Hope you've had a great start to the summer, and welcome to our first post-campaign update for The Big Squeeze!
First of all, thanks again for helping to bring this game to life. Since the campaign, we've moved into the next stage of development and file prep for the factory. While polishing visuals and finalizing component counts, we've also been playtesting to finish balancing for the base game, Stretch Goal characters and Constellation cards.
Want to be a part of playtesting? Come join our Discord and keep an eye out for playtest announcements! We generally test on Thursdays, but you can also join just to keep up with Patch Notes.
Late Pledges Planned for Kickstarter
We've gotten some requests about late pledges, and we have good news: We'll be launching a Last Call campaign for late pledges on Kickstarter next week!
That's right, the Last Call will be on Kickstarter! This is to broaden our reach across platforms and ensure that everyone who had been waiting for us on Kickstarter gets a chance to back this game too.
If you've already pledged on BackerKit, you don't need to do anything. Your pledge is safe, and you're not missing out on any deals or exclusives. The Kickstarter campaign has the same offer, rewards, pricing and content as the BackerKit campaign. (Though Kickstarter requires us to punch in numbers in CAD instead of USD, so you may see very minor price fluctuations).
We're just giving a heads up so that when you see The Big Squeeze on Kickstarter, you'll know what's going on.
And if you're following but haven't pledged yet, you're not too late! You can follow the Kickstarter phase here: LINK
Progress Pics
Our artist Cam made a minor update to Billy's character, with the new version on the right. Can you spot what changed?
We've been tuning some base game effects such as Recipes and Bounty cards as well, especially to fit in with our new Stretch Goal friends! Some changes are bigger than others. Here's an example of one seemingly minor change that actually unlocks some new combo opportunities... And how about our Stretch Goal friends? Tori is design-complete and in final balancing. Her ability lets you Twist one of your lemonade cards in order to take your action at full upgrade power... but Twisted lemonades lose all abilities, so be sure you're willing to make that sacrifice!
Mike is finishing refinement. His ability lets you stash a recipe to use its ability for free, though you don't get to control which one comes your way! Playtesters initially reported analysis paralysis with his toolkit, so we streamlined his abilities. Now it's just a matter of tuning his power level to match the others.
Join a playtest if you'd like to have a hand in the remaining balance tweaks!
Coming Next
We're sending out the Pledge Manager in just a few weeks. This is where you'll be able to finalize your pledge details, add anything you missed, and submit the name you'd like for the Rindfall Registry (and back of Box Sleeve, if eligible).
Thanks again for your support. We're excited to continue moving forward, and we'll talk again soon!
Our launch campaign on BackerKit is officially coming to a close. Whether you've been with us for years, months or minutes: thank you for joining, and for bringing this game to life!
What We've Done This Campaign
First off, we funded The Big Squeeze campaign!
We unlocked Tori, the Pine Lane Legend as a permanent addition to the game
We officially named Pumpkin, Dinah's Cat
We chose the Constellations to be included in the Launch and Collector's Edition mini-expansion
We unlocked the final stretch goal: Mike, the Prophet added to all copies of The Big Squeeze
We unlocked highlights for 6 characters: Evelyn, Dinah, Tori, Billy, Carol, and Mike
It's been a great time watching it all unfold with you over these last few weeks, and I'm already looking forward to the next steps of this project. For a refresher on what that entails...
Our Next Steps
Most of this happens concurrently rather than sequentially.
Final Playtesting to harmonize and polish the stretch goal characters, mini-expansion, and base game
Final UI and UX, where we'll do things like label "In Stock / Sold", update rules wording, and make file layouts
The Pledge Manager will collect your name and shipping info, and it'll let you review your order in case you want to update your pledge or add-ons before it's locked in. This is when the W3D Insider bonus applies. Don't panic when you don't see it right now, it's coming!
Print Preparation where we upload final files to Panda, our manufacturer for this game
Updating our Factory Quote so we can officially pay Panda and start production
Until you receive your game, you can expect consistent updates on our progress, even if it's simply "Nothing is wrong, manufacturing still moving as planned".
Your Next Steps
Get yourself some lemonade and feel proud for your part in shaping this game and making it real!
