Thank You Backers! Here's What's Next
over 3 years ago – Wed, May 12, 2021 at 04:52:18 PM

Hello Cellulose Backers,

We did it! A huge thanks to all of you for your support, input, questions, and excitement. We’re thrilled to be making Cellulose and excited for the road ahead. Here’s what’s to come:

The Pledge Manager (Your Part)

In a couple of weeks, we’ll send a link to our “Pledge Manager” where you’ll confirm your shipping information and make any decisions about your order. For most backers, this just means confirming your order and telling us where to send it. If you wanted any add-ons or multiple games, and this is how you’ll make all those decisions. We’ll send an update before those go out (and reminders before any deadlines).

Production Overview (Our Part)

Our next month or so will largely be spent finishing Cellulose.

• Our manufacturing partners are currently making us an early sample (including upgraded components, ATP coins, and the insert) to make sure everything comes out the way we want.
• The development team has been playing a lot of games on the alternate Mangrove Board (which we love), and will be doing more scenario testing (especially at 2/5p) over the next couple of weeks.
• The solo mode is still in development.
• Tomasz is finishing art for the the Mangrove Board, card illustrations, solo mode, and touching up everything that has been hanging around the “70% done” point.
• The rulebook will get a few edit passes on the final game rules and some updated art, as well as a reference guide and scenario + solo rules, then we’ll start getting extra eyes on it. When we receive an early game sample, we’ll have groups come learn and play the game from the rulebook, so we can see where we need to clarify things.
• The Science Behind team is doing a bang-up job putting the science book together, then it will be graphically designed.

It’s going to be a busy month! (I’m not at all stressed just typing that out…)

The game files will be submitted in June and manufacturing should be complete in September, so that we have enough time to ship games around the world and fulfill in December.

In the mean time, we’ll send an update every month or so to check in, let you know how things are progressing, and show you the cool stuff we get. Let us know if you have any questions along the way!

Thanks again for your support!

Steve & The Genius Games Team

Final 3 Days! Stretch Goals & Solo Mode
over 3 years ago – Tue, May 04, 2021 at 01:29:02 AM

Hello Cellulose Backers,

We’re down to the last week! It’s been a great campaign so far, and we’ve loved sharing the game with y’all through TTS playtesting, our live stream, and discussions around the internet. We couldn’t be more excited to get this into your hands later this year. 

This campaign is the last chance to get in on the Kickstarter price and to help us reach stretch goal upgrades to the game. Also, a quick reminder that we added bulk pledges to help cut down on shipping costs, especially in Europe, and we definitely encourage you to check them out if you’re able to arrange a group buy.

Stretch Goal Update

Over the weekend, we hit 200k adn unlocked the screen-printed Health Point Markers in the Standard and Collector’s Editions. We really like our starrish-flower VP icon, and the designs help ensure these are identifiably flowers (not stars). We got a lot of input on whether to use uniform or distinct shapes - we’re waiting on preproduction samples to make the final call, but it seemed more folks preferred the distinct ones.

Our 250k stretch goal is a big upgrade to gameplay content: we’ll add the Mangrove Scenario with an alternative side to the plant board. We picked mangroves after talking with the TreeSisters folks about their reforestation efforts. These little shrubs are extremely resilient, protect against coastal erosion, and their root systems support an entire diverse ecosystem. They’re a very compelling example of the expansive role that plants can fill, and we’re excited to build a scenario around them.
The Mangrove Plant Board can be played with or without the scenario, and adds more gameplay variability to the normal game. It’s a bit more complex than the standard Plant Board, with more options for how to build your Sunrise bonuses, and it has very powerful end-of-track options that let you keep using the Plant Board, even after maximizing your position on the tracks.
The Mangrove scenario itself removes the automatic advancing of the Cell Wall (and thus the automated game clock), giving players more control in the tempo and pacing of the game.

 

Solo Mode

I haven’t posted much about the Solo Mode yet, but we're very excited for it. I initially came into board game design working on solo variants, and still do a lot of solo gaming (especially this year). The Solo Mode development and art are waiting on the core game to be finalized, but most of the core system is tentatively in place.
Cellulose’s Solo Mode uses a deck of cards to control a simulated bot opponent while you play the normal 2p game (we still need a name for the AI, if you have any suggestions!). It’s made to be quick and easy to operate, provide an interactive challenge, and have an adaptive strategy that changes throughout the game and between plays. On the automated opponent’s turn, you flip a card and the bot takes the topmost action for which the conditions are met. These might be things like “Build the Cell Wall if it has a Carb and would score at least 8 points” or “Collect Water if it has more CO2 than Water.” Through these actions, the bot mostly plays the normal game, with a few shortcuts to keep things simpler.
 

