The Ghostly Exploding Medic Ant
2 months ago
– Fri, Sep 20, 2024 at 08:15:02 AM
Hello Marcher!
We are 11 days into this fantastic Kickstarter and we really appreciate the support of the over 3,000 folks who’ve showed up and enthusiastically joined our project. We are thrilled to be bringing March of the Ants back to print in style and are so glad you all are excited as well.
The Ghostly Exploding Medic Ant
A big thank you to everyone who contributed ant species ideas and to everyone who voted on our Backer Designed Ant Poll over on BGG (boardgamegeek). With all the votes tallied, we are very excited to welcome the Matabale ants (Megaponera analis), Exploding ants (Colobopsis explodens), and Ghost ants - (Tapinoma melanocephalum) to March of the Ants!
After doing some research, Ryan and I put our heads together and came up with 2 potential abilities for each ant species to add to the game. And now we invite you all to weigh in to decide what each of these ants will bring to the meadow.
We have set up a poll on Boardgamegeek.com where you can vote for which ability each new ant should have. Voting will be open until Tuesday, September 24th. Once the final abilities have been chosen, we will have the fantastic artist Alder start working on the illustration. Thanks for your help making this game!
Check out the abilities and vote here!
Voting on Boardgamegeek helps raise awareness for the campaign and uses a handy polling system. However, if you do not wish to vote on Boardgamegeek you can still vote by commenting on this update. To see all the suggested abilities visit the poll at the link below.
Vote on the Boardgamegeek Poll!
Striding Through Stretch Goals
With the fantastic support the campaign has received, we’ve cruised through several more stretch goals, allowing us to bring additional content to the game and improve the components. We’ve added linen finish to the cards, and will be adding a screen printed design to the centimeeples to make them even more fearsome. We'll share the design as soon as it is complete!
We’ve got a lot of great goals on the horizon and with the pace that this campaign is marching, we feel confident we’ll be able to add even more goodness to the game! Thank you for helping us make this new version of March of the Ants even more awesome.
Tim, Ryan, and the Weird Citizens
P.S. Want to Help us Keep the Campaign Growing?
Thumbs Up Our Essen Preview on BGG
Weird City Games will be at Essen Spiel convention for the first time this year! And we’ll be showing off March of the Ants. Our booth is not big enough to allow us to run playthroughs of the game, but if you stop by we’ll be happy to give you a deep dive on the mechanics and show you all the components. We’ll be at Booth 2E111. To help boost excitement for the game at Essen visit BGG and thumb the game on the Essen Preview list: https://boardgamegeek.com/geekpreview/68/spiel-essen-24-preview?parentitem=10554.
Spread the Word
It would be amazing if you could do us a favor and share an image from the campaign to your social media. You can talk about what excites you about the game or just share the image and see if folks are interested in it. Sharing to board game groups can be especially effective (but be considerate and make sure there are not too many other posts from backers already in the group).
Visit Kicktraq
If you can visit the site to check the page that will help boost us on the page. Kickraq LINK
Let's Make Ants!
2 months ago
– Fri, Sep 13, 2024 at 09:51:57 AM
Hello Ant Friend!
Wow, what an amazing first few days on Kickstarter! We want to thank each and every one of our backers for showing up early and supporting our game. Early momentum is huge for a project's success and having nearly 2,000 people join the campaign in the first 3 days is incredibly amazing!!!
March of the Ants Evolved Edition on Tabletop Simulator
We have March of the Ants: Evolved Edition uploaded onto Tabletop Simulator. If you want to play the game digitally check out the Google Doc below with all the info and a link to the mod. (You will need to own a copy of Tabletop Simulator to play.)
MotA Tabletop Simulator Guide Doc
Stretch Goals
With such a strong start we’ve been able to cruise through our first 5 stretch goals, upgrading game components and unlocking extra content. First up is the Backer Designed Ant which we're ready to have you vote on.
Backer Created Ant
We received many great suggestions from backers in the Kickstarter comments, and now it is time to vote on which ones will be included in the game. We have set up a poll on Boardgamegeek.com where you can vote for your favorite. Voting will be open through Tuesday, September 17th. Once you have selected the top 3, Ryan and I will start designing a few potential abilities for each ant. We will then do a second round of voting to give you a chance to weigh in on which abilities you would like added to the game. Thanks for your help in making this game!
Voting on Boardgamegeek helps raise awareness for the campaign and uses a handy polling system. However, if you do not wish to vote on Boardgamegeek you can still vote by commenting on this update. To see all the suggested species visit the poll at the link below.
Vote on the Boardgamegeek Poll!
