Hello all!

We're back - and, wow, do we have a lot to show you!

Last week we received a package from our printer with all the hard proofs for VivaJava. Basically, the hard proofs set includes several printouts and sets of all the cards, punchboard, box art, rules and such so that we can evaluate the fold lines, cut lines, art placement, text, and final materials for the game. What the hard proofs set also signifies in production is that we're one step away from the game being actually printed - which is always exciting!

Some of you are familiar with hard proofs and the production process, but for those who are not, we thought it would be cool to show you some pictures of the massive amounts of paper and printouts and describe a little bit about the purpose of each piece of the sets.

This is everything that came in our care package. We believe that our printer had to kill an entire tree just for the VivaJava proofs.

These are the two box proofs, side by side. The box proof on the left is part of the redline (sometimes called "blueline") set, which features a low-resolution print of the box art wrapped around the box to show the fold lines and art placement. The box proof on the right is part of the "blanks" - unprinted samples of the material from which the box (and other components) will be made.

These are the redline proofs. They are printed quickly in low resolution and mounted to punchboard (or collated and stapled in the case of the rules) to show how everything will fit - and look - in the box. They also show red guides which indicate where the die punch mold will punch through the board. You can see some of those red guides in the closeup picture at the bottom (and get a sneak peek at what the punchboard will look like fresh out of the box!).

Redline cards usually come in large sheets like this one for quick proofing. This shows the Interns and Reference Cards (fronts and backs).

This is the set of "blanks." These are used to show the exact paper type, texture and size of all printed components in the box. Although these may seem redundant if the redline proofs are sent, they are actually very handy in making sure you haven't goofed up on a size or material specification. In fact, after realizing that the punchboards were all linen-finished, we decided to upgrade the game board paper to linen finish, as well, for consistency and that classic Euro look and feel.

And, finally, these are a small sampling of the full-color proofs. These are printed in full resolution on high quality photo stock. These allow us to check out the art quality, see if we are on the right track for color matching and, most importantly, see if we've made a mistake anywhere.

After scouring the proofs for any sign of a mistake, we're happy to report that there was only one in the rulebook - an old bit of art for one of the Roaster bags that had not been replaced. That's since been fixed, and the printer is ready to start rolling VivaJavas off the line!

Speaking of rulebooks, before we wrap up this enormous update, we wanted to let you all know that the final rulebook is now available for download at:  http://dicehatemegames.com/games/vivajava/

Some of you may be asking "what about the beans and bags?" Very astute! Those samples are being shipped to us this week for proofing, so we'll be sure to update you with some pics of those once we have them in hand!

We hope you are all as excited as we are to see this progress on VivaJava, especially since we're still very much on track for our projected August release. We'll be back with more on production very soon!

All the best,
Cherilyn & Chris

Hello all!

It's been a few weeks since our last update, but that doesn't mean we've been slacking - far from it, actually! The past few weeks have been the center of a whirlwind of activity here at Dice Hate Me Games. We've been busy designing, formatting, painting, editing, double-checking, triple-checking, and travelling to spread the gaming love.

In our first bit of news, all files have been submitted to the printer and they're hard at work getting them set for pre-press. If all goes well, we should have hard proofs to inspect within the next three weeks, and we'll be sure to post an update with pictures to show all of you! In the meantime, though, here's a mock-up of the VivaJava box.

We'll create a mock-up of the box back to show all of you in the next few days, as well. It looks pretty nifty, if we do say so ourselves.

In addition to getting all the game files ready for the press, Cherilyn has also been hard at work, creating a massive Brewple army! Here's a picture from a couple of weeks back:

The number of Brewples has grown so large that we've had to start packaging them in their little baggies for shipping out with the games. We wanted to keep them all out for group pictures, but we were running out of room on the dining room table! We'll definitely keep you all updated as the horde amasses; we'll soon be filling up an entire burlap coffee bag with 'em.

Last week, we were lucky enough to travel to PAX East and work the Game Salute booth, promoting both Carnival and VivaJava, as well as several other games from small publishers. It was a lot of hard work, but we had a wonderful time meeting friends, fans and hobby enthusiasts, and playing games with them! We managed to fit in about 10 demos of VivaJava, including two epic 7+ player affairs. Below is a picture from one of those 7-player games; everyone had a great time!

PAX was a blast, but we're just getting started with the conventions. We'll have our own booth at Origins Game Fair, so if you're going to be there be sure to stop by, say hello, and check out VivaJava!

We'll be back before too long with more updates on the production process, so stay tuned. And thanks, as always, for everyone's continued support - you've all made this a wonderful experience and we can't wait for all of you to play VivaJava!

All the best,
Cherilyn & Chris

Our friendly, neighborhood UPS guy knocked on the door today with a special delivery - naked Brewples! 29 pounds of them, to be exact. There is certainly something oddly satisfying about unboxing that much wood, even if the insane thought of customizing all 1500 of the little guys has begun to sink in.

Time for Cherilyn to loosen up those fingers!

We'll be back soon with more updates on game production and a few progress shots of the Brewples as the hordes of them begin to grow!

Cheers,
Chris & Cherilyn

$56,052. Absolutely incredible.

771 of you have made this one unbelievable journey - a journey that we could not have imagined possible without the wonderful opportunity afforded by Kickstarter and the generous gamers that hold such love for unique creations like VivaJava. There are no possible words that can express our thanks, so we will simply let VivaJava speak for us and deliver a wonderful gaming experience to all of you, true believers. 

Now hold tight - pretty soon you'll all be overly-caffeinated and sipping the Rainbow!

With humble gratitude and love for all you awesome people,
Cherilyn, T.C. & Chris

With a little over 24 hours left in the campaign, it's time to unveil our fourth and final Geekspansion Blend Slate - Cafe La Brea!

With two black beans and a yellow, this Blend Slate is the most powerful of all the Geekspansion Slates, making it a wild variant to add to your games.

Speaking of wild, we teased at the beginning of the campaign that the Geekspansion would include four Geek-theme appropriate Country Tokens to match the Slates. As a small sample of what we mean, the Cafe La Brea Country Token is as wild as the Slate it's based on - when a player chooses this particular Token they immediately flip the Token in the air. If the Token lands face up, the player gets a positive reward: +2 Research Points! If it lands face down, however, the player must take a -2 RP penalty. Just like when your research leads to messing around with Mother Nature, the results can often be a tad unpredictable.

We hope you've all enjoyed the unveiling of the Geekspansion, and thanks to all of you who have added it to your pledge. We're excited that so many of you will be able to add these special Slates and Tokens to your advanced games of VivaJava - and we can't wait to play with them, either!

Here's to a fantastic final 24 hours!
Cherilyn & Chris