Additionally, the bot has a “Strategy Chart” that emphasizes 4 possible strategic focuses in the game. As the bot takes certain actions, it will move its Strategy Tracker around the chart, as though trying to decide how to play against you this game. Eventually the Tracker will lock on to 2 of the 4 strategies, which will influence its future actions. So if it’s playing toward Enzyme Combos and the Vacuole Majority, it’s more likely to take orange Enzyme Cards and to place water on the Central Vacuole. Consequently, the bot will respond to your actions like a human player and can vary from game to game. It also has 2 difficulty levels, so you can adjust your experience. If you’re interested in more, here’s a gameplay overview on TTS:

That’s all for today! Let us know if you have any questions as we head into the final few days, and please share the campaign with your sciency friends!

Steve & The Genius Games Team

Live Stream in 15 Minutes!
over 3 years ago – Fri, Apr 30, 2021 at 12:40:45 AM

Hey Y'all,

Quick reminder that we have a Cellulose live stream in about 15 minutes! If you'd like to learn to play or see the game in action, come check it out! You can click through to YouTube to ask questions. 

You can also try Cellulose yourself on Tabletop Simulator.

Hope to see you there!

Steve

The Science of Cellulose
over 3 years ago – Thu, Apr 29, 2021 at 12:04:27 AM

Hello Cellulose Backers!

We hope y’all are doing well! As the campaign keeps pushing forward, reaching toward the screen-printed Health Markers, we’ve continued to be hard at work finalizing game development and preparing for early production samples. We have a handful of updates about campaign details and the Science Behind Cellulose today.

Bulk Pledges and Pledge Manager Add-Ons

We’ve added a “Bulk Pledge” option to the Kickstarter Campaign. For group buys (or really big fans), you can order Cellulose by the case (6 games) for a substantial discount and subsidized shipping. Note that VAT is still included in the indicated shipping cost, but we tried to discount these very aggressively, especially for backers in Europe. We really worked hard to make these a good deal, so if you're interested in the game but are worried about local shipping, give them a look.

Retail stores interested in selling Cellulose should still contact us at [email protected] for information about retail sales.

We’ve had a few questions about the pledge manager contents. If you’re new to Kickstarter, the pledge manager is the tool we use for confirming orders and shipping information after the campaign, and often has the option to add additional copies or other products. This is the stuff that will be available as add-ons after the campaign: 

Some larger items may add to shipping costs, and most things will have local taxes, if applicable. We’re still looking into expanding these options and possibly offering “split shipping” to have currently-available products ship sooner.

Science Behind Cellulose

Genius Games begins our design work with research into the scientific topic of a game idea. We build a science-accurate model with evocative gameplay concepts and use our research as a source of inspiration and constraint. Our end goal is to create a game that’s fun and innovative as a board game, whatever your science background, but is also engaging and interesting as a thematic representation of its subject matter. 

In Cellulose, many of core decision points focus on tensions of plant cells: How will you plan around water scarcity? How should you balance growth between downward root growth (for water) and upward shoot/leaf growth (for CO2 and access to more light)?

One of the most difficult decisions in Cellulose is how and when to use Carbohydrates. Plants make Carbohydrates through photosynthesis, and they're stored and used in lots of different ways. In the game, it takes a couple of actions to collect and convert the resources necessary to make a single Carbohydrate (glucose molecule). But then what? Carbs can be converted into cellulose to build the cell wall and score a ton of points, or, they can be converted to energy (ATP) to build future sources of income and bonus actions. Since players don’t begin the game with any ATP and have no other way to get it, they'll be blocked off from several parts of the game until they turn a Carb into energy for the first time (if they ever do!). This tension is most difficult at the beginning of the game, when the rewards for building the wall are highest, but building an early engine will have the most time to pay out.