New Beyond the Meadow Hex
These hexes are special locations the ants can discover through exploration. Some hold great rewards, while others introduce dangerous terrain. Each play you will shuffle in 2-3 of these hexes with the standard hexes, making the meadow different each game. An example of a Beyond the Meadow hex can be seen below in “Flooded Spring”. The hex spreads to other hexes, making the collection sites harder to harvest from. The ants who control the hex decide which adjacent hex gets flooded, creating a contest for control.
2 New Nest Chambers
These expansion cards give players an alternative reaction choice. Anytime you do not want to take the standard reaction, you can instead choose to put an egg (ant meeple from your supply) onto the Nest Chamber. Once the chamber is full, you can activate it to gain the reward.
When playing with chambers, each player will start the game with one on its standard side showing the basic ability. Whenever you activate the basic ability you have the choice to flip the chamber to the advanced side, giving you access to a unique ability. In this way, the chambers add starting asymmetry to the game and give each colony a specialization. We’re super excited to add 2 more Nest Chambers to the game, increasing the variability of starting setups.
We'll be back with another Update next Thursday. Until then we'll be in the comments interacting with backers.
Thank you!!!
Tim and Ryan, and the Weird City Team
Want to Help our Campaign Grow?
Early momentum is essential to keep this Kickstarter growing and we really appreciate your support boosting awareness of our campaign.
Spread the Word
It would be amazing if you could share the game with someone. This could be on social media, a message to a friend or family member who likes ants, or boardgames, or both.
Visit Kicktraq
We’re currently #3 on Kicktraq’s Top Ten list. If you can visit the site to check the page that will help boost us on the page. Kickraq LINK
If you haven’t visited Kicktraq before it is full of fascinating metrics (though the first few days funding projections don’t paint a realistic picture).
Thumbs on Board Game Geek
To boost our presence on Boardgamegeek (one of the biggest boardgame websites), we would love if you could visit the March of the Ants: Evolved Edition page (LINK to BGG page) and hit the heart button to become a fan of the game. Then if you can thumb this image that would be fantastic! Ants Image LINK
Funded and a Fantastic Day 1! Hurrah Hurrah!
2 months ago
– Tue, Sep 10, 2024 at 04:08:29 PM
Hello Ant Backer!
Thank you so much for marching with us and over 1000 other fans to bring March of the Ants: Evolved Edition to life! We are thrilled to have funded so quickly and to have so many new and old backers joining us for another fun Kickstarter campaign!
It’s been just over 10 years since we launched the first Kickstarter for March of the Ants, and the support of backers has fueled our passion and ability to design games ever since. What's more, with your support, March of the Ants: Evolved Edition has been names as a "Projects We Love" from Kickstarter! We want to say a HUGE thank you for showing up on day 1 to support our project and help us make this game a reality.
Campaign Structure
We love Kickstarter! Not only did it help start our company and game design careers, it gives us a way to directly connect with gamers. We love hearing from you so please visit the comments section and say hello, share your favorite ant fact, or let us know what you are excited for in this new edition.
We’ll get started: Did you know that some ant queens can live up to 30 years????
We’ll be posting a few updates during the first few days of the campaign and then we will shift to updating once a week. We'll be active in the comments throughout to answer any questions you have.
Projects We Love
Backer Designed Ant
This is a tradition that started way back in 2014 with our first ant Kickstarter. We are asking for your help and input to choose which species of ants will be added to the game, and which abilities those ants will have.
To get started on the creation of this new ant we want you all to share your ideas for what species of ants should be added to the meadow. Please share ideas in the main comment section so everyone can see. We will add 3 new evolution cards (head, thorax, and abdomen) so feel free to suggest and describe a couple of your favorite species.
On Friday, we will post an update and link to vote on which species you think should be included and we will then design 3 new ant cards inspired by the top voted ants. For each ant, we will design a couple of abilities and then you’ll be able to vote on those as well!
Ways to Help the Campaign
Early momentum is essential to keep this Kickstarter growing and we really appreciate your support boosting awareness of our campaign.
Spread the Word
It would be amazing if you could share the game with someone. This could be on social media, a message to a friend or family member who likes ants, or boardgames, or both.
Visit Kicktraq
We’re currently #3 on Kicktraq’s Top Ten list. If you can visit the site to check the page that will help boost us on the page. Kickraq LINK
If you haven’t visited Kicktraq before it is full of fascinating metrics (though the first few days funding projections don’t paint a realistic picture).
Thumbs on Board Game Geek
To boost our presence on Boardgamegeek (one of the biggest boardgame websites), we would love if you could visit the March of the Ants: Evolved Edition page (LINK to BGG page) and hit the heart button to become a fan of the game. Then if you can thumb this image that would be fantastic! Ants Image LINK
Thank you so much for supporting this game and sharing your ideas and enthusiasm in the comments!
Tim and the Weird City Team!
