Preorder Cellulose: A Plant Cell Biology Game Cellulose is a worker placement game that puts 1-5 players inside a plant cell, where they will compete over limited resources in order to undergo photosynthesis, produce carbohydrates, and build the cell wall to score points. With everyone vying for the same actions, players must time their use of proteins, hormones, and cell component cards in order to diversify their strategies and outplay the competition!
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Hello Cellulose Backers!
I have a quick update for the month with a couple of small notes on how things are progressing. The most important is: make sure you've filled out your Pledge Manager! More on that below.
Production has begun for wooden, plastic, and metal components,and printing will begin soon. Our manufacturing partner tells us that we're still on schedule to finish production around late August, which is great. If everything goes mostly smoothly, we remain on track for fulfillment this year. However, as you may have seen with other projects, production and (especially) shipping have had many challenges lately. We're hopeful things will go well, but we're also prepared for the possibility of delays at different stages. We'll keep you updated as things move forward.
The Print and Play will go out in a backer-only email later today. We look forward to seeing what you make!
We expect to have the Pledge Manager open through the end of August. At that point, we need to have orders scheduled to leave the factory and head to different fulfillment centers. You'll still be able to change your shipping address, but orders will be locked in and you will be charged for any add-ons. Here are the big points for everyone:
Let us know if you have any questions or problems by KS message or at [email protected].
Finally, I wanted to highlight a couple of our other new releases, especially for gaming families. Some of these are initially available only in the U.S., but should land elsewhere soon. We recently released a handful of math games in our Genius Games Junior line. These games provide families with great resources to introduce and reinforce math concepts paired with fun and strategic gameplay.
That's it for now! Let us know if you have any questions or issues with the Pledge Manager!
Steve & The Genius Games Team
Hello Cellulose Backers!
We have some exciting and important practical updates today!
First, Cellulose files have been submitted for production. We'll get final proofs and samples to review shortly, then manufacturing will be underway. Production and global freight timelines have been complicated lately, but we're on a very good pace to complete fulfillment by our December estimate. We're very happy with this progress — our artist Tomasz and graphic designer Sarah were especially wonderful at tirelessly working to pull this all together.
The final development, art, and design work all turned out great. We also made a couple last-minute upgrades or otherwise locked in decisions:
We'll continue to keep you updated through production, and we'll send PnP files once our final proofs are in production.
The first small wave of pledge manager emails have been sent out. This is the "smoke test", to confirm everything is working. The rest of the pledge manager emails will follow in the next couple of days. In most cases, you'll just need to confirm your order and enter your shipping information. You also have the opportunity to change your order, or to add extra copies of the game or add-ons. Let us know if you have any issues with this, and please take a minute to fill it out when you get it, so you don't forget.
You'll be able to edit your pledge through August. You can also change your shipping address up until we're ready to begin fulfillment, likely October-November some time.
That's it for today! Let us know if you have any questions or pledge manager issues in the comments or at [email protected].
Thanks!
Steve & The Genius Games Team
Hello Cellulose Backers!
Today I have a quick update for y'all as we approach production. We're getting very close, doing final passes on the rulebook and player aids now.
We got early samples a couple weeks ago and are mostly very happy with them. We ordered a bunch of variations on components to try things out.
One of the components we're still playing with is the wooden 6x Water / CO2 markers for the Collector's Edition. Here are a couple options, we'd love your input:
I really like the space-filling molecules (with CO2 croissants), maybe doing the 6 of them on 1 side and the left-most "6 [Molecule]" on the other. If you have a preference, let us know!
Here are the final card arts that Tomasz recently finished:
And here's the solo mode to play against "Ivy":
Ivy has 16 cards, a mat, and a player aid. She can be played at 3 difficulty levels, is mostly compatible with the scenarios and both sides of the plant board, and dynamically/responsively ends up with 2 of 4 different strategy choices (based on how you play and the cards she gets).
The Pledge Manager should start going out in the next week or two. This is where you confirm your order and enter your address. They'll send a few test surveys first, then the rest will follow if everything looks good. Please take a minute to fill this out when you get it, so you don't forget.
The Pledge Manager will stay open for order-changes through the end of August or so, but we'll probably only have a limited quantity of extra Collector's Editions available, so if you intend to add extra copies and don't want to miss out, do it earlier. You can still change your shipping address until we're ready for fulfillment.
That's it for now! Let us know in the comments if you have any questions and fill out your pledge managers when you get them!
Steve & The Genius Games Team
Hello Cellulose Backers!
Today I've got a few small updates on our development and pre-production process. The last few weeks have been incredibly busy with lots of playtesting and final development, including getting the Mangrove board and Scenarios ready to go. Our preproduction component samples should arrive this week, and we are on schedule to have final files submitted next month.
I also wanted to note that it will be a few more weeks before the Pledge Manager goes out. I initially said it would come shortly after the campaign, but finishing development and production has taken priority, and we have time.
Our artist Tomasz has been beautifying all sorts of things that were incomplete during the campaign. Here's the updated board, card with some art added since the campaign, and the Sprout Board:
Cellulose final development has been going great. We've gotten a bunch of plays across different player counts and different groups, and have really enjoyed watching how our meta has evolved compared to how others play the game. The 2-player game has some especially interesting dynamics, as players have extra ways to block each other more capacity for counter-play. The scenarios have also been very fun, and definitely achieve the goal of pushing the gameplay in unusual directions to reflect some unique plant adaptations.
We started working on the Mangrove Plant Board late in the campaign, but it's quickly become a favorite way to play with experienced players. This is exactly what we'd hoped: the base game is extremely solid and replayable, and the Mangrove Board can shake things up in wacky ways that open up powerful and sometimes-risky strategies. It can be played with or without the actual scenario, and changes the role of the Plant Board significantly: On the standard Sprout Board, players often try to max out their income as quickly as possible. On the Mangrove Board, there are strategies that forgo extra income to accumulate other resources like cards, and do well if they can plan for the long game and predict the timing of the end game. It also allows players to hit 1 of 3 super bonuses at the bottom of the track, then return to any of the middle spaces. The upshot is that plant growth remains a compelling dynamic throughout the game, and can become a primary scoring strategy, rather than just an enabling engine.
The solo mode is close to finished and has been a blast to work on. It's the most ambitious automa I've worked with, as it's made to adapt its strategy based on the cards and opportunities available. It "cheats", but it occasionally also leaves opportunities for you to exploit. It's been very tricky to tune the strategy system correctly (I used some scripted simulations to help test thousands of sample game openings quickly), but we're almost there!
The main rulebook is almost done. You can see the updated rules here. We would love any input on clarity (you can leave comments in dropbox). We will still update images with the final art, do some rulebook-focused playtesting, and then have a round of copyediting before production.
Our fantastic team of science experts have also been hard at work on the Science Behind book. It's almost done, and will enter graphic design later this week.
Overall, we're very happy with how everything is progressing. We'll continue to keep you updated, and we'll let you know when the Pledge Manager is going out.
That's it for now! Thanks for your support and stay safe!
Steve & The Genius Games Team