You don’t have to know any of the science to play and enjoy Cellulose! We expect it will have fans who call the Carbohydrates “green things” and joke about the powerhouse-of-the-cell :) But we’ve also been extremely deliberate about the scientific story the game tells. One of the ways we support this is with our “Science Behind” booklets that accompany the game and connect features of the gameplay to the scientific underpinnings. In the past, we’ve worked with volunteer teams of experts to put these together. We’re beginning work on this book now. If you’re knowledgeable in plant cell biology and are interested in helping out with the science behind book, email [email protected] with the subject line Science Behind Cellulose - [YOUR NAME]. We’d love to have you involved!

Livestreaming Cellulose Tomorrow!

We wanted to put together a few sample games for folks wanting to learn more about gameplay. We're planning to stream a live Tabletop Simulator game Tomorrow (Thursday) at 4pm EDT / 21:00 UTC (your time here). Come join us in the chat as we play through Cellulose and can answer any questions!

If you can't make that or want a quicker preview, we also filmed one round in the middle of one of our playtests. Here's a few turns of gameplay:

That’s it for now! We’re planning to post more information about the Scenarios and Solo Mode next time. Let us know if you have any other questions in the comments!

Steve & The Genius Games Team

New Stretch Goal & Building Bio-Engines
over 3 years ago – Thu, Apr 22, 2021 at 06:32:36 PM

Hello Cellulose Friends!

We’re excited to have crossed $150k.  Welcome to the middle of the campaign! Once or twice a week we’ll be posting an update on Stretch Goals, info about the game, and our progress in final development. At this point, the main game of Cellulose is mostly done.  We’re fine tuning and balancing a few things, and turning more attention to the Solo Mode and Scenarios.

Stretch Goal Update

Today we unlocked the custom Water Marker to track how much Water is left in the cell each round. It's the main tracking piece on the board, so a distinctive big component is the way to go. But, I’m even more excited for our 200k goal:

For the next Stretch Goal, we’ll screen print the Health Point Markers in the game like proper flowers (not ambiguously starry shapes).  We'll print “50” (Points) on the back, for keeping track of when you lap the Point Track.

We had planned to do these all in the same shape as the Victory Points icon, but I had the thought yesterday that we could do different flowers for each color. Here's our artist's comparison mock-up: 

I think both are nice, and there are advantages to both. We’d love to hear which you prefer in the comments.

Playing Cellulose Online

You can play Cellulose online using Tabletop Simulator! I spent some time this week syncing up the draft rulebook (latest edition here) with the latest Tabletop Simulator version. It has some scripting for the Evening time and is free to play if you’re already a TTS user. There’s a rough rules overview here, if that’s your preference, though check the rulebook's updated descriptions for some of the green (starch) and pink (specialization) cards.

For more gameplay, you can also check out the Tantrum livestream, or we’ll have a couple playthroughs coming soon!

Cytosis & Building Bio-Engines

We’ve had a handful of questions about how Cellulose and Cytosis are related. If you own Cytosis should you still get Cellulose? If you don’t, should you start with Cytosis? Can they be played together? How much overlap is there?

First the basics: the two games both stand alone and can’t be played together. Despite similarities and some shared mechanics, they play pretty differently, and there’s definitely room for both in your collection. They use some common resources, meaning they can share some components (like the Cellulose Collector’s Edition ATP coins), but they’re both doing unique things.

Cytosis and Cellulose share the same thematic setting and core worker placement framework: players are placed in charge of running a cell, and -- like overseeing an industrial factory or building a homestead -- they take turns doing actions that produce key resources to complete projects.

In Cytosis, players often get ahead by grabbing efficient resources and complementary scoring cards. The player who wins is often the player who has focussed on a set of related scoring conditions, possibly building off their opponents’ cards.

Cellulose is much more about building action synergies. The player who wins is more often the player who has built an efficient engine of repeatable bonus actions. Through investing heavily into the Central Vacuole, players can win extra actions and pull further ahead. By taking early hormone actions, they can establish extra Sunrise income each round. And finally, different combinations of Enzymes can produce chains of bonus actions, allowing players to boost their efficiency in several areas — if they can keep affording the activations.

The Plant Board and Central Vacuole are aways available, and Enzymes are generally plentiful, so these are all viable options every game, but which makes the best use of your opportunities in this game? It’s extremely satisfying to grab the right cards with the right timing and efficiently charge forward. (And almost as satisfying to ruin your opponents’ chances to do the same.)

That’s it for today! Let us know what you think of the flowers, stop by the Discord if you want to set up a TTS game, and let us know if you have any questions!

Steve & The Genius Games Team