Once we send the Pledge Manager, be sure to complete it so we can actually ship your game to you.
Join the rest of the community:
Visit our Discordto hang out, ask questions, follow patch notes, playtest and get early peeks at our next upcoming games!
Once again: thank you for being a part of this journey. Players like you make games like this possible.
You did it! Your collective efforts have permanently unlocked both stretch goals. This means Mike Apollo, The Prophet has been added to ALL copies of The Big Squeeze going forward. Congratulations!
If you'd like to join playtesting for The Prophet, join our Discord where we will soon begin hosting games of The Big Squeeze on Tabletopia after the campaign.
Thank you for your support in getting us here! Now, we can finally share who you've unlocked...
Character Highlight: Mike Apollo
Mike has dealt with his fair share of lemons in life. Last year, he launched a new segment on his radio station where he played 'suspicious waveforms' on-air to predict the future. For some reason, his listener count has plummeted since then. But even worse, each waveform predicted the same thing: an apocalypse, a huge... crushing of society... was coming soon. Mike had to save anyone who would listen.
Mike became a radio host as an excuse for owning so much audio gear.
Unfortunately, his radio station no longer had enough listeners to spread the word, so Mike had to take to the streets for the first time in years. Taking notes from his previous radio sponsors, he decided on just one simple phrase that he'd use to warn Rinddale. He put his slogan on posters, handed it out in flyers, and shouted it from crates in town square.
Mike was surprised at the positive reception: the townsfolk were thankful to be reminded, and soon it was spreading all over town. It wasn't until the Mayor approached, asking Mike if he'd participate in the festival himself, that Mike realized his slogan about "preparing for the giant crushing of society" had been misinterpreted.
"SAVE UP FOR THE BIG SQUEEZE!"
Whoops. So, seeing one last chance to warn the town, Mike indeed entered The Big Squeeze (festival) as a contestant. And if he's correct about this apocalypse, it'd be a good opportunity for him to save up for The Big Squeeze (apocalypse) himself.
Mike can predict the future. Play as him to borrow abilities from lemonades you haven't even made yet! In exchange, you'll want to fulfill your own prophecies to unlock new ones. You'll know things are going well when you start taking actions off the board to "visit yourself" instead...
While The Big Squeeze is all about making lemonade from whatever life gives you, Mike is designed for players who like having a specific mini-quest to aim for, and especially if they like trying characters that feel weirder than normal.
Stretch Goals Complete!
With that stretch goal, The Big Squeeze officially has all content fully unlocked. Thank you for being a part of this community, and welcome! We're glad to have you all here just in time for the final hours of this campaign.
As we build up to the final stand of The Big Squeeze on BackerKit, we wanted to share a quick look at where the project stands, what will happen post-campaign, and what still needs to happen before going to print.
What Happens After the Campaign?
The biggest creative ingredients of The Big Squeeze are already in place: gameplay design is complete, art is complete, core components are ready, and manufacturing/fulfillment planning is well underway. All remaining work is final polishing and production preparation. Many of these early steps are concurrent.
Stretch Goal and Mini-Expansion tuning + final base game balance passes
UI/UXupdates: Another accessibility pass for cards, boards and rules.
Pledge Manager setup for name, and address and shipping collection
Final quote and print file creation
Manufacturing: this part takes the longest, typically 4+ months.
Freight, AKA your game drifting across the ocean to you. The closer we get to the date, the easier it is to predict how long this phase takes.
Shipping the games to your place!
In other words: thanks to backers like you, The Big Squeeze is happening! So the next stage is ensuring the final version is as clean, accessible, fun and production-ready as possible before it's time to print. Our current goal is still February fulfillment, and we'll update you as we move through each step so you're not left guessing. We love some fun and suspense... but when it comes to shipping, we're aiming for the most predictable fulfillment news possible.
Introducing the Digital Rindfall Registry
Surprise! We've decided to host a digital Rindfall Registry as just one extra thank-you to all of you bringing The Big Squeeze to life on BackerKit.
While we collect names in the Pledge Manager, each backer will have the option to opt into the official Rindfall town registry, with a reasonable name or username of their choice. This registry will be live on our website and in online versions of the rulebook as part of the official history of Rindfall.
