DEFENDERS OF SOMA: a fantasy battle card game between antibiotics and infectious bacteria.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
I have an actual copy!
about 8 years ago
– Thu, Nov 10, 2016 at 08:41:02 PM
The advanced copy of Defenders of Soma has arrived from China. The rest of them are on a boat. I think it looks pretttttttty.
So, again, why are we so behind schedule?
Almost every single component in this game required revisions, either because of something I didn't conceive of correctly, or because of communication problems with China. Also, since playtests revealed that people had a lot of rules questions, we created a very elaborate gameplay walkthrough in the end of the rulebook which took a long time to do the design and layout for. Then, when we were finally ready to complete the order with China, the actual cost was twice what they had quoted us (a fair amount of things got added after the original quote, but whoa, we didn't expect that.)
Next up we will (finally) send the survey. In a few weeks, I hope. This is taking a long time to prepare also, because of the promises we made regarding posters. The game is done but we are still finishing the layout for all of these posters, and I need to figure out the best way to show the poster voter tiers what the options are when choosing posters, since there isn't an easy way to do that with the tools Kickstarter gives us.
Although the games will arrive in the U.S. in December, we won't be able to start shipping them to you immediately. We are using a third party to do fulfillment and they won't be able to process our project until after the holidays, I'm afraid. So you will receive in the new year.
Again, thanks for your patience.
This game looks sweet! Kudos to Raul Gonzalez for his amazing graphic design work.
- Brandon
Update: Manufacturing Almost Done
about 8 years ago
– Tue, Sep 27, 2016 at 03:29:40 PM
Here's a recent communiqué from China about the manufacturing:
"Yes, the cards have been printed and is in process of round corners. The rule books and game board are finished. The coins board will be die cut before September 30th and we’re box lid and bottom making now. We have received the new pill bottles and still wait for the new blisters, expect for receiving on September 30th before our holiday."
(They have a week-long holiday coming up.)
Black Mold Wants to Play With Us
about 8 years ago
– Tue, Sep 13, 2016 at 04:34:24 PM
Some of our most famous antibiotics were discovered by investigating mold. Penicillin, anyone? Well, it seems our project has attracted some wannabees. There is a strain of mold in China that really wants to be included in our game. Somebody better look into it, I bet it has some fantastic secondary metabolites. But I'm afraid, in this instance, it's just really not welcome.
Translation? The Chinese manufacturer has informed me that they had to re-order the little pharmaceutical pill bottles that will be holding the wooden cubes for Defenders of Soma, because the shipment they received from a third party was infested with mold. This is both good and bad news.
Haven't seen the actual mold - grabbed these images from Google
First the bad. This means more delays! They have to re-order pill bottles. For reasons I don't understand, the cheap pill bottles with normal lids we chose are no longer available. (Maybe their whole inventory was contaminated?)
The good news is that now they have ordered even cooler pill bottles, ones with child protection caps, which is basically what I wanted all along - kind of adds a nice flavor to the medicine theme, dontcha think?
The bad news is that the new pill bottles are way more expensive. Twice as expensive! Also, the caps are bigger, which means they have to re-design the blisters (the plastic molds that hold all the pieces inside the box) so the new bottles will fit. Too bad they already made thousands of blisters according to the older specs!
The good news is that the Chinese manufacturer is very sorry and will absorb those costs. So - better pill bottles and redone blisters at no cost to us.
So down the road, when you finally receive your copy of this beautiful game and get around to unboxing it, but you start struggling with the child safety caps, thinking, who the hell thought it was a good idea to add a pill bottle to this game that is impossible to open?!!! Well, don't blame me. Blame the black mold of China.
Virus: An Infectious Card Game
over 8 years ago
– Thu, Aug 11, 2016 at 05:34:39 PM
My friend John Coveyou has a very cool game on Kickstarter that ends in 8 hours. Check it out! I got to playtest it earlier this year, it was fun! (He even quotes me in his pitch.)
As for Defenders of Soma, we had to fix an issue with the game board, I'll post the details soon... but we've submitted our 50% deposit to China and I'll have an estimate for delivery in about two week!
Defenders of Soma Print and Play Available to the Public - $15
over 8 years ago
– Sun, Aug 07, 2016 at 10:28:01 AM
The downloadable Print and Play version of Defenders of Soma is now available for $15 at our Gumroad store. It includes full ink and low ink versions of the cards.
