We're glad to announce that FrankenDie is at the last stage of production! We're receiving our first copies next week (new update & pictures will follow)! If all goes well, we're hoping to get the full shipment by late July. Yes, we're a little behind, but it was a great learning experience for our first game! Thank you for your patience and understanding. We're aiming for delivery in August.

NutForge Games is now UniForge Games!

Our parent company merged with another company to form UniForge Inc., so we have decided to name our game publishing division UniForge Games!

The final artwork for all the characters in the game is finished and, as usual, Darren Calvert did a fantastic job with these! So much so, that we just had to share these posters with you guys:

Download a print-ready version of both posters.

We're now in the exciting stage of working with the manufacturer to ensure a top-notch final product! We'll be receiving samples of the bone-coloured, custom engraved dice soon (we'll post pictures once we have them), and are working to ensure that all the colours in the final product will do justice to all this amazing artwork!

Hopefully you guys are as excited as we are!

Regards,
Marquis & Lucas
NutForge Games

The stylish "Property of Mad Scientists' Guild" T-Shirts and Mad Scientists' Guild Lab Coats just arrived!

It's been just over a month since you helped us make FrankenDie a reality, so we wanted to give you a little update of where things stand. But first, a quick thank you from us:

 
Previews Ahoy!

We've been working with Darren Calvert to produce the custom, illustrated characters that will go into the final game. Here are some card-mockups featuring 3 such characters:

 
Meet Erin Preder and Family

We're thankful for each and every one of our backers. But one backer who stood out was Erin Preder: not only did she order a GO MAD! package for herself, but she loved the concept of the game so much, she got her whole family involved! Check out their custom illustrations above.

Because of their generous contributions to the project, not to mention how cool it is to feature a family (with interlinked characters) in the game, we decided to learn a little more about them. Check out our Q&A with Erin:

NutForge: What are your current top 5 games you play with your friends and family?
Erin: We have so many games, and are constantly adding to our collection. This was a really hard question. Here are some favorites, by category:

Small World (Area Control)
Belfort (Worker Placement)
Citadels (Role Section Game)
Eminent Domain (Deck Building)

NutForge: How did you find out about FrankenDie?
Erin: We found out about FrankenDie because Jason has backed 11 games (so far) through Kickstarter. He visits the site regularly and brought FrankenDie to my attention when he saw it as a New Kickstarter Project.

NutForge: What was it about the game that got you hooked?
Erin: I liked the game immediately. The art work and theme of FrankenDie is awesome! The cool dice and other components looked fantastic.  I really liked the idea of a quick party game, and rolling dice is always fun. FrankenDie seems like the perfect game to play in between two longer games or a quick game while waiting for everyone to show up. I'm always looking for “party” or “lighter” games to play with my “non-gamer” friends and family, and this really fits that need.

NutForge: Were you drawn to the GO MAD! packages right away, or did you try to find out more about the game before looking to immortalize yourselves?
Erin: Right around the time that the FrankenDie Kickstarter project launched, I was trying to figure out what to do with my “spending spree” portion of our wedding money. I wanted the money to go towards something meaningful and wedding related instead of just blowing it. I contacted Marquis and Lucas and asked them how personal could I make my creature. When they said I could have a lot of input into how I was customized (and that they LOVED the bride idea), I was hooked! I knew that my money would go to something worthwhile (helping a game get published) and I could be a bride forever! Double win! A few weeks later Jason decided to become a Mad Scientist, and a few days after that I decided to purchase another creature package for my son. I love that we are all immortalized in the game!

NutForge: In your own words, tell us a little more about each character we've based your family's illustrations on.
Erin: My creature is based on being a bride this past October. Marrying Jason was one of the happiest days of my life and I wanted to have my happy feelings come through in my character. I love that parts of my character exactly as I looked on my wedding day, and I love that certain parts have been tweaked to give me that “Frankenstein” look. We decided to tie in Jason's Mad Scientist character with my bride creature. Awww, aren't we cute!?!?

My son's creature was a little harder for me to make a decision on. Part of me wanted him to be a ring bearer creature and be tied into the wedding theme we had going, but then part of me wanted his character to be independent. I'm glad I decided to go with the independent route because I think when he is an adult, he will appreciate being immortalized in the game in his own special way. I tried to think of all the things that make my son unique, and one thing that I continued to think about was his love of Legos. My son has about a million Lego sets and is constantly altering things he has made. He even created a zoo out of Legos complete with enclosures, animals, concessions, etc. I was very excited that his hobby could be part of his character.

NutForge: What types of games and special rewards would interest you on Kickstarter?
Erin: Although, it probably will be a long time before I can afford a really “high end” reward on Kickstarter, I do really love the idea of being immortalized into any game with your likeness in the art or being able to name something. Jason mentioned getting a prototype of a game as soon as the funding was secure would be a cool idea. As you can see from our list of favorite games, we are looking forward to all kinds of new projects!
 

GO MAD! Contest Results

Our GO MAD! Photo Contest was a huge success, with over 700 votes! Thank you very much to all who participated, and all who voted. Here are the winners of the various prizes and categories:

Early Bird Prize: Devin D.
Grand Prize (Scientist): Devin D.
Grand Prize (Creature): Melissa L.
Prize Packs: Sara M., Avra L. and The Maddest Scientist

Congratulations to you all!
 

Pre-Ordering the Game

If you're just finding out about the game now, or know someone who wants to join the madness, you can pre-order the game right on our website: pre-order it today!

Thanks to the generous support of hundreds of backers, FrankenDie will be available for players all over the world! The process of planning and executing a Kickstarter campaign has been an amazing journey, with moments of excitement, uncertainty, elation, exhaustion, humility, and sincere triumph.

We ended at $13,127 in raised funds from 248 backers for a little over 300 copies of FrankenDie to be shipped out by June 2012. We are very happy with the outcome of this campaign and look forward to getting the game out to your table for friends and family's enjoyment.

Through it all, we've learned a great deal of what it takes to make it in this industry, including a ton of hard work and sleepless nights (literally). We're not done learning, but we are committed to bringing you entertaining, high-quality, and visually stunning games. And we've built an invaluable cache of industry contacts to help keep us on track at every step of the way.

It's difficult to explain just how thankful we are, for everyone who has supported, encouraged, coached and counseled us along the way. If you could pile our gratitude up, it would be as high as a stack of every copy of Monopoly ever sold.

Thank you all for embarking on this journey with us. We can't wait to see what wondrous places this ship, named NutForge Games, will take us.

You will be receiving a survey soon that will ask for shipping information, and some other details based on your pledge level. Be sure to fill this out promptly, since some of this information is needed for the final artwork and the manufacturing of the game.

Don't forget you still have the chance to win yourself one of the two reserved spots in the game by submitting your photo in our MadGuild.com contest, which runs until January 31st.

If you've missed out on this Kickstarter campaign, you will also be able to pre-order the game on the site FrankenDie.com starting on February 1, 2012.

Thanks again for all your support!

Marquis, Lucas & Al
NutForge Games