The names on the Collector's Edition sleeve remain their own special physical reward for qualifying backers. But regardless of tier, we wanted to ensure you had a chance to prove to your friends you were here from the start!
Character Highlight: Carol Johnson
As promised, it's time for our final character highlight from the Lemonade Stand-Off. Here it is:
Carol has dealt with her fair share of lemons in life. She was beginning a career swap into something she was passionate about — becoming a rescue pilot — when her family at Johnson Farms called her back home instead. They needed her (and her airplane) for crop dusting to help the lemon grove. Then they needed her to repair the lemon spinner. Then they needed her plane engine to replace their machinery...
Carol's plane has been in disrepair for years now, but she still has the goggles.
The rumors started during The Second-Greatest Rinddale Heat Wave. A batch of parachute-wrapped lemonade had mysteriously appeared in the town square, rescuing dozens of townsfolk from the heat. Since everyone only knew one parachute owner, people began whispering that Carol was secretly 'the Santa of Rinddale'. Despite a broken airplane, word around town spread that she flew around at night, delivering lemon-aid to any good children who left seeds on their windowsill.
Lemon-Aid has everything you need! Assuming you just need lemonade.
It wasn't long until Carol signed up for The Big Squeeze festival, stating a desire to put some earnings towards repairing her airplane. Maybe she wanted to further help the farm, or live up to the rumors in town. Or maybe she's planning to recapture the dream she lost. But this year has some tough competition, and as a mere pilot / tree-planter / lemon spinner / sales rep / machinist / engineer, Carol has quite the challenge ahead of her. Let's hope she's secretly a mixologist too!
Of course she is.
Carol specializes in increasing lemon production, at first! But after the flip, her horizons expand. While she can certainly grow armfuls of lemons, her true power is reliably completing wasteland bounties no matter what hand she's dealt. While she can sometimes struggle to gather non-lemon resources, Carol's ability to fly over opponents when taking occupied spaces — and her built-in ability to stash ingredients — means you can never count her out of the race to victory!
Small Town Vibes or Scrappy Sanctuary?
You may have noticed that the characters in The Big Squeeze aren't necessarily having a bad time after the apocalypse. Some are worse off, while others are actually thriving.
What about you? Would you do prefer the structured and peaceful small town of Rinddale, or the ragtag community and adventure of post-apocalyptic Rindfall?
Thank you for standing against the apocalypse with us, as always!
Warm regards, AC Atienza PS: If you've been following along but haven't pledged yet, we're now in the final few days before the campaign ends on June 2. If you'd like to unlock one more character from the final stretch goal, now is the time to jump in!
It's officially the final week of The Big Squeeze on BackerKit!
One Last Stretch Goal
We're getting closer to unlocking our final stretch goal: reaching 1,500 backers will add another character to every copy of The Big Squeeze!
Want to unlock the final character? The best way to help is to share the campaign with one friend or group chat, especially if they like weird themes or games that start simple but ramp up fast.
If you'd like a summary, you can use this:
I backed this weird lemonade-making board game where the apocalypse flips the board halfway through. There's one stretch goal left before it ends June 2.
It's because of backers like you that the board game hobby gets to keep bringing new ideas to the world. Thank you!
New Tabletopia Demo
If you have a Tabletopia account, you can now play a demo of The Big Squeeze here: [LINK] This demo includes the four characters you helped spotlight in previous updates: Evelyn, Dinah, Billy and Carol. We'll also be using Tabletopia for post-campaign balance and Constellation tuning, so this is a great chance to get familiar with the interface before community testing begins.
Constellation Art Update
Coming up next are two more of your top-voted Constellation cards, letting you peek at the future or respec your character's ingredient specialty. Behold the Comet and Goblet!
Final Lemonade Stand-Off Winner
Congratulations to all who bet on Carol in the final Lemonade Stand-Off! With a huge 54% share in a three-way poll, it's clear most brewers agree on who deserves the final spotlight. On Thursday, we'll share her story, gameplay style, and why she's much more than just the 'lemon character'.
It's hard to believe we're already in the final week. Let's stand against the apocalypse together!
