artwork to this reward level in hopes of attracting more backers. It didn't work. We only ever got one $300 backer, my brother Fred. So, Fred, you get one of each of the Alien Frontiers giclees. Each is signed by the artist, Mark Maxwell.

I had five of each print made up anyway, so maybe we'll auction them off to raise money for the second printing, or maybe donate some of them to a gaming related charity for them to auction off.

The Kickstarter Reward for backing Alien Frontiers at the $200 level was an art book showing the evolution of the game art from sketches and ideas, to computer renderings, to final painted works. We only had one backer at the $200 level, Tom Hillman, one of our key play testers, but I went ahead and had five copies of the book made anyway so that Tory and I and some others could have copies of our own. I had them delivered to the artist, Mark Maxwell, and asked him to sign them all and to keep one book for himself. Simple enough, and all I expected was a scrawled signature and maybe a date. What Mark did, however, was, as usual for him, above and beyond. Each of the four copies that he sent back to me has his signatures and date...but it also has an original and unique retro-scifi sketch on the title page! And he sent along three spiffy spacemen, too. Thanks Mark!!!!

WOW! Tom...come and get your book!