The Big Squeeze is already off to an awesome start, being fully funded in just 1 hour! Thank you so much for being here -- your day 1 support has set the tone and momentum for everything that follows, and at this rate, we're well on track to unlock what's next.
Founders of Rindfall
Congratulations to all initial founders of Rindfall! The first people to pledge for the Collector's Edition of The Big Squeeze may have their name immortalized on the Deluxe Edition box sleeve, and it looks like a lot of you are well on your way to becoming leaders of this new world. For any of you who want to upgrade your pledge, it's not too late but don't wait too long if you want it!
Regardless of your pledge level, your support means everything to us. Thank you for joining us on this adventure to shape The Big Squeeze together!
So let's get into what you can expect for the next few weeks...
What Happens Next?
Constellation Voting
Starting next week, Launch Edition & Collector's Edition backers will vote on which Constellation cards enter the game. These cards -- in addition to being looking pretty -- will give you alternative starting builds for more even variety each game.
But perhaps most importantly, each constellation is also designed to encourage a different playstyle. So when you vote, you'll get to decide the archetypes for this mini-expansion forever.
Stretch Goals Speaking of forever, you also have a chance to unlock two brand-new characters:
The Pine Lane Legend at 1,000 Backers
The Prophet at ???? Backers
With enough backers, that'll give us the resources we need to complete the design and balance of extra characters. Once unlocked, these characters will become permanent additions to every copy of The Big Squeeze, forever!
If you'd like to help, all you have to do is share the campaign. Bring new survivors to the cause! Every new backer will help expand what this game becomes for everyone... and if you're competitive, bringing in your friends can help you get extra votes for your preferred constellations too. :)
What’s Coming Up
Constellation voting
Behind-the-scenes peeks
Character introductions
Strategy highlights
Artist showcase and scavenger hunt
Your Turn
Let's see how the early polls look! Based solely on this art, which character would you play first?
And one last time: thank you again for being here. We can't wait to embark on this campaign together with you. Now let's make some lemonade!
Hello, Contestants! In preparation for inclement weather, you will be provided with storage options for safely stashing your ingredients during The Big Squeeze. And yes, we WILL continue as always! The festival runs until the last customer is satisfied.
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We're just a few days away from launch. The Big Squeeze goes live on May 5 at 11:00am ET and we're in the final stretch of campaign prep. So here's your behind-the-scenes look at how things are going and what we're working on!
What We're Working On Right Now
Our primary focus is finalizing the production and fulfillment plan in advance. Our logistics lead Peter has prepared our full suite of options already, so that none of us have to worry about scrambling to arrange a last-minute shipping plan. That will maximize our efficiency at moving into production and fulfillment once the campaign wraps up!
We're also completing design for the stretch goal characters and the Constellation Cards in the Cosmic mini-expansion, so that any unlockables will have the rigorous testing and polish they deserve.
Finally, we plan to make some final adjustments to game components: compared to the prototypes you may see in reviews and previews, the final game will have adjusted meeple sizing, cleaner token cuts and a new ingredient tray. We're looking forward to sharing progress on the final version as it comes together!
A Note on Wiggles 3D Add-Ons
For all USA followers, keep an eye out! You'll get exclusive access to some sweet Wiggles 3D bundle add-ons once we go live.
Many of our previous games — including 5-Minute Dungeon, 5-Minute Mystery, Um, Actually, and One-Hit Heroes — will be available as bundles with their expansions at a tasty discount. We're also planning to have our latest game, 5-Minute One Piece, available too. So if you have any missing spots in your collection, get ready for a chance to catch up!
(Why just USA? The short story is territory rights and stock warehousing. If you'd like the long story, ask us in the Wiggles 3D Discord Server.)
What You Can Do
Day one momentum makes a huge difference for campaigns like this. If you're excited for The Big Squeeze, sharing the Launch Party page with your friends and game groups is one of the best ways to help.
And once again, thank you for following early. We appreciate you being here with us for The Big Squeeze!
Contestants: Please note that even if lemon is not a key listed ingredient, all entries must at LEAST be lemon-flavored.
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What Your Ingredient Specialty Says About You
After 3 years of playtesting, we noticed that players fell into distinct "teams" no matter what character they were playing. These teams mapped onto different ingredients, but more notably, they also mapped onto personality types. Which one are you?
🍋 Team Lemon
You know that lemons are the most important part of lemonade. Team Lemon is all about searching and risk-taking. You'd rather dig for the perfect combo pieces instead of settling for what's in front of you. But if you misplay, you'll run out of resources and your whole engine will die.
🍬 Team Sugar
You know what actually makes lemonade taste good and sell.
Team Sugar is about tempo and flexibility. You're always looking for opportunities to take shortcuts and minimize wasted turns. But if you don't keep a close watch on your opponents, you'll miss your chances and fall behind.
🧊 Team Ice
You know that the best way to celebrate lemonade is to have more of it.
Team Ice is about hoarding and engine-building. You're a patient person. Instead of picking what to do, why not pick when and set yourself up to do everything? But if you're too greedy, the game will end before you ever get there.
Pick Your Team
All three of these playstyles can be game-breaking powerful, but they can also all lose if you mishandle them. Which team are you: Lemon, Sugar or Ice?
Design Diary: Why Lemonade? Why Apocalypse?
These different playstyles were present even from the early versions of The Big Squeeze. If you're curious how the theme all came together, check out the design diary here!
Before we begin, we’d like to address the rumors right now: The Daily Rind is not an official news source, and Mike Apollo’s claims of an apocalypse in a few weeks are unfounded. The Big Squeeze festival will continue as always.
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Featured Contestant: The Alchemist
Last update, we posted some lemonade recipes and held a vote to determine our first character feature. And today, our winner is the helpful little creature known as Lemonculous. That means we’ll be featuring Alchemist Evelyn today!
Are those goggles?
Evelyn has dealt with her fair share of lemons in life. Years ago, when Evelyn’s husband left her for their aqua-fitness instructor, she kept herself sane* by doubling down on her life’s work researching "The Alchemical Properties of Lemons”. But that controversial work got her fired from her lab and excommunicated from the academic community, leaving her with nothing but a few thousand lemons and several tons of sugar. There was only one thing to do.
Now, she’s renowned across town for her charming lemon-themed bakery. But will those skills translate into results at her first entry into this year’s Big Squeeze, or will her fixation on alchemy cause an even bigger disaster?
It just took an apocalypse to prove that she was right.
In this game, Evelyn specializes in ingredient flexibility: she can quite easily transmute one ingredient to another! This means instead of needing to specialize in lemon, sugar or ice recipes, Evelyn can mix and match any recipes she wants for her menu. Every card can work with her!
And if you’re playing with infinitely-regenerating Cosmic Ingredients (the thing you get for free with your pledge by following us pre-launch), you can constantly “spend” the same Cosmic ingredient over and over and it’ll just come right back. That is exactly as strong as it sounds.
And now, let’s look closer at one of the recipes that Evelyn invented…
"Oh hello please brew me I will be so helpful!"
Lemonculus is a delightful little lemonade that doesn’t do anything on its own, but instead copies the effect of another lemonade in play. Obviously this is nice for copying your favourite recipes. But there are some nuances that skilled players can exploit from the fact that it’s not an exact copy of other lemonades... We’ll let you figure out why it’s not exact, and what that means for gameplay, on your own!
Evelyn has an amiable relationship with the humble Lemonculus she invented. She may or may not always visit the Lemon space on her own, but because Evelyn isn’t constrained by ingredient type thanks to her transmutation powers, she gets full freedom to ‘train’ Lemonculus on any lemonade she wants!
Next week, we’ll share the design background of how a lemonade-apocalypse game even got started. Until then, we'd like to know: how much real-life lemonade-making experience you have? Whether you've only made lemonade from those little can things, created your own recipe or run your own stand -- let's see what we're working with here!
Over these next few weeks, we’ll be sharing some behind-the-scenes goodies from the game, including…
Character reveals
Lemonade recipe reveals
Design stories from development
Stretch goal reveals
If you’re new here, The Big Squeeze is a board game where you face down the apocalypse with your lemonade stand. Because when life gives you lemons, what else can you do?
Which Recipe?
Our prototype samples have arrived! Here's your first peek at how the cards look in real life...
To kick things off, here is your first question: If you were in the Big Squeeze universe, which of these lemonades would you craft for yourself? Leave a comment and we'll feature the most popular recipe — and the character who invented it — in the